Lee McKenzie: Empire "Bloodlines" edition

[Eoghann]

He's talking about stripper decks and stuff though. Not a new color.

[Gruul]

On the late freight again. Just got some funds together to snag a few of these. Anybody thinking of dropping their EB Warrior +? I would really like to get in on that level.

Good luck getting that tier @Gruul! I went all in with the "Emperors Collection."

That is awesome! Congratulations. I was thinking about a bigger package if my funds permitted, but, KS has been kicking my bank account hard recently lol. For now I am just crossing my fingers that somebody doesn't actually want the clip.

I'll be happy to drop mine if you want to grab it PM me and we'll coordinate it.

PM sent. Thank you very much!

[Gruul]

@Slavich

Thank you very much!! Operation success!

[Slavich]

@Slavich

Thank you very much!! Operation success!

Glad it worked

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

I like this deck, had to pick up a few!

[markjanderson]

Looks like one of the S1 Early Bird tiers for the Warrior + 1 Free Deck has 1 open now for anyone that might have been looking...

[badpete69]

Empire Bloodlines Limited Editions! are now live

[volantangel]

$20 aud for the LE? Ill be happy with the first 3 colours i guess..

Wonder why Lee dropped the little frilly things around the back design though ?

[Bikefanatic]

Damn, I pledged for one deck then added the warrior clip but good thing I caught the EB for it. I'm not a completist but the green doesn't pop for me. I think gold would've been a better color, how about that for a stretch goal.

Yeeeessssss! My wish came true!

[Eoghann]

Time to juggle some tiers. Guess I'll drop the card clip.

[MagikFingerz]

$20 aud for the LE? Ill be happy with the first 3 colours i guess..

Ugh... And they're not even limited (yet), the update states that as many that's pledged for during the campaign is how many will be printed (or 1500 if that's not surpassed).

I do want them though, so I might drop some green decks in order to justify getting these.

[SBurk49]

Im dropping my 2 mixed for a single blue or green. As it turns out, I dont like this design THAT much.

Anyone know where I can find the red?

[badpete69]

Sburke

I think I got rid of all of my extra red decks and even the stripper red deck but i will check if I have 1 extra left. Will let you know. There are 4 different listing on ebay for them. 3 listings has them for $50 and 1 for $76

[Mike Ratledge]

Sburke

I think I got rid of all of my extra red decks and even the stripper red deck but i will check if I have 1 extra left. Will let you know. There are 4 different listing on ebay for them. 3 listings has them for $50 and 1 for $76

It's tough: I sold many of mine at first thinking I could easily get more, then found out Lee had no more to speak of. I ended up paying around $30 each for a few on ebay.com some time ago to get me back up to a set of 4. As I recall I sent Kai a couple when they first came out? I have seen them go at auction for more than $75, which is pretty crazy considering that they are about a year old, now.

I went back and put our standard "kickup" tracker in the OP. Odd that nobody ever did, I suppose I've been a bit busy of late.

[volantangel]

Sburke

I think I got rid of all of my extra red decks and even the stripper red deck but i will check if I have 1 extra left. Will let you know. There are 4 different listing on ebay for them. 3 listings has them for $50 and 1 for $76

It's tough: I sold many of mine at first thinking I could easily get more, then found out Lee had no more to speak of. I ended up paying around $30 each for a few on ebay.com some time ago to get me back up to a set of 4. As I recall I sent Kai a couple when they first came out? I have seen them go at auction for more than $75, which is pretty crazy considering that they are about a year old, now.

I went back and put our standard "kickup" tracker in the OP. Odd that nobody ever did, I suppose I've been a bit busy of late.

Haha mike are you sure you sent me any empires ? Dont recalled anything coming in from you, must have been someone else ??

[vasta41]

This $20 price point is a KILLER! Too much IMO.. good for Lee trying to make a buck but I won't support it. No matter how amazing they look.

[Eoghann]

Says a lot when people are downgrading their pledges or swapping things around instead of simply increasing it. There's a set "comfort zone" most of us aren't willing to get past when it comes to card collecting. $15 is the new $12 and $20 is the standard for "limited" decks printed by more affordable companies.

It's a shame that the savings don't get passed down to the consumer. They instead get charged even more.

