Covid-19 by Luke Wadey

[Harvonsgard]

Seems like a charity deck. Check Luke's instagram for more info.

[Decknowledgy]

I'm just gonna copy-paste everything that's on the GoFundMe page.

UPDATE: Project paused in search for better method.

As part of the playing card, and graphic design communities, I want to create something to help fight the worldwide effect of COVID-19.

Times are unsettled and strange right now, but your help could make the difference all over the world. Even if you can't afford ti donate to this project, please, do share it however you can.

These playing cards are to be created to raise money and awareness for helping to deal with effects of COVID-19 around the world. Kickstarter has always been my go-to crowdfunding site, but as they have rejected the application to raise money for charity, we are here, on what is known to the the biggest fundraising site in the world. I am excited to see what we can achieve here, together.

Those who donate the specific amounts outlined below, will receive decks of playing cards in return, with 100% of profits made on the project going to charity.


IN SHORT

- Funding phase plans to run until April 28th, this is flexible.
- Funding needs to reach the set goal or donators will be refunded.
- If we reach the goal, money will go to producing and shipping the cards to donators.
- Any profits will then go to the World Health Organization COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, associated with the United Nations.
- One time print run of limited edition playing cards.


THE CARDS

For those who know me, or know playing cards, the deck printer is yet to be chosen, I am in talks with Cartamundi and HansonChien to establish the best possible solution for producing and dispatching these cards if we reach the funding goal. The current goal is a soft goal, and what I mean by that is, unlike Kickstarter, there is no time limit and so what I will do is do my best to get the best quality cards for your donation amount, whilst maximising profits for the charity. This also means the funding goal may go down or up depending on what production is agreed. It depends on the number of decks required at the end as to which printer we go with also. If HC prints, they will also fulfil. If Cartamundi prints, I will fulfil myself. A decision will be confirm by the end of March.

I will work to give the best possible solution for you, and for the fund.

Whilst the card quality is of course important, the main aim here is to raise money and awareness for charity.

This whole project has been a whirlwind and so these finer details I am going to iron out whilst running the project. Usually everything is already confirmed, but as this has been so sudden, less than 24hours at the time of launching this project, I simply did not want to lose any time.

Whichever printer we go with, I will notify everyone by updating this project; the funding goal may also change to accommodate the production and dispatch. This having been said, fulfilment of packages will also be undertaken by the most appropriate and cost efficient method, be that through me, Gambler's Warehouse (as usual) or other fulfilment partners.


DONATION TIERS

If you want to receive decks of playing cards, please donate accordingly. Unliked Kickstarter, there are no tiers so once you donate, you have paid and can't change your 'reward tier' without donating more or refunding your donation. If you do not wish to receive any cards and just want to support the project, this is also fantastic! Shipping is included but please note, whilst the packages will be marked as low value to try and avoid import fees for each of you, any such fees that do occur will be your responsibility. Cost of shipping has again gone up world wide so the prices below reflect that and the potential rarity of this deck whilst ensure we can give to a good cause.

£17 : 1x DECK OF CARDS
£31 : 2x DECK OF CARDS
£46 : 3x DECK OF CARDS
£58 : 4x DECK OF CARDS
£80 : 6x DECK OF CARDS
£125 : 12x DECK OF CARDS
£230 : 24x DECK OF CARDS

For bigger orders, please contact me directly and I can advise your donation amount.


WHERE WILL THE PROFITS GO

I wanted to make this design especially to generate money for charity, or more specifically, a fund that can help everyone in need, which is why I have identified the World Health Organization's, with association with the United Nations, COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund as a great cause.

Some huge companies such as Facebook and Google have already donated to the fund, it's raised an incredible amount of money so far but more is needed to help those in need. By donating to my campaign, not only will money be going to the fund, but you'll also be receiving something physical in return to enjoy and use, and to raise awareness further.

The COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund supports WHO’s work across all countries to prepare for cases, and to respond if cases appear; to track and understand the spread of the virus; to ensure patients get the care they need and frontline workers get essential supplies and information; and to accelerate efforts to develop vaccines, tests, and treatments.

All these activities are guided by the Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan, which organises the response along three main pillars:

1) Coordination across regions to assess, respond and mitigate risks;

2) Improve country preparedness and response and

3) Accelerate the research and development.

For more information on the fund can be found below:

https://covid19responsefund.org/

https://www.who.int/emergencies/disease ... 019/donate

https://www.facebook.com/donate/1564752357011737/

@Harvonsgard, if you can, see if you can change the thread title to "COVID-19 Playing Cards - Charity Funding"

[hsbc]

Good idea, and his heart's in the right place, but I'm not sure how this works with production shut down for the time being? And personally I'd rather see a deck dedicated to nurses and doctors or something

[theCapraAegagrus]

[Casual Pixels]

WHERE WILL THE PROFITS GO

I wanted to make this design especially to generate money for charity, or more specifically, a fund that can help everyone in need, which is why I have identified the World Health Organization's, with association with the United Nations, COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund as a great cause.

Some huge companies such as Facebook and Google have already donated to the fund, it's raised an incredible amount of money so far but more is needed to help those in need. By donating to my campaign, not only will money be going to the fund, but you'll also be receiving something physical in return to enjoy and use, and to raise awareness further.

I'll only note that if at the end of the campaign he were to contribute $5 to the response fund, he'd be fulfilling his requirements.

And yeah, I see the "Any profits generated..." nearer the top, but there are so many easy ways to add internal fees etc. that the phrase is largely meaningless without specifying if anything beyond production and shipping will be construed as "costs" to the project.

A more serious promise would be to lay out exactly the proportion or amounts he will contribute if the project succeeds.

[MagikFingerz]

WHERE WILL THE PROFITS GO

I wanted to make this design especially to generate money for charity, or more specifically, a fund that can help everyone in need, which is why I have identified the World Health Organization's, with association with the United Nations, COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund as a great cause.

Some huge companies such as Facebook and Google have already donated to the fund, it's raised an incredible amount of money so far but more is needed to help those in need. By donating to my campaign, not only will money be going to the fund, but you'll also be receiving something physical in return to enjoy and use, and to raise awareness further.

I'll only note that if at the end of the campaign he were to contribute $5 to the response fund, he'd be fulfilling his requirements.

And yeah, I see the "Any profits generated..." nearer the top, but there are so many easy ways to add internal fees etc. that the phrase is largely meaningless without specifying if anything beyond production and shipping will be construed as "costs" to the project.

A more serious promise would be to lay out exactly the proportion or amounts he will contribute if the project succeeds.

Profits being as marginal as they are in the custom playing card market, added to the likely delay this will get in printing, it's just a very inefficient way of generating money for any charity. And if there was ever a time-sensitive charity, it's this one.

[Decknowledgy]

[MagikFingerz]

It ISN'T this hard to help people in need. Just donate directly to the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund. Giving money to someone to have them print a deck of cards to every donor, THEN donate the leftover profits takes an unnecessarily long time and only sees a fraction of your money go towards the cause in exchange for a deck that's essentially just bragging rights.

[Harvonsgard]

A not even that good designed deck, one might add...

To be fair, Luke is a card designer and he figured this could help. Plus some folks (e.g. me) don't donate money at all and projects like this (or product red/charity water, ...) raise funds that wouldn't be raised otherwise. Yes, direct support and voluntarism is the best actual help. Yes, if one can't do that directly donating to those that do, is the best alternative. But it is kinda redundant to always pull the well-actually-card if someone does a charity deck.

[Decknowledgy]

Project is live on Kickstarter, printed by Cartamundi:

[PiazzaDelivery]

I WILL NOT BE KEEPING ANY PROFITS (if any) ON THIS CAMPAIGN, ALL WILL BE GIVEN TO A WORTHY CAUSE TO HELP PEOPLE.

