Honeybee Workers Edition from Penguin

[Reylek]

Hi all. It's high time for a new edition of Honeybees!

This Wednesday (May 22) Penguin will be launching Honeybee Worker Edition.

These are the spiritual successor to the Honeybee Elite Edition that were launched back in 2018. The biggest goals with the Elite Edition were to have affordable borderless decks on a thin-crushed stock.

The new Worker Edition decks are printed on our exclusive UltraLux™ XT stock and our AquaFlow™ Coating. If you have the Winter Star decks that we released in late 2022, these are the same stock & coating.

It's a thin & pliable stock that feels terrific out of the box and has excellent longevity.

The biggest design change to the decks is the inclusion of the little bee insect on the back design. The Elite Edition were just the borderless honeycomb pattern with nothing else. The Worker Edition is the same background pattern, but the two bees have been added back to the design.

These will be available in both Red & Blue (the same shades as Elite) and we're also introducing a limited edition Pink version.

The Red & Blue will be $6-10 each (depending on quantity purchased). The Pink are limited to 750 decks and are individually numbered. They will be priced at $20.

Hope y'all like them!

[Honeybee]

These must be late coming out for following on from the previous Honeybee releases, they would otherwise have No.24 on the tuck and aces
The pink seem at least $5 too rich

[rousselle]

I must agree with Honeybee above that the pink is a shade pricy for a variant of a "worker" deck. And, when a gilded version becomes available, I'm guessing that'll push the price pretty hard.

Nonetheless. Love this entire series, love the fact that the workers are, pink notwithstanding, a decent enough price to grab a few, and Imma also want the gilded versions. The gilded black and gold Honeybees that I picked up during (after?) one of the previous versions dropped are still in my heavy rotation pile. (Those decks get played all the time.)

Kevin, will these decks have the same faces & index font as the previous ones? Would make magic tricks involving color changes easier....

[Honeybee]

I am not even sure the pink will work - need some pics. All the other honeybees have a rich color back - I cannot see how that can be with pink. I would have considered dark green or maybe a rich purple but I am not sure a special edition was really needed
I would have gone with Worker Bee instead of Worker Edition on the tuck and maybe Queen Bee instead of Special Edition

[Honeybee]

Here's another idea for a special edition - a white honeycomb back with a couple of bees like my avatar

[rousselle]

Gotta say, if there's a future edition that has a rich purple back or a deep green, I'd slurp those up in a heartbeat!

[Honeybee]

They have got me over a barrel

[Reylek]

The faces are the same as the Elite Edition. Different from the various Black & Yellow decks from over the years. The Black & Yellow decks share a set of faces, while the Elite, Worker, and new Pink Special share a set of faces.

And trust me, now that Honeybees are almost 9 years old, I've mocked up just about every color option you can imagine. Some may come to fruition, others won't.

Choosing the shade of Pink was something I was very meticulous about - I literally went through every shade of pink in the book before settling on this one. It looks fantastic in person.

[Honeybee]

Honeybees have been relatively cheap compared to many of my other decks but they are still in Drawer number One - as my profile suggests, Honeybees are my thing. I am however really wrestling with these pinks - you probably wish that I wasn't on here but this is what forums are for. From the pics above: I LOVE THE RED and like the blue. I will probably love the blue simply to have another blue tuck. That is another thing about the pink - the Richness of the tucks of the Blue and Red elites are absolute standouts and their tucks alone are reason enough to have them in your collection. Of course I am just one opinion but I was hoping to love all the new release

I wish you had gone through every shade of some darker color. The pic of the 3 tucks together (above) probably doesn't do the red and blue tucks justice if they are the same as my No.18 Elites but even so you can see the great contrast between the red or the blue and the white background, which the pink doesn't manage.

I have to get them as I have ALL the Honeybee editions (even bought the P3 luxury box just to get the No.20 Honeybees in their alternative tucks) but I am going to be amazed if pink pull it off. I get that Red and Blue are not honeycomb colors either and I know there are vibrant pinks (I love my Fontaine Missing), it is just that following on from the existing Honeybee editions, I don't think pink is the right color - it first and foremost belongs to the pale hues.

I reckon I could sell 750 of the red easier than the pink even at 250% of the price (with a manipulated run of course)
If there are going to be other honeybees coming maybe I won't open my pinks until I know if I am going to be a completionist for Honeybees

I have been going on too long but I am mad about Honeybees

[kevork]

This guy likes honeybees^

[Timmargh]

This guy likes honeybees^

That's an outrageous accusation!! I hope you can back it up!

[Harvonsgard]

This guy likes honeybees^

* really

[Reylek]

All versions are now live!

