UnitedCardists.com - The forum for Cardistry, Magic, Custom Decks and All Things Playing Cards.

CPA's certainly put us here.**


** The squeaks in all the Annual Reports.
Dead give away.
Sorry, did I say give ?

Seeing as how and all, the topic has regressed to insincerity, underhandedness and blatant double dealing on such a god-damned grand scale.

Very funny how everyone that has received the decks is being so comprehensive and supportive of Erik, he must be really a nice guy...

So this nice guy shipped the decks to his close friends (or whatever you wanna call it) and some resellers, and now just went dark again, start to smell deep troubles with this one... Hope he proves me I'm worng.

The most negative and unfriendly of Eric's backers received their decks.
Where do they fit in with your assumptions ?
Also where are their apologies ?
Huh ?
Crickets.

O, and you're correct.
Erik is a nice bloke ....
Has been all along.
Why do people buy into unfounded allegations and negativity ?
And why would Erik wish to give it any value at all ?
Communication works both ways is the argument.
And when it is all negative ??
Where were you lightweights hey.

Bruno wrote:The most negative and unfriendly of Eric's backers received their decks.

Not sure what do you mean by this.

At least the ones that posted something about receiving Mana decks are clearly friends with Erick, and if you look on ebay, there also some resellers that already have the decks, sure there must be some other guys that received the decks, but quite sure that the first shipment was to friends and resellers, although I understand he shipping to resellers first, don't see why he should ship to his friends first, besides the obvious fact that he need that these friends to come in his defense, as he clearly can't do it, or won't do it...

Erik needs no sympathy thanks.
Just backup.
Not white-anting, nor ill will.

So stick your nasty assumptions k ?

If all as you got is bad opinion and even worse assumptions, well that is not ever a stance fer decent argument.
NEX !

CLEARLY
or
OBVIOUSLY

You're makin' it up.

or ....
Then let us call it the Veeve Defence ....
" I want to be seen as a victim too ! "

Is that what it is ?
Well, shoot, that's just so freack'n sad ....

Bruno wrote:CLEARLY
or
OBVIOUSLY

You're makin' it up.

You tend to speak in code, sometimes is hard for me to understand it!

Well, maybe you have had the luck of not been burn in the past by nice guys designing nice decks, but after you've been burn one, two or even three times, you tend to look at things by a different angle, as someone mentioned before, this strategy has been used before, Core deck, Shane Tyree, maybe these names don't mean anything to you (and you're lucky if they don't), but for those that spent some good money in these campaigns and untill the moment haven't see anything is very frustating...

So if we all came in here and just make nice comments about how great he is dealing with the backers or how happy we are for not receiving our decks yet, maybe this would be better but that's not how I see the things, he has proven nothing to me (besides how bad he is with communication), and until I receive my decks I may very well express my assumptions, unless admins/mods ban me!

So.
You simply become a victim of your own bad assumptions ....

And you'll not be barred from this place for that.

Bruno wrote:If all as you got is bad opinion and even worse assumptions, well that is not ever a stance fer decent argument.
NEX !

I really don't know where you're coming up with this. Here is what I've been primarily hearing in this thread:

Erik is horrifically late with fulfilment - truth.
Erik has been bad with communication - truth.
These decks have been in the U.S. since SEPTEMBER- truth.
Erik is now laying the blame for delays on his fulfillment center - truth.
Erik made yet another mistake with the selection of his fulfillment center - truth.
Erik is continuing to have problems and cannot provide an estimate as to when the rest of the orders will ship - truth.
Erik has finally mailed out only a small amount of orders to a select group of backers - truth.
This is Erik's worst-managed campaign ever - truth.
The vast majority of his backers are still unfulfilled and are understandably impatient - truth.

There are NO opinions and NO assumptions in the above list, only FACTS. I haven't seen much, if any, personal attacks on Erik's character or anything else like that. I think most of us know Erik's a decent guy from past campaigns, but it's undeniable (even by you) that he's badly messed up his Sybil campaign. Yet everytime someone complains (justifiably so) about these unacceptable delays in this thread, you pop in with your pirate-talk that is borderline incomprehensible and you assume everyone's defaming Erik. Its fine that you want to defend Erik, but do so without casting aspersions on other people's posts. NEXT!

Erik Mana is not a cheat or a fraud or a dishonourable person. True.
Repeat.

Bruno wrote:Erik Mana is not a cheat or a fraud or dishonourable person. True.
Repeat.