I don't understand. How can you pretend that the aim is to help the fight against that 'rona when you expect the cash overflow to be so minuscule as to allow the possibility for NO profits.

I want owners of this deck to look at it and think I HELPED SAVE SOMEONE'S LIFE.

COME ON DUDE...

[Luke Wadey]

Hi guys, just wanted to pop by and reply to everything already posted in here, I will try to keep it to the point so not to bore you all.


Thank you Harvonsgard for originally posting. Sorry you don't like the design, I didn't think everyone would.

Decknowledgy thank you for keeping people updated here and your support.

HSBC, the profits from the campaign would be going towards supplies for nurses etc included and things like that. All profits would be going to the World Health Organization COBID-19 response fund. I could have designed it to have a different subject matter, but I wanted it to be very obvious what the deck was about. Full explanation on that is on the campaign if you'd like to check that out.

Casual Pixels, if there was only 5 dollars of profit at the end then yes, I would also be fulfilling my promise but this is why I have set the goal higher to try and ensure we can make a reasonable donation. Kickstarter does not allow charity projects, which is why this had to be a playing card project with any profits going to charity, there had to be this difference or I couldn't launch the campaign. Also, I can not know how much %age will go to charity because it depends how much funding we get, plus different reward levels and their related postages mean it's impossible to know what will be left at the end. If everyone bought one deck, the percentage would be different if everyone bought 2 decks for example. Hence, no more details. In regards to fees etc it's very simple, production and dispatch, import and transaction fees. I do not why people have to be so sceptical when it's a cause just trying to help.

MagicFingerz, yes it is time sensitive, but the alternative is I didn't make a project and all these people didn't help to put money towards the charity. Is it better to do nothing? Also you will see in the campaign I have said people should donate directly as it's better that way. The project is for those who wouldn't normally donate anything so the cards act as an incentive.

PizzaDelivery. There is no pretending, I am trying to help. My apologies, I shouldn't have tried to do the only thing I know how, to try and get people involved via playing cards.


If people want to judge and theorise about this fine. But I am just trying to help and simply asking people to donate probably would have had no response. Anything is better than nothing and it's showing that we in the card industry want to at least TRY to help.

Thanks for your time.

[Harvonsgard]

Anything is better than nothing and it's showing that we in the card industry want to at least TRY to help.

Much appreciated, at least from my side. This project definitely is genuine and while not perfect it is, like you've wrote, at least more than nothing.

[rjtomlinson1977]

I'm sure most people that work at Kickstarter are off or working from home. That's why this project hasn't been shutdown yet. It violates the rules. I don't have anything wrong with the project. Just pointing out the fact you can't raise money to give away to a cause.

https://www.kickstarter.com/rules?ref=global-footer

[Decknowledgy]

I'm sure most people that work at Kickstarter are off or working from home. That's why this project hasn't been shutdown yet. It violates the rules. I don't have anything wrong with the project. Just pointing out the fact you can't raise money to give away to a cause.

https://www.kickstarter.com/rules?ref=global-footer

Kickstarter gives no **** to this rule, that's why there were the Pink Boar and the Autism Awareness deck that were obviously abusing this rule but were still able to go live. Simply put, this rule was put there to punish people following the rules while others who don't give two turds will still go around it while KS turns a blind eye.

Back to the deck, to be honest I agree with the skepticism here, because a lot of creators in the past, including the f*cking Pink Boar above, have done the same and spooked/spammed the hell out of honest customers. Thinking about it, to produce a product to generate donation for a cause always has this dilemma: How should the producer balance the production cost with the donation? That's tricky.