Worker are only $6 each when purchased as a 10-pack.


Worker (Choose your option from the drop-down):

https://www.penguinmagic.com/p/19948


Special Edition:

https://www.penguinmagic.com/p/19947

[Honeybee]

It is hard to know how to view the Worker's price.
A 10-pack at $6 each is definitely great value
but does it make $10 a single deck overpriced?
(We already know the exact same decks in pink are way over at $20)

[Honeybee]

For those that are new to Honeybees, you should be aware that there are still some fantastic earlier editions still available from Penguin (free shipping)

The Bicycle No.20 Honeybees with appropriate yellow touches on the Courts, excellent Jokers and AoS plus a double backer and a blank.
They are available in Black or Yellow and both are also still available Gilded

The yellow gilded for $25 with a run of only 500 compared to the new pink $20 are chalk and cheese - you would never consider several pink for one of these golds

https://www.penguinmagic.com/p/15784

Links to the other three

https://www.penguinmagic.com/p/15785

https://www.penguinmagic.com/p/15568

https://www.penguinmagic.com/p/15569

[Strag]

It is hard to know how to view the Worker's price.
A 10-pack at $6 each is definitely great value
but does it make $10 a single deck overpriced?
(We already know the exact same decks in pink are way over at $20)

I don't get that logic. Something is worth what you are willing to pay for it. 10 decks isn't for everyone, so giving a quantity discount makes sense. Cannot see how $10 is then "overpriced", it's just a single-copy price.

[brownsl]

I struggled a bit unsure whether to go for the 10 pack or go for my usual 3. Part of the calculus came down to did I want to spend an additional $30 for 7 more decks. I ended up going with just 3 decks with the deciding factor not being price but that I already have a collection that is unmanageable in size. Plus, it makes me feel like I made progress by getting only 3 decks when normally it is a 1 deck versus 3 deck battle.

[Reylek]

Mr. Honeybee wins the award for most active participant in the thread, that’s for sure.



Your love & enthusiasm over the Honeybees is super apparent, and I really appreciate that.

You seem really stuck on the price of the Pink decks, so hopefully I can shine a light on things to make it make more sense.



A limited run of 750 decks has a very different unit cost than a run of thousands. We can offer the Red & Blue decks at a better price because we printed way more of them.



Comparing to other limited editions that are not stand-alone print runs isn’t an entirely fair comparison. A gilded edition or version in a different tuck box is limited because of either added gilding or a box/seal swap. Those are not stand-alone print runs in terms of the cards themselves.



A limited deck that is truly its own full individual run - cards, box, seal, etc is a bigger endeavor than taking a portion of an existing print run and modifying it for the special edition.



Penguin has been an industry leader in deck value for years.



Off the top of my head, the only major/mainstream decks being released sub-$10 in the past couple of years aside from Penguin are releases direct from USPCC.



Not only do they own their own factory, they’re also printing tens of thousands of those decks, where we’re usually printing hundreds or a couple thousand.



Yes, we produce decks that are above $10 as well. Overall we try really hard to make sure our decks are priced to reflect their value and their intended purpose/audience.



People also seem to often forget or overlook that we offer free worldwide shipping.



No other deck producer that I’m aware of offers a newly-released single deck for a $10 landed price - especially internationally. Most will charge $12 or more (even with a quantity discount), and then charge shipping on top of it.



Any package still needs to be shipped, whether it contains 1 deck or 20. To ship a single deck within the US costs about $4 these days. So factor in production cost, packing materials, postage, the cost of running the website, the fee taken by a payment processor, and the cost of owning & operating a warehouse, and all of a sudden the profit margins on playing cards isn’t as wonderful as people think.

It’s also really difficult to compare decks in 2024 to decks from 2020 or earlier. On a global scale, pretty much everything in the world has increased in price in the past 4 years. The fact that we still offer decks at the prices we do is, quite frankly, astonishing.



It’s very easy for someone to make claims about what we “should” be doing, or what they would do.



I welcome anyone with passion, enthusiasm, and creativity to embark on designing, producing, and fulfilling their own deck. The more the merrier.

However, when you do this, you’ll quickly learn that the process from start to finish is a lot more cumbersome and expensive than most people might imagine.



I know this because I’ve been producing decks for 15 years now, with literally hundreds of print runs under my belt and over a million decks printed.



Now, matters of taste are a different story. Art is subjective, and we each like what we like.



If a design, color scheme, etc isn’t your cup of tea, you probably shouldn’t buy that particular deck. Doesn't matter if it's $3 or $50.



I consider myself a collector moreso than a producer. Whenever I hang up my producer’s hat for good, I’ll still be a collector.



