One of the problems is that Ellusionist just flat out lies. As an example, when asked about shipping prices, Jake said: "Due to the weights, amounts we ship and other factors, we're excluded from USPS flat-rate. We instead deal with account rates, which while better than over-the-counter, are not awesome."
Well, I just got my USPS order in a Small FLAT-RATE box (my cost $5.15 online) and paid $13.65 shipping. Since they lie about this it's not a far stretch that they'd lie about everything else. I just wish they would be a little more upfront. Maybe a "we just can't be bothered to adjust shipping" would be sufficient.
Just look at the Red Artifice/Red Arcane screw-up. Instead of contacting people to either say "Computer mistake - sorry the offer isn't valid" (which they wouldn't do, due to fear of losing a sale), or saying "Sorry, we're out of Red Artifices, would you accept a Red Arcane?" (same issue), they just throw in another deck and make you take it, since most people don't want to aggravation of complaining or returning the stuff (and eating the postage).
I'm just irritated because they could be such a better company than the liars they are - and the slippery slope is that this "Giveaway" was just run illegally.

Also we changed how we handle shipping charges and I would be interested in any feedback from those who have bought now and also previously.

When shipping was included, I could always get more (I did that with the Black Legends - placed an order and then an hour later decided to get another brick.)
This way, today I got 8 to make sure I got some, but with $5.95 in shipping I'm not going back to get anymore, even if I have second thoughts.

If I was forced to guess

You weren't forced.

Undercutting CARC. Interesting. But is it worth the extra $30 to NOT have the db logo?

Just save them up until something like the Rarebit hits again - then you're prepared! There's really nothing in the Archive I'm interested in right now.....

Another day, another 50 elite points.
Hey - at least it's free!

SECOND GUESS: Dec 28th

Is this even legal? Sounds like a lottery to me - guess that stuff's okay in Vegas, though the USPS may look at it differently.
Retail on Ask Alexander is $5.99, so $5.95 a pop is fine - but does every deck they send out have a retail of at least $9.99?
(Or would they claim the butcher paper, twine and labor-intensive tying is enough to cover that cost?)

Regardless - can't trust them. Easy pass.

I wonder if they're going to finish their Summer Club commitments before starting the Holiday Event....

"...and boom goes the dynamite!"  Thanks, Jake.

Well, not really "boom". All I said was that of last night and 8:45am it was not working correctly. Having checked just now it is working properly (without clearing my cache - I had left them in my cart). Of course, since my brick was shipped this afternoon, it's a moot point for me (since I'm not paying for shipping again) - I was just pointing out what was (but now is not) an error in the cart.

Silvers look white....

"A couple of changes will be made to ensure they can be held separate from our version one sets. First off we have fixed the jack of diamonds on the Primavera deck and have made sure both decks are now error-free.  We will be changing the signature at the bottom of the tuck box to our Seasons Playing Cards logo.  The last change is that we will be replacing the gold metallic ink with a very striking platinum metallic ink.  The difference in platinum and silver should be the mirror-shine that they’ll hold. These decks and tuck boxes will be printed with the exact same precision, expertise, and quality as the version one sets."