However, what Luke is doing here is no different than the Twitch charity stream a few days ago that donated to the same UN/WHO pool this deck is aimed at. I participated in the Twitch personally:

unnamed.png (76.72 KiB) Viewed 2674 times

The key is just that people don't realize that the service by Twitch also gathers its operation costs through the process. Even clearer, that is exactly the reason why Kicktstarter doesn't care if a campaign is for charity, or if the cards are an existing product/already printed, or if a company has multiple accounts to launch multiple projects simultaneously despite the rules in place. Kickstarter is reluctant to actively screen these projects because they make money through the service they provide, so the more the better for the platform. The catch is to gather donations THROUGH the incentives of the product/service provided to those originally interested in the product (cards)/service (Twitch stream) or else no one is so holy as to donate to the cause with the pure intent of donating. That's the social psychological factor. You may ask yourself, how plausible will you donate out of pure good will to UN/WHO in this case? Let's be honest here.

This is what I've observed having been in the Twitch charity stream a few days ago. The lure is absolutely bonkers when the audience is so indulged and moved by the streamer---NOT the cause---especially when they are encouraged or thanked by the streamers with every cent of their donations. In terms of playing cards, the truth is that there isn't this mental feedback. People are selfish and are only willing to support their own interest, sadly.

[PiazzaDelivery]

yeeeeaaaaaaahhh... I don't buy it. There are a million different ways to help out. Your heart is in the right place but I heartily disagree with the execution.

And I know for a fact that people don't need to act in self-interest to give.

[Harvonsgard]

People are selfish and are only willing to support their own interest, sadly.

Good start but terrible end. There is nothing wrong or sad about being selfish. Being short-sighted and the lack of understanding that your own good is linked to the well-being of others is the problem.

[Outsider]

A more flagrant example of virtue signalling, I have rarely seen.

[Decknowledgy]

If anyone is reading my words as a sign of defending the deck, you're terribly wrong. I'm just pointing out that people probably never thought about why most of the major donation events have to be concerts, banquets, or rallies of a mass degree. I'll just leave it here:

[MagikFingerz]

People are selfish and are only willing to support their own interest, sadly.

Good start but terrible end. There is nothing wrong or sad about being selfish. Being short-sighted and the lack of understanding that your own good is linked to the well-being of others is the problem.

There are degrees of selfishness, and at some point it most definitely becomes sad and/or wrong.

[Harvonsgard]

People are selfish and are only willing to support their own interest, sadly.

Good start but terrible end. There is nothing wrong or sad about being selfish. Being short-sighted and the lack of understanding that your own good is linked to the well-being of others is the problem.

There are degrees of selfishness, and at some point it most definitely becomes sad and/or wrong.

If you take the positive degrees of selfishness then the end of the line is wrong since, there is nothing wrong with positive selfishness and if you take the negative degrees of selfishness then the beginning of the quote is wrong since people in general aren't selfish to the negative degrees. But I guess it's a matter of perception.

[laitostarr777]

If anyone is reading my words as a sign of defending the deck, you're terribly wrong. I'm just pointing out that people probably never thought about why most of the major donation events have to be concerts, banquets, or rallies of a mass degree. I'll just leave it here:

Aaaaah, Queens, especially Freddy Mercury. This concert is legend, help to prevent AIDS.

[laitostarr777]

I am not into Cardistry decks, but I decided to back up this project because it is for a good cause.
Luke, I hope you know what you are doing later on, but remember Kickstarter's motto: We backed because we believe in it.
The design is very minimalistic, with a high splash of Yellow color, just like the Monarchs Mandarin - which is good, as most Cardistry decks are meant to be simple, yet eye catching. I like the gaff card, showing the King is wearing a mask.

We all know how bad the situation with COVID19 right now, countries in dire states, people have to stay at home as long as possible, etc. I don't see why there is the need to lash out badly about this deck . Two days ago, I saw a post of a member of Playing Card Collectors Group in Facebook, asking if this COVID19 deck is a good idea. Majority of the members said No, believing that why the need of creating decks for charity if you can just simply donate it directly. They don't really like the design, straight away telling the deck is c**p. Most importantly most people there thinks that..... Luke, I am sorry to say this, but this is what I get after reading the comments..... that the deck is simply using the advantage of this dire situation to promote the brand. From all of this negativity, I can conclude that, they think it is wrong to create decks out of dire situations or something controversial, and create decks for charity. This is like saying Theory11 is wrong to produce Water Charity and Product Red playing cards.

