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Playing Card Chat ♠ ♥ ♣ ♦ => Playing Card Plethora => Topic started by: PrincessTrouble on November 06, 2015, 12:23:16 PM
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Elliptica is the next in our series of premium poker decks. Designed by Randy Butterfield and inspired by our love of the classic Bee diamondback design and beautiful simple borderless decks - the Elliptical design runs through the deck and makes for an elegant back and tuck box.
Long term we're aiming for lower price points, bigger runs and and (possibly) more colours with a first edition that will be differentiated simply by a numbered seal. This will be the best value LUXX® deck so far.
(https://gallery.mailchimp.com/fbb6e7e9e0c1bd948cb1068de/images/432b211e-6a99-410d-a63c-cb552e0252da.jpg)
(https://gallery.mailchimp.com/fbb6e7e9e0c1bd948cb1068de/images/9046ca05-f334-4a7e-abf1-3bc828c723e5.jpg)
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This is an awesome design -- easily one of my favourites.
I'm pretty much cash strapped right now (I've had to sell off a heck of a lot of my collection)... but somehow, I'll get enough money together to be able to buy some of these beauties! :D
Paul, can you confirm that the back design is going to be fully 2-way?
I ask that purely because a lot of full bleed repeating back designs are unintentionally 1 way at the corners!
This can possibly be the best deck ever for gambling sleights!! :D
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Searching my memory if Randy Butterfield has ever designed a one way deck.... I'm coming up with nothing in that department. I think if it is one way, it would be printer caused.
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Paul, can you confirm that the back design is going to be fully 2-way?
I'm glad you like them HolyJJ!!
Yep, the Back Card design is fully two-way. Legends usually does a great job with the trimming, so they should be good to go! I've attached an image of the Red Back Card, to get a better look at the design.
thanks, Randy
EDIT: That image posted poorly! Here's a link to a better view of the Back Card: http://www.midnightcardcompany.com/EllipticaBACKRed.jpg
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Wow Randy you never fail to impress ;)
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These are beautiful! ;D I really like the blue! :bosswalk: Another winner by LUXX and Randy...can't wait for them to be released! :D
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I forgot to pre-order the Palme LUXX, but I won't these. Another great design by Randy Butterfield! Just a nice players deck.
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EDIT: That image posted poorly! Here's a link to a better view of the Back Card: http://www.midnightcardcompany.com/EllipticaBACKRed.jpg
Actually, it posted just fine. If you click on it, it enlarges to its full size. If an image is so large that it opens in a new window, you can click on it again to zoom in for even more detail. At least up to the point that you hit the one-megabyte image size limit...
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Thanks for the support folks, and thanks Randy for the reply to JJs question,
We are looking at up to four colours for the first edition, but we shall wait and see how opinion pans out.
I tried to attach a few more images, but they are not compatible and I don't have access to the office desktop right now, so here's a few links to the images over at UC. If a mod could convert and publish then remove the links that would be great, sorry!
(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/97/1a/a2/971aa2b72ceafc746075fcfd031d08e6.jpg)
(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/b0/cb/fe/b0cbfe21f5934517f0eb4acf358b3c01.jpg)
(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/f7/58/ca/f758cad8cf801f1d926165e4c9b5be2a.jpg)
(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/36/34/fa/3634fa11dead4f3561380ba2f951162e.jpg)
(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/22/d7/bd/22d7bd84937fa30453dcf5e8d895c7cd.jpg)
Edited to re-attach images- RPW
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I tried to attach a few more images, but they are not compatible and I don't have access to the office desktop right now
It's not that the files weren't compatible - we can load PNG and JPG files. Here are those exact same images - I opened them in individual windows in my browser and saved them, then uploaded them here. Click on them to see enlarged views.
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That's exactly what I tried to do and it said that Jpegs (as opposed to jpg) were not compatible. Anyhow, thanks for doing it.
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I like the design. And I am interested to grab some.
Randy did a great job on the Honeybee. I am happy I got a brick.
My only concern on this deck is about the quality of LPCC. I never tried LPCC decks. But I got one NOC v3 of EPCC and I was extremely disappointed about the quality. This make me hesitate to buy non-USPCC decks.
May I know when would more info about this deck be announcing? I would like to know something about the stock. How would the stock of this deck compare with the Bee Casino stock of USPCC?
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That's exactly what I tried to do and it said that Jpegs (as opposed to jpg) were not compatible. Anyhow, thanks for doing it.
