Personally, I like 2, 6, and 8. I backed this project when it first came out even though I wasn't mega-fond of the existing back color.

CP, I agree, you're spot on. Maybe his angle was to appeal to card collectors by selling the red decks normally, and appealing to DB general fans by offering the signed decks. I also would have bought the set had the box been signed and the cards left alone. A custom seal on the box and decks with matching numbers would have been fine too so that it couldn't be said that it was just a random signed box with two decks thrown in to create a "Limited edition" set.


A few years back, I bought a set of his posters, all autographed. They were $10 more each than the un-autographed ones. When I bought the original black Split Spades, back when he was at his peak of performances (During the Frozen in Time era), and you could get an autographed playing card added to your order for an extra $10. Although I don't perform, I do a lot of research into magic and like knowing how to do all of the street magic type of tricks just for fun. There's not a lot that I can't easily figure out. That said, DB is my favorite performer because of his showmanship, audience control, and how he performs the tricks. That's where his talent is, and I appreciate him for that. I have his performance posters hanging in my office, as well as at home, as well as autographed items. His fame is still great, but he has passed the peak of the greatest hype for his career to this point. If his autograph was worth an extra $10 way back when, I can't see it being worth more now, especially with that many more autographed items available for purchase.

I also note that he stated that only 1,000 decks would be SOLD (my emphasis) on the site. Sure, he could use some for personal performances, but he most likely still has many past decks that could be used as well. Maybe there will eventually be items on the website where a red deck will be included "free" with purchase of something else.

I don't see it making a lot of business sense to (Let's assume the numbers are as such) produce 2,500 decks, keep 1,500, and sell the other 1,000 when you could have easily produced 5,000 and sold 3,500. That's a lot of extra income even if you only factor in $5/deck profit (It's most likely a lot more). Who doesn't want to make more money? At the very least, donate the extra earnings to charity.

I thought about the signed set, but I already have a bunch of his signatures (on posters and individual original Split Spades cards from back in the day). problem is, the green and red would be signed. The silver (it was silver, wasn't it?) that would complete the set wouldn't be signed, so it would be kind of a mismatch. I'd rather put the $100 towards a plain deck (or decks (I can dream)) so that I would have a complete, albeit unsigned, set.

I just don't believe that the addition of the autographs is going to carry the value of the collector's set. The green decks are sold out, but fairly common so the only true value in that 2 deck set is the red deck. I know that some collectors would love it to be signed, but I would buy an unsigned deck over a signed one.

Hecrob, good info. I hadn't heard that about the time (I don't use Twitter). That means that I was late to the game. That makes more sense.

Strange thing is though, at 2:59CST, I was still seeing "coming soon" on the site. I saw that change to live at 3:01.

Thanks for nothing, David Blaine.

Sold out at 3:03PM. Smells fishy.


Mirci, don't feel bad. I put a quantity in my cart and went straight to the checkout at 3:02.  When directed back to the website to complete the order, they were already sold out.

I'll just have to find someone who needs greens and wants to trade, I guess.

I really like these (as I have every deck in their series) so I'm in. To me, this deck is their best yet. The only thing that bothers me a bit is that I think that embossing is a must, but it should be a lower stretch goal. The luxury series decks, to maintain the higher-end look and feel, NEED to be embossed. Their last release didn't make the embossing goal and the tucks, while beautiful, were flat (literally and artistically) due to the absence of embossing. The tuck embossing would push these over the edge. The card back detail is always intricate and well done. They just need to emboss them at a far lower funding level. their end result always (in my eyes, at least) meets or exceeds the quality of the concept.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe that stamping/printing foils have been made out of real gold/silver/copper for many decades now. I believe that it's all simulated metal placed onto plastic films using vapor deposition, and then those rolls of "foils" are used for stamping. High-end gilding uses powdered leaf/metal in some cases (such as Uusi Classic and Scarlett Tally-Ho), but can also utilize simulated metal.

Good info, as I'm also a currency, coin, and bullion collector. To add a tidbit...in 1944/45, the US Mint used recycled spent shell casings left over from the war to make cents.

Metallic foil copper card backs would be nice.

I really, really love copper.

Dang it, I have a network clock off somewhere, It was already 6K funded when I arrived, 2 minutes early according to network time. Missed a mega tuck by seconds. <sad trumpet>

Oh well, can't win them all! I'm happy to be in for what I have!

PurpleIce is correct, I only mentioned it in response to the nothing else from the big boys on Black Friday comment which, as it was, was unrelated to the Zen deck as well. That's why I kept it short and sweet. Although technically a sidetrack, I kept it as a mention and didn't go into a diatribe as to what all was going to be released from the big boys that day or the details. In the future, I can just stay silent and allow new members to jump in and write an essay.

My apologies to Zen and CARC for this being unnecessarily drug out. I'll take my vote down from CardPlayer and move along...and for the record, if you say "No offense" before a statement, it's usually going to be offending.

Back to the discussion of their beautiful deck...

One would think that "Architecture" would be different types than just the pagoda on the card shown, but then the Oriental design theme on the tuck may indicate otherwise. I understand that's the theme of their background but at fist glance, all that I think is "Hey, it's a pagoda deck". Waiting to see more...

My first designed deck will be an ultra limited, $75 deck that's faux aged...just to see if Don's head would explode! :-)

I like these, but the board makes me think of checkers (red/black) instead of chess. I agree, that's a big hill to get up.

Wow, usually I'm all alone out there in my boat! It's nice to have some fellow passengers to talk to! :-))


Hey, if you're going to shell out $125, you have every right to be picky!