Brillig wrote:I think the single most impressive thing about the pledges was that when I logged in, perhaps 50 minutes after the start, all 20 of the redwood brick boxes had been snapped up.
Actually those were all gone in about 10 minutes. My wife got the 2-deck box swivel Rosewood handmade one. She loves hand-crafted things. We watched as the counter went up on the 12-deck ("brick") boxes, I'm thinking they were gone in maybe 6 or 7 minutes, but I don't remember for certain.
She thought about the "big box", but she's not a collector like me. That would have clearly been "for me" instead of her. I was there in time - 3rd person to pledge, and first to pledge for the Limited Edition Dark back, and those were all gone in under 30 minutes as well. She had already seen the same "Swivel Rosewood Box" on their website, but they want $220 for it *without* two decks, so when I shows her it was there for basically half-price if you consider the decks are worth $20, she signed in on her Kindle HD tablet and got it.
I believe there are a (very) few of the "2nd tier" ($10) regular back level pledges left right this minute, but that's about it for the limited tiers other than the uncut sheets.
I noticed that Jackson commented about 30-40 minutes into the campaign that he had missed them, also. "They went like hotcakes". Frankly, only 20 being made with every new project is probably all they can produce, seeing as they are using environmentally sound "reclaimed" redwood. They're not something you can turn out in 30 minutes, each one takes about four or five hours to hand-sand, polish, stain and polish again. Well worth the $220 they are asking. I watch projects a lot. If I happen to see one available (people have "Buyers remorse" all the time, and release things like that) - I'll grab it and let you know. I have a second account that I can use to buy things from projects that have only one reward available, and KS actually condones it. I read up on it before I created it, because I don't want to cheat. I think I have used it once - ever.
My wife buys once in a while, and not things that I necessarily would buy myself. I can only think of one project I've backed that is not playing cards, and it was the "Pressy" for android-based smartphones that got some much news coverage while it was still active. That was $17, as I recall, maybe $20 - and ended up getting something like $695,000+ total pledged. She's only bought into one playing card project either, and it was an investment that I suggested she make, today she bought a second one, the "Rosewood Swivel Display Case" (with one each of the PAGAN decks) for $135. Those were all gone quickly, also - but I did see one come open a few minutes ago and disappear in less than 30 seconds when I was looking to see how much they increased the pledge total after being funded in just under 120 minutes: 630 backers have pledged a total of more than $26,500 as of 5:30PM.
Actually, the way they priced it, anyone can put together an order for 12 of them and get the 'brick' for $108, which is the same as 12 people getting the $9 EB rate, and that tier is unlimited, so can be done even during the last day. They price things very fairly. Come to think of it, the 6-deck mix and match (you pick) is only $55, and it's open to the end of the project, also. That's only $9.16 per deck. Simple enough to find a couple of other friends that want some, almost everybody gets 2 or 3 decks these days. I got 4, 2 of each.