Jocu wrote:I love the transparency of the process on the campaign and the 'risks and challenges' section. Also the fact that you're letting us cast an eye over the page before going live. Ill take your lead on this one.
Are there any shipping fulfilment centres in Europe you could use? I'm not sure on your shipping costs as the page isn't live but it appears even the US don't get free shipping. I think this could put off a lot of smaller backers (especially ROW) so personally I'd offer more meatier middle of the range rewards where shipping costs don't put people off so much as they don't seem like such a huge % increase from the smaller ones. That way you'd give the fence-sitters more of an incentive to back at a higher level.
Just my 2c
First off thanks for the comment and for the encouraging words.
So I'm coming up on almost my 7-year anniversary doing nothing but designing and shipping playing cards, and the one thing that has always remained is that shipping from the US to other countries sucks.
I have tried fulfillment companies, international forwarding companies, I've even tried offering Kings Wild Fulfillment as a fulfillment service exclusively for playing cards. Every designer is different so all of these comments are from my own point of view, so please take them with a grain of salt.
Due to my own personality and also the amount of unique finishing "things" I do on the back end I have pulled more and more of the complete process under my roof. While this is more expensive and time consuming for both me (production cost & turnaround) it is also unfortunate for you / buyer when it comes to shipping.
However, with this added cost on both ends, it ensures that you get the not only the highest quality product but also the highest quality shipping.
Another topic that is discussed frequently is "handling" handling for me and my decks is a very real thing and not just an extra cost that is tacked on to squeeze even more out of the consumer. With invocation specifically, I will be assembling most if not all of the decks I produce in house. Over the past year, I have found a small team of people, that work for me seasonally, that I have poured into, and have developed as great playing card assemblers.
Because of these factors, I am able to do things that are more unconventional or that a larger volume machine couldn't handle. The belly bands and handwritten edition number on the Gilded Invocations are a good example.
Shipping has always been a nuisance and it will continue to remain so, at least for Kings Wild Project, as the benefits that come with doing it my self greatly outway the possible business I lose from the shipping being unfavorable to a specific person.
As for offering free shipping, IMO free shipping really doesn't exist. The price of shipping is just built into the cost of the item, as the sender will never get free postage.
I have accepted shipping as a necessary evil and am comfortable in being transparent in my method of shipping and fulfillment only because I do my best to make the product worth the cost that people sacrifice for shipping.
I try to keep my shipping cost as fair as possible and charge what I get charged. I will go ahead and apologize to all of you fine people that live in Australia and Russia, these are the two most expensive countries for me to ship to.
I hope this answers your questions and sheds a little light on my process and thinking.
For example here is a screen grab of my shipping software shipping to example postal codes in Russia & Australia. This price also doesn't reflect a handling fee is added. This is simply what the postage cost me.
The example package below contains the following items:
- 1. 00 Padded Uline Mailer
- 2. 1 Deck Uline Indestruco box
- 3. 1 Deck bubble pack for inside the Indestructo box
- 4. 1 3.8 oz deck
Total weight around 8oz
Shipping to Australia for 1x Deck
Shipping to Russia for 1x Deck
but have read many accomplished authors, so maybe that’s why I didn’t catch it 
