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Though I did not back the Sybil project, I did back the Buskers and I must whole-heartedly disagree with Erik's statement about delivering on Buskers. I was one of the unlucky few that pledged for the M2 package and only got 5 out of 8 decks promised...none of them signed or in collectors boxes...I also understand many did not receive other add-ons such as coins and uncuts. Sorry, I don't considered that delivered. (edit) Though it is good to see that Erik is communicating, until I receive all the decks I pledged for (signed and in collectors boxes), which I am not holding my breath for, I will remain extremely skeptical of anything Erik writes.

I'm grateful that we got a response, regardless of arguments you can make line by line for what he is saying, I hope he will continue to keep communication open, despite what I'm sure is going to be a shit storm of antagonism.

shermjack wrote:Though I did not back the Sybil project, I did back the Buskers and I must whole-heartedly disagree with Erik's statement about delivering on Buskers. I was one of the unlucky few that pledged for the M2 package and only got 5 out of 8 decks promised...none of them signed or in collectors boxes...I also understand many did not receive other add-ons such as coins and uncuts. Sorry, I don't considered that delivered. Until I receive all the decks I pledged for, which I am not holding my breath for, I will consider Erik a liar and a thief.

Justin O. wrote:I'm grateful that we got a response, regardless of arguments you can make line by line for what he is saying, I hope he will continue to keep communication open, despite what I'm sure is going to be a shit storm of antagonism.

At _least_ we are hearing something, albeit a load of "who-ee" even from a friendly perspective. I feel for his pocket-book if Canadian money is worth 75% of what it was when this funded, not to mention that the shipping rates have gone up even further - after this was delayed. If he had gotten things buttoned up when he should have, that wouldn't even be a consideration.

Sherman, I understand the position, and I truly know Justin is thinking the same thing I did a couple of months ago now, let's see if we can't at least help - and he surely doesn't need us to heap shit on top of this shit-storm he's already created by lack of communications over an extended period of time. A lot of this goes back to planning, and not offering something you're not certain that you can deliver. Sure, it's not an unreasonable thing to decide that you're going to create a whole new 'class' of tucks for a project, but doing so without totally investigating the ramifications of offering something that doesn't yet exist, even though I suppose you can make the argument that every deck of cards offered by crowd-funding does not exist until quite some time after it's funded, at this point it's around 4 to 6 months before you can even expect to see something in your hands once a project ends up successfully funded. Unfortunately that's a lot of time for things to go wrong, and in this case - obviously - just about everything that could - did.

Hopefully this at least is the beginning of the end for this mess, because I was hearing a lot of people pretty much writing their investments off already. IF he can turn things around and get them into the hands of the people who paid for them, at least we'll be able to say that we didn't end up getting nothing but air. I got some decks, ended up catching hell for having them, because I wanted to sell a few of them, which is what I intended to do from the beginning. At this point I have two pairs of the Gold & Platinum decks (and they truly did turn out to be gorgeous!) sitting here in the stack of prizes for the UC 2015 Decks of the Year contest. Hopefully they won't be left sitting here because nobody wants them, and hopefully those of you that are waiting won't be still sitting there much longer.

It's a shame, because - as I noted - the darned decks and presentation cases turned out incredibly well...

I read the update. He should have just posted it way earlier. I'm sorry he took a bath with this project. I'm choosing to believe him when he says we will get our cards, eventually. Hopefully, the latest update is from him confronting the problems like a man, instead of like an ostrich sticking its head in the sand.

Erik, please take this advice:
I think the only way out of this mess is to update more frequently. Post every two weeks, and say how many decks you sent out and how many are left. Get it done.

TGunitedcardists wrote:I read the update. He should have just posted it way earlier. I'm sorry he took a bath with this project. I'm choosing to believe him when he says we will get our cards, eventually. Hopefully, the latest update is from him confronting the problems like a man, instead of like an ostrich sticking its head in the sand.

Erik, please take this advice:
I think the only way out of this mess is to update more frequently. Post every two weeks, and say how many decks you sent out and how many are left. Get it done.

I agree. It's too late to save his reputation in this community, but if he keep us updated on how many packages he's shipped, he'll get less hateful comments.

Mike Ratledge wrote: Sherman, I understand the position, and I truly know Justin is thinking the same thing I did a couple of months ago now, let's see if we can't at least help - and he surely doesn't need us to heap shit on top of this shit-storm he's already created by lack of communications over an extended period of time.

Sorry, Mike I have edited my post and turned down my tone as to not add fuel to the fire...I agree that it is good that Erik is communicating and hopefully he will fulfil all of his obligations

A small side story here- this is why KS campaigns are better off being funded in USDs.

vasta41 wrote:A small side story here- this is why KS campaigns are better off being funded in USDs.

I was thinking exaclty that, or the creator keeps the money banked in USD once they get it, to hedge against the forex markets changes. The concept would be the same no matter what currency you're paying your suppliers in - but in most cases it's probably going to be USD.

As Mike pointed out too, that had this deck been produced and delivered quicker - which I believe simply damanded better and more thorough planning - this (or postage rate increases) would not have been such an issue.

In any case, I celebrate an update from Erik - please keep them coming - and look forward to the possible delivery of my decks (one day )

vasta41 wrote:A small side story here- this is why KS campaigns are better off being funded in USDs.

