PaulF wrote: ↑Fri Aug 11, 2023 2:26 amWhy would you stay with a company that has acted so irresponsibly until they have proven themselves once again trustworthy?
Speaking personally, and of course other creators will have their own experiences, I have over four years experience of working directly with Cartamundi and with Jirs, the one who wrote the letter and is spearheading the move, through many ups and downs, multiple projects (probably over 100,000 decks by now or more) and both good and tricky times. They've always been able to help me when I needed it and I'd like to give them the benefit of the doubt now that they could use some patience on my part.
As a simple starting point, I've promised and pre-sold decks based on them being printed by Cartamundi. So changing a printer there is already a very risky, difficult and frankly unfeasible option unless a huge majority of these customers pushed for a change.
As a business owner my priorities extend beyond profit to environmental, fiscal, linguistic and all sorts of other considerations with almost equal weight alongside things like quality and speed. That puts factories in China probably fourth or fifth on my list of potential suppliers.
For a US producer it doesn't make much difference where you print fiscally, for example, but for an EU producer it has a huge cost, tax and financial impact. Environmentally speaking, Cartamundi and Fournier are the closest world-class factories to us and this enables us not just to reduce those costs but to visit the factories in person when needed to supervise. We couldn't do this with the US or China. We're the only deck artist who create and produce everything within a 1000km radius, and whilst this will soon extend to around 1400km it's still a pretty impressive thing in today's world.
Ultimately through I value the relationship I have with Cartamundi more than a cost saving or a potentially risky switch in factory for the multiple outstanding projects I have with them. Crucially, I have three projects in print with them right now that simply cannot be switched out - they form part of ongoing series (ONDA, Fillide, WOTY) that require consistency with the previous releases (would anyone want an eight-deck series where two of the decks are thicker than the others??)
And ultimately without Cartamundi there would probably be no Jocu. WIth no Jocu there's no Boschiero and Newton. With no Boschiero who knows what would be happening with our Inner Circle and the Patreons of Lorenzo, Thirdway etc who have been able to produce really high quality limited pieces thanks to that relationship?
Finally the reason we're able to work full-time making and selling playing cards is in no small part down to the service and quality they've provided for us over the past four or so years and is a big part of the quality of the decks that we've been able to put out. There's a good reason so few creators are able to make playing cards their sole job, and Cartamundi's flexibility and patience with us as we were growing has helped this become a reality.
I can understand why the few creators left hanging are frustrated, and I can see why some customers would be too. It's now up to us to figure out how to navigate this tricky period with regards to our subscribers and come out the other side with a solution and decks that make everyone happy.
But ultimately all good things are worth patience, and I hope our patience and understanding is repaid with a prompt turnaround from Cartamundi. I'll revisit the situation constantly and if it changes there are still other options, but that's why at least personally I won't be making any drastic changes for now.
I think ultimately we all want the same thing and over the next couple of weeks I hope I can launch a plan to get through this period which will make everyone happy. Whilst the dust settles on the announcement I reckon it's a good time to sit back and reflect on the bigger picture and see if we can use it to our advantage for the benefit of our members, however that might end up looking!
@playingcardophile
