UnitedCardists.com - The forum for Cardistry, Magic, Custom Decks and All Things Playing Cards.

TGunitedcardists wrote:It seems like many posters who disagree with me think they can change the system. I don't think we can.

This is the fundamental disagreement between you and most of the other forum members. We just need to agree to disagree on this point and move on. I firmly believe that this forum has already effectuated many changes to the system and will continue to do so. If you truly don't think you can make a difference in the system, then why do you even care at all about us talking about it, other than to merely be argumentative or defend Jackson? Please leave us in peace to discuss the issue of international shipping without further argument from you. If international shipping rates go down in the future, you can thank us later. If international shipping rates never go down, then you can gloat all you want as you continue to get ripped off by shipping rates.

StanKindLee wrote:Today is a critical funding day - the project needs a bit more than 4% of goal funded daily from here on out, and it's looking quite possible that those numbers will not happen.

This is a well designed deck (as usual from Jackson) that is very reasonably priced, so it should fund. The only reason I see that may cause this project to be unsuccessful is the short funding period. Why did Jackson set it at only 20 days? Most other card projects, including many of his own, have 30-40 day funding periods. Also, it appears he's not promoting the Silver Arrow deck as aggressively through emails, facebook, and on his KW website as he has done for his other decks in the past. I know in an update, Brendan said they had issues with the internet which has prevented them from their usual marketing, but that was 3 days ago. How does a web-based business like KW allow issues with the internet to last for 3 days? And with a project with as short of a funding period as this, every day is critical.

Jackson pulled the plug early on his Army deck. He waited only a few months before liquidating excess inventory. Now he's set the funding period for his deck at only 20 days. Why is he so impatient lately?

Not too crazy about the pearl edition but I bet if he sold them individually or have at least one of them in the 4 and 6 deck tiers, it'll be more sells.

I was curious about the short turn on this, too. I can think of all kinds of cynical reasons, but I think it might be wiser to ask the man himself instead of throwing gasoline onto the fire here....

So, Jackson. What's up with the short turn?

StanKindLee wrote:Today is a critical funding day - the project needs a bit more than 4% of goal funded daily from here on out, and it's looking quite possible that those numbers will not happen.

It does seem touch and go at this stage - might fund, might be cancelled. One would think that Jackson could mobilise some previous backers which might take a chunk out of the remainder - but without a significant theme like his prior decks the effect could be limited.

It would be humourous if it fell short by a small amount - that which a group of international pledgers could have added.

Unless there is a yet unveiled super slick marketing campaign that will bring more eyeballs & wallets to this project, it looks stalled and heading quickly towards funding un-obtainium. The project needs an average of more than 2K new dollars per day to fund, and it hasn't had a day over 2K since Monday.

Again, there is a curious lack of promotion for the Silver Arrow deck. Usually Jackson sends an update to all the supporters of his past deck promoting his latest campaign, that alone would reach tens of thousands of people, and I have not received any promotional emails from his KW site. And he hasn't even whispered about this deck on UC yet (although that isn't surprising anymore at this point). With such a short funding period, you would think Jackson would've put an advertising campaign into high gear by now . . .

Forgive my naiveté, I've been out of the loop for a while but every time Jackson passes wind near a deck of cards are not we supposed to be in awe. I just need to make sure I am doing everything right upon my return.

Holy crap the walrus is in the house

walrus wrote:Forgive my naiveté, I've been out of the loop for a while but every time Jackson passes wind near a deck of cards are not we supposed to be in awe. I just need to make sure I am doing everything right upon my return.

I guess he didn't eat his baked beans for this one.

I don't understand the shorter funding period with this one either, but this way he does stay away from mid - late November which is notoriously suck for most people in the states. It's almost as bad as mid to late December. Jackson is a person too with a family and friends and all the fixings same as everyone else. Holiday season is pretty rough on everyone, I don't see why it'd be any different for him than it is for me. So I think that may come into play a bit with the shortened time frame here. Just taking a guess of course.

The decks are fantastic looking, if it is unsuccessful I think there will be another campaign for them later. I hope it's a success though. I'm considering adding a couple more bricks now that there's red on the indices.

walrus wrote:Forgive my naiveté, I've been out of the loop for a while but every time Jackson passes wind near a deck of cards are not we supposed to be in awe. I just need to make sure I am doing everything right upon my return.

Methinks you should look up the Jackson Tally-Ho thread, the Hive deck one as well as the one in general section, Thunderdome. A few nights worth of reading material between the three and you'll be all caught up on the current King$ Wild situation.

