For those who didn't back Onda V2, here's the latest Jocu's Onda v2 update:
Hi guys, I'm going to keep this quick as I've just received a bombshell from Cartamundi and we have a lot of work to do to resolve the situation.
As many of you will be aware from talking with other suppliers, the move from Belgium to Spain was until recently going relatively to plan and we had been assured from our contacts at Cartamundi - two of whom we have worked with for over four years on all our projects - that everything was going to plan.
Well unfortunately last week, our main contact and the man behind all the original B9 innovation and all the push for custom playing cards in the past few years left the company quite suddenly for ‘a new venture’.
This set off alarm bells, but we had just received good samples of the decks and were promised pricing this week.
Long story short, that didn’t happen and we now receive news that there’s an issue internally and production cannot start until September 2024 which is obviously not just unacceptable, but the last straw.
I’d first like to apologise for the situation - we have always worked with Cartamundi as the world’s biggest card producer and are as shocked and disappointed as all of you will be with this eventuality. In short it has huge ramifications for the entire world of playing cards and our business, and we have wasted 6 months being strung along only to be hung out to dry.
The fact is we are now faced with a decision where we must change supplier. I don’t think many will disagree with this choice but do let me know in the comments below.
As ONDA does not feature foiling, we are open to both USPCC and WJPC but we have no experience with either, so will be spending the next few days communicating with our friends in the industry such as TWI and Stockholm 17 for their views on working with these printers.
I’m afraid we’ll need a bit of time to come up with a plan and it’s not going to be easy, but I appreciate your further patience while we get this resolved and get your decks into production. There are obviously many variables to consider but the important thing is that you get a quality product and these factories are among the best in the world.
I don’t have much else to say right now as we’re still digesting the information, but needless to say I’m angry that our trust in Cartamundi has resulted in us, other creators and all our customers having the piss taken out of us for six months only to be let down.
We ask for your patience over the next few days while we come up with a solution. This update has been written just a few minutes after receiving the news so I imagine there are many questions but please keep them to the update comments section so we can respond easily.
@playingcardophile
