Max Playing Cards and Kardify is proud to present part one (of three) in our first annual insight into crowd-funding as a platform for funding playing card projects. We hope this will enlighten designers, creators, backers and collectors on crowd-funding projects in general.
In part one, we will go through our choice for the best and the worst Kickstarter campaigns in 2013 and in part two we will cover some details on how crowdfunding, particularly what works and what doesn’t on Kickstarter.
There’s no doubt that crowdfunding has had an impact on the playing cards industry. As of December 2013, 257
backers.
Having said that, here are some of our thoughts on 2013 playing card campaigns on Kickstarter:
Best Kickstarter Campaign
favourites: excellent design, good communication during and after the project and smooth delivery. For me, Jackson Robinson’s Federal 52 Part 2 campaign gets my vote for 2013. I absolutely love the original Federal 52! It is by far the most elegant deck of playing cards I’ve ever seen BUT trying to get my pledge amount right was confusing! Too many choice…! Branded, unbranded, gold cert, unbranded gold cert, shipping cost for multiple decks, international shipping… oh.. and new add-ons keep coming up! It was quite daunting! Imagine being a first-time backer.
Having said that, what do you think are some of things a successful creator can improve on in 2014?
huge success have changed the spirit of the crowdfunding, developing fantastic and successful campaigns but with indecent
prices creating not only unbalanced products but also an unscrupulous secondary market that has made many modest collectors
cannot access them. I think that wouldn’t have to be the spirit of a playing cards creator. Sometimes, this ambition makes
the artist unavailable and even amnesic about his/her beginnings and origin. That’s terrible.
I cannot consent to talk only about one creator and one project because I have been really lucky to build fantastic
relationships with many of them and many have demonstrated that respect for backers and supporters I was talking before.
Some of them (please, don’t get mad at me if I forget someone.. I am too old to have a good memory) are Alex Willis, Bill
Colins, Brian Denham, Caleb Gates, Chris Ovdiyenko, Dann Kriss, Elite PC staff, Jean Labelle, Juan Solorzano, Nat Iwata,
Sean Whelan, Uusi and, as said before, many other firends and talented creators that make my writer life slightly easier and
happier…
Worst Kickstarter Campaign
Three months after reaching it’s funding goal, communication just stopped! No one saw it coming. Disappointing! The creator actually launched the campaign with intention to scam as much money as he can. This was the first Kickstarter deck that I featured on Kardify. I am embarrassed by it.
What’s your’s Max?
and terribly delayed. In fact I am still waiting for decks that would have had to be delivered more than six months ago, and
I have seen those decks available in online shops while many backers have not even received their rewards. But the very
worst are those that are never fulfilled.
not allowed me to make bigger pledges in later projects. I have lost a lot of money in projects such as Asylum, Bicycle Core, Founders or Ultraviolet although this list is not at all the only projects I have not received anything yet…
I think Kickstarter doesn’t show any sensibility about this situation and they even get money from those projects that are
never fulfilled, something I cannot understand from an ethical point of view as they become, in some way, accessory to scam
backers.
It’s your money. If you are not satisfied or not comfortable, cancel your pledge.
Most Engaging Kickstarter Campaign
been really surprised about the huge community around Lovecraft and all his work and also around the cultural movement of
Steampunk. There have been this year more than a dozen decks dedicated to both themes, some of them even to both at the same
time, and although not all have been finally funded most of them have been great successful projects.
I think the most
recent Steampunk Pirates by Nat Iwata, and both Cthulhu projects by Dan Criss and Shane Tyree are the ones I would say more
engaging.
Join us next month for Part II of our 2013 crowd-funding review.