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Your alternative to getting this restoration deck from KS is this. I'm sure that, as far as restorations go, this will be one of the big ones.
http://www.ebay.de/itm/Old-rare-Dondorf ... :g:9ScAAOS" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
wEzxYVs1T" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
come to think of it, the second photo on eBay looks EXACTLY like the one of the photos on the KS page....

pstaehlin wrote:I'm really debating on if I should spend money on this project. Do any of you feel it's well worth the investment? Over time because this is a restoration will it grow in valve?? Help me out guys. Sell me on this?

If your only concern is about how good the investment is, then I wouldn't bother. There are plenty of other better (more effective/less risky) ways of investing your money.

Buy decks that you want to keep, and you'll never regret a purchase again. Resale value is always a gamble, and if you're not willing/prepared to lose the money you "invest", then you shouldn't make the purchase.

pablo19 wrote:Your alternative to getting this restoration deck from KS is this. I'm sure that, as far as restorations go, this will be one of the big ones.
http://www.ebay.de/itm/Old-rare-Dondorf ... :g:9ScAAOS" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
wEzxYVs1T" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
come to think of it, the second photo on eBay looks EXACTLY like the one of the photos on the KS page....

I've seen this already. That's really something. $2500! See, if only we knew that in the many years to come this restoration deck will be worth that much. Thank you.

MagikFingerz wrote:

pstaehlin wrote:I'm really debating on if I should spend money on this project. Do any of you feel it's well worth the investment? Over time because this is a restoration will it grow in valve?? Help me out guys. Sell me on this?

If your only concern is about how good the investment is, then I wouldn't bother. There are plenty of other better (more effective/less risky) ways of investing your money.

Buy decks that you want to keep, and you'll never regret a purchase again. Resale value is always a gamble, and if you're not willing/prepared to lose the money you "invest", then you shouldn't make the purchase.

Very well said. And thank you. This would for sure be one of the most amazing decks in my collection and I can't imagine it wouldn't grow in valve over time. Regardless though of resale value, it would be a wonderful addition to own. Thank you for your comment.

pstaehlin wrote:I'm really debating on if I should spend money on this project. Do any of you feel it's well worth the investment? Over time because this is a restoration will it grow in value?I ? Help me out guys. Sell me on this?

I can't wait to see what others think, but you really do have to think that as few of these as we can make (250 sets total), they won't immediately go up as far as open market price (ebay.com, etc).

The one truly difficult part of this specific restoration is that we can only make 250 copies. I feel certain that the market is larger, but constrained by the very limited number to work with. At least two people hope I am right: they got 5-pack sets on KS. If anyone wants to go that much, let me know. We're down to about 88 sets.

I feel sure that if we had been able to offer 500 sets at $60 it would be more than doubled with backers. I can't argue that it's not expensive, but we did everything we could to keep it as reasonable as possible.

pablo19 wrote:Your alternative to getting this restoration deck from KS is this. I'm sure that, as far as restorations go, this will be one of the big ones.
http://www.ebay.de/itm/Old-rare-Dondorf ... :g:9ScAAOS" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
wEzxYVs1T" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
come to think of it, the second photo on eBay looks EXACTLY like the one of the photos on the KS page....

The person (in Tucson) swapped pix with me last year looking for a buyer. At that time they wanted $4000 for the set, and I really don't know anyone who is looking to drop that much for the pair of decks. It's "down" to around $2500 last I looked?

What MagikFingerz said. There are decks you buy to resell and decks you buy to keep. Nobody can guarantee that the price will double in 2 days. But I can guarantee that if you like the look of this deck, you may never actually want to resell it.

By the way, someone who pre-ordered asked if they could get Kickstarter updates.

I don't see any easy way for me to do that, but you can always pledge $1

Our aim is to produce a deck that will make backers say: "Nah, who needs the original now?"

Lotrek wrote:Our aim is to produce a deck that will make backers say: "Nah, who needs the original now?"

In many ways the deck is better and more true to the original intent than even first edition 1933 decks. The process was a bear, literally 28 limestone tablets carved and were used like modern day plates just to print them.