You do realize that changing the extension to ".jpg" was all you needed to do, right? :))
I like the design. And I am interested to grab some.
Randy did a great job on the Honeybee. I am happy I got a brick.
My only concern on this deck is about the quality of LPCC. I never tried LPCC decks. But I got one NOC v3 of EPCC and I was extremely disappointed about the quality. This make me hesitate to buy non-USPCC decks.
May I know when would more info about this deck be announcing? I would like to know something about the stock. How would the stock of this deck compare with the Bee Casino stock of USPCC?
Legends and Expert are both known for quality work. It might simply be that you didn't like Master finish/stock. Legends sells the same stock/finish as "Diamond." Most people love Master because of its durability and firmness, but some think it's too stiff and think it doesn't glide as well as the other finishes the two companies offer. It does require a little more breaking in - how much have you used those NOCs of yours?
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I like the the fact that you are putting out high quality borderless custom decks! I waited long for those and the designs are among my favorites together with he palme decks. can't wait to have them in my hands.
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May I know when would more info about this deck be announcing? I would like to know something about the stock. How would the stock of this deck compare with the Bee Casino stock of USPCC?
It will be on classic finish- same as classic twins, classic black, etc. Classic is the closest you'd come to typical bicycle stock in my opinion, but I personally prefer the finish even more. But I'm a not a magician or cardist.
Master finish (diamond is what LPCC call it) is what we used for the original LUXX decks and I love that finish just as much, but we thought classic would be a better fit for this deck.
Don- I know, just not possible on an iPad unfortunately,
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That's exactly what I tried to do and it said that Jpegs (as opposed to jpg) were not compatible. Anyhow, thanks for doing it.
You do realize that changing the extension to ".jpg" was all you needed to do, right? :))
I like the design. And I am interested to grab some.
Randy did a great job on the Honeybee. I am happy I got a brick.
My only concern on this deck is about the quality of LPCC. I never tried LPCC decks. But I got one NOC v3 of EPCC and I was extremely disappointed about the quality. This make me hesitate to buy non-USPCC decks.
May I know when would more info about this deck be announcing? I would like to know something about the stock. How would the stock of this deck compare with the Bee Casino stock of USPCC?
Legends and Expert are both known for quality work. It might simply be that you didn't like Master finish/stock. Legends sells the same stock/finish as "Diamond." Most people love Master because of its durability and firmness, but some think it's too stiff and think it doesn't glide as well as the other finishes the two companies offer. It does require a little more breaking in - how much have you used those NOCs of yours?
My NOCv3 (EPCC) is the first deck of my collection which is non-USPCC. But I had a very bad experience on it. After the first 10 minutes playing on it, one of the cards got a big black scratch on the back. I know it is done by my nail. But I had clean my hands and let them dry before unbox and touching the cards. It is a mystery that where the black color comes from...
Regarding the stock, I think the NOCv3 is stiff, and durable. It is made of paper but on the hands it feels a bit like plastic. It is relatively thin when compare with normal bike, but it is as heavy as the old OHIO premium casino Bee. An interesting deck. What I don't like is the finish (coating?) seems a little bit shiny (and oily) and it feels like plastic.
Maybe the black color scratch is only an isolated case because of my bad luck.
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May I know when would more info about this deck be announcing? I would like to know something about the stock. How would the stock of this deck compare with the Bee Casino stock of USPCC?
It will be on classic finish- same as classic twins, classic black, etc. Classic is the closest you'd come to typical bicycle stock in my opinion, but I personally prefer the finish even more. But I'm a not a magician or cardist.
Master finish (diamond is what LPCC call it) is what we used for the original LUXX decks and I love that finish just as much, but we thought classic would be a better fit for this deck.
Don- I know, just not possible on an iPad unfortunately,
Thanks a lot for the info.
I think classic finish is good enough.
I like the design. It is a great chance for me to get some and try on the LPCC printing. Hopefully I could find a place with slightly lower international shipping cost.
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My NOCv3 (EPCC) is the first deck of my collection which is non-USPCC. But I had a very bad experience on it. After the first 10 minutes playing on it, one of the cards got a big black scratch on the back. I know it is done by my nail. But I had clean my hands and let them dry before unbox and touching the cards. It is a mystery that where the black color comes from...
Regarding the stock, I think the NOCv3 is stiff, and durable. It is made of paper but on the hands it feels a bit like plastic. It is relatively thin when compare with normal bike, but it is as heavy as the old OHIO premium casino Bee. An interesting deck. What I don't like is the finish (coating?) seems a little bit shiny (and oily) and it feels like plastic.