Until all backers receive their product, this is still only an assumption. Interesting that you make a statement that is only an assumption after berating several others for making the opposite statement. And you continue to say that backers have no reason to be upset and use the "You cannot assume Erik is a fraud" argument as why we cannot be upset. Nowhere in Sinjin's post did he make this assumption. He stated only facts that very much support any anger backers have had over this debacle of a project. But you will continue to come on here and show your unyielding support for Erik. Congrats for you. You are the better man. I'll be interested to see your reaction if/when you finally do get burned by one of these KS projects.

Tosh.
I ain't the better man, no more than I'll be in any darn fool race to be the better victim.
We all wanted what Erik projected.
We don't know how/why he lost it.
He is trying very hard to give all of you that which he promised.
Good on him.
Good on you Erik !
And the Best O'Luck to you !

Bruno wrote:Tosh.
I ain't the better man, no more than I'll be in any darn fool race to be the better victim.
We all wanted what Erik projected.
We don't know how/why he lost it.
He is trying very hard to give all of you that which he promised.
Good on him.

This is a response I can get behind. Telling me how I should/shouldn't feel, not so much. If Erik is able to come through, I very much agree "Good on him". However, even if he does come through, I will be hesitant in backing any future projects. This is due to his poor communication skills and some questionable decisions in the process of this campaign.

There were several mistakes/misfortunes in this campaign, but the one that upsets me is the infrequent communication. And it doesn't seem like he's learned from that mistake or making an effort to increase the frequency of updates, which is very disappointing.

Sheesh.
"his poor communication skills"
This was entirely the effect of the "I'm a better victim" crowd of fakers !
So where were all you staunch supporters when that slime was on ?
Eh ?
Thanks fer that.

I've got a question. One that may resolve an issue. If the problem is funds to ship, how many here, like Dann Kriss', are willing to pay shipping again to receive their decks. I know I berated Dann over that issue but I'd rather receive my decks sooner rather than later. If enough backers here respond with yes, I'm sure he could send an update asking how many would be willing.

Cbkimble wrote:I've got a question. One that may resolve an issue. If the problem is funds to ship, how many here, like Dann Kriss', are willing to pay shipping again to receive their decks. I know I berated Dann over that issue but I'd rather receive my decks sooner rather than later. If enough backers here respond with yes, I'm sure he could send an update asking how many would be willing.

Can't "resolve an issue" if you don't know what the issue is in the first place. Decks are at the fulfillment center. Some have been sent out. There was an "issue" that he caught that's preventing the rest from shipping out right away.

All vague, all ambiguous, no real information. I'd hope someone that is close to him would check in and find out what the real issue is, and maybe fill us in.

Cbkimble wrote:If the problem is funds to ship, how many here, like Dann Kriss', are willing to pay shipping again to receive their decks.

My initial suspicion was that Erik didn't have the money to pay for the postage to finish fulfillment due to miscalculation or mismanagement of the KS funds (Erik wouldn't have been the first, or the last, to have had this problem). Generally, the prime reason a fulfillment company will not ship is because they haven't been paid.

With all due respect, packaging and mailing playing cards isn't rocket science. The hard part was to organize the limited edition numbered decks because they came jumbled from EPCC, matching the certificates, and organizing the box sets, uncuts, and coins. But he matched the numbers and organized the orders and (thought) he was ready to start shipping by October 25 according to his updates. And once he was done with that, it shouldn't take the fulfillment center much longer to get the packages out. Again, this is back in October. There were 662 backers/orders. Honestly, that's not really that big of a number, especailly for any reputable and competent fulfillment company. I'm sure Gambler's Warehouse handles multiples of that number without any difficulties. And Erik was shocked his fulfillment company wanted to weigh every package? If your business is to ship packages, and your costs depend upon the weight of the packages, of course you're going to weigh every package! But again, only 662 orders. How long can it take to weigh 662 packages?

But again, amonst all of Erik's reasons and excuses for the delay, lack of funding to ship was not one of them so apparently contributing to shipping to get our packages quicker is not going to be a solution.

SpecialK wrote:Can't "resolve an issue" if you don't know what the issue is in the first place. Decks are at the fulfillment center. Some have been sent out. There was an "issue" that he caught that's preventing the rest from shipping out right away.

All vague, all ambiguous, no real information. I'd hope someone that is close to him would check in and find out what the real issue is, and maybe fill us in.

