Wow, there's been a lot of chatter since I've been away.
To everyone who agreed with what I posted, thanks. Especially XntriX/Jake - I really appreciated it. It's because of Ellusionist that I got into magic seriously back in December of '10. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him and his co-workers.
@dee1orean: I never meant to imply that I've cornered the market on being a volunteer or to sound condescending. If you look at what I wrote carefully, you'll see I specifically requested volunteers in my area for my particular hospital, then opened it up to more people in other areas simply as a way of wanting to spread the great feeling that volunteering as a performer gives a person. The fact that you do fundraising work is very laudable, but I'm sure you know as I do just how rewarding it is - recognition isn't really necessary, and not why I posted what I posted. Yes, I was on the Facebook page during the Red Artifice server issues - after getting my order in for a brick and seeing the sale end shortly thereafter, I actually tried to arrange a sale of some of the cards AT FACE VALUE to a teen girl from Mexico I met through the FB page who missed out, but she couldn't come up with a way to get the funds to me in the States. I told her that I was hoping to encourage her to continue as a magician - there are too few female magicians out there. Jake said it very well when he stated that leaving the red deck as a v1 only helps that design retain its value as a collectible. Imagine how burnt you'd feel if you paid auction or aftermarket retail prices for your red Artifices only to see a v2 come out that dilutes the value.
Again, I never meant to rant with such fervor, and I don't want anyone to take what I said as an insult. I'm one of you guys. Do I love the idea of spending $150 on merchandise to get the free Ltd. deck? Not particularly. Will I do it? Maybe, if I can afford it - I haven't bought any Infinity or Green Artifice yet and there's a few DVDs I've had my eye on, so that would be a nice bonus. But I also recognize that there are many cool and rare decks out there I'll likely never own, like a pack of White Centurions, Bicycle Garden or Jerry's Nugget - and more importantly, it's not the end of the world. (Even buying the not-so-rare decks can add up quickly, and where do you put them all?)
I don't need every great deck out there to take pleasure in my collection of cards, of which I open one of every deck and use them, even if it's an insanely rare deck like my Broken Spell deck. As I see the extreme collectors' take on it, it's like buying a fine painting or statue, boxing it into a crate and staring at the crate - that's fine for them, but it's not for me. (And I'm not saying everyone here fits the mold of an extreme collector, either - we're not black and white, just varying shades of gray.) I want to enjoy and appreciate my works of art and enjoy the textures, the smell, the whole manual and physical aspect of it. I used to play a lot of solitaire on my cellphone as a way to kill the time. After getting into cards, that just doesn't have the same appeal as handling an actual paper or plastic deck and moving around the individual cards on a table. It's certainly helped my shuffling and built up my finger tendons a bit, which are always good things for a magician. The video game now feels like a picture of an ice cream cone instead of the actual sweet, dripping mess in my hands and on my lips! Collecting playing cards is fine and all, but as the name implies, playing cards were meant for PLAYING, whether it's by performing a cool sleight, shuffle or flourish, winning (or more likely losing) at Canfield or sitting around a table with a few friends/family over a game of low-ante Texas Hold 'Em.