Maybe the black color scratch is only an isolated case because of my bad luck.
The black color isn't from bad luck or anything of the sort. It's from the pasteboard itself.
Playing cards are made by layering two sheets of paper and gluing them together under pressure - the end result is called pasteboard. In a good-quality, "black core" stock, the glue is heavily mixed with graphite, which makes the cards opaque - without it, you'd be able to see through a card when you hold it up to a strong light. Cheap playing cards, including some "blue core" stock, have this translucent quality, as do specially-gaffed Hofzinser magic cards.
When you nicked the card, you cut through the upper layer of paper and into the glue area, revealing the graphite. You might also notice, especially with USPC stocks, that if you have even a small amount of moisture on your hands from water, sweat or even the natural oils in your skin and transfer it to the edge of a card, a black stain appears at the edge - again, this is the graphite, made visible by the moisture. My guess would be that the glue is at least partially water-soluble while the graphite mixed it in is not, so the water melts some of the glue and leaves the graphite exposed. I frequently end up with black stains on the edges of my USPC decks which are used for performance under a variety of not-always-ideal conditions and it used to drive me crazy trying to figure out what caused it - I thought it was dirt transferred to the card, but it wouldn't rub off with an eraser!
Not all cards suffer from this design feature. Even though they're layered pasteboard and made with a black core, Lee Asher's Fournier 605s are not susceptible to water damage in this way - you can in fact briefly submerge an entire card in a glass of water, remove it and wipe it off in order to clean the card, despite that it's made of paper. I suspect that it has something to do with how the cards are made - they might be laminated with their plastic coating AFTER being cut rather than before, or it might be something about the way they're cut that seals the edge to prevent water damage upon submersion, or maybe even that they place the graphite only in the center of the card, leaving it out of the border area, thus there's no graphite remaining to make the black marks or perhaps they use a superior glue that doesn't dissolve in water. Lee would know better than I would!
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My NOCv3 (EPCC) is the first deck of my collection which is non-USPCC. But I had a very bad experience on it. After the first 10 minutes playing on it, one of the cards got a big black scratch on the back. I know it is done by my nail. But I had clean my hands and let them dry before unbox and touching the cards. It is a mystery that where the black color comes from...
Regarding the stock, I think the NOCv3 is stiff, and durable. It is made of paper but on the hands it feels a bit like plastic. It is relatively thin when compare with normal bike, but it is as heavy as the old OHIO premium casino Bee. An interesting deck. What I don't like is the finish (coating?) seems a little bit shiny (and oily) and it feels like plastic.
Maybe the black color scratch is only an isolated case because of my bad luck.
The black color isn't from bad luck or anything of the sort. It's from the pasteboard itself.
Playing cards are made by layering two sheets of paper and gluing them together under pressure - the end result is called pasteboard. In a good-quality, "black core" stock, the glue is heavily mixed with graphite, which makes the cards opaque - without it, you'd be able to see through a card when you hold it up to a strong light. Cheap playing cards, including some "blue core" stock, have this translucent quality, as do specially-gaffed Hofzinser magic cards.
When you nicked the card, you cut through the upper layer of paper and into the glue area, revealing the graphite. You might also notice, especially with USPC stocks, that if you have even a small amount of moisture on your hands from water, sweat or even the natural oils in your skin and transfer it to the edge of a card, a black stain appears at the edge - again, this is the graphite, made visible by the moisture. My guess would be that the glue is at least partially water-soluble while the graphite mixed it in is not, so the water melts some of the glue and leaves the graphite exposed. I frequently end up with black stains on the edges of my USPC decks which are used for performance under a variety of not-always-ideal conditions and it used to drive me crazy trying to figure out what caused it - I thought it was dirt transferred to the card, but it wouldn't rub off with an eraser!
Not all cards suffer from this design feature. Even though they're layered pasteboard and made with a black core, Lee Asher's Fournier 605s are not susceptible to water damage in this way - you can in fact briefly submerge an entire card in a glass of water, remove it and wipe it off in order to clean the card, despite that it's made of paper. I suspect that it has something to do with how the cards are made - they might be laminated with their plastic coating AFTER being cut rather than before, or it might be something about the way they're cut that seals the edge to prevent water damage upon submersion, or maybe even that they place the graphite only in the center of the card, leaving it out of the border area, thus there's no graphite remaining to make the black marks or perhaps they use a superior glue that doesn't dissolve in water. Lee would know better than I would!