Mike Ratledge wrote:

Lotrek wrote:Our aim is to produce a deck that will make backers say: "Nah, who needs the original now?"

In many ways the deck is better and more true to the original intent than even first edition 1933 decks. The process was a bear, literally 28 limestone tablets carved and were used like modern day plates just to print them.

They trained A BEAR to carve the limestone tablets??

Damn, that is pretty hardcore.

It was a German bear, right?

Mike Ratledge wrote:It was a German bear, right?

I would assume, that's the only kind that would have enough discipline.

Really glad to hear you finally got the original text insert!
Is Cartamundi doing anything to promote the decks in Europe? I was looking for playing card forums in German, but can't find anything.

pablo19 wrote:Really glad to hear you finally got the original text insert!
Is Cartamundi doing anything to promote the decks in Europe? I was looking for playing card forums in German, but can't find anything.

Not really. I came to them by way of the International Playing Card Society in Nederlands. They (IPCS) have been talking about it, and several backers are from that region, no previous KS experience.

Perhaps there needs to be a cheaper reprint in the future, at a regular price, with regular hearts/diamonds/clubs/spades. I love the artwork and would love regular suits. An original, Lotrek designed tuck and you have another winner, both in cards and on the pocket book!

TGunitedcardists wrote:Perhaps there needs to be a cheaper reprint in the future, at a regular price, with regular hearts/diamonds/clubs/spades. I love the artwork and would love regular suits. An original, Lotrek designed tuck and you have another winner, both in cards and on the pocket book!

We're both looking at this wondering if we're going to lose money. I would love to be able to produce decks are a reasonable price, but the restrictions on number of sets has really put a hurting on the price, no doubt.

I think there are 83 sets left, less than one third, but I would prefer to have almost all sold before production,since I might be able to negotiate a few things now that we are funded. I think there is a full week left, actually eight days + a few hours.

The idea here - fortunately - wasn't bagging money for the bank, but trying to figure out how to get a foothold in this market. The IP rights holders aren't making it easy.

At this point we are down to around 70 decks, and with three days left for the KS campaign, I sent a note to users from UC. If you are reading this, you probably can ignore that short note.

I'm trying to remember to post project updates here for UC preorder backers: (the latest)

Now we can begin work in earnest! As Lotrek turns over the finalized artwork to Cartamundi, the clock will start ticking on the production schedule, and now that we are having Cartamundi produce all decks on their best paper stock, we can expect to have them in six to eight weeks after the final artwork is approved. Somewhere in this time we will receive proofs for approval, but we hope that there is no delay or only minor changes / fixes needed, so that timing estimate stays true.

That being the case, we should be able to move the delivery time forward, but until we see proofs, we will leave it where it is. Our hope is that you are going to be seeing you Dondorf restoration sets around the end of August instead of the originally projected October.

As things move through the production phases waiting for decks and after, we will keep everyone apprised of the progress.

If you want an extra set or know someone who wants one, the 50 or so remaining sets put of 250 authorized and being printed, they are available on UCdecksales.com for a $5 premium over the Kickstarter campaign price.

Just in case you missed it during the last few days of the campaign, we were able to obtain and translate the original text insert in German from the presentation set, and it will be included - both in the original German and translated into English

Uncut sheets by Cartamundi are available with shipping worldwide for $40 +$15 shipping.
Remember, this is a crowd funded item that will not be available until October.

Mike Ratledge wrote:Uncut sheets by Cartamundi are available with shipping worldwide for $40 +$15 shipping.
Remember, this is a crowd funded item that will not be available until October.

UCdecksales

Well now you definitely have my interest!!! I couldn't justify buying a $100 and having to choose between opening it and never being able to sell vs being a tuckbox collector. This I can get behind though, even if I am pretty much out of wall space (stairway works too, right? )

QUESTION/REQUEST - Can we get a render of the uncut layout? The image shown doesn't match the description (8 wide, 7 tall) and obviously is missing the other cards. Are these not yet complete or do you just not yet know the layout? I'll probably get no matter the layout, but it would help.

