Do any designers or others know the advantages and disadvantages of selling your design through Gamblers Warehouse or Collectors Playing Cards? It does seem that a custom deck is more likely to meet the Kickstarter goal when promoted through these retailers.
I am working on a Bicycle branded custom deck and would like some information on using these retailers versus publishing a deck yourself.
Gamblers Warehouse does give some credit to the designer on Kickstarter, CPC seems to offer no credit to the designer.
Are there other custom playing card retailers/publishers like Gamblers or CPC who offer custom decks through Kickstarter then retail?
There are countless publishers offering their goods first via KS then via web sales. Nearly every deck out there that didn't sell out in the KS was made by such a "company," in fact, defining company as the one person or handful of people that put the project together, because most projects are a one-person affair...
I can't speak for CPC, but I know the guys at GW and I know someone who's worked with them before. They'll buy your design, flat-out, and that's it, you're done. (At least that's what they did in this one case - your results may vary.) In this instance, the guy sold the design, GW offered it on KS, it failed as a USPC-made deck, so GW opted to make it by using their own printing press (yes, they print decks, too, as well as make poker chips).
On the one hand, you're selling off the idea and get nothing else after that. On the other hand, you get a fat lump of cash and don't have to lift a finger fulfilling orders, promoting your campaign, etc. It certainly has its charms. In the case of the guy I know who worked with them, it was fine for him because he was living in a country that KS doesn't allow to create projects.
Others might be thinking, "Hey, my idea has more profit potential than that - I could be the next Jackson Robinson and my deck could be the next Name of the Wind!" In cases of such runaway hits, you've sold the idea, you're done - no more cash, be it a $10K project or a $100K project. But those are really pretty rare, compared with how many AREN'T the big runaway hits - and as long as you aren't a one-hit wonder, you can leverage that fame for making your NEXT deck, in which case, the profit you "lost" on that first deck was the price of getting your foot in the door and your name in people's mindspace.
There was a previous model for this: House of Playing Cards (HOPC), operated by the Blue Crown. But that was pre-Kickstarter. In the post-KS world, they have sharply curtailed their output and the few decks they have offered all got their start on KS.
As far as CPC, honestly, they seem to make fewer hits and a lot more misses - decks I wouldn't want in my collection (that's my opinion, for what that's worth). CPC also seems more interested in Bicycle branding, working on the assumption that the Bicycle-only collectors will find their goods appealing enough with the addition of the brand to want to buy it in bulk. At one time, recently, that might have been the case, but now... USPC has rubber-stamped too many craptacular decks with the Bicycle name on them, and many such collectors have turned their backs on them.
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