Thank you so much for the detail explanation.
When it comes to the decision of whether or not to buy a deck (or how many decks to buy), I focus on the stock and finish first. Thus the information you provided is very useful to me.
Regarding the NOCv3, whether or not the case is my bad luck, is not important anymore. Playing cards are consumable items. And the NOC is not expensive at all. But I learnt a lesson from the case -- think twice before buying a plain back deck. Because even though just a small spot damage on a card, would be very easy to figure out.
Regarding the NOCv3,
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Regarding the NOCv3, whether or not the case is my bad luck, is not important anymore. Playing cards are consumable items. And the NOC is not expensive at all. But I learnt a lesson from the case -- think twice before buying a plain back deck. Because even though just a small spot damage on a card, would be very easy to figure out.
Well, not to hijack this thread much further, but yes, it's an issue with such a plain back. USPC was hesitant to even make the deck in the first place - one tiny ink bubble on a card back would ruin it.
The Luxx Elliptica is anything but plain, really, though the pattern is a simple one. What's critical with this deck will be how well it's cut from the sheet, but that's the same for any deck with a simple, into-the-bleed pattern like this, no different than Bee Diamond Backs in that respect. I'm a fan in general of the entire series - I just haven't had the funds to spare on any of them, though I do confess I wasn't a fan of the paisley one. I have not so fond memories of paisley...yeesh...
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Thanks Randy, for confirming that these will indeed feature perfect 2-way back designs! :D
Fes, the LUXX V1 and the Draconians did have *very slight* 1-way designs... but they weren't something that stood out -- it was probably like 1 pixel worth of alignment difference.
My favourite LPCC stock/finish is Diamond Finish, but Classic Finish is definitely excellent also. The handling for the Classic Gold, Sharps, and Draconions was great, and so I'd expect nothing less from these.
Classic Finish is definitely superior to Bee Casino stock (and even Bee Casino from 2006-2008) by far -- Classic Finish outlasts Bee Casino, and handles better out of the box.
It's fairly clear from what Paul has written that LUXX Elliptica is meant to be a value-for-money deck that is economical for buyers to stock up on... but hey, I wouldn't mind seeing a special edition, limited variant also!
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If they are significantly cheaper than the previous LUXX releases, I will really stock up on those decks. might be my next favorite borderless deck after the LUXX palme decks and the ellusionist republic 2
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JJ- the first edition will be numbered like the first decks from Randy, we will sell matching sets and we do also plan on doing something a little different if we release all 4 colours in one go. Will release more info when we have concrete plans.
Aside from the seals we have no plans for the second print run to be any different - this will allow us to keep the costs down as much.
Mr.P- we are trying our best to keep the pricing down for this and future runs, but we don't want to lose the beautiful tuck elements that are part make a LUXX deck what is it. They will definitely be the most economical release yet, but we will have to hold off on announcing pricing until it's officially gone to print.
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Here's a few shots of the proofs which arrived today folks.
Provisionally we're looking to start pre-orders at the end of March, but will confirm that soon.
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Part 2.
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Part 3.
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Woohooo!! :D
Finally, something for the gambling sleights person! Finally, something that is superior to the bee deck in terms of design and paper quality. Finally! :D
Everything about this deck gets the thumbs up from me.
By the way, the joker looks like the boss character Shinnock from the Mortal Kombat video games. Hahaha!
I'm looking forward to March 2016 :D
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Thanks JJ, ha - you're right about the MK character :D
A few more shots of the proofs and some news on pre-orders.
Available strictly during the pre-order stage only, numbered matching sets of all 4 colours and a matching dealer coin. (see shot below). 99 sets only will be available for sale.
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Part 2.
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Paul, those proofs really are stunning -- every single one of those tucks look amazing! :D
Even though you stated earlier in this thread that your vision for this deck was for it to be a "value for money" deck, it currently looks a lot more like an expensive high end deck. Very nice :D
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That's still my intention, absolutely - but unfortunately as the pound has dropped sharply against the dollar, they will cost more to print and as such I won't be able to keep it quite as low as I'd hoped, but they will still represent the best value of any LUXX so far.
