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Got mine today here in germany - no customs tax to pay (was declared as $25 value thats nice!) - and they handle great!
Finally i can put a checkmark in this kickstarter - once again BIG THANKS to sinjin7 who shakkled Eric awake to get the things rolling.
Wish you a Merry X-Mas Guys!

Same as Jock1971 - got my decks on the 19th in U.K. sans tracking.

Anyone else got their decks? Still waiting in the U.S.

Received my package today! Everything was there. The best part was that it was shipped from Germany and thus I didn't had to pay any customs!

Thanks again to sinjin for his great work in pushing this guy to do the right thing.

PS: The decks are beautiful, but I'm sure I'm done with this clown for any future project...

Ya mine arrived just before the holidays in the UK too

Got mine in Norway, arrived at the post office on the 22nd of December. Also shipped from Germany.

Got them safely here too.

I received 2 of each platinum, gold and sybil safely in Japan in early a few days ago. To Erik's credit, he came through and delivered.
I don't know if we've seen the last of Erik Mana playing cards. All of what happened could have been avoided with better project planning and COMMUNICATION instead of the ostrich in the sand technique for the longest while.

He's obviously a top tier designer. I don't think we've seen the last of his projects, but the next one will probably be a while out. I hope he gets things sorted and everything in order if he tries again.

The wait sucked. The cards are nice.

Still nothing on my end. I am waiting for my brick of Sybil + 1 set of Platinum. He's still the ostrich in the sand, i' have been writing to him inquiring about my cards and he just refuses to reply.
He may come back with new projects but i don't think it will be Erik Mana Playing Cards. There's no way anyone who have heard of this ruckus will ever back him if they knew it's him.

We may not have seen the last of his projects, the problem is will anyone back them? I think he's lost most of his backers from this fiasco. And I think he's only delivering because there was legal threats made.

I think the only way he could come back to the custom card business is as a designer ONLY, as in designing a deck for GW or a LUXX deck for JP for example. I know there have been a few "I will never buy an Erik Mana deck again after this fiasco"-comments, but I do believe his artwork would sell quite well as long as the financial and logistical aspects are handled by someone else.

I think we universally need to thank John ("sinjin7") for his outstanding service to the group by engaging Erik on the legal aspects of the Sybil / Mana #3 decks KS project.

Darned nice decks, frankly. Whether Erik can wrangle future successes? It's mostly up to us, I believe.

Mike Ratledge wrote:I think we universally need to thank John ("sinjin7") for his outstanding service to the group by engaging Erik on the legal aspects of the Sybil / Mana #3 decks KS project.

Thank you, John! Now please get to work on tracking down Adam for my Army Men deck.

Mike Ratledge wrote:Darned nice decks, frankly. Whether Erik can wrangle future successes? It's mostly up to us, I believe.

It's a shame- I LOVED all Mana decks. We lost a great deck artist, guys.

Have we? I agree with Tom; no need to lose him as an artist but he sure as hell needs someone else to project manage...

montecarlojoe wrote:Have we? I agree with Tom; no need to lose him as an artist but he sure as hell needs someone else to project manage...

"Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me." I for one will never back another one of his projects even if he promised Jesus Christ Himself would come down from the heavens and hand-deliver the deck(s) to me. I would assume (hope) that no one else will either after the fiasco that we all just went through. Obviously KS isn't the only way to make playing cards but if he was so strapped for cash that he could barely ship the Mana No. 3 decks out then I don't possibly see how he could find the capital to fund his own deck(s). The only other way (unless he sold his services) for him to fund a deck before he created it would be pre-orders but that's the same risk as starting a KS campaign. So call me pessimistic and I truly hope I am wrong but I really don't see how the world will see another Mana deck. At least any time soon.

Well sure, but HIS projects and projects for which he is the artist are distinctly different things.

vasta41 wrote:

Mike Ratledge wrote:I think we universally need to thank John ("sinjin7") for his outstanding service to the group by engaging Erik on the legal aspects of the Sybil / Mana #3 decks KS project.