The farts that once smelled of roses have started to smell more like roses in a compost heap as more people have realized that even JR is in it for the money and not just art.

chach wrote:... that even JR is in it for the money and not just art.

For those with occupations which allow art hobbies fine, but for folks who's bill payment and livelihood depend on the income from art sales, money is always a part of the equation.

As far as the Silver Arrow KS campaign goes - it appears dead in the water.

chach wrote:...more people have realized that even JR is in it for the money and not just art.

I have no problem with that, it is a business and I wish more artists would conduct themselves in more of a business manner as that would allow fewer failed projects. Although I get the point that when money takes priority over the art then the magic is gone, there needs to be balance. Disclaimer - don't call me a fan boy, while Reserve note is one of my favorite decks and I am a fan, prior to the big Halloween sale it was only one of two decks I had of his.

StanKindLee wrote:As far as the Silver Arrow KS campaign goes - it appears dead in the water.

Officially cancelled now that is. I will agree that it smells very much like this was planned to fail from the start to artificially demonstrate that bargain decks can't work. Total lack of promotion and way too aggressive. It also seems like there can be a middle ground here with a $8/9 deck that includes only critical extra features/costs. I'm not a foil hat kind of guy, but even if it wasn't an intentional plan to have a failed project it's quite possible it was in the back of his mind and impacted decisions and lack of action. If you expect something to fail you don't put your everything into it. At the very least that seems to be the case here and the update basically seems to say 'see, this doesn't work, on to more features and limited decks'.

ecNate wrote:
Officially cancelled now that is. I will agree that it smells very much like this was planned to fail from the start to artificially demonstrate that bargain decks can't work.

Absolutely, completely, 100% UNTRUE. I have spent more time in discussion with him about this than anyone on this board, guaranteed, and there is no grand plan to twist and deceive you all. Jackson made a deck that he really liked, wanted to offer it in a way different from his last projects and have a staple that he could sell for a low cost for a long time.

There is no conspiracy here folks. If you think you "know" him and his motives because you read backer updates, well, that's about the same as thinking you "know" what it's like to drive a Ferrari when all you read is magazine articles. Jackson is just a guy (remember that, he's not the front man for a corporation with layers of evil planning committees) and he does his best to make art and use the profits to support his family. It really is not as complex as some of you make it out to be.

Don't think that there's a conspiracy theory here, more of an over estimation of popularity, it was a good attempt, but that print run is makes the entire project unachievable from day 1.

Encarded wrote:Jackson made a deck that he really liked, wanted to offer it in a way different from his last projects and have a staple that he could sell for a low cost for a long time.

I can't imagine that Jackson would intentionally tank his own KS project, what could possibly be the benefit of sabotaging himself? I don't think the $50K goal was too high, either, many of his projects easily reached that number.

What I want to know is why he was so lackluster in his promotion of this deck? All his other decks were advertised on high through KS, facebook, and his KW site. I would get multiple advertisements and announcements in my email box from those sources for every one of his decks. He didn't even run a cross-promotion with any other project for the Silver Arrow deck.

And who were these masses of people clamoring for an exclusive, high priced deck? Most of the feedback I read was about how happy people were with a high production, low cost Jackson deck and most people were really rooting for this to fund.

Sorry, I didn't mean it to come across as saying I thought it was an actual conspiracy. As I said, I'm not a tin foil hat guy, but just agreeing it does smell like one. I really believe he expected it to fail though and as a result unintentionally didn't put forth the same effort as others. More of a case of self fulfilling prophecy. It could be just overestimating and being too busy with other things as well.

I just wish he would go back to Reserve Note artwork quality and style some day. All these other decks are nice enough, but in my mind lack that instant classic which is also uniquely special.

Yes, there was 0 ...in words Z E R O promotion for this deck and now the Update with the news that he cancels the project.
I was in for a brick since i thought this would be the right direction to go....sad that this didn´t happend

If you would like a simple explanation about the promotion of this project, I simply approached it differently that my previous ones. Instead of updated all past 8 Kickstarter projects and flooding some backers who have backed all of my campaigns with 8 duplicate emails I simply compiled my email list of all of my customers and backers and sent out one email.

As for the conspiracy of my believing this was going to fail from the beginning or planning it from the start, that is 100% false. Playing card design is my lively hood and it benefits me ZERO to waste my time on some "plan" that gets me no further down the road.

JacksonRobinson wrote:... approached it differently that my previous ones. Instead of updated all past 8 Kickstarter projects and flooding some backers who have backed all of my campaigns with 8 duplicate emails I simply compiled my email list of all of my customers and backers and sent out one email.

