Charlemagne Playing Cards: Live on Kickstarter

[guru]

It is available @ Etsy.

https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/6793813 ... ew-figures" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Magic Tapp]

It is available @ Etsy.

https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/6793813 ... ew-figures" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This is annoying - it is the second project (Medieval decks is another example) which is made available to the general public before KS backers received their orders [emoji35]

[Räpylätassu]

It is available @ Etsy.

https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/6793813 ... ew-figures" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

This is annoying - it is the second project (Medieval decks is another example) which is made available to the general public before KS backers received their orders [emoji35]

The creator said in the update that they have sent out a small number of decks, my guess is that it's just the Russian backers that have received them. So that Etsy listing is one of those backers selling these, not the creator.

[Räpylätassu]

New update:

Good day

As Makwell writes, a large number of decks were seized at customs. (Facepalm)

Now they are filling in some Documents on the return of the decks.

I am very sorry that the project is not going according to plans and that I cannot influence as I am an only intermediary. We can only wait. I will keep you updated.

Everyone will receive their decks, the only question is in time. Everything is packaged And done anyway.

I do not want to collaborate with Makwell anymore in the future.

[hsbc]

I expect delays whenever I back something on Kickstarter, and to me the creator is doing their best, so I'm okay waiting

"I do not want to collaborate with Makwell anymore in the future"

[ICantShuffle]

I've been waiting for my two decks for quite some time (I got two deluxe versions, gilded with the tins). Fingers crossed that I receive both decks. They look wicked in the photo updates they've been providing.

I wanted to back the symphony decks, too, but with the delays that were already appearing on this project, I didn't. Can't say that I'm "glad" though, as those do look like they're delivering on what their renders promised, which is encouraging.

[BaconWise]

I've been waiting for my two decks for quite some time (I got two deluxe versions, gilded with the tins). Fingers crossed that I receive both decks. They look wicked in the photo updates they've been providing.

I wanted to back the symphony decks, too, but with the delays that were already appearing on this project, I didn't. Can't say that I'm "glad" though, as those do look like they're delivering on what their renders promised, which is encouraging.

Wasn't aware of this campaign - the aesthetic is really great. This reminds me of the Crown Jewels campaign on KS at the moment - is this intentional on SVI Group's part to imitate the blue tuck box/jewel feature? It's a bummer about the delays but, from what I read, they went with a relatively unknown printer and have run into shipping issues. I hope all the backers receive their decks - they look pretty neat (especially the gilded).

[ICantShuffle]

It might be inspired by the Charlemagne project, but the Branle Tesoro project did it before both, IIRC. Those are what I think inspired the Charlemagne decks.

Those were some overproduced decks, $375 for a set of I believe 5 decks. Only 100 made, purportedly using real gemstones, even for $375, though, I don't know where you're getting emeralds and blue sapphires large enough to actually see, these days.

[Bradius]

According to their kickstarter campaign, they were synthetic gyms.

[Räpylätassu]

Yes the Branle Tesoro used synthethic gems, but there is no difference between a synthetic gems and "real" ones, although during that campaign certain people here were screaming their lungs out that the gems used in those decks were fakes.

Although to be fair there is a difference between synthetic and mined ones, mining gems is much more harmful to nature and often have some sort of ethical issues with them as well, be it stolen land or poor working conditions.

[ICantShuffle]

Lab created gemstones still take energy, time, equipment, materials, and expertise to create. So, even then, the price raises an eyebrow-- that's where I am at with that. There are also differences in some gemstones and minerals and their lab-created counterparts, opals being one of the most common examples. I'm not a geologist or certified gemologist, though, so I'm not an expert.

I won't comment on the environmental impact or ethics of mining minerals-- I will say that if you have a cellular phone or a laptop (or anything made of rare earth minerals) and you're squeamish about working conditions, environmental stewardship or exploitation, you might want to re-evaluate your lifestyle.

[Mike Ratledge]

I got mine, but I ordered from the Russian Playing Cards Society. Beautiful decks, for sure!

[Bradius]

I hate you Mike. Just saying.

[Mike Ratledge]

I hate you Mike. Just saying.

Honestly, this is one of those times when I really thought the illustrations used during the Kickstarter campaign looked cheap and I didn't expect much (or pledge), but when I saw the final product I thought "wow, that turned out really nice!".

It also illustrates that you can reseal decks, since we know that the jewel was added after the fact or post delivery from the factory. By the way, I don't know why people still don't recognize "Nage" as the formerly "state run" printers in St Petersburg Russia. They have been producing high quality decks for a long time! Some are better quality than others, just like with everyone else.

[hsbc]

The decks seem to still be stuck in customs... from Kickstarter:

"Russia and Estonia (Europe based country) have bad political relations as well as strict customs at the border. The difficulty of the situation is that part of the decks was taken away by Russian customs and part of the decks was taken away by Estonian customs. Russian customs told that they are going to send playing cards for expertise due to Swarovski crystals and Estonian customs told they want to check documents and wooden boxes. Makwell sent all the documents and Estonian customs accept them, but they still check wooden boxes and they don't want to rush. Makwell made their own expertise with independent experts and provided all the documents to the Russian customs, that would not wait for the examination from customs, because they are terribly slow and negative.... so Russian customs said that Makwells documents doesn’t satisfy them and they conduct their own expertise and checking all documents by their experts.

For the most part this whole situation stems from their(both customs) harmfulness, from their lack of professionalism and due to political reasons.

At the moment customs promise to sort out until the end of May. You must understand that Makwell uses all resources to deal with customs as quickly as possible. We are not your enemies, we are just trying to finish a project with which we have so many difficulties."

I am very eager to finally see these in person

[Räpylätassu]

Latest update

Dear Backers!

