Bicycle State Playing Cards

[rjtomlinson1977]

Here's a preview of the next project I've been working on. As some of you may know, I do these local history decks which use a "micro-book" concept. I came up with a way where I can produce these with USPCC at a competitve rate to other printers. I'm going to attempt to fund the first 10 State Decks. Let me know what you think. It's still not 100% ready to launch... so just let me know what changes you wish to see.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/58 ... n=b4e937ab

[Gareth]

Whoa, ambitious. Producing 12 different sets of faces for decks in each campaign. Pricing is reasonable per deck from USPCC - but you need to sell 1,400 decks to reach the target. Looks dangerous for collectors - committing to all 50 state decks (and 10 others) across the 5 campaigns is an ask.

My concern is whether you can do a great job on every one of the cards in all 50 decks. And the 5 different backs. At one level you're competing against souvenir decks, but at the funding POV you're competing against Jackson, Lotrek, et.al for funds. I guess the challenge is going to be getting widespread support, not just limited to us, slightly mad, collectors.

The question will be whether there are enough backers to bring each campaign to fruition? What happens if you've completed the first 3 campaigns (36 decks!), but the fourth doesn't fund? (even twice)?

Good luck, I'll definitely be in for some.

[shermjack]

With the large selection of decks, I think that there will be a bigger chance to get more backers, but agree that there is some risk of not having all decks funded and thus having an incomplete collection.

With that being said, I will definitely be on board for at least a brick to ensure that I get all decks

[vasta41]

I think a huge plus is that you're not doing 1 or 2 decks at a time. 12 at a time (assuming you don't overwhelm yourself) is great! Good luck, RJ! I'll certainly be in.

[rjtomlinson1977]

This project poses some unique challenges. It will be a large undertaking but that's why I'm breaking it up into 5 parts. The pricing was the trickiest thing to think about. I know souvenir decks can range from $4 to $10 per deck. So, I wanted to make sure I didn't surpass the high end pricing. Considering these will be Bicycle branded and the price on Kickstarter includes domestic shipping, I think I have a good price point. I have little to no fear that I won't produce all 50 decks because I have a strategy that I'm already putting into play. The strategy is to have sales reps find retail locations. Don't worry, the price on Kickstarter will be the same retail price they sell elsewhere. So in other words... you won't find this deck being sold for $4 at Walmart.
Doing a deck that highlights what the State offers is actually a great way to find potential retail locations. For example, Hershey Park should be interested since Milton Hershey is featured... likewise the Zippo Museum (next to the factory) should also be interested since their history is featured. One thing I learned by doing these history decks... is the fact that everyone loves to see their history in print. In this case, it's in the form of playing cards instead of a book.
The workload will be heavy but I've been putting out these history decks since this time last year so I'm pretty quick now. I'll probably extend the delivery date to October or November just to be on the safe side.
I know from a collectors point a view, they would rather see the high end artwork from Jackson, Lotrek, etc., etc.... but this is a different form of artwork then what they're doing.
My number one goal with these decks is to bring new collectors into the collector market. For example, what remained of our Colonial Unrest decks sold at Colonial Willaimsburg and I can't even tell you how many times people reached out to me to tell me how blown away they were based on the quality.
Another part of my strategy is to support legislation that requires all Federal and State funded attractions to sell American made products. There's no reason why the Smithsonian Museums, National Parks and State Parks should be using tax payers dollars to buy product from China to sell in their gift shops. It's time to make America Great Again.

[vasta41]

I noticed you didn't do Massachusetts in this round... If you'd like an iconic picture for the MA tuck when you get to it I can e-mail you a selfie.

[rjtomlinson1977]

I noticed you didn't do Massachusetts in this round... If you'd like an iconic picture for the MA tuck when you get to it I can e-mail you a selfie.

I'll keep you on speed dial.
Picking what States I did first was hard too. Logically, you would think I would pick the first 13 states or do them in the order they became states. My first thought was to cherry pick them but then I would end up with Delaware and Rhode Island at the end of the list. I decided to go on geographic location mainly based on Sheetz. For those that don't know, Sheetz is a gas station found up and down the east coast. While they aren't in Georgia or Florida... they are in all the other states in this grouping. Not saying that these will be in Sheetz but I do have the owner as one of my Linkedin connections (so fingers crossed).
I got my eyes on you Cracker Barrel Country Stores. These decks would be perfect for you!

[ecNate]

Some creative problem solving and probably the best souvenir decks around! These should do well enough in the campaign and certainly much better than the other ones in the souvenir shops. My only issue is the tucks look like tacky photos slapped on to cards, just like all the other souvenir decks and cards. However, the cards themselves are WAY better than others I've seen and even the tuck isn't as bad (especially with the Bicycle branding), but the tuck could have been much better with a custom drawn image or even a state map creatively illustrated. However, I get you need to crank these out and it's a compromise and I think you got the price right.

I won't be one of the complete series collectors, but will still get a few select ones for myself and others.

I'll leave more specific comments about the campaign over on your preview page. Good luck, but I think these will do quite well.