Obama's election number crunchers have found the opposite to be more effective at getting at folks' wallets. Trying experiments of hardly no email to more than 3 emails a week for a 6 to 8 week period found that the more emails the more contributions in, without hitting a peek. Though your own thinking might lead you to assume that too many emails would result in a negative outcome, it never comes - and the distraction factor of today's societies dictate constant reminders and updates.

I'm sure this thread will be marked as "cancled" soon enough. But I can't wait for that baseball deck he teased a while ago. When will that hit the streets?

I do see the point that there really was almost no promotion other than Kardify but also see the point of not wanting to spam previous projects. People complained about a staple deck, Jackson tried to give them a staple deck and they complained b/c the LE "gift" deck wasn't available to lower tiers. As far as wanting it to fail, absolutely not, but I can't say he put forth the effort to really try to get it to succeed, not saying he didn't want it to succeed either. There has been a lot of negative comments and assumptions about Jackson lately and although he has many followers, I think it might take a little while to get back to where he was. His last truly successful campaign was the independence deck. Yes, he did the Tally Ho deck but there was more negative press on that one, that's why I don't include it as "successful".

JacksonRobinson wrote:If you would like a simple explanation about the promotion of this project, I simply approached it differently that my previous ones. Instead of updated all past 8 Kickstarter projects and flooding some backers who have backed all of my campaigns with 8 duplicate emails I simply compiled my email list of all of my customers and backers and sent out one email.

I'm going to be very curious to see if Jackson's future deck releases will have the same "scaled back" one email promotion as the Silver Arrow deck.

sinjin7 wrote:

JacksonRobinson wrote:If you would like a simple explanation about the promotion of this project, I simply approached it differently that my previous ones. Instead of updated all past 8 Kickstarter projects and flooding some backers who have backed all of my campaigns with 8 duplicate emails I simply compiled my email list of all of my customers and backers and sent out one email.

I'm going to be very curious to see if Jackson's future deck releases will have the same "scaled back" one email promotion as the Silver Arrow deck.

I don't think it worked too good. I've backed at least half of his projects and I never received an e-mail promoting this one.

I've backed every one of his projects except Hive and Army, and I never got an email, or any other form of promotion or advertisement, either.

I can confirm that I had a Kings Wild newsletter promoting the deck sent to me after the launch of the deck.

Slavich wrote:I can confirm that I had a Kings Wild newsletter promoting the deck sent to me after the launch of the deck.

Same here.

I have a Gmail account, which lumps all promotional emails into one tab, to which I don't pay much attention - I usually just delete the whole lot unless I'm expecting something or a title caches my eye on the split second I look before clicking select all and delete. So, although I'm a Kings Wild customer, I did not see the email because it was probably sent to the promotions section and I deleted it. Emails from kickstarter updates go to my primary inbox, to which I pay much more attention.

I obviously know about this project, but my point is, if every available avenue is not used to promote the deck, there is a larger chance of missing a great deal of potential customers who do not pay as close attention to current playing card projects as members who visit the forum or are part of a Facebook group.

I did get the email as well, but I tend to shop online way more than I should and usually get in excess of 100 emails a day. I did like this deck and meant to pledge, but ended up just kinda forgetting about it. A few extra emails would have helped quite a bit, but I think Jackson didn't err in that area on purpose because some people on ks do tend to b*tch an awful lot when they get more than a handful of updates on a project (and God forbid if it happens to mention anything at all that they think strays from the topic of said project, lol).

I think forcing people to buy a brick for the special deck hurt it a lot too though. I love to buy a brick if I can swing it when I love a deck, but most people just want one or two and maybe a shirt or poster, etc., for fun. I hope he can maybe restructure it a bit if he does a relaunch and perhaps have a half brick with the LE deck for those who really don't need 12+ decks of cards.

Just my two cents of course.

charlie

Apparently the majority of Jacksons followers only like his work for it's limited availability. An unlimited deck, for whatever reason, just isn't what they want. Part of the problem was that he wasn't offering the Pearl as an add-on, only as part of a brick. How many spent $95 for, initially, 4 decks in the independence project, 2 regular/2 LE with a pair of displays announced at the end and now they are complaining about $72 for 12, in which he changed the brick tier to include 10 slate/ 2 pearl. Are there that many collectors that only collect his work for it's limited nature?

Now he'll probably go and add a bunch of bells and whistles to the tuck and backs and charge $XX.XX for the same decks but with only a 1000-2000 deck run. I just don't understand.