Uusi's 5th deck: "Hotcakes": Funded $46,000 on Kickstarter!

[Mike Ratledge]

They said in the comments that someone snagged it one minute after the campaign ended so I assume someone sent a PM directly or they had someone on a waitlist..

Makes sense to me, I know that they created a wait-list for the gilded decks during their Pagan campaign, so that's not a surprise at all that they had a list of people.

[Gruul]

Got to open up some decks of Hotcakes just now. They look good. Should have some limited availability at the usual suspects soon! If anybody has a red bohemia, maybe we can work out a trade?

[Mike Ratledge]

Hotcakes? I didn't think they were even delivered to them yet. hmmm... Usually Linnea (or Peter) would have posted a note if they had them.

[ecNate]

Well I got a shipment email from Uusi and considering their shipping soon update and that I got Goonies months earlier it wouldn't surprise me to see mine tomorrow or of somebody got theirs today already. But yeah, no OFFICIAL announcement or photos (yet).

[Gruul]

Some quick pics from my desk at work.

[sinjin7]

Uusi posted this update on August 1:

"USPCC has finished printing and will be shipping the deck out to us early next week!!! Holy Smokes that was fast. As thrilled as we are to have Hotcakes on its way to us this quickly, we are not quite ready to ship it all out to you; we are still waiting on our vellum wrappers to arrive for the Modesty Sleeve decks and the Yellow Edge decks will not be ready to gild until September. We also will need to rearrange our schedules at the studio to accommodate for this incredibly early delivery, so right now it looks like the decks will start to ship out the third week of August. We will have a more detailed outline of our shipping schedule on this deck by end of next week, but until then – wow!! Very cool to be two months ahead of schedule "

Of all the playing cards KS campaigns out there, Uusi runs the tightest ship. They don't have their own fancy fulfillment center, they just get the job done on their own. I've never had any Uusi deck arrive in anything less than perfect condition with airtight protective packaging. While other deck designers struggle to meet their deadlines, it doesn't surprise me that Uusi is ahead of schedule yet again.

I'm happy to see the yellow printing on the inside of the tuck.

[Gruul]

One more

[volantangel]

I believe they were still waiting on the modesty slip cases, so those orders without the slip cases would have gone out first and uusi is the one firm that sets the bar in running a KS campaign

[Maddest Hammer]

Actually, I think the update said the velum wrappers for the modesty sleeves. At any rate, they were waiting for something. As it stands, I got two shipment notifications yesterday, so I assume one was for the brick box from the Pagan campaign, and the other for my Hotcakes brick, and as I added on two sets with modesty sleeves, and an uncut, not really sure whats coming. Now that I've read all of this, it seems I don't know much, so I will shoot Linnea an email and find out...

BRB

[Mike Ratledge]

Uusi posted this update on August 1:

"USPCC has finished printing and will be shipping the deck out to us early next week!!! Holy Smokes that was fast. As thrilled as we are to have Hotcakes on its way to us this quickly, we are not quite ready to ship it all out to you; we are still waiting on our vellum wrappers to arrive for the Modesty Sleeve decks and the Yellow Edge decks will not be ready to gild until September. We also will need to rearrange our schedules at the studio to accommodate for this incredibly early delivery, so right now it looks like the decks will start to ship out the third week of August. We will have a more detailed outline of our shipping schedule on this deck by end of next week, but until then – wow!! Very cool to be two months ahead of schedule "
...

Yep, so figure. And they say USPCC doesn't play favorites? Oh, well - I think it's a mute point now that we have an agreement for marketing, production and even approved advertising coming out in the September quarterly of The American Playing Card Collectors Club (AKA "52+Joker") magazine "Clear The Decks", the pre-convention issue.

Here we are just finishing fulfillment of UC2014/Grotesque (funded in March) and they are already shipping Hotcakes - funded in June (well, May 30th, but June 15th before they got a cent from Amazon).

[Strag]

Oh, well - I think it's a mute point

[grammar nit]moot[/grammar nit]

[PrincessTrouble]

Oh, well - I think it's a mute point

[grammar nit]moot[/grammar nit]

Well, it is a mute point if we don't talk about it.

[Strag]

Oh, well - I think it's a mute point

[grammar nit]moot[/grammar nit]

Well, it is a mute point if we don't talk about it.

Did you say something? I can't hear you.

[ecNate]

Got my Limited Black today. Agree, some of the best packaging I've seen for a KS card project. The cardboard wrap I'm sure makes a huge difference and little more effort/cost. It's actually my first Uusi deck, I'm weird I know, but am really impressed by the business end of things they run. It's too bad the themes and styles haven't pulled me in as much as others, but I'll be more eager to pledge on a future project based on how this one went.

