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It's Lotrek. With the recent shipping snafus like TGW's Tempest , Greek Post and UPS losing then finding the shipment, I'm crossing my toes as well!

Meanwhile I'm like:

rousselle wrote: ↑Thu Apr 14, 2022 3:20 am As long as there are no problems during the varnishing stage. Or the cutting stage. Or the boxing stage.

Or the shipping stage.

Fingers crossed!

Oh boy!

:starts sweating nervously:

Royal Silk Test print, €55.00

The first print of the deck that was eventually called a Test print run as we decided to make some artwork changes for the Official version.

rousselle wrote: ↑Thu Apr 14, 2022 3:20 am As long as there are no problems during the varnishing stage. ...

About that.....

I'm a little tempted to buy an extra deck but I think I can wait on the official version.

The nice thing about the test deck is it is a less expensive version to open and enjoy. I didn't go crazy this time, but did pick up an extra one. I'll open one of the test decks and keep the other sealed up. OCD stays in check.

It does look amazing, so I am looking forward to checking it out and see how he is doing. I don't think I have had many hot foil decks from his workshop in awhile. I think the last was Tale of the Tempest and the ones I have were "just" one foil.

I did end up getting two additional decks. 88 left.

I picked up a couple more so I will have one to open, one to keep sealed and one to gift. I am waiting patiently, but crazy to think that we will soon be entering Year 3 of the Patreon and still will not likely have seen anything (aside from test prints) from Year 1. I suppose that's price of innovation, but I didn't think it would take this long. ha ha. Im glad he is making test versions of the decks available, so we can see something. My Patrons test prints are still in transit, but hopefully will get here in a week or two.

I would have normally snapped up a couple but I'm cutting back and €55 per seems a bit pricey even for a Lotrek deck. I kinda just want to get what I've already paid for, even though I'm not sure exactly what that is any more.

Strag, I definitely get the comment about needing to cut back on purchases. I also understand your hesitation on 55 Euro per deck. Keep in mind that shipping is included, and that does count for something. Also, for a two foil deck, that is actually a decent price. There are not many folks that will even attempt two foils. Error or not, it is not unreasonable. For comparison, I believe the Arabesque Error was $50 or Euro. I am not sure which, but that is about the same. Anyway, I can definitely understand the hesitation. I did pull back from purchasing three extras myself.

Strag wrote: ↑Tue Aug 02, 2022 1:49 pm I would have normally snapped up a couple but I'm cutting back and €55 per seems a bit pricey even for a Lotrek deck. I kinda just want to get what I've already paid for, even though I'm not sure exactly what that is any more.

Here you go! This was from a Patreon email recently.

FIRST YEAR

1) Patrons Tier: Our love.

2) Silver Patrons Tier: 2 copies of the Royal Silk Red deck + 1 gift copy of that deck, with gold and silver foil instead of two gold foils. Total: 3 decks.

3) Golden Patrons Tier: 2 copies of the Royal Silk Red deck, 2 copies of the PATRONS deck + the gift deck. Total: 5 decks

4) Manic Patrons tier: 2 copies of the Royal Silk Red deck, 4 copies of the PATRONS deck + the gift deck. Total: 7 decks

5) Asylum Patrons Tier: 4 copies of the Royal Silk Red deck, 8 copies of the PATRONS deck + the gift deck. Total: 13 decks

All rewards (with the exception of the gift deck) will come in beautiful custom boxes that fit 2, 4, 8 and 12 decks.

I get an email yesterday August 24th mentioning a package been delivered on July 24th. When I copied and pasted the tracking number, it was the one used for Maestro III that was delivered August 10th.

Deallez need to get it together. Lotrek put out an email on August 23rd about their shipping issues. Soon we need the Test print Royal Silk shipped right.

I got the same email. Got the email yesterday for my Maestro III decks saying they were delivered on July 24. They were delivered on August 10.

Got a ready to ship notification yesterday and an on it's way notification today. I deleted the emails though without checking for tracking but I expect it to be for the Silk within Europe.

You guys are lucky, I'm still waiting the email for my Maestro III order...

Wait, have the Maestro decks already been sent to EU customers?
I haven't received anything yet.

I have my Maestro and Patrons decks for some time now here in the UK

Thank you for the feedback Strag. To clarify, that is the "Patreons" Maestro decks, or you placed an order via Oath webshop?

I ordered during the heads-up window patreons got, for the Maestro III and yes, this arrived for quite some time now; together with the Patrons test deck.

