Dave Stevens' Rocketeer Playing Cards [KS]

[manu]

[JazzBaloo]

Looks interesting. The campaign says nothing about stock, finish, printer. Is there foil on the tuck box or cards? Embossing? Maybe I missed all that. This might still be a win for fans of the comic or movie.

[Sinecure]

Love this deck and hope it funds. I left a comment on the KS asking who the printer will be.

At the price point I’m assuming the cards wouldn’t be foiled but a bit of bling on the tuckbox would look amazing.

[Honeybee]

I can't resist them but more printing details and more tiers would be good

[radix]

I'm a big Dave Stevens & Rocketeer fan (collected all the original comics) so I'll definitely pledge something. I agree that the tuck could be a little fancier. But the "Expirimental" typo on the Limited Edition Box makes me hesitate to get that tier. Maybe they'll fix that before printing?

[Sinecure]

Re the printer, the creator responded:

“Right now it's looking like Expert will be printing but if that changes I will let everyone know.”

[PRM19XX]

Thanks for the typo notification! It was too experimental I guess. Fixed that. Working on some levels with bricks and half bricks.

[PRM19XX]

Oh, and the tuck boxes will be foiled and embossed. I added that text to the page.

[Honeybee]

Thanks for the typo notification! It was too experimental I guess. Fixed that. Working on some levels with bricks and half bricks.

Get them up ASAP Paul - as you know, the early days of the campaign are so important

[mulrich]

Lots of things I like about the deck but some of the court cards are probably a no-go for me. Fun idea though!

[Honeybee]

I have committed but $39 shipping hurts (half brick) - not meaning that it is particular to this campaign although the current Wishers KS is only $39nz/$23us for a half brick. I can see shipping seriously curtailing my collecting from the USA in the future. UK shipping is not so bad

[radix]

Thanks for the typo notification! It was too experimental I guess. Fixed that. Working on some levels with bricks and half bricks.

Sounds great. Best of luck with the campaign!

[Honeybee]

I may have to rethink this. $10 shipping a half brick for US, $39 shipping for Australia (and everywhere else) - RICH

[PRM19XX]

Shipping is always the most challenging part of the equation. For my part, I just put in the weights and the addresses from a couple countries and see what it tells me it will cost. That's all I can do!

[Honeybee]

Don't pee me off with answers like that Paul. If the success of your business was dependent on how cheaply and efficiently you could supply overseas customers, you would be doing a lot more. For American producers such a large population allows them to be American centric if they wish - I get it but I don't have to like it

[JazzBaloo]

For real? Haha

[PRM19XX]

True, I could scale up and figure out a better international shipping option. Especially to Australia, it's literally one of my favorite places. I'm obsessed with Australian television right now. But I'm an independent artist and scaling up would mean less time creating and more time doing business things. I'm ok where I'm at even if it means losing some sales. I love playing cards and would do more but in the time since my last deck to this one many many many other people saw an opportunity and jumped into that market. So I just do decks that really mean something to me which means there's not a ton of profit in it or room for growth unless I wanted to become a full time card designer and distributor.

[Honeybee]

I still love you Paul
But our bigger problem is getting this funded
You seem to be suffering from the same ailment as Rick Davidson - loss of profile due to a long time between decks. Rick’s current KS Wishers has been creeping ever so slowly to the funding line but he got about half his funding in the first couple of days So the next couple of days are crucial to Rocketeers success

[Honeybee]

I have posted it on Reddit

[PRM19XX]

Yes, very true. But it's creeping along pretty steadily. I think a lot of Rocketeer fans will come in along the way. I'm doing a convention this weekend in Las Vegas. I'll promote it there. And while I'm there I'll be doing some rocketeer sketches to add to a new sketch level. It will give me a reason to bump it in the middle of the campaign. "Hand Drawn Sketches with Limited Edition Box" or something like that.

[Honeybee]

I have posted it on Reddit

I have mucked up again as I did not spot it was already there

[rousselle]

Gotta say, folks, I loved his earlier decks (the flight decks); even picked up a pair for my father (a pilot) as a Christmas gift.

Paul did great follow-through on that project, and I expect no less this time around. I hope this project funds.

[Honeybee]

I really want it to too Rou.

It has taken 8 days to get to 50%, which sounds fair
But it now needs over $300 a day for 22 days which is a pretty big ask the way it has tapered off
Paul seems to have it on all the right sites but I am worried it needs something else to once again create the excitement of launch day - I feel it needed 2 BIG days not just one.

Paul has a lot of good stuff in his shop - maybe some of this could be attractively priced as Add Ons

I think it is probably losing some internationals with the shipping for unless you order a brick, you are paying 50% again in shipping

Fingers crossed

[wingedpotato]

I appreciate the attempt, but as someone who has all the Dave Stevens Rocketeer comics, a deck that reproduces comic art on the cards doesn't do it for me. In my mind, a home run would be a deck that has a more standard format and uses character art while looking like an "artifact" from the comic or movie.

[PRM19XX]

All good points here and many things I've thought about. I have a few things to announce and reveal still. Nothing crazy but it should get some new eyes on the project throughout.
To address some thoughts above:
- I do have a ton of other products I've designed and produced that would make great add ons but I kind of wanted this project to be purely about Dave Stevens and his art.
- There are things I could do to "Juice Up" pledges but I've run many many kickstarters and I know that a lot of times that might get a project funded but then I have several other things to pay for, manage, produce, and ship.
-The goal with this project was to keep it pretty simple and streamlined from the beginning. I love extra items, I love making them, researching, designing, illustrating, whatever. But every extra item creates potential confusion with backers and it can be very depressing when a piece I worked very hard on and love dearly is met with a collective shrug. So that's one of the reasons I tried to keep it simple here.
I'm still not worried about it getting funded, but it does look like it's heading toward barely making the goal or a little above. I have run 11 successful kickstarter campaigns and three unsuccessful ones so I try to incorporate things I learn with each one into every new project.

That being said, I check back here every other day or so and check the discussion so if you have any ideas I could implement for the project you think would help, I'm open to suggestions. Not saying I can do them all or address all of them, but it's always interesting!

I just added an original sketch level and it's possible to add a higher totally custom artwork level. I've done that in the past and it seemed to help.

[Honeybee]

There are things I could do to "Juice Up" pledges but I've run many many kickstarters and I know that a lot of times that might get a project funded but then I have several other things to pay for, manage, produce, and ship.

Maybe you won't need to but that is a major part of the business you are in. Don't do it and you may not get funded. Maybe have a draft for something up your sleeve

Keep it about Dave Stevens but maybe consider a coin or poster - whatever you have found to work in the past and which the Rocketeer/Dave Stevens Trust like

The sketches will be popular but probably only stand to get you 15 x $50 (upgrades from the LE Box set) so that is only $750 and would seem like a fair bit of work for you

Your successful Flight KS had a lot of extras

[Honeybee]

Fantastic. Day 9 was a $k day