Also, promptly added red deck and black deck with scan to playingcarddb.com.

[Maddest Hammer]

Hotcakes arrived yesterday, and I gotta say, they are gorgeous! The colors, pips, and courts are really just incredible. And pretty hilarious, too. I am a little upset, though. In my "christmas morning, gotta open it now" rush, I tore the brick box, trying to open it. Couldn't wait for the decks with the modesty sleeves...I got two sets, one to open and one to put in the redwood brick box coming (hopefully) next week. That said, the brick box has a really funny limerick on it, and the backs make a really great fan...enjoy.

[Eoghann]

Ooh that's purdy!

[snsdmonkey]

Can't wait for my package! I assume with the yellow decks, will be coming a bit later

[Norbie]

How can they get their decks printed 2 months early by USPCC? Does USPCC have some sort of system where you can ask them to get your decks printed faster, maybe some extra fee?

The experience I've seen since the beginning of the year is that USPCC are 2 months behind and not ahead.

[montecarlojoe]

I imagine they had thier art preapproved - minor tweaks during the campaign wouldnt have affected that much - and were in a holding pattern till funding was achived. Then it would be a matter of signing contracts and entering the production queue.

MOST projects dont even start that process until after the project ends - in some cases art is still in development at the end of the project - this adds (in comaprison to UUSI in this case) months to the overall production time.

[Maddest Hammer]

In an email from Linnea, and an update on KS, they were very surprised that they were done early as well. Nothing nefarious, or money under the table, maybe USPCC finally cleared away the cobwebs and kicked out the jams. I think all the art had been submitted and approved before the campaign started, but that doesn't mean anything unless they made the initial payment to start production, and they don't get KS funds until after the campaign is over.

So, I'd say if Uusi were surprised at the quick turn-around of the decks, they didn't do anything unusual, and USPCC got their cat together. After the fiascos that were Grotesque and Origins, I'd think we would all be happy

[badpete69]

hey gang. Wanted to get your opinion on something. I am currently cataloging my collection in the databse and came across my Hot yellow edge HOtcake decks. I noticed the numbering was out of 75 instead of the /50 I had remember seeing. Going back to the project page i see this

LIMITED EDITION HOTCAKES HOT-YELLOW, EDGE PRINTED DECK: A Limited Edition run of neon yellow edge printed decks. Each deck in this run is hand bushed with high-pigment ink from Germany. Only fifty LE Decks and fifty RED decks will be made for this project. Decks will not be cello wrapped, but wrapped in vellum with a special "Hotcakes" seal.

Now i obviously sent them a note last night asking for clarification and got this response

Yes, we always reserve 25 of our gilded decks for our studio so we can have the option to sell them on our website after Kickstarter. In the Hotcakes Hot Edge deck series that meant the total for that edition was 75 and all decks were marked as such.

When I initially bought the decks I had the expectation that only 50 of each deck would be printed and nowhere was it mentioned that an extra 50% decks could be produced. I think UUSI have been amazing at running their projects and by no means do I have any beef with them, but isn't this slightly deceptive in the end. And by the way I tried to go back and read comments and such and might have missed if they ever announced that, but in the end just wanted you guys opinion on this

[Eoghann]

Hmm. That's an interesting point. Almost want to think they should have been labeled Kickstarter Edition and Private Reserve or something if only 50 were advertised initially. But I'm also not a fan of "sticker editions". But in this case that should have been the best approach.

Though technically "only 50 of each will be made for THIS project" is kind of open ended.

[Yashi]

Hmm it is slightly deceptive but it could have been unintentional. Sometimes you type things and don't really know how deceptive or open ended it is perceived by other. However, I'm pretty sure I read somewhere during the campaign that they're keeping some for sale on their studio. I'm not going to look back through all the comments and you've did your share of reading through them, so I'll assume that I'm mistaken.

[badpete69]

I agree Yashi, I am certain it was unintentional. In the end they always have been a class act, and be it 50 or 75 decks it is still quite rare. This is part of the last note I got this morning

I can see where it might be a little confusing, but nowhere did we say we were limiting the collection to 50 decks – we just only made 50 available for the project. However, as we always create these limited edition series in very small numbers – an edition of 75 is still an incredibly small, almost unheard of edition in this market – and though we reserve the right to make those added 25 decks, we have not done so to date. Also, should we release them on our website at some point in the future, they would be at a much higher price than what we sold them at during the KS campaign.