I agree, but I don't think they give you any choice any more. For example - Giovanni had no choice except Euros this time, Lorenzo had to go to "Viking" currency (SEK or SwEdish Kroner) and I am 99% certain that he has to fund in CAD.

The reason that Passione Team's Teliad which launches tomorrow is funding in US$ is they created a US-based company ("LLC") based in California, so legally they are based in Heywood, CA as I recall instead of Vercelli Italy. Other artists _could_ create their own LImited Liability Company here in the states to get around it, but you still have to have someone here in the states with a US$ bank account and driver's license.

When I run UC Annual Decks, they fund into my bank account using my driver's license and of course - that means that I get a tax bill from Stripe (formerly Amazon Payments) showing that I had $64,000 "income" in 2014 for example, and I had no such thing, but I keep meticulous records showing that I transfer the proceeds to my artists overseas, and therefore my tax liability is zero. The UC deck which gets a 5% "gift" to the "Friends of UC" account, again - not taxable. I can - fortunately for Karin - keep the funds in the UC account, disburse payments to Expert PCC, ClearCut Creations, The Paper Mill Store, Gambler's Warehouse and then the only part she has to consider as income is the balance once all the bills are paid. For Gio in 2014, I paid everything from that account including Coins for Anything, and sent him the balance at one time using PayPal "gift" to avoid paying their 2.9% "discount" fee. It used to charge you nothing for gifts to friends, now it charges 1/2% for foreign recipients, so if you paid $2000 it charges you $10 to send it.

I'm 99% certain that Kickstarter doesn't give you a choice if you live in a country that they support unless you have a US-based company with someone willing to put their bank account and license on the project.

Has anyone heard or seen anything since?

tylergo wrote:Has anyone heard or seen anything since?

Yeah- mine got delivered yesterday...

vasta41 wrote:

tylergo wrote:Has anyone heard or seen anything since?

Yeah- mine got delivered yesterday...

Seriously? Nice!

vasta41 wrote:

tylergo wrote:Has anyone heard or seen anything since?

Yeah- mine got delivered yesterday...

It's too early for the April's Fool day, guess this must be true... Really hope so.

sms69x wrote:

vasta41 wrote:

tylergo wrote:Has anyone heard or seen anything since?

Yeah- mine got delivered yesterday...

It's too early for the April's Fool day, guess this must be true... Really hope so.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and suggest that the 3 laughing faces indicate a lack of sincerity in Vasta's post... ( )

If I received mine... it would be more like this: followed by this: followed by this:

If I got mine it would be more like this:

vasta41 wrote:If I got mine it would be more like this:

That's what I thought!! But who knows, I for once believed that Eric started being a man and deliver what he promised.. but I think that's asking too much.

I think he'll eventually deliver (ala Shane Tyree) but I don't think he's learned his lesson about keeping us informed and in the loop. I wish he'd send out a status every few weeks, even it's just "I mailed out 10 packages this month." Erik continues to frustrate me with his lack of communication.

I suspect the only reason why Erik posted his last update at all was because he was finally getting some heat from KS due to so many backers reporting his project. This "update" was basically a re-hashing of his old excuses and provided virtually no new tangible information (which is still better than complete silence, I suppose). Let's see if he's truly regretful of his poor communication and provides more regular updates, or if this was just a ploy to get KS off his back and mitigate possible litigation. . .

Not sure if I have been blocked on Facebook by him or if he just deleted his account?

tylergo wrote:Not sure if I have been blocked on Facebook by him or if he just deleted his account?

Not working for me either. Looks like it's been deleted. Needless to say it's not filling me with warm and fuzzies...

I don't want to jump to conclusions but I want to throw up.

vasta41 wrote:I don't want to jump to conclusions but I want to throw up.

I'll second that emotion. I went big on this project. While getting taken for any amount feels like a swift kick in the nether regions, losing approximately $250 makes me want to retch.

The Con-Artist is slowly trying to disappear... What a sh*ty guy..

I might be a little more ready to condemn this guy if I didn't already have a number of awesome decks of his that I really love and didn't have any problems with from Kickstarter projects that didn't have any issues. He has demonstrated before that he isn't a schmuck out to scam us out of a quick buck and that makes me believe he is a decent guy in a shitty situation that is just not handling it as well as he could be. I'm a really fucked up person with a lot of really fucked up person traits, the fact that he is just crappy about communication gets a pass because I believe he is really trying to make this work.

Erik and I are not Facebook friends, but I am able to still see his account on Facebook when I just do a search under his name. If that's not working for you, then you may have been blocked.

I remain reserved about this project. I believe he wants to fulfill, and that he probably will fulfill, but like Asylum, this could take a while.

rousselle wrote:Erik and I are not Facebook friends, but I am able to still see his account on Facebook when I just do a search under his name. If that's not working for you, then you may have been blocked.

I remain reserved about this project. I believe he wants to fulfill, and that he probably will fulfill, but like Asylum, this could take a while.

I guess he was mentioning this page https://m.facebook.com/ManaMagik/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ah. Well, yes, that one seems to be gone, then.

It seems the natives are getting a bit restless.

rousselle wrote:Ah. Well, yes, that one seems to be gone, then.

I wondered, because I am still friended there and on his hideaway Erik Mana II