[rjtomlinson1977]

My first plan was to do a tuck style similar to what I do with my local history decks... But using the printing technique I'm using, the print run is considered large bringing the Bicycly branding price down to a really reasonable level. I was about to say how reasonable but I'm not sure if I'm supposed disclose their pricing info. lol
So, doing it like I'm doing is really the best of both worlds. For pricing it's considered a large print run but in actuality it's 12 decks all about 1,000 decks in size (maybe more for popular states).
The tucks are plain but to your average non-collector I wanted to let them see the similarities to a standard Biycyle deck.

[vasta41]

Bikes all the way. But that's a given, right?

[rjtomlinson1977]

Bikes all the way. But that's a given, right?

Of course... Bicycle all the way. I'm currently working on a local history deck right now, but once I'm done I'll look at the tuck cases to see what improvements can be done. On the feedback I was asked why the funding goal was so low. That's because I'll be getting funds from other sources too. But using the printing technique I was told about, helps drive the cost down a lot.

[CBJ]

The decks remind me of the commemorative decks issued by USPCC when they moved.









Jay

[JofDiamonds]

Wow. The Ohio factory is super classy. I'd never have left.

[jerichoholic]

How about instead of 50 different decks just 1 or 2 or maybe 4, with every card in each deck representing a different state. One deck could be on people, another one on monuments, another one on something else. I think it will be difficult for a lot of people to get all these decks and many may just pass entirely because of the cost and how much it would cost to have the complete series. Just my thoughts.

[jerichoholic]

Bikes all the way. But that's a given, right?

Of course... Bicycle all the way. I'm currently working on a local history deck right now, but once I'm done I'll look at the tuck cases to see what improvements can be done. On the feedback I was asked why the funding goal was so low. That's because I'll be getting funds from other sources too. But using the printing technique I was told about, helps drive the cost down a lot.

Printing technique, what printing technique exactly?

[rjtomlinson1977]

I'm not sure how USPCC does it, but I would assume it might be the same as WJ Printing. With them, they run all of one side through first (in the sheet fed press) and then the next day (after drying time) they would print the reverse side. So, basically if I did 1,000 decks of 10 State decks plus 1,000 decks of the standard faces and a 1,000 decks of the midnight faces plus I had 4,000 of various local history decks... in total I would have a print run of 16,000 decks (even though most of them would only be 1,000 each). The main thing that saves me money is all the backs would be the same. So, they would run 16,000 with the same back design and then I assume run the various amounts needed for the faces for each order.
But like I said, I don't know how they do it at USPCC... so I'm just assuming. I have a quote for doing 10 1,000 deck runs with different tuck cases for each.
I at one time worked at a newspaper... so if they did it on a web press, I know you can change plates but my guess it would be a sheet fed press.

[rjtomlinson1977]

It's not everyday you get called by the casting department of a major TV Show. Well, to me it's major... since I watch it. lol
I was called by the Billion Dollar Buyer show on CNBC. I doubt that they'll call back but it was still cool being considered.
In other news, I'll be launching the State decks sometime next week. I just need to make a few changes over the weekend. I'll announce an official day and time by the end of the weekend.

[rjtomlinson1977]

What do you think about a spade shape using images of the state instead of just one photo for the tuck?

[MagikFingerz]

It's kind of whimsical (in a good way), but I don't think it resembles a spade enough.

[4.of.Clubs]

Can't tell that it's a spade, but I like it much better than the previous tuck.

[ecNate]

Agree, this is WAY better than a simple photo slapped on to a deck, but it's tough to make out the shape. You could try placing it onto a shadow spade shape or even just placing a collage of photos like this, but then 'punch out' the spade shape from it so it's very apparent. Another option would be to use one of the tools or another like I mentioned in this thread and instead use images from all cards in the deck to create the spade logo. Would look something like this with your cards of course instead of random decks

[rjtomlinson1977]

I played around with that collage program. That works really good. I think the photos might be too small once they're on a tuck case. I added a blue sky background to help define the spade shape better.

[vasta41]

Good touch on the shadow.

[4.of.Clubs]

New ones are fun!! The initial postcard tucks were a bit boring tbh.

[rjtomlinson1977]

Here's a concept I came up with for those who collect all 50 decks. Basically each tuck once placed together would form the flag of the USA. It would be 10 decks wide by 5 decks high. The final 8 decks in the upper left hand corner would need to be blue to form the field of stars. But the majority of the tucks would have a red and white strip. Let me know what you think?

[JacksandJokers]

As much as I would love to collect all 50 decks it's unlikely I will. Still, I think each deck forming the USA flag is a fantastic idea especially for these decks given their theme.

Would this be better on the back of the tuck rather than the front?

[MagikFingerz]

Sounds like a neat idea, RJ! Especially if the blue and red/white boxes would be the same, then people could make a flag with as little as 6 decks (1 blue and 5 red/white) and probably many other combinations as well.

[rousselle]

I like this idea a lot.

[rjtomlinson1977]

Here's the first ten decks placed together to form a part of the USA flag. I'll be launching the project on Thursday at 5pm (Est. Standard Time).

[JuFiN]

No stars on the blue ones?

Probably way too late but im not a huge fan of the luggage as part of the collages...