[IAmTheChin]

This $20 price point is a KILLER! Too much IMO.. good for Lee trying to make a buck but I won't support it. No matter how amazing they look.

It honestly depends on the printer. A $20 price point from USPCC for a limited 1,000 deck run is incredibly well priced, even more so if it's Bicycle branded (because of increased branding costs they charge). But because of the change in printer to Legends the price point is a little higher than expected from a non-controlled limit. I still got one though because they are pretty gorgeous lol. I just wish they were USPCC.

[MagikFingerz]

This $20 price point is a KILLER! Too much IMO.. good for Lee trying to make a buck but I won't support it. No matter how amazing they look.

It honestly depends on the printer. A $20 price point from USPCC for a limited 1,000 deck run is incredibly well priced, even more so if it's Bicycle branded (because of increased branding costs they charge). But because of the change in printer to Legends the price point is a little higher than expected from a non-controlled limit. I still got one though because they are pretty gorgeous lol. I just wish they were USPCC.

Well-priced? A: There's been cheaper decks in 1000 quanitites printed by EPCC/LPCC (if I didn't have a terrible memory, I'd list some). And B: This is stated as being printed in 1500 OR MORE depending on how many are pledged for.

[Bikefanatic]

I got the original Empire deck for $31-$35 off eBay and that's the lowest I ever seen it. The days of buying a deck and selling it high is starting to fade since KS creators will sell them themselves after the project is done and playingcardsdotnet on ebay messing it up for everybody else.

[badpete69]

I think the first Empire I sold not long after they came out had a bidding frenzy and I ended up getting close to $100 for it. In May I decided to sell my stripper deck along with my last extra empire deck and I got $80 for both. I only have 1 deck left from the first series and that's good enough

[SBurk49]

I got the original Empire deck for $31-$35 off eBay and that's the lowest I ever seen it. The days of buying a deck and selling it high is starting to fade since KS creators will sell them themselves after the project is done and playingcardsdotnet on ebay messing it up for everybody else.

Messing it up, MY HINEY!

Dude I've snagged a few good deals from them. I understand if you're one of THOSE collectors, but for collectors like me, those guys are awesome. On EBAY that is. If I buy from their website I gotta pay sales tax. Nope. Not gonna happen.

[Bikefanatic]

I got the original Empire deck for $31-$35 off eBay and that's the lowest I ever seen it. The days of buying a deck and selling it high is starting to fade since KS creators will sell them themselves after the project is done and playingcardsdotnet on ebay messing it up for everybody else.

Messing it up, MY HINEY!

Dude I've snagged a few good deals from them. I understand if you're one of THOSE collectors, but for collectors like me, those guys are awesome. On EBAY that is. If I buy from their website I gotta pay sales tax. Nope. Not gonna happen.

I bought from them too, they have good prices but what I'm saying is that people can't sell certain decks for a high price because of a retailer. They offer free shipping as well.

[SBurk49]

I got the original Empire deck for $31-$35 off eBay and that's the lowest I ever seen it. The days of buying a deck and selling it high is starting to fade since KS creators will sell them themselves after the project is done and playingcardsdotnet on ebay messing it up for everybody else.

Messing it up, MY HINEY!

Dude I've snagged a few good deals from them. I understand if you're one of THOSE collectors, but for collectors like me, those guys are awesome. On EBAY that is. If I buy from their website I gotta pay sales tax. Nope. Not gonna happen.

I bought from them too, they have good prices but what I'm saying is that people can't sell certain decks for a high price because of a retailer. They offer free shipping as well.

Oh... Then I agree. lol

[samurai007]

This $20 price point is a KILLER! Too much IMO.. good for Lee trying to make a buck but I won't support it. No matter how amazing they look.

Yeah, if it were $15, maybe I'd do it, but that's as high as I'd go for just a color change (though it is a nice one). $20 is too rich for me.

[Fes]

Was just checking in on this campaign and I noticed 1 S1 EB Warrior + deck pledge available. If anyone was looking for one, thought I'd mention it.

[markjanderson]

This $20 price point is a KILLER! Too much IMO.. good for Lee trying to make a buck but I won't support it. No matter how amazing they look.