What arrived today was:


I gotta say, as impressive as this is on the technical side of things, it got a pretty cold reception from me. Dunno what I expected but I was not even close to be blown away like I was from the original Silk.
Don't get me wrong, I bow in the utmost respect for what Lotrék does with four hot foil passes for this deck. The cards are straight and flat and have not the slightest bend. The imprint of the back on the front is almost not noticable and the cards are very flat and handle very appropriate (I didn't put them trough the ringer so, grain of salt). The fanability is even better than with the Maestro III... .

shkorc wrote: ↑Fri Aug 26, 2022 4:00 am Thank you for the feedback Strag. To clarify, that is the "Patreons" Maestro decks, or you placed an order via Oath webshop?

It was from an order I placed on the web site on 13th June.

Harvonsgard wrote: ↑Fri Aug 26, 2022 4:40 am I gotta say, as impressive as this is on the technical side of things, it got a pretty cold reception from me. Dunno what I expected but I was not even close to be blown away like I was from the original Silk.

You sir, are very hard to please! I can’t wait to get mine! That said, I can see why you like the originals better. Without seeing either in person, the color and contrasting fields of the originals create a nice pop not present in the more monotone Royal Silk. I think that Blue Silk is my favorite deck ever. I wish I had one to gaze upon.

CourtCurator wrote: ↑Fri Aug 26, 2022 10:03 am You sir, are very hard to please!

Kinda... I guess... haha. Even Crypt and Standard Gold on Gold, while mindblowing in the regard of the foiling - but they lack original artwork imho - couldn't please me enough to be held in my collection.
I guess it's related to Lotrék's firey promises. When someone, with a high quality standard says you'll be blown away than I'm like, okay, show me then. But it ain't easy to be blown away when you have seen a lot of Lotrék.
This test deck for sure still trumps a lot, if not the majority, of what is out there on the market, no doubt but that's not the measurement for a Lotrék deck in my realm.
A Lotrék deck needs to be the number one deck after its release. The last time I felt that, was after Blue Silk (although I prefer the red OG nowadays) and Fable.

Has anyone in the US gotten their silk test print? Or a shipping notification?

No shipping notification in the US so far.

So what’s the difference between the test prints and the final version?

crazy_lazy wrote: ↑Sun Aug 28, 2022 2:37 pm So what’s the difference between the test prints and the final version?

Below is a message that Lotrek sent out awhile ago to explain how he ended up with a Royal Silk test print: [The linked photos in this message no longer work for me]

Unfortunately, Before the end of the second print, we already decided without hesitation that the deck must be reprinted for a third time.

I know that these delays are disappointing but for us, quality isn’t negotiable and perfection will always be what we’re striving for. There is absolutely no way we would ship anything which has flaws. The second print turned out to have some issues caused by the stock selected for the reprint.

The colored stock we used for the first print, wasn’t available before 15th of September. We thought it would be too late to wait for September, so I decided to print on playing card stock. It’s my fault that I didn’t predict that due to the textured surface of that stock, the printing would require a lot of pressure . As a result, the front side which was printed second and with even more pressure, left visible frame marks on the back of some cards which now look like being bent at the sides:

Also, after varnishing, shades of the back design became somewhat visible on the front side.

It’s not bad, maybe it’s not even too much noticeable but I am not sure how happy I am with that. In my mind this deck was meant to have a sparkling clarity.
So, despite the sky-rocketing production cost and the usual upcoming rant (from thankfully very few), reprinting was a no brainer.

It's important to know -and this explains a lot my delays and reprints- that I do what I do because I love it. I love designing, I love being on the press, I love seeing the tangible version of something that started as pixels in a computer and turned out as a pack of hopefully beautiful, unique cards. If something in the process goes wrong, it destroys all the joy and excitement. I don't have the will and courage to go on with something I have already rejected...

Maybe I'm a weirdo but I can't help it. And I suspect I don't even want to...

I hope you understand that.

Happy to claim I received these beauties in the mail today…
No shipping notification, but non-the-less still got my decks in mint condition.

Thanks again for all your work Alex, can’t wait to see the final product.

Also, congrats to Dealerz fulfillment as well.

Cheers,
KW

What is the criteria for receiving one of these? I received one today but didn't think that I would be eligible.

“Have you preordered the Royal Silk? Then, you just won a free deck! ”

By the time these ship, I think the real versions will be ready