Also, I saw this on the KS page "ONLY the Cartamundi edition is uncut-able", what does that mean?

As listed on pre-order page(s) for the uncut:



The only non court cards I've seen posted, as listed on KS page:

Ref. to the now defuncto MPC invocation ....

ecNate wrote:

Mike Ratledge wrote:Uncut sheets by Cartamundi are available with shipping worldwide for $40 +$15 shipping.
Remember, this is a crowd funded item that will not be available until October.

UCdecksales

Well now you definitely have my interest!!! I couldn't justify buying a $100 and having to choose between opening it and never being able to sell vs being a tuckbox collector. This I can get behind though, even if I am pretty much out of wall space (stairway works too, right? )

QUESTION/REQUEST - Can we get a render of the uncut layout? The image shown doesn't match the description (8 wide, 7 tall) and obviously is missing the other cards. Are these not yet complete or do you just not yet know the layout? I'll probably get no matter the layout, but it would help.

Also, I saw this on the KS page "ONLY the Cartamundi edition is uncut-able", what does that mean?

As Bruno already noted, we originally were going to use MPC to print the "Player's Deck", but now Cartamundi is printing both. MPC doesn't make traditional uncuts, although they will print you a 55-card sheet (11 wide, 5 tall) if you want them for $20 per sheet, I believe.

The picture is a place-holder right now, but Lotrek will post a mock-up of the uncut sheet shortly. It should be more-or-less identical format as the USPCC uncut sheets, with 52 cards, 3 Jokers + one double-backer. The OG deck had 3 Jokers plus a German-only point chart for Rummy (I think, not 100% certain). I didn't see any reason to reproduce that one, and I figured most uncut collectors would much prefer a double backer card or at least one that has the back design on the face of the card so it shows on the side of the uncut with the face cards.

In most cases, it's Ace of Spades through the 10, J, Q, K and repeat for hearts, with clubs and diamonds following in reverse order - Jokers at the end of the deck with the double backer. I am not doing the layout, so I'll let Lotrek give us the skinny on specifics when he's laid it out, and at this point there are still some cards including most of the digit / number cards that have not been completed. I expect that all will be complete here shortly, and then they will be sent to Cartamundi for their digital proofing, followed by physical proofs, and finally production decks with uncuts.

The 'stand-in' picture is simply the 12 court cards shown together as an example of what those look like.

Think I made a mistake by not backing this project during the Kickstarter campaign...

Mike - How many sets are available?

TwoPieceFeed wrote:Think I made a mistake by not backing this project during the Kickstarter campaign...

Mike - How many sets are available?

Last time I did a count it was around 60, so I know there are at least 50 sets still available (out of 250 total that were authorized by Cartamundi's A.S.S. division in Germany).

The uncuts don't count towards that total, so I suspect that there will be around 550-600 total impressions, with 20-30 uncuts and 250 each of the gilded restoration and 250 Player's decks.

Hey Mike, what's the word on these? Any update on the production?

chach wrote:Hey Mike, what's the word on these? Any update on the production?

They are going to press this weekend, but I wanted to have a little more before I post the updates.

I just posted an update on Facebook for these, and rather than repeat it word for word, here is the link:

Post on Facebook

Basically It's a shot of most of the as yet unseen courts, along with a warning that you have to order an uncut "really soon now" before the final press run. Once the proofs are approved, those will be like hen's teeth. Right now, I expect only 30 will be made.

(thanks to ecNate for the link fix)

Damnit, I'm trying to cut back, especially on uncuts, but I couldn't resist, Mike. 1 Dondorf uncut ordered.

chach wrote:Damnit, I'm trying to cut back, especially on uncuts, but I couldn't resist, Mike. 1 Dondorf uncut ordered.

Can't help it, buddy. Lotrek did an awesome job on these! I will be honest and say that they look better than the original cards, because of the inconsistent colors and textures in the 1932 decks

Here are a couple more courts, but I will wait for him to post some of the observations and discoveries.