There was absolutely nothing limited edition in the silver arrow project. Nothing....... Nothing. What drowned out the conversation was people wanted kings wild to do what kings wild did. I'm not sure how it can be any more crystal clear than the first nine minutes of the Scarlett project even in the midst of a super saturated market AND at Christmas time when people won't even get their rewards until April.
This is really frustrating for me to read. Your Arrow project was killed by the Pearl edition, because it was limited. Not due to having a production cap or a number/a slighter larger number printed on a shiny sticker on the cello, but it was limited because not everyone could get it, it came with a prerequisite, and while you may have intended it as a thank you for the brick backers, it was an F*** you to the other backers. The Pearl Edition completely compromised what that project was supposed to be about, and the community believes that project would have been a success without it and haven't given up on that belief.
The problem here for me, and what is so frustrating, is that I believe you are the only person in the position to actually change the market intentionally, the only designer that could have made the Arrow ideal work, and you see it's failure as people not wanting that and I think that is flawed. Scarlett isn't proof of the opposite, Scarlett is proof that people aren't willing to miss out on one of your decks regardless of the price or availability. I myself am willing to put my living situation at risk so that I don't miss out on the Legacy box, where the only tier I could get is the J1 and I'm not willing to try and trade it and lose my opportunity to get the deck I want. That is my choice, and not the point of this post.
But you are making all of the cues and the crowd-fund design community is following your lead. the Arrow project was a good first step to correcting the problem in the community, but you scrapped that ideal after one failed attempt and rebounded harder than a high school girl that got dumped on prom and created the Scarlett project. People will see this, everyone will see this, and follow suit and the market is going to get more and more expensive and exclusive as Don is prophesying. You are the only person that has a power and the following to single-handedly direct the market and I hate believing that you took the absolute worst perspective away from the Arrow project.
While I don't get to say, even remotely, how you should run your business and how you should do what makes you happy and that people absolutely love, I just want to try and provide some lateral perspective on the situation, because you hold all of the cards (see what I did there? Eh..? Eeehhhh...??), and while you don't have any obligation whatsoever, people look to you for next steps.
And no matter what, I will continue to do what I have to do to make sure I get exactly what I want from every one of your projects. But I hope that that won't always see me pledging $370 I will never be able to afford so I don't miss out on your decks. Not because I want expensive, super limited edition decks (even if I love having something other people don't get to have.), but because I don't want to miss out on the best Jackson Robinson decks regardless of the cost.
Edited to remove a tacky smiley that somehow got in there...
While I absolutely cherish your support I think that this conversation is a never-ending black hole of nothingness. On one hand you have people that view what I'm doing and the way it plays on the market as a bad thing and call it a "problem" with the market and then you have people including myself that don't see it as a problem mearly a call to all designers to step up their game and fight even harder for people's business and patronage. If I pushed for cheaper decks you as a Kings Wild fan would get less than my best because cheaper decks can't afford the things I want to do with the entire vision of a deck. People are quick to rush into the "We don't Bells and whistles" on our decks, when bells and whistles are exactly what brought me into this industry.
Wine and Spirit labeling is what indirectly brought me to playing cards. And in that world you have a wide range of labeling for a wide range of price tags on beverages. Just because you can go to the grocery story and buy a can of Colt 45 for $3 doesn't mean that a $4000 bottle of 100 year old scotch is a "problem" in the industry. It only means that the industry is deepening and widening.
This is really the one thousandth time I've conversed about this topic and it always comes down to one thing. It is up to each and every person to choose or not to choose to swipe their credit card. If my decks are to expensive or you feel they are not worth the price tag don't buy them. If no one buys them I will be forced to change my direction.
I feel my decks are the highest quality of design and thought I wouldn't remain in the playing card business if I had was forced to make diet Kings Wild decks. That doesn't interest me at all. What interests me is doing things no one else is doing, and that calls for a price tag both on my part and the consumers. For every 1 person who thinks what i'm doing is leading the industry down a problematic path there are 3 people who don't even care because they are not even in the industry but back everyone of my projects.
On a different note, I can't see in any world or universe how me creating a deck that was offered as an intensive was a big F U to my supporters. THE ONLY way the Arrows were going to be successful was if I sold a TON of decks and that was my incentive to sell a TON of decks. The average pledge for the arrows was $20 and around 2 decks a person. At that rate I would have need multiple thousands of backers to make it work. Even if I offered both decks to every one my backers would have still only bought two decks because those are the types of backers that make up the majority of my customer base. I don't heard thousands of magicians like Blain who buy brick upon brick. There were only round 90 people who bought a brick during the Arrow project when they were cheaper than two Gold Editions in the Scarlett project. The reasoning why the Arrows fails was simple my customers, for the most part do not buy bricks, they buy one or two decks.
What is the most disheartening aspect of this industry is for some reason everyone and their dog has taken it upon themselves to mount a all out attack on me and my moral motives as a designer and a business man. That is why I have left the pipe dream of making everyone happy behind me and am now laser focusing on enriching the experiences of those who back me and support me.
Justin like a mentioned first off, I cherish your support and promise you that no matter how long you chose to support me and buy my decks you will be assured that they will be unlike any other.
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) and we can work out shipping.