What do you desire in deck creation?

truelighth

I know that as an organization you cannot do anything about Customs in Europe (and I have had to pay excessive customs charges on your decks) but I always suspected it was because of the very "attention-grabbing" large boxes that caught the beady eyes of Customs. Other smaller packages may well pass through.

Unfortunally, that is not true either. It actually doesn't matter what size the box is for the customs. I recently received Lisa Chow's tarot in a small shipping box and still had to pay excessive tax charges. Actually the processing cost of customs were more than the taxes! Horrible. So as for Customs, you just have to be lucky or it has to be labelled gift with a low value. I am guessing Game Crafter can't do that.

Having said this, I am glad the Game Crafter is coming here for feedback. I really like the decks I have gotten so far, with or without box. My main problem was the excessive shipping cost, but as I understand, hopefully there is a solution for this now. I would also like the separate section for tarots and oracles.

I am wondering how it works now with the credits and payments of the authors. I understood at first that authors who had their decks published, were paid in credits of Game Crafter and not in money. Is this still the case? Because that would be something I think you should consider changing. It would make using Game Crafter more accesible. But maybe this information is already obsolete...
 

gregory

*cough* If TGC were prepared to mark things "gift" they would attract far less duty in the UK, at least....

Ever hopeful....
 

HudsonGray

That would be nice, wouldn't it?

However they're a business..... so probably won't.

Anyone acting as a 'mule' could though.
 

HudsonGray

" We did recently add a 8x6x3 box for First Class and Parcel Post orders with small decks."

Is this the smallest box you can get for a deck that's 4"x3"x2"? That's still overlarge being 6" deep.

How many tarot decks are you selling on a monthly basis at your company? A packet of the right size boxes wouldn't take much room if you're buying as needed. I work in a Milwaukee manufacturing facility that embroiders and silk screens items. The box storage does take a lot of space but we also have 'specialty' sizes kept to one side for particular items, mostly the screen printed 3-D stuff. The boxes are gotten in on an as needed basis, at good cost. If you move 20 decks a month, or 100, you have a good idea of what's necessary.
 

gregory

" We did recently add a 8x6x3 box for First Class and Parcel Post orders with small decks."

Is this the smallest box you can get for a deck that's 4"x3"x2"? That's still overlarge being 6" deep.
ER - 3 inches deep, I think, Hudson....
And my mule DOES mark everything gift. She's a lawyer, so does good work :D
 

HudsonGray

The 3" is fine, and the 8" but the 6" is where the dimensions get all wonky.

Well, maybe it'd be ok but it still seems overlarge.

Ahh, ignore me, I had no coffee last night.
 

starlightexp

Shipping issues aside ...


1) As I was looking for a POD place for the new deck I was doing I tried TGC along with several other companies. Sending everyone the same file I have to say that yours was the ONLY one that came back dark and grainy. It took almost twice as long to get a sample back and if I had to go through that time frame for each sample I needed to correct the issue it would have added a good 6-8 weeks to the development time of my deck. When trying to get a deck out the uncertainty factor there is an issue. If there was a way to get out sample orders faster then it might be a way to remedy this. Other companies had my order out the door in 4-5 days it was almost 10 before you shipped mine. One can say that other companies are not as busy or that there are heavy periods blah blah blah but in todays business world time is everything.

2) Printing issues ABOUND. I have 3 decks that people did through you guys and in not one of them are the cards actually all right. I'm sure it's in the 1/8 error margin but if laying the cards out together they look a bit like an arts and craft project. Tarot is a different beast then just normal card games we LOOK at the art for details, meanings and the like. Where a card game is more about the playing the game itself, Tarot is more about the art. We don't NEED to get another deck, but we do because we like the art. If the art is sloppily printed on the cards you can't help but notice. Again all the errors are most likely not egregious enough to make you guys send me another deck but it does prevent me from wanting to use you guys as my printer. In the 3 years of selling decks I have made I have not once had a deck come from my other printers wrong. Even when I had borders on the front and the back they were so close to being centered that by laying out the cards side by side you never would know they were POD.

3) PRICING- You guys are hands down the most expansive POD place out there. A tarot size deck of 80 cards with box at cost through you is $18+ shipping. The same deck through the printer I have used is $12 plus $1 for a box. That $6 is ALLOT when trying to get a product out at a reasonable cost to the public. Pricing a deck at $36 that, when people take it out of the box has that wonky centering issues on the printing is not a great product to sell. On top of that every time someone opens the box YOUR name is all over the inside. Now it takes that product down a level because your logo is really not that type of graphic that most Tarot designers would choose to have plastered all over the inside of there box. Why have the logo there at all? If it is there for marketing terms then why am I paying for a box that is marketing you and not me as it is MY game (or deck) after all?

Also if I wanted to order bulk because I am doing a show or class almost every other company I looked at would offer me a discount. That $12 deck now just became a $9-$10 deck if I ordered say 60 copies through them. At that price NOW I can sell the deck for $20 and have a product that is at a decent price, still cover my time and costs. There is just no way I could justify using you guys. I chose to ship the decks out myself because I want to be sure that each deck was right and so I have opted out of selling through my printer. They do indeed offer drop shipping to places like you guys but for me buying in bulk and not passing the costs on to others was the way I chose to do it. Still even not at bulk the deck would have been say $22 through them and $34 through you? Most people are ok with dropping about $25 on a deck but when you get closer to $37 it's more of a commitment. True you can say that pricing is up the the designer but many artists spend hundreds of dollars and just as many hours making a deck and it would be nice if they can at least make back the money they spent to make the deck. You HAVE to get more competitive at pricing with people having more choices these days.

I REALLY wanted to use you guys when I first started making decks but your reputation out there is really not that great. I went through tarot forums, board game geek, and other sites to get names and places to try and tried even the ones people warned me not to. You guys kind of have a snobby reputation out there for not doing much when someone is having an issue. There are tