the word is out.
http://www.wired.com/design/2013/02/designers-kickstarter-and-uspcc/

haha, i expected as much from @alex. 'meh, i'll just spend my time contributing to this forum by being negative. post.'

I personally think it's a really great looking deck of playing cards featuring some incredible artwork from many of the products Stranger & Stranger have helped design and brand. @mrmollusk is correct, If you read the various blogs about it, they weren't ever really made to be sold but as a care package and a holiday gift for various clients and friends of Stranger & Stranger.  D&D just helped them produce the deck. The box is probably the most spectacular part in my opinion (black embossed foil on black) but, if there are any uncut sheets out there, it would make for a much better wall piece than most other uncuts.

i don't think think S&S or D&D had magicians or cardists in mind for this deck...so i'd consider it a bonus to us if they do sell them on their site.

I promise this Barn Owl is 100% real.  I work on a television show and was working with some very interesting animals that day.  I planned ahead by bringing my Snow Owl deck to work just in case the opportunity would arise...and it did.  I took about 10 photos in 15 seconds because of where she was looking (never at the camera)...she didn't move much except for her head.  It was a challenge, but in the end it worked out.  With the Instagram filter that I used, it added a nice little vignette. 

I created The Card Catalog project because I wanted the challenge of coming up with new ways of essentially photographing the same type of subject (flat sheets of paper and a cardboard box).  So far it continues to be a lot of fun and keeps me thinking of new ways to be creative.
 

I was fortunate enough to work with an Owl yesterday, so I asked the trainer if I could snap a photo of her with one of my Altruism Snow Owl decks and he welcomed the opportunity.  Pretty happy with the result...thought i'd share it with all of you.

http://instagram.com/p/S4tS5NklRX

I often wonder how many contributors on the forums understand the amount of time spent just on the concept and design of a deck of cards, let alone the back design and tuck box.

When you're printing thousands of something...you want it to be right.  You want it to look great, feel great and make sense.  You could easily slap together a deck of cards using stock images and vector graphics found online and launch a kickstarter, but that's about as creative as cutting images from a magazine, pasting them together as collage on construction paper and hanging it on your refrigerator.

Sounds like most people voicing their thoughts and opinions want every deck of cards released by companies like D&D, T11, Ellusionist, etc to only release decks that are 100% custom from the pips to the court cards (for example, JAQK's).  As great as that would be, you simply cannot expect that to happen for every release.  For starters, unless you are an artist (with a ton of free time), it is very expensive.  Secondly, the cards any company releases is their vision...not yours.   You can choose to purchase them or not...just like Don said. 

In my opinion, the Artisans are incredibly well crafted.  One thing Theory11 does exceptionally well is the tuck box.  They've consistently produced playing cards with incredible detail to their tuck boxes and it wouldn't surprise me to find out they've spent more time on the boxes than the back design. One of the greatest things about this particular deck is the imported paper used for the box. It's not white paper with black ink printed on the surface leaving disgusting white edges...they did it right and used solid black paper.  Bravo!  This combined with embossing, gold foil, and custom seals makes this stand out as a very well crafted and produced deck of playing cards (even without custom faces).  The wooden box is just a nice little bonus to those that would appreciate it.

Limited or not...custom faces or not...this deck (and many others) are far from 'standard.' They are cheap enough to buy a couple...add one to the collection and ACTUALLY use the other. OMG, mind blown!

also...look at this page: http://www.zazzle.com/playingcards

over 2,400 pages of playing cards and over 149,000 decks.  It's just short run, one off decks that people pay $20+ for to get a custom image on the back.  nothing special at all.

I know i'm a newbie when it comes to contributing to the forums, but I'm a long time card collector and enthusiast.  I love that there is a hashtag on Instagram for #playingcards.  I started taking photos in my spare time using my iPhone and posting them on Instagram for other fans of playing cards.  Just thought i'd share it with all of you. 

Looking forward to contributing more to the forum and getting to know more of you.

http://instagram.com/cardcatalog

The Hornets are absolutely worth buying...I probably would have purchased a couple more just so it's worth the shipping/handling costs (I paid around $6 shipping for 7 decks back in August).  For me it's just not worth buying one or two decks if they have to be mailed to me.  My rule is generally 4 or more.

They really are great though.  I love the design and I really love how they handle.  You'll be satisfied for sure Joshua.

looks like Vända made its way into the Magic Castle: http://instagram.com/p/RV-9EAElcT/