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I should add, that whilst the price won't be as low as perhaps we first wanted in GBP, in USD it probably will look much lower simply because of the exchange rate, we are aiming for £6.99/£6.49 so if the current rate stays the same they will be approx $10 USD. Which is without a doubt the best price we've been able to achieve so far. Factor in free worldwide delivery for orders over £50 and they're great value, in my opinion.
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I should add, that whilst the price won't be as low as perhaps we first wanted in GBP, in USD it probably will look much lower simply because of the exchange rate, we are aiming for £6.99/£6.49 so if the current rate stays the same they will be approx $10 USD. Which is without a doubt the best price we've been able to achieve so far. Factor in free delivery for orders over £40 and they're great value, in my opinion.
In an era when decks like this are going for more like $12-$15 a pack plus shipping, yes, that's a good deal.
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Thanks Don, we think so too.
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Over here in the UK £6.99 (and definitely £6.49) is about as good a deal as you can get for a custom deck of cards -- and when it's an LPCC or EPCC deck, the whole deal becomes even better.
Paul, I've seen the preorder page for the LUXX Elliptica over at JPPlayingCards, and it looks cool so far. Do you have any plans to put up a pre-order page for split bricks, just like you did with the previous LUXX releases?
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Yes absolutely, but it definitely won't be less than £6.49 per deck. The brick box (same as Palme) will be free though.
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I should add, that whilst the price won't be as low as perhaps we first wanted in GBP, in USD it probably will look much lower simply because of the exchange rate, we are aiming for £6.99/£6.49 so if the current rate stays the same they will be approx $10 USD. Which is without a doubt the best price we've been able to achieve so far. Factor in free delivery for orders over £40 and they're great value, in my opinion.
Paul,
Would you consider to put some of the stocks on the LPCC's website? Then the customers in Asia (like me) could enjoy lower shipping cost.
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You can't get lower cost than free delivery (orders over £50 of course) but I'm afraid Legends will not be selling this edition of LUXX, sorry.
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You can't get lower cost than free delivery (orders over £50 of course) but I'm afraid Legends will not be selling this edition of LUXX, sorry.
Oh, sorry I overlooked. It's "worldwide" free delivery for orders over £50. That's great. Thanks.
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So is there a date for the pre-sale yet? The anticipation is killing me!
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Pre orders are likely to be either March 31st or April 1st (TBC),
A little extra' info below:
- 50 Matching Numbered Split Bricks will be available here: http://jpplayingcards.co.uk/luxx-elliptica-playing-cards-matching-split-brick
- 99 Matching Numbered Sets (all 4 colours, plus matching dealer coin) will be available here: http://jpplayingcards.co.uk/luxx-elliptica-matching-set-4-numbered-decks-and-a-matching-dealer-coin-99-sets-only
The 99 sets will be numbered from 002/1000 through to 100/1000 and we will allocate them in the order they are purchased. So the first to order will get the 002/1000 set and so on.
If you have already added your email to the standard deck page (http://jpplayingcards.co.uk/luxx-elliptica-playing-cards) you will be notified FIRST about all 3 pages going live at least 20 minutes before anyone else on this thread, social media, newsletters, etc.
Any more questions, let me know!
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Hi guys pre orders are confirmed for 4PM UK time, Friday April 1st. http://jpplayingcards.co.uk/luxx-playing-cards
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PRE-ORDERS are live folks! We've sold around 30 of the 99 sets if anyone is interested.
http://jpplayingcards.co.uk/luxx-elliptica-matching-set-4-numbered-decks-and-a-matching-dealer-coin-99-sets-only
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Hi folks,
Just to let you know that the pre-order window will close this Friday evening, 15th.
We have 16 matching sets with numbered decks & coin left if anyone is still looking, we will make what's left available when they are officially released but they will be £45 as opposed to £35.99.
http://jpplayingcards.co.uk/luxx-elliptica-matching-set-4-numbered-decks-and-a-matching-dealer-coin-99-sets-only
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The decks are nearly here, and should land any day now. We'll be starting despatch once we've paired up (alot of) matching sets!
Thanks to everyone that made this the most succesfull LUXX pre-order to date.
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Just a quick update on Elliptica. The below update would have been received by email the last few days for anyone who pre-ordered.
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Thanks again for your pre-order. We just wanted to update you to let you know that a slight delay has occurred at the UK port, and we now expect to be despatching your parcel by Monday, 9th May. We'll do our best to get orders out to you ASAP, and as usual they will be despatched in the order received.
Please accept our apologies for the slight (6 day) shift in the shipping deadline, but also note we're aiming to be completed by that date.