Thanks Don.

I noticed that Blackout Brother did a few decks with Gamblers Warehouse (Spirit, Steampunk Bandits, and Blackout Kingdom). The design and illustration on those decks are excellent. I figured if they did repeat business with them, there must be some advantage for the artist. But Blackout Brother primarily does illustration, and cards are not their primary business. Also, they are based out of Indonesia, where money goes a lot further than the U.S.

It seems like it might be worthwhile if the custom deck was a limited edition, where the designer and GW have a predictable outcome assuming all of the decks sold. This would depend on the amount of the flat rate the designer gets of course.

I finally noticed the poll button, viewers can now vote.

I am working on a new custom deck project which will have card backs based on vintage Bicycle decks. I am looking at 2 options for the color. The first is a classic one color black and the other is a 2 color black and metallic gold. The gold would be a bright yellow gold, not the more bronze colored standard Bicycle gold. Which do you think collectors and players would prefer?



p.s. Knowledgeable collectors can make a quiz of the different decks which the card elements came from (some have been modified slightly).

I am the designer of this deck.

Thank you to everyone who helped with advice when this deck was in the Design and Development forum.

I would appreciate anyone's input on why you think this custom deck didn't meet the Kickstarter goal.

I am continuing to work on custom card designs and your opinions would help me on my future designs.

Thank you.

Good suggestions Don. I didn't realize an EPCC deck was 54 cards though, so no gaffs or extras, just jokers. The deck will be printed by EPCC if it is funded. I have been in contact with them and received an estimate and templates. I forgot to request an uncut sheet template, I sent them an email request for that today. If I do a Bicycle deck in the future with 56 cards, I now have some good ideas for the extra cards.

Thanks again for the input Don. The pips in the middle relate to the design on the number cards. I had them at the same size as the pips on the number cards, but you're right, they look better larger. The design is more balanced now. You definitely have a good eye for card design.

This deck design is almost final now. I will be putting it on Kickstarter soon. I had to postpone working on it for almost 2 months because I was working on other projects. Once again I would appreciate any critique or comments.

After reading this topic, I believe Don’s comment on ‘Perceived’ versus ‘Actual’ value is the most insightful. I think the ‘Perceived Value’ of a ‘Limited Edition’ comes from sources other than playing cards, mainly the art world and the trading card world.

In the art world a limited edition is valuable. When artists make prints of their work it is almost always in a limited edition (retail posters excepted). This makes sense because the prints are usually done using serigraphy, etching techniques, or stone lithography. The printing method and the paper is expensive. The editions are usually somewhere between 50 and 250 and are always signed and numbered.

In the sports trading card and collectibles world a limited edition has value also. For example in an Upper Deck NFL 2010 card series there would be no limit, other than the market, to how many cards could be printed. But within the overall amount of cards there would be limited edition cards which would be randomly placed within the boxes or packets. These were special cards that were signed by the athlete or had game-used material. Depending on the athlete, some of these special limited edition cards can be worth hundreds of dollars. There is very rarely more than 100 limited edition cards for any given athlete in a series.

There is also the matter of rarity which adds value. Very old decks of playing cards are valuable the same way that old trading cards are valuable, because they are made of paper they rarely survive over 50 years or so. A limited edition implies a certain amount of rarity, but this is a very different type of rarity compared to antique rarity. This is why old comic books are so valuable even though there were thousands printed.

The main value of a work of art or a trading card is the fame of the artist or the athlete, the rarity is secondary.

In the custom playing card world, the limited editions are 1,000, 2,500 or even 5,000. Compared to art prints and limited edition trading cards, this is not very limited. Most Kickstarter custom decks are printed in these amounts whether they are ‘Limited Edition’ or not. When Jackson Robinson, who sells hundreds of thousands of his decks, makes a limited edition of 1,000, that means something. For the majority of custom card makers ‘Limited Edition’ doesn’t mean much.

When the successful established designers like Theory 11, Ellusionist, etc. make a deck with metallic foil and embossing on the tuck, which makes it more valuable than a normally printed deck, use ‘Limited Edition’ it has some meaning. But I think the value of these special premium decks is from how good they look, not how limited they are.

As a budding card designer I think putting ‘Limited Edition’ on a deck looks cool, but Don is right, it is almost meaningless. In the custom playing card market the perceived value of ‘Limited Edition’ is a far cry from real value.

Here are the backs.

Here is the Suicide King and new Aces. The deck was initially just influenced by the Art Deco style, now I am going to make it fully an Art Deco themed deck. The court cards will be like this card with the artwork more geometric and flattened. The axe is based on the KoH holding one in the early French cards, all of the weapons held by the Kings and Jacks are based on the Rouen Pattern.

Thank you for your feedback Don and Fes.

Everyone has commented about the 'prison bars' effect on this and the other deck design forum. Good point, the black lines with solid color is too strong. The bars are supposed to just be a border effect.

On the face cards, I am going for a variation on the standard face cards with graphic lines and a standardized pose, etc. I have one-eyed Jacks, a one-eyed King, and a King of Diamonds with an axe. I skipped the Suicide King, but if I'm doing the other standards I should do that one as well. I will change the design to have the sword passing behind his head.

As far as the 1,000 limited edition, I want to have 1,000 printed by EPCC, but I see there is no reason to make it a limited edition. I am still trying to figure out the marketing of custom cards.

Here is the current version of the design. Further suggestions are still welcome of course.

Thanks for the comments everyone. Here are some examples of the latest version.

I enlarged the background so there is more paint and less rust, this helps with the red on rust issue. The solid pips make the design bolder and show the card rank better.

I will be revisiting this design later this year, I have some other designs I am working on that are more illustration oriented.

Here are some preliminary designs for a deck I am currently calling “Rat Rod Pinstripes”.

The rust color would be a dark metallic copper ink, the teal color will be a metallic ink also for an rusted auto appearance. The red and black would be spot colors.

I would appreciate any comments on the design, etc. I think I have covered all of the bases of function such as indices placement and proper symmetry, but if I have made any mistakes that would effect play, please let me know.

Thank you,

Randy Coffey