One thing is for sure. I am sad they have stopped doing playing cards and if I am not mistaking they might be doing a tarot deck this year.. That would be great

[ecNate]

That's a bunch of crap, nowhere did they mention adding another 25 of each to be sold at the store. Sure, they said 'for this project', but clearly one would assume that 50 of each was the limit. At least it was only 25, but by their explanation they could have done another 1,000 and still be legit. They were not fully transparent about it and when selling something that has at it's core feature exclusivity that is CRITICAL.

Since I didn't get any I don't care, but my view of their ethics is GREATLY reduced and will impact my decisions on any future projects. Especially since they make it seem like it was always part of the plan for them, yet one they couldn't be bothered to mention. A footnote in the future of 'no more than an additional 25 decks may be offered and will be numbered as x/75 as a result' should have been done and MUST BE DONE in the future for them to even have a chance at resolving this.

Only fifty LE Decks and fifty RED decks will be made for this project.

there were 100 of these decks to gild

[Cbkimble]

I also didnt pick up these nor any other Uusi deck but this is, intentional/unintentional, almost fraudulent, IMO. They should have 2 separate sets, xx/50 & xx/25. Making a statement that only 50 were created but failing to state they may later produce up to an extra 25 b/c they "reserve the right" to create more later is bogus. With that in mind, i could create a deck stating only 100 were created but label xx/1000. That significantly decreases the value. Let's face it, many decks we purchase, we do so due to its exclusivity and pay a premium for it. It may be only an extra 25 but its value is still diminished.

[EvanEssence]

Assuming they do decide to do another deck, just make sure to give them feedback to be more precise with their edition counts

[sinjin7]

I also didnt pick up these nor any other Uusi deck but this is, intentional/unintentional, almost fraudulent, IMO. They should have 2 separate sets, xx/50 & xx/25. Making a statement that only 50 were created but failing to state they may later produce up to an extra 25 b/c they "reserve the right" to create more later is bogus. With that in mind, i could create a deck stating only 100 were created but label xx/1000. That significantly decreases the value. Let's face it, many decks we purchase, we do so due to its exclusivity and pay a premium for it. It may be only an extra 25 but its value is still diminished.

First of all, for a guy who doesn't even own a single deck by Uusi, it doesn't appear you have much skin in this game, so for you to throw around the term, "fruadulent", may be a bit extreme here. Your analogy about 100/1000 decks made isn't applicable, either. Uusi never said only 50 were ever made, they stated only 50 will be available for the KS campaign. And the fact of the matter is that they haven't made the additional 25 yet, so its a moot point as of now. So before any of us start to make extreme accusations about something that hasn't even happened yet, maybe we should give them an opportunity to better explain themselves first. As Pete mentioned, Uusi have been nothing but class acts and they run the tightest and best KS campaigns for playing cards so I think they've earned the benefit of the doubt for now.

[Cbkimble]

I dont need to own a deck to have an opinion. I said 'almost' fraudulent, IMO. That doesn't mean they are but that's my opinion, like it, agree with or not. That's your opinion. They said, "Only fifty LE Decks and fifty RED decks will be made for this project." which should've resulted in xx/50. Had they stated they may make up to 25 more later, there wouldn't be an issue but their statement was made to make people believe only 50 would be created. I agree that i haven't had any communication with them and have only heard good things and that's why i also stated "intentional/unintentional". My statement regarding xx/1000 instead of xx/100 is very applicable. If the Uusi deck had arrived numbered xx/500 and again stated they "reserve the right" to create an additional 450, would your opinion be any different?

Fraudulent was intended to be used to make a point. I apologize if anyone was offended by the use of that term.

[ecNate]

Well cbkimble did say 'almost' fraudulent, which is pretty much the same logic as 'for this project' that they used. He didn't ACTUALLY say it, he just allowed you to draw your own conclusion by not being direct, just like they did.

I don't think anybody believes it was intentional, it most likely was an oversight, but a pretty serious one. Also, the argument that people need to have bought these to even discuss this situation is ridiculous. Their actions impact ALL potential future backers and these opinions from anybody are just as valid when discussing it here. Anybody who considers their decks in the future now have every right to assume they may not be as limited as they may state or vaguely imply. This situation teaches us to have to read between the lines. While not dishonest and unlikely intentional, it's not very direct and does little to inspire confidence for the future.

I do hope they are more clear in the future, but if everybody just says "oh well" and don't speak up why would they even consider improving this in the future?

Also, there is a big difference between doing another print run later with clearly labeled difference with new sequence numbers and saying 50 for this project and then MARKING them as x/75.