Thank you, John! Now please get to work on tracking down Adam for my Army Men deck.

Don't forget that Founders asshole. He needs to be sued.

montecarlojoe wrote:Well sure, but HIS projects and projects for which he is the artist are distinctly different things.

That would be best case scenario (like I said, unless he sold his services).

PrincessTrouble wrote:

vasta41 wrote:

Mike Ratledge wrote:I think we universally need to thank John ("sinjin7") for his outstanding service to the group by engaging Erik on the legal aspects of the Sybil / Mana #3 decks KS project.

Thank you, John! Now please get to work on tracking down Adam for my Army Men deck.

Don't forget that Founders asshole. He needs to be sued.

I would go as far as also include the Shane "Shame" Tyree, the guy really needs a push also...

After dealing with Erik through this long, painful campaign and getting a somewhat inside view of how he works (or doesn't work), this is my conclusion: He's not a scam artist, he always fully intended to eventually fulfill his campaign. However, the road to hell is paved with good intentions and despite whatever intentions he may have had, I am certain that absent the organization of a lawsuit, he was content to keep ducking his head in the sand and we'd still be waiting. He's not good at handling adversity, which makes him shut down. This is exacerbated by his tendency towards feeling sorry for himself and he doesn't fully understand that the so-called "hate" directed at him was self-inflicted and so easily avoidable by simple communication.

Since Kickstarter doesn't do jack squat to protect backers and he didn't get any punitive ramifications for drawing out his project, Erik got comfortable in just letting the time pass. Once he shuts down, this guy needs constant poking and prodding to move forward. When Erik realized we were serious about taking him to court, he knew he couldn't ignore us any longer and he finally reached out to me and I set out a list of conditions for him to meet in order to avoid a lawsuit. But even after that, he would push meeting the conditions right to the limit, or not fully complying and I had to email him on multiple occasions to remind him to fully comply to the conditions he agreed to in order to keep him moving along.

There is no way I trust him to run another Kickstarter campaign knowing what I know of Erik Mana. Left to his own devices, he's prone to inaction when things don't go smoothly. Like I said, he's not out to scam people, and he's made some beautiful decks, including these. But even if someone else manages his campaign and he's just contracted to provide the art, I personally still can't see myself supporting anything associated with Erik because that's how bitter the taste is in my mouth from the Mana Sybil campaign. There may be others who appreciate his art so highly that they're still willing to support him, and to those people I would say, "Good for you, buy and support what moves you, but buyer beware."

Giving credit to where credit is due, I believe Erik's close to finishing his fulfillment of this campaign, but there probably are still a few pledges that slipped through the cracks or are having some logistical/technical difficulties. One person has already contacted me, but if there are any other UC members who still haven't received their pledges, please PM me with your name, backer number, and country of residence and I will contact Erik to make sure that all UC members get their decks.

[Edit: I'm cutting out my talky stuff and just leaving the meat of the matter]

Where things stand right now, and for the foreseeable future: I'd love to pick up more work by this artist, as long as it's ready-to-buy from a reputable seller. No pre-orders. No KS projects. Finished product, in stock, and ready to ship from a proven reseller.

Yup.
'T'is meet.

Still waiting ...

PrincessTrouble wrote: Don't forget that Founders asshole. He needs to be sued.

I agree to this. Can anyone in USA start something about him?
Founder project is meant to steal people's money from the start.

Hello, been a while since I last posted here. These decks took so long to reach me that I've since quit the hobby and forgotten all about them, until recently when I started receiving KS updates from Mana again. Can't believe I paid $90 for these.

I haven't received any of my pledge for his Buskers campaign... what a crook!

It arrive!!

caramelo wrote:It arrive!!

You're one of the lucky ones, i'm still waiting for some miracle to happen.