Sketch deck v1

[Don Boyer]

Well then. I think I will give the ads a try as my campaign starts.
I am sure it's paying off.
Of course there is no way of knowing how many decks are wanted. With the wishlist, I just want to get an idea of how many there are.

Yeah, I guess 100 decks is kinda affordable. The only problem I have are the shipping costs. As far as I can see, the fulfillment service costs about 1$ - 2.5$ per delivery without the shipping itself. The shipping itself is pretty expensive. I think it was about 5$ per deck regarding to http://www.makeplayingcards.com/shipping.aspx.
That means, that the shipping costs raise with the amount of decks which also means, that two decks have a shipping charge of about 11$ - 12.5$.
Am I right with my calculation?
I just ordered small amounts of decks, so I have almost no information about the shipping costs for huge amounts.
In my calulations for the campaign, I simply calculated with 5$.

For sure I will set stretch goals. At least I want to mention the LPC quality as a stretch goal.

You missed my point.  Your wishlist won't give you an accurate picture.  It's like taking a telephone poll to ask registered voters who they plan to vote for in the next election, but you're calling home telephones between 3:00 and 4:00 PM, almost guaranteeing that most of the people you speak to will be children that are too young to vote.  This fails to account for all the voters not at home at that hour and, worse, doesn't even consider the voters who no longer possess landline phones, using cellphones for all their phone needs.  Your wishlist will maybe capture a fraction of the actual level of interest so the number will be too inaccurate to be useful in any way.

The number you have for shipping/handling costs sounds high.  Have you considered contacting other companies for order fulfillment?  I know that Gambler's Warehouse and Collectable Playing Cards both offer fulfillment services - see if they offer a better deal.  And a $5 estimate per deck when shipping ordinary First Class is way too high.  A pack of cards is approximately four ounces by itself, plus packaging makes that about eight ounces, tops - if it's more than that, you're doing something wrong!  A eight-ounce envelope is $2.52 by First Class, and a box weighing the same is $3.54.  The overall weight per deck will be lower when shipping more decks as the decks will be in essence sharing the packing material weight - two decks might be only 14 ounces, while three might only be 18 ounces, etc., all depending on how you pack them up.

[Lukas]

ok. I removed my wishlist.
The number I have comes from the shipping costs calculator of the MPC site. I think it was about 5$ per deck, for 3 decks it's 3$ per deck and so on. It actually has a "bulk discount". But this one is per delivery, which makes it pretty expensive I guess.
But I am not 100% sure if this calculation is right.
I asked at Gamblers Warehouse and currently I am waiting for a response. Lets see what they offer.

[Don Boyer]

ok. I removed my wishlist.
The number I have comes from the shipping costs calculator of the MPC site. I think it was about 5$ per deck, for 3 decks it's 3$ per deck and so on. It actually has a "bulk discount". But this one is per delivery, which makes it pretty expensive I guess.
But I am not 100% sure if this calculation is right.
I asked at Gamblers Warehouse and currently I am waiting for a response. Lets see what they offer.

The $5 per deck quote may have been for postage PLUS materials/handling - that would make the difference right there.  Some deck creators will subsidize the shipping cost by including part of it in the cost of the deck, while others might simply offer a single per-deck price that includes the shipping/handling costs, with an extra kick-in for overseas orders.

[Lukas]

Yes, as far as I know the handling and packaging is included within the shipping costs. The fulfillment service costs extra (of course).
To include a part of the shipping costs in the deck price was a thought of me too.
I do not want to include the whole shipping costs in the deck price, because the price of the deck would be pretty high. Sure, the price is the same actually, but I think high deck prices distract people. Even if there are no shipping costs at all.

[Don Boyer]

Yes, as far as I know the handling and packaging is included within the shipping costs. The fulfillment service costs extra (of course).
To include a part of the shipping costs in the deck price was a thought of me too.
I do not want to include the whole shipping costs in the deck price, because the price of the deck would be pretty high. Sure, the price is the same actually, but I think high deck prices distract people. Even if there are no shipping costs at all.

It's not a distraction if you claim up front that domestic shipping and handling is included on all decks.  It used to be the common practice that you had to include shipping and handling in deck prices because there was no separate method for tracking shipping costs.

"Handling" IS SUPPOSED TO BE the fulfillment center cost!  You pay them for postage, you pay them for packaging and you pay them for the humans that put the items in the packaging and slap the postage on it (the handling)!  Handling tends to cost extra for international shipments because of the necessity of printing pre-filled Customs forms and sticking them to the packages.

You should really nail down EXACTLY what costs you have, or you're doing little more than guessing what what things cost, which means you're likely doing it incorrectly.

[DoubleOOJ]

I really like the sketchy art style of your cards, especially the Joker, Jack, and Queen.

I definitely agree with making the court images bigger. Show off those lines. ~_^

And, listen to Don. He has great advice. ^_^

As someone currently running a Kickstarter project I can vouch for it taking a lot time to get decent estimates, and even more time to do the calculations.

Jamey Stegmaier has some great blog articles about using Kickstarter where you can find a ton of great information about manufacturing, shipping, international fulfillment, and common mistakes, etc. It is mainly focused on board games but the information still mostly applies.
http://stonemaiergames.com/e-newsletter/blog/

Good luck with your project!

[Lukas]

Thank you both!
I received the fulfillment service prices from gamblers warehouse. They are way better than the shipping costs from MPC.
Now I will calculate what it costs to ship all the decks to gamblers warehouse and then let them handle the fulfillment.

@Don Boyer: Now that I do have pretty much all the costs (shipping, printing, advertising) I will start to calculate all over again to get the exact costs I have. As exact as possible ^^

@DoubleOOJ: Thank you!
My redesigned deck should arrive next week I guess. As soon as I have the cards I will shoot a few more images.
Don really has great advise. Thank you Don!
Thank you for the link! I will definitely take a look.

[Don Boyer]

Thank you both!
I received the fulfillment service prices from gamblers warehouse. They are way better than the shipping costs from MPC.
Now I will calculate what it costs to ship all the decks to gamblers warehouse and then let them handle the fulfillment.

@Don Boyer: Now that I do have pretty much all the costs (shipping, printing, advertising) I will start to calculate all over again to get the exact costs I have. As exact as possible ^^

@DoubleOOJ: Thank you!
My redesigned deck should arrive next week I guess. As soon as I have the cards I will shoot a few more images.
Don really has great advise. Thank you Don!
Thank you for the link! I will definitely take a look.

I look forward to seeing it.