TGC The Game Crafter and Shipping costs

Mallah

Do any deck creators buy in bulk (reasonable bulk) from TGC (I assume they waive your profit when you buy your own deck), have it shipped to themselves, and fill international orders on their own?

I'm starting to look at these issues, as my deck is half done, and I'm sort of wondering at the next step.

Seems to me like just filling the international ones myself might be the way to go...people could order locally, but i could have it on my website that I will fill orders as well.

Or am i just thinking crazy here?

My sis has a rubberstamp biz, and she ships international all the time.
 

gregory

Some people have, but I can't remember who now... - oh yes, Bertrand did, for one.
 

Bertrand

I do that's right, I order by twenty to fifty decks depending on the decks prices. You have to check several times to adjust the better shipping cost/overall price ratio to get the cheapest price. For that type of order there's a single option : USPS priority.

Most decks I don't sell at all through TGC so I can control, sign, number and pack them, such as the Triomphes MMXII (I have to control there are only 200 copies).

For the triomphes de Paris I sold a few decks through TGC and stopped as they don't offer a correct packaging and I want them to be with my own wrapping paper and label.

The palimpsest Lenormand is still for sale on TGC as I can't make stocks of this decks, though I would advise to contact me while I still have one copy available as one of the decks I received was misprinted - other copies I got are either sold ... or stolen as it happened two weeks ago.
 

Le Fanu

Thank goodness that creators like Bertrand can pursue that option.

Just for the record, I shall never in a million years buy a deck from Gamecrafter. The packaging, the customs, the cost of the packaging, the ludicrousness of the packaging, the insane wastefulness of the packaging. I just paid $130 + 34 euros customs charge on two tiny decks - with flaws - in a box that would fit a television.

So, yes, I have enormous pleasure in saying I shall never, ever buy a deck directly from Gamecrafter.

I always think it's hard enough for creators trying to sell their decks and get their wares out there. Doing it through Gamecrafter is the kiss of death for me.
 

HudsonGray

Stolen? What do you mean stolen? From the mailbox?
 

Bertrand

Stolen? What do you mean stolen? From the mailbox?
no, actually I was selling them decks at a playing cards collector convention, and one was stolen from my table when I was looking elsewhere - my fault as I have not been vigilant enough - only incident at the whole convention, so maybe someone moved it and it was lost, I'm assuming it was stolen but maybe it was someone too distracted ?
 

Bertrand

The Game Crafter announced an evolution on their shipping system :
http://news.thegamecrafter.com/post/34117269541/new-shipping-system
I didn't check yet but it's good to see they're at least trying, and it overall looks like good news :
The system now also picks the best box for your order based upon what is in your order. For example, if you have a small deck of cards, then it knows you only need a small shipping box. This will reduce the dimensions and weight of the shipment, which also opens up extra shipping options and reduces the price of those shipping options.
Let’s say you want to ship a deck of playing cards to Minnesota. The cost on that in the old system used to be $8.05 via USPS Priority. In the new shipping system that will be $5.20 (a $2.85 savings). Not only that, but you’ll now have a First Class option for $3.31 (a $4.74 savings).

Let’s say you wanted to ship that same deck of cards to Hungary. In the old system that would have been $35 for USPS Priority. The same cost still applies in the new system. However, you now have a Flat Rate option for $16.95 (an $18.05 savings). In addition, there is also a First Class option for only $6.85 (a $28.15 savings).
 

Mallah

Hallelujah!

This is good news, as I've decided it's the best way to start distributing my deck next year.
 

HudsonGray

I can't believe it took them this long to do it. What they were charging was horrible.
 

nexus7

Well, good. User-friendly postage and packaging is definitely a step in the right direction. I put a huge amount of work into getting my cards up on Gamecrafter and it was unpleasant and disaapointing beyond measure when teething problems emerged - hopefully, this is sorted now, but process for ordering more versions of my Pack were prohibitive to say the least.

I was not happy about the way I was responded to as a customer but at the same time did not want to see all the hours of work I had put into sizing the cards, preparing them, just go down the toilet - I had been planning to get my cards up another another POD site, though it would mean having to go through the whole exhausting process all over again, and then leave TGC with a few parting comments about customer care.