So, does creating decks based of World Wars are bad? Does creating decks based of worst disasters (i.e. Titanic, Hindenburg) are bad? Does creating decks based on controversial topics (i.e. 666, number of the Devil) are bad?

[MSimonart]

Hi Luke,

Just a heads up, through reddit (who created a donation platform where you receive a small icon next to your name once you donate) I've discovered quite a controversy around WHO. The reddit donations go to the same WHO covid-19 fund you are planning to donate to, and it got massively downvoted, accusing them of very bad handling of this crisis, also saying that WHO already has a lot of money and this money probably will never go to the actual help of people during/after the crisis. I understand you choose this organisation because of his international coverage, but I think it's important you are aware of this and get the chance to reconsider donating to them. I'm sure there are other international organisations, where this money will be better spend, or even a way more local organisation, even though I'd understand the problem you'd have with backers who aren't from the same region. I'm won't try to influence you, I don't have an opinion on the controversy, but I thought it was important for you to know

[laitostarr777]

So, I finally received this deck [initial shipment was confirmed lost, so the ones I got was a replacement]. It looks classy, and totally Luke Wadey's signature for designing his cardistry decks, the usage of texts on cards. So, here it is, COVID-19 Playing Cards by Luke Wadey. This deck is made as an awareness of the current situation we are currently facing, COVID-19 pandemic; with hopes of the sales of these decks will be funding the health departments to prevent this pandemic. DISCLAIMER: There is no medicine applied on these cards, it's just ordinary stacks of paper

The deck with health supplies

The Tuckbox

Tuckbox

Tuckflap

The tuckbox is simply just like your usual standard tuckbox. It has the text "Covid-19' written all over, and presented as a blind effect. There is a small graphic symbol of a virus, and the sentence on the bottom - words separated to the left and right alignment: "This deck was created to support the people fighting the effects of COVID-19". The tuckflap has the repeating sentence in a circle: "In This Together", and it is placed strategically nice to create a visual appeal. The sides of the tuckbox says "In this Together - COVID-19"

Card Back Design

Card Back Design

It is plainly simple yet appealing to Luke Wadey's design - the usage of text. It has the blind effect of "Covid-19" text, with the middle word clashes. There is a hardly noticeable white graphic symbol of virus on the top right area. It is a two-way design, something which is outside most of Luke's one way designs.

The Cards
All the cards are standards - this is suitable for everyday carry decks. The cards are printed by Cartamundi with B9 True Linen Finish on the slim stock. It's probably my first deck using this stock, so my verdict is..... It is becoming thinner, less snappy, yet still performs and handles well.

Ace of Spade

The Ace of Spades has a larger pip, as usual. You can see the same sentence in yellow on top of the pip. Below the pip is the sentence "In this Together". On the top, there is the yellow graphic symbol of a virus. Notice that "Thank you" on the bottom of the cards

Courts with yellow accents

The courts are all standard, with the colors changed to fit according to the design. Primary yellow with black colors are present.

Jokers

There are two jokers, both identical. The middle part has the virus encircled with the text "In This Together". On the bottom part, there is the text "Covid-19" in white inside a yellow box, partially cropped on the bottom part. The stars as Joker's indices are replaced with a virus symbol.

Extra Cards

King of Clubs with Face Mask

There are two extra cards. One is a double backer - an usual extra card suitable for card magic. The other is half court card of King of Clubs wearing a face mask and a thank you message from Luke Wadey for supporting the deck.

Conclusion
The deck is yet a classic cardistry deck, and it is for a good cause to help up with the current situation we are facing right now. This is yet a good work by Luke, kudos for you. Although some people might dislike it due to the thoughts of using the pandemic as the theme for the deck, I still like this nonetheless.