In reply to why a high goal I am new to kickstarter. I got a quote from the USPCC and I added the shipping cost and the cost of rewards but I was not sure how many decks and rewards would get backed so I just chose to take about half of the 2500 and figure the shipping for that amount and also I wanted to make sure that I had the funds to cover kickstarters 5% and amazons 3% for credit card fees. So I came up with 17000 but if I have to relaunch my project I will work on my cards to make them better and I will bring the goal down and offer less rewards. Kickstarter said to offer rewards that people might be interested in and other cardists offered posters and prints an T-shirts so I thought that they would be good rewards. Thanks again for your feedback.
Let me take a closer look at this project:
First off, the name is a bit of a misnomer. The cards are, like most playing cards to some degree or another, rotationally symmetrical rather than reflectively symmetrical. So "Mirrored by Design" sounds wrong, as the cards aren't mirroring anything. This could throw people off. "Symmetry by Design" would suit the deck better. (Nearly ANYTHING else would suit the deck better - it's NOT mirrored!)
The rewards - $3 for a signed playing card. Not the most popular idea you've had. A signed deck is a different story, and even then the added cost shouldn't be too high. Many artists/designers have given out their signature on their decks for FREE. I know the trend is toward paying, but for a single card? Many people pay less for a basic deck of cards than you're charging for a single signed card.
Speaking of which - a SEVEN DOLLAR premium for an autographed deck? The deck was very reasonably priced to start with; why'd you have to go and do that? The low price alone could have turned some heads.
Posters are nice, but they're never as popular as uncut sheets straight from the press. A reasonably priced uncut sheet can even be cheaper than a high-grade poster, if you price it right. But you're only offering FOUR? Why? Rarity is nice, but you're cutting into your ability to capitalize on uncuts. You could have sold more of those and dropped the posters completely.
Art prints - chosen at random? Ten bucks extra and you don't get to choose? I can see that it wasn't a very popular reward, either.
If a single deck of cards is $8, why does buying two cost $11 more? And the third only $6 more? And the fourth only $2 more? And $10 more for the fifth AND sixth? There's no rhyme or reason to it. It feels like you chose you costs and shipping rates by tossing a dart at a board. This gives the project as a whole the appearance that not only does the creator have no Kickstarter experience, they have no business experience, either - KS is not a game, it's serious business. Treat it like anything less and you're in for some hard times.
I don't care if you're the world's greatest deck designer - if you have no business sense, any project you do manage to get off the ground will blow up in your lap. We've seen it happen all too many times - I can draft you a list of the "successful" projects that failed to deliver because of business mistakes (or in some cases, outright fraud) perpetrated by the project's creator. Nobody want the consumer advocacy services of dozens of different cities breathing down their necks - according to the people going through it now, it's more than a little stressful.
OK, rant over, back to rewards. Puzzles as a reward tier - it's unique, but I don't think it's really striking a chord for backers. You've got exactly ONE person interested.
$44 for two decks and a TORN-OPEN box, framed? You couldn't get an uncut tuck box sheet? This doesn't exactly trigger the urge to buy, considering that it will likely not look very good. A poster of the uncut tuck box would have been better than this, and you know how I feel about posters. Plus there's the fact that you're offering just one of them... Before you go offering one-of-a-kind works of your art, stop and think just how much that contributes to your campaign. It's ONE piece of art, that's it! It's reminiscent of the guy who was trying to sell decks by offering CDs of his own music. It helped his campaign about as much as your art is helping yours. Wacky, less-than-desirable rewards offered in tiny quantities really just clutter the reward tiers and make them confusing to navigate while doing practically nothing to help your bottom line - even if you did manage to get a backer, it's just one pledge, that's it, one and done, no more to be had, etc. You want to give away more items as rewards that exist in quantities greater than one - or ten, or even a hundred. THESE are items that generate income.
There's an expression - Keep It Simple. It's the polite version of the acronym K.I.S.S., sure, but it still holds true. You could have offered your deck in quantities and prices that make logical sense, the t-shirts, the uncut sheets, and a few art images of the buyer's choice, or perhaps make the court cards available four to a sheet - I've seen that before and it actually looks very nice. But make sure they're really art images and not stuff you churned out on the home printer - trust me, it makes a difference, and should you ever attempt another design, your former backers will remember.
If you want to offer more things, you do it in stages, as stretch goals. You could make the deck unbranded at first to save cash, offer Bicycle branding if you hit a stretch goal, offer custom seals, embossing, foil, metallic inks, all kinds of goodies - as stretch goals. Drop the alphabet print, drop the art work, drop the jigsaw puzzle - they aren't doing you any favors. Consider the more popular (if a little overdone) add-ons, like card guard coins, custom dice, poker chips, fancy display boxes in leather or wood (or both), deck clips from Joseph Porper (or whoever you can get to make them, but Joe's work is the industry standard), etc. I've even seen people offer stripped versions of the deck (it's a magician's version of the deck that allows for some incredible feats of card control and is often the first magic deck a beginning magician gets). Marked versions can be popular as well as a reward tier. For either, you'd want to consult with a magician first, someone who knows what they're doing.
Right now, your project needs to make an average of nearly $2,000 a DAY just to reach its goal. Huge projects that break records do that - not typical deck projects that are barely squeaking along. Consider sticking a fork in this one, canceling the project, and retooling for a better re-launch. Give the deck a name that makes sense and actually fits the design, preferably one that rolls off the tongue a little better. Give logic to your pricing, choose rewards and add-on carefully, create a mockup of your tuck box that doesn't look so obviously like a cheap mockup. Neaten up the goals, make them simpler, create an "add-on" chart, perhaps even use Backerkit to help with the back end on tracking those extras. Give the whole project an overall professional appearance. Decide on a goal that's based in reality, on what your actual costs are with a reasonable profit margin - without cutting it so low that you end up losing cash if you're successful. Promote the living crap out of it, day in, day out, anywhere that will listen to you.
You do all that, you'll stand a much better chance, because right now, your odds are just barely this side of nil.
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