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Tarot deck created by the Brink Literacy Project. This is their 8th kickstarter project but first deck. They've worked with 50 authors to choose their favorite literary novel and pair it with a tarot card + illustrator for this deck. See the ks page for the full list (several known names including Booker, Hugo, Locus, and Pulitzer finalists and winners). The art work revealed so far is fantastic and this may end up being the first tarot deck I ever back. Looking forward to them revealing Patrick Rothfuss's take on Don Quixote/The Fool. $50 for the deck, or $30 if you by 5.

Brink Literacy Project is a 501(c)3 nonprofit devoted to utilizing the power of storytelling to positively affect the lives of people on the brink. Through our education, community, and publishing divisions, our nonprofit works worldwide to foster a love of literature, increase literacy rates, and empower underserved communities through storytelling.

I will most definitely be backing this project. The art and the theme are amazing.

A couple of the authors that are contributing to the deck have had some affiliation with the Clarion West Writers Workshop, and a couple others have classes available on Masterclass, and those are pretty cool. The list of literary inspirations they have so far is really pretty incredible. Can't wait to add this to my collection.

I’m in.

Oh god, I don't need to be sucked into collecting tarot decks, too ...

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I'm in

I thought it was free shipping, but the campaign page states that shipping costs will be charged via BackerKit; estimates can be seen here.

Timmargh wrote: ↑Mon Jun 07, 2021 7:52 pm I thought it was free shipping, but the campaign page states that shipping costs will be charged via BackerKit; estimates can be seen here.

I thought that as well. Thanks for the heads up. Still backing, but it would be nice if that was a little more obvious.

Timmargh wrote: ↑Mon Jun 07, 2021 7:41 pm Oh god, I don't need to be sucked into collecting tarot decks, too ...

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I'm in

My thoughts exactly... But too late for me too... We are dooooomed [MURRAY]

36 hrs left on this one and they are close to the 700k USD mark. A bunch of new authors have joined the effort including Joe Abercrombie, Terry Brooks, Stephen Fry, and Cassandra Clare.

tldr: If you were on the fence before, check out the new shipping prices, art work, and addons.

Link to Patrick Rothfuss 2 hour twitch stream on the project https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1069653012

Bunch of new stretch goal addons and they've also updated their shipping costs to reflect the order volume (it's come down). See https://frictionlit.org/literarytarotshipping/

And new art:

Updated image of more card from the latest backer update

very nice but i still have only one tarot deck and plan on keeping it that way lol.

Well this long delayed project is finally ready to ship and unfortunately it is NOT good news, as the comments section of the Kickstarter will attest. I pledged $70 for a deck, book box, mini guidebook, cloth and a postcard. I just got an invoice from EasyShip for a total of $74.69! This charge is broken down as:

$41.10 for FedEx Cross border tracked (listed as the cheapest option hahahahahaha)
$23.91 Import Tax, Duty and associated fees (I'm likley not to be charged any fees locally, but this is till far more than the 20% VAT charge of $14 that would be standard)
$1.68 Shipping insurance (no way to opt out)
$8.00 Packing and Handling fee

This is complete highway robbery and absolutely disgusting.

Is there an option to decline the reception?

From the estimates they had up (have up) - it looks like US and UK shipping are within the world of reason and the rest of the world is not

Perhaps have it shipped to a friend or shipping service and have them reship if you have such a resource - for the price they are asking you are partway to a plane ticket to pick it up in person

And yes, outrageous

Actually not quite. Maybe the shipping is "close" but we were never told about these hidden and not so hidden charges. They told me via email just a month ago the following. Not sure why things are now so different. The below is from the actual email interaction with them.
I told them to ship from the US warehouse. The invoice I received seems to be the the NL warehouse. It's all quite frustrating for an already very delayed project.

The idea that people think that a 10 day delay after a long kickstarter is best avoided by having those who pledge throw a ton of money at it is rather naive.

GandalfPC wrote: ↑Fri Mar 17, 2023 10:39 am From the estimates they had up (have up) - it looks like US and UK shipping are within the world of reason and the rest of the world is not

Perhaps have it shipped to a friend or shipping service and have them reship if you have such a resource - for the price they are asking you are partway to a plane ticket to pick it up in person

And yes, outrageous

Just putting this up here for posterity and because it looks like they are already starting to delete stuff. You can see here they quoted MUCH cheaper prices, made no mention of the prepaid import taxes and theior shipping/handling charges are FAR lower than what's currently being invoiced.

This is wjat I paid being in Romania, for a Tarot deck and a guidebook. The difference is not so big than the prices from the table, but the shipping they asked you is outrageous...

Strag wrote: ↑Fri Mar 17, 2023 10:21 am Well this long delayed project is finally ready to ship and unfortunately it is NOT good news, as the comments section of the Kickstarter will attest. I pledged $70 for a deck, book box, mini guidebook, cloth and a postcard. I just got an invoice from EasyShip for a total of $74.69! This charge is broken down as:

$41.10 for FedEx Cross border tracked (listed as the cheapest option hahahahahaha)
$23.91 Import Tax, Duty and associated fees (I'm likley not to be charged any fees locally, but this is till far more than the 20% VAT charge of $14 that would be standard)
$1.68 Shipping insurance (no way to opt out)
$8.00 Packing and Handling fee

This is complete highway robbery and absolutely disgusting.

I've seen that before from Easyship with the Octopus deck that was on Kickstarter. Shipping estimates were similarly crazy. Whole thing was a mess for the creator to get sorted out and Easyship was very difficult to work with. Eventually they had to switch to a different shipping company entirely, but it eventually got sorted out with normal pricing. I was really surprised Kickstarter identified Easyship as an official partner because of it.

this might be the first pledge I walk away from if I'm not able to get a refund. Really glad I have gone to near zero on Kickstarter backing.

Yeah, the shipping for this even within the US is pretty outrageous. Not quite as bad as your Canada example, and I put my money down, but this has not left me feeling good about the whole thing.

Just a note that I asked for an received a refund for this project. A real shame as I was looking forward to the deck, but not for almost $150 and with the (IMO legitimate) concerns around Easy Ship. For a severely delayed campaign, it was being handled very well with good communications all up until the shipping cost debacle. I really feel for them, they made an unfortuante choice that probably looked good at the time (especially as Easy Ship is an official partner of Kickstarter) but in reality has massively backfired on them.

I am no longer backing on Kickstarter for even experienced producers unless there is extreme clarity on the campaign and in particular around shipping which has become such a problem area lately.

Only had one run in with Easy Ship that I’m aware of, they weren’t easy and never shipped. Eventually campaign switched to another shipper.

That seems very consistent with what I have heard about them.

Looks like they are trying to do something about the high shipping prices. It really is to bad this project is ending on a bad note, they do seem to be trying their best, just made a bad choice for a shipping partner. And even that’s understandable considering easyship is an official kickstarter partner. I hope they can get this resolved.

Received the rewards for this today.
I like how they turned up and I really expected these rewards.
I need some time to go through all the artwork, but at first sight they are very nice, both the cards and the guidebook.