It's hard to tell what the audience is for this deck. It's too flashy for most magicians, but the overall mostly-standard design won't appeal to many collectors these days, except for the few remaining "gotta-get-em-all" Bicycle diehards. It's really a deck that would have been a big hit in 2010 or 2011, but today? I don't think so. And yet, it made its goal...shows what I know, right? But still, that goal looks VERY low - how short is the print run on this? Or is CPC subsidizing the cost?
I heard that CPC has a special relationship with Bicycle (probably because they produce a ton of decks every year) and can do 1000 deck print runs...as for the artwork, like most of their other decks, it is just a custom back (none too attractive either, imho), a different background for the front of the card to go with the theme and maybe custom jokers...nothing too difficult to do in a short period of time on the computer.
CPC also has a pretty loyal following (those Bicycle diehards) and they are persistent with their projects, if it doesn't succeed, they re-tool and come back until they are successful. Personally, I don't like many of their designs though sometimes they do something decent...all in all, it seems that their model works...more power to them! 
I'd heard that USPC lowered the minimum for all print runs to 1,000, though the per-deck costs are higher with the lower runs, naturally. As far as a "special relationship" goes, it's simple - spend money with them and you're special; the more you spend, the more special you are! I've yet to find a successful business that doesn't work that way. Businesses that forget this tend to lose their "special" customers.
At least CPC is making some effort at really designing a deck, even if the designs aren't necessarily appealing to me most of the time. I can think of another deck creator (and I use the term loosely) who used to literally grab a few pieces of clip art for jokers and the Ace of Spades, do some funky color pattern for the Rider Back, get it printed with the Bicycle name and sell it as a "custom" deck - and worse, he'd charge outrageous prices for them as "rare" when they first came out, usually by selling them on eBay. People long suspected there was some shill bidding going on to show people buying "clip-art" decks for $40 a pack new (yes, $40 a pack, new) so that when he later released them at $19.95, it seemed like a bargain. Of course, none of it could be proved - and considering that the Bicycle name was a bigger deal for collectors a few years ago than it is now, it's not impossible that he managed to find a gullible buyer willing to fork over that cash for a "rare" Bicycle deck - but no matter how you sliced it, those decks weren't worth the paper they were printed on, never mind the overinflated prices being charged.
He, too, was a "special" customer at USPC because he was releasing decks maybe once a month or so on average for a while there - he was, at one time, the Custom Department's biggest customer, second to the Blue Crown, according to what I'd heard, and that was when 5,000 decks was the minimum. Now, I haven't heard anything new from him at all in, wow, I don't know how long. These CPC decks at least require some level of artistry, and for that, I do give them credit. They may not be my cup of tea, but someone's buying them.
(Read 15637 times)
