New deck: Paranormal Strangeness

[Ken D. Webber]

Hello everyone,
This is only my second post here and the board is pretty amazing. I am gathering opinions and would like feedback, contacts, PR links if you have them, all manner of things. I'm doing something different with my Kickstarter in that in addition to being an artist I'm also a musician. Being a musician I saw the big Amanda Palmer Kick and saw a niche where I could do something different with music distribution. Kickstarter doesn't allow a cash value card and mine is not one. The card I'm offering is a dropcard with no price at all on it, but it allows the customer to decide for themselves what they want to do with the card. Sell the card and pocket the profit? Give the cards away as a gift? That's a power that I give to them. This comes into play with my tiers because it IS possible for some people to get MORE back than they put in. I ran an ad in the October issue of Guitar World (Avenged Sevenfold on the cover, page 115) that explains the concept. I've noticed in many of the posts here that shipping is a concern. My dropcards help to offset that issue. Take a look at my $60 Guitar World Poster tier and it's clear that many people are going to walk away with a lot of stuff and probably an extra $20 more than they started with in their pockets at the end of the day. I believe that a fan should be rewarded for their efforts. They talk about who has the coolest stuff, the greatest sounds, the best card decks and if they're doing the advertising "legwork" they should get something for that. By combining the card deck tiers with music, art, and dropcards I'm able to pump in more value than the average card deck offering.

I've got three decks in Paranormal Strangeness and I'm the artist behind the decks and the graphic designs and all the merchandise and add ons. Paranormal in a Kickstarter exclusive cover, then a Bicycle Logo deck with Red Skull, and the last one is an Animated/Flip deck called MAGICK, also using the Bicycle Logo. Should we reach our stretch goals we have three very talented artists ready to REDO our 3 least liked cards by way of vote among the Kickstarter supporters, and those artists are Cameron Davis, Noah Bradley, and Chet Zar.

I will say that this is my first deck project and I would like to know from creators out there how you did the foils and embossing. Looking at my cards and their style, what finishes would work best? Do you see anything that I've forgotten to address to people? I do realize that it is NOT your average normal campaign. With my current schedule, I have roughly three more cards to go that are planned to be done by the end of the month. That completes most of the card deck. ALL of the graphic design is already completed and stored on an extra hard drive. At launch I had 4 songs written with the rest of the recording to be done over the next three months. The plan is to get everything out to printers and manufacturers before the year's end to avoid paying big $$$ to the taxman. Is there anything you see that I've missed?

[Ben Taylor]

There is way to much random information on that project. For a project that's supposed to be about playing cards, it seems like you're focusing on everything else. There are very few pictures of the cards, and they are way down the page. I doubt very many people here are interesed in anything besides the cards. Are you really trying to sell cards? Because I didn't see any reward levels with just cards.

$80,000 to upgrade to foil on the boxes?

[chess]

The tuck case and cards are too cluttered and the artwork is poor. The colors and images on the cards remind me of 90's web design.

[cosmicsecret]

In this form and presentation errr.no thank you...seriously no.

[sprouts1115]

Holy crap, Your like Charles Manson on crack. You hit them hard...

First impression: I still can't see your cards. Before "Who We Are" put a link or post your cards. People want to see your product as soon as possible. In your video, I saw a list that scrolls up. People want to read that too. A lot of text in a video is bad. Your video is under 3 mins which is good. Saw your box. I noticed you don't have any corner badges on the back of the card. People might bitch. You have to think about magicians when they fan your cards. It has to look cool. Can you imagine what it looks like with a spread. Saw your T-shirts Normal. Might want to put a .com in there. You also have 2 many stretch goals posted. Tease them with 1 or 2 at first to get a feel and add accordantly. Add Ons - Normal I can understand them. Sexy Bitch last. Really does sex sell? It does... I still want to see your "Paranormal Playing Cards" I feel like I'm talking to the devil...

[vmagic]

Their stretch goals are ridiculously high, there is no way they will reach any of them if they even get funded.

[Ken D. Webber]

Awesome feedback. I have come to the right place. Coming from the art side of the fence I am lost when you start talking about magicians so I'm going to have to get into my Manson on crack mode and do some homework! I set the tiers up based upon tiers I've seen on other Kickstarter decks but decided to pack them with more value and cool stuff comparatively. Thank you everyone!

[Bikefanatic]

[Ken D. Webber]

The wisdom of crowds. Love it! Moved the card link higher up and hid the stretch goals as suggested to create that sense of mystery. I do believe I will reach my stretch goals though. Chet Zar! That's all I'm saying. Sprouts1115 you mentioned, "I noticed you don't have any corner badges on the back of the card. People might bitch. You have to think about magicians when they fan your cards." Can you explain what you mean in newb terms about the corner badges? Also, I checked out your Texas Playing Cards and saw that you're using an embossed cover. Is that something that the printers at Bicycle can do just by asking for it or do you have to have say, a special file type, such as an Alpha file? This is the very first deck I've ever produced. What I would like to do is something similar to the embossed metallic silver on the Synthesis deck. That silver really pops!

[Ben Taylor]

If you're asking sprouts for help, you're in trouble.

Best to direct most of your questions about printing the cards at these folks.
http://www.usplayingcard.com/pages/custom_cards/10.php
http://www.bicyclecards.com/custom-playing-cards

[volantangel]

If you're asking sprouts for help, you're in trouble.

[Ken D. Webber]

Thanks Ben, just sent off a message to Bicycle.

[walrus]

If you're asking sprouts for help, you're in trouble.

Hey, Sprout is the future of playing cards, you guys are soooooo stuck on only 52 cards in a deck.