Yeah, if it were $15, maybe I'd do it, but that's as high as I'd go for just a color change (though it is a nice one). $20 is too rich for me.

So just out of curiosity, does anyone out there have a bunch of original Empires (Red) lying around that they might want to trade one of those for one of the new Bloodlines LE (Black/Gold)?
I'd be willing to add an extra one to my pledge if we could work something out (although we wouldn't be able to complete the trade until December or so)
Just thought that I would ask...

Thanks,
Mark

[leemckenzie]

Hey guys!

There's only a few hours to go on the Kickstarter! Such a great feeling to know that people like your work that much. Completely humbling. Thanks for adding to the conversation here!

Been reading a lot of your comments about the Bloodlines, thanks for letting it all out.

Just to reference a few peoples comments about the $20 Limited Edition ($18.50 USD)...Did anyone catch Pauls/Encardeds beautiful Zenith release? Or Kings Wild Sherlocks/Fed52/? Or any good looking limited edition these days?

$20 AUD for a Limited deck is the among the cheaper end of the scales if you look around at some of the more higher end art out there among us. Of course price is always subjective and relevant to many many personal factors. Also, thats $20 in Australian, so that equals $18.50 USD.

Pricing is a delicate matter and not one I take lightly. I'm not greedy. I work hard doing what I love. If people knew how much was in my bank account for the last 6 months, you'd see how far I'm willing to go to try and do what I love for a living lol!

As many of you have already seen, the original Empires have sold from $30 to over $80 a piece on ebay and yet they were available on the Kickstarter for around $12. Thats a big difference. I'm not saying I should sell those decks for $80 each, but when the creator of a product only makes a fraction of what the decks actually worth out there, no-one notices. And (maybe not) rightly so, as collectors we have the tendancy to see how much we can get for how little, to make our collection better. But now being on the other side of that is a little different, I've had barely anything to live on since that Kickstarter. Actually, If I were to sell the rest of the Empire decks on ebay at $30 a pop, I'd make more than I did with the entire Kickstarter, which is utter madness. People make more money selling their Empire decks than I'll ever see.

I haven't done that because I'm trying to do the right thing, laying a foundation for Kings & Crooks, a place where I can pour my passion and make a living long term. I'm not there yet, but I keep going. Charging people silly money is not the way to do that, which is why I feel the prices are completely justified. Having an average, increasing backer average pledge of $90 seems to show that the majority happily agree, which is fantastic.

Charging silly money for decks is only silly after it reaches a certain point in my view, but again thats just my personal view, distorted by many other factors like everyone else. Someone else view of silly may be $100, someone else, $300, or even $15. Publicly people see the Kickstarter funds and presume the creator now has a *hit load of cash to play with and it couldn't be further from the truth, especially if the creator is trying to lay the foundations for a future with it. Unless you reach the ranks of 150,000 and over, with not much production costs, then there may be a little more 'play' money involved.

The comment about people switching pledges around rather than upping them is true for some, but only partially true from the actual metrics. As mentioned above, the analytics show that over time, the average backer has increased their pledge from around $50 to well over $90, which is astonishing to me. An average of $90 per backer shows that even though there are a a lot of people who will shuffle their pledges to make the best value, which is completely understandable, the majority of backers have simply increased their pledges. To me that shows a real personal trust which I feel I have worked hard to earn and I'm very grateful for.

I hope I've addressed a few of the concerns or points raised here, or at least shared my point of view. And for everyone who's had nothing but positive things to say, I say thank so you very much.

Hope you guys will be watching when the project finally ends in a few hours. The pulsing vein in my deck is a clear indication that thsi isn't over, yet.

Thanks for all of your support here at UC!

Talk soon guys!

[Pastoolio]

I was penny pinching and reduced my pledge for your campaign to pick up some other stuff. But then I took a moment, thought about what I was really looking for as a collector. Quality over Quantity So I dropped maybe 3 other ones and put it all towards yours. You're a good artist and you have my support to keep following your dream. I don't mind the awesome stuff I get in the process either

Best of luck man. Keep doing what you do and you'll get there, I know it.

[leemckenzie]

@Pastoolio

Thank you for saying that, and for your support, it really means a lot to hear that.

I give you my word I won't let you down.

Cheers Pastoolio!