As a collector and a magician, there are plenty of decks that don’t appeal to me for one reason or another. I just buy what I like. Some decks I buy are cheap, some are expensive.



I have zero expectation that any of the decks I produce will appeal to all buyers. That would be absurd. But I’m very proud to work on a variety of designs and offer a variety of price points so that hopefully throughout the year we’re offering something that appeals to magicians, something that appeals to collectors, and so forth.



I do appreciate the enthusiasm and feedback, but I also know that not many people have been blessed to see things from where I see them, so I always like to pull back the curtain a bit when I can.



Hope that helps, and thanks again for the support of the Honeybees!

[Harvonsgard]

@Reylek - I sincerely like everything about your post above and I certainly love what Penguin indeed is doing for the global card community. But having worked in print this part left me with a slightly, minimal raised eyebrow:

We can offer the Red & Blue decks at a better price because we printed way more of them.

Correct me if I’m wrong on the details but all the Worker editions share the same design, correct? The pinks aren't a standalone printrun then or do I miss something? Just curious.

Despite being a lover of pink decks, it doesn’t work for me on Honeybees. That’s why I have only the versions that are . If the pink version would work for me, I‘d happily buy them for $20 btw. For all the reasons you‘ve mentioned that Penguin is doing.

[Reylek]

Harvonsgard - great question. I thought the same thing when I started making cards. I thought surely with the 5k minimum at USPCC that I could do something like 2.5k each of Red & Blue and that would count. Nope.

Different colors, even if the base designs are the same, are not treated as part of the same print run. It's a separate run with separate setup - especially when printing with Pantone colors as we do on the Honeybees. This is true at any/all card factories I've worked with that use the offset printing process.

I've been in this community & business for a long time. My personal reputation means the world to me, so I try to be as open as I can about these sorts of thing. While I can't disclose exact numbers, the unit cost to produce the Red & Blue decks was lower than the Pink primarily due to quantity.

Same holds true for any other custom deck producer working with any card factory.

[Honeybee]

the unit cost to produce the Red & Blue decks was lower than the Pink primarily due to quantity.

Thank you for such detailed answers
I have to then ask - Why so few of the Pink? To make a pink version of the same worker deck more exclusive by limiting supply?
Would you make the same money out of a 5,000 run of pink at say one dollar more as you will the 750 run?
Did you consider gilding or at least edge printing the pink to make them a special edition?
Thanks again. I think I have bought the majority of my collection from Penguin (not just the Honeybees) as you are fantastic for Internationals (I have indeed been thanked by more than one new poster for alerting them to your free postage)

ps While waiting to finalize my latest order I have left the Hesslers latest release sitting in my cart - do you know if there is any chance they will do another run as they have all gone in under a fortnight I believe

[kevork]

I imagine confidence in the product also plays a role. No use printing 5,000 to lower the cost per deck if you don't believe that many will sell.

It seems Penguin isn't a company that emulates the likes of those who use artificial rarity as a selling point, so I imagine 500 wasn't purely to make them rare but for other reasons. Curious what Kevin says!

[Honeybee]

I thought that too kev but then thought that would mean that they do not think the pink are as good as the red. Or maybe to be fair the red has the advantage of being a traditional worker color and the red edition may also have a following from previous purchasers of the Elite No.18 red edition.

[Disenchanted_11]

I don't understand why price increases is still a discussion in this world of inflation.

I have lots of products I have yet to checkout because I'm not willing to pay the overhead prices and shipping fees yet, but I'm not complaining.

[kevork]

I don't think either of us were really complaining about the price; or at least I wasn't. I believe Mr. Honeybee was curious about the thought behind it and the print run of the pink edition.

I'm not sure how gilding affects the handling, but that yellow one that was posted earlier looks really nice and tasty.

[Honeybee]

I have been diverted into coin collecting
How beautiful is this
It won International Coin of the Year in 2022
I would love one this big but it is only the size of a dime

[Honeybee]

Well, I got my new Honeybees.
I like the blue the best of the three for the inclusion of the bee on the back looking ok but I would not choose it over the 2018 Elites w/o any bee
I have lost a bit of confidence in Kevin's judgement

Choosing the shade of Pink was something I was very meticulous about - I literally went through every shade of pink in the book before settling on this one. It looks fantastic in person.

The pink are truly anemic - the lack of contrast on the backs between the white bee and the pink honeycomb pattern is so disappointing - it is not as good as the couple of tuck pics shown in this thread

Sorry Kevin - just one fans opinion of course
Although to make sure I was being fair I did present the three to my wife to choose and she put them in the same order
She said the pink bee was not defined enough and even the honeycomb was not as effective - at first glance it just looks like circles