From what I can gather, the "issue" may have been the use of UPS by the fulfillment company on some international (Canadian) orders instead of the USPS, which resulted in some people getting charged extra customs fees. Again, switching over to the USPS and filling the forms out correctly on the remaining 612 orders should take a matter of a few days, not weeks. Could there be other issues causing the delay? Maybe, maybe not, but therin lies the problem - we just don't know. And why don't we know? Let's all say it together: LACK OF COMMUNICATION!

Let's face it, most KS projects involving playing cards aren't fulfilled on time according to the project creator's estimate, so delays are nothing new. But for projects that are delayed as long as this one is, thorough, transparent, and timely communication is key. This is something that can be so easily done. Erik can save himself, and us, so much aggravation by doing something so simple. Erik knows his communication was lacking. He already apologized for it. It just boggles my mind he still continues with less than stellar communication.

SpecialK wrote:

Cbkimble wrote:I've got a question. One that may resolve an issue. If the problem is funds to ship, how many here, like Dann Kriss', are willing to pay shipping again to receive their decks. I know I berated Dann over that issue but I'd rather receive my decks sooner rather than later. If enough backers here respond with yes, I'm sure he could send an update asking how many would be willing.

Can't "resolve an issue" if you don't know what the issue is in the first place. Decks are at the fulfillment center. Some have been sent out. There was an "issue" that he caught that's preventing the rest from shipping out right away.

All vague, all ambiguous, no real information. I'd hope someone that is close to him would check in and find out what the real issue is, and maybe fill us in.

Well we do know that one of the issues was that international backers had to pay for import fees or something along those lines; Vic being one of them.

However, this fulfillment company as described so far sounds so bad that I find it somewhat difficult to believe they can be in business (which could indicate a lack of information). There had to have been signs as are there signs that something is not quite right with this project as a whole. That said, I think on Erik's part it has mostly come down to incompetency for the series of events that has happened so far. Will I defend him as a nice person, sure, he even helped me with figuring out the marking system on his first. Will I back another project of his? No, and I didn't back Buskers for the same reason.

Bruno wrote:Tosh.
I ain't the better man, no more than I'll be in any darn fool race to be the better victim.
We all wanted what Erik projected.
We don't know how/why he lost it.
He is trying very hard to give all of you that which he promised.
Good on him.
Good on you Erik !
And the Best O'Luck to you !

I have absolutely no clue who this guy is but he is making this thread freaking awesome. I am laughing myself silly.

I can't figure out if he is serious or playing us all the fool. But that four post Non-sequatorial(?) rant back there was precious.

Now, now, friends.

Please let's remember that we are all here because we share an appreciation for playing cards. It's fine to disagree, but let's kindly refrain from personal attacks.

I'm guessing that we'll start to receive these in January and February. But, it's still perplexing. If the working theory is that Erik ran out of money to deliver these, then he wouldn't have hired a fulfillment company, as he would have knew the costs going in. But I also don't understand why he hired one. In the updates, he stated he was going across the border, boxing up the cards in the warehouse and packaging them. If that's the case, he could have just drove them directly to the post office and mailed them.

Totally weird final stretch for this project.

He must read these forums too. By not participating, he just lets the negative discussion continue.

He ran a great campaign in the beginning and really extracted the maximum out of everyone. It's just the follow through that needed work.

Funny, the whole problem would have been solved if he just hired Gambler's Warehouse for fulfillment instead of this mysterious Canadian company that has never done it before...

Waiting, but optimistic. In the end, I'm sure the cards will be great, but I don't know if all the goodwill will be burned if he ever decides to run another project. We'll see.

Has anyone noticed that Sybil and Buskers are selling on eBay?
This is really getting under my skin and I'm about ready to PM Erik via KS as civil as possible.
Though I suspect this isn't the first time this happened with other campaigns.

Have not seen anything yet

Don't receive any order dispatched mail.

JP and Cartesmagie are already selling Sybil...

I'm frustrated to hear these are available through retailers before I have received my reward as a backer. I don't mind waiting ridiculous time-frames for the projects I back on kickstarter *cough*Tokaido*cough* but I would like to have my reward before someone that wasn't a part of the project who can buy one off JP etc... Kinda sucks...

I do think it's messed up but if that's how he's collecting the funds to ship the rest of the packages, it's better than having to pay for shipping again. Still piss poor fund management.