While Russian customs officers create problems for our products, we do not stop and do not give up. We continue in all possible ways to send (gradually! even in a small amount) Charlemagne decks so that you must receive them. We will send everything and everyone, despite the difficulties that we are experiencing. We value the reputation and commitment that we have made.

We, as an individual, were able to bring a small number of decks (by car) through customs. The fact is that we at one time tried to transport a large number of decks in the van, so Customs did not like it and they took everything for an indefinite examination. We do not give up, so we went to St. Petersburg from Tallinn to try transport across the border some decks. These playing cards are Makwells private reserve (extra decks that are available).

Customs does not give an exact answer yet. Moreover, they threatened us that if we intervened regularly in their verification process they would confine all the decks due to unauthorized transportation of goods! (which of course is not true, all the documents for transportation were available)

We will continue in small quantities to transport decks of cards through customs. Because we can't wait for customs....

All those who receive decks in about two weeks, please leave your subjective commentary under the project! THANK YOU!!!

Many have written to us about sales on ebay and etsy. We do not sell decks. The Russian community of playing cards that have bought in bulk a certain number of decks selling them on various resources, we cannot forbid them to do so. They are in Russia, so they got them before everyone else!

I am one of the lucky ones to receive these.

It's kind of a paradoxical situation that although this project is currently in a somewhat messy situation and quite late already, the backers should be more confident in this project than they were in last summer or spring as the creator has really gotten good at communicating with the backers.

[Merlebird]

"Russia and Estonia (Europe based country) have bad political relations as well as strict customs at the border. The difficulty of the situation is that part of the decks was taken away by Russian customs and part of the decks was taken away by Estonian customs. Russian customs told that they are going to send playing cards for expertise due to Swarovski crystals and Estonian customs told they want to check documents and wooden boxes [emphasis mine -M.]. Makwell sent all the documents and Estonian customs accept them, but they still check wooden boxes and they don't want to rush. Makwell made their own expertise with independent experts and provided all the documents to the Russian customs, that would not wait for the examination from customs, because they are terribly slow and negative.... so Russian customs said that Makwells documents doesn’t satisfy them and they conduct their own expertise and checking all documents by their experts.

For the most part this whole situation stems from their(both customs) harmfulness, from their lack of professionalism and due to political reasons.

I'm a little late to this party, but: for the Estonians, at least, I can think of a good reason they would want to be thorough about examining the wooden boxes. Typically wood used in shipping is required to be treated in specific ways in order to assure it's not carrying any invasive foreign parasites. (Dunnage used for foreign export carries a stamp or brand attesting that it has been heat-treated or fumigated accordingly, and there is often accompanying paperwork stipulating that the wood is non-coniferous, bark-free, etc.) I don't know for sure that it has to do with this, but looking at the pictures Roope posted, it would seem to fit; it's not immediately obvious the wood is less than 6mm thick, which appears to be the regulatory cutoff.

As for the crystals, it's entirely possible the Russians are just being assholes. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Räpylätassu]

I received my decks. I left the following comment on Kickstarter. Sorry, but I don't have the energy right now to re-write it to here so I am just going to copy it.

I received my pledge today. I originally pledged for one gilded deck + the box. The creator contacted me and asked if I would like to receive one standard deck + gilded deck instead of the wooden box. I was happy with that so now my pledge was 1 standard and 1 gilded deck.

Before I tell my opinion about the cards I have to say that I have experience with Nage Cards before, I own a deck called Slavic Special which I bought from ebay, printed by Nage Cards. That deck looked great but the quality was rather horrendous, the stock was so incredibly thin and flimsy... During this campaign I never actually thought that the techincal quality of this deck would be good but as I am a collector who collects playing cards for the artwork I thought that it wouldn't bother me that much.

The quality of this deck is so, so much better than I thought it would be. The stock is really nice, it is not flimsy at all like I thought it would be due to my previous experience. I am not much of a card handler but these decks are just a pleasure to spring and it performs well in my one handed fans, the gilded deck clumps a bit in them but that is just due to the gilding on the edges, the standard deck does not share the same issue. The artwork is really great but everybody already knew that... The foiling on the backs is done nicely as it does not show through the cards, meaning you can't see the foiling pressing through from the front of the cards. The only issue I have with the cards is that the registration is a bit off, but not that horribly, I have several decks by USPCC where the issue is much more worse.

The tuck boxes are nice, the celleophane is easy to take off (that was not the case with the Slavic Special deck so another improvement). The tuck boxes have a really nice matt feel and the foiling on them looks great. The seals on the tuck boxes could have been a bit longer as it is a bit hard to open them due to their shortness but I consider that to be a really minor issue.

The decks were packaged quite nicely, I have no complaints there. Umm yeah... I am really happy with these decks. I wrote to the online forum UnitedCardists.com when I pledged for this campaign that "I am not expecting a quality deck, but I am expecting a good looking one" or something of the like. I am glad that I got a good looking quality deck.

[rousselle]

I hope these cards will be available in the aftermarket.

[PrincessTrouble]

I hope these cards will be available in the aftermarket.

I picked mine up from etsy a while back.

https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/6793813 ... ew-figures" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[guru]

See...what showed up in the mail today.

Thanks Kristofor.

[Räpylätassu]

Latest update, the creator continues to do his best fulfilling this project:

Dear backers,

We were able to bring some decks (50 decks and coins) through the customs. We will continue to take out small parts of the decks until the situation with customs is solved. Please note that wooden boxes will be brought from Russia during this month. So all backers who pledged for the Charlemagne deck + wooden box or pledged for the wooden box as an add on - will receive their goods in about August. Thank you for your patience and support!

Patience is not simply the ability to wait - it's how we behave while we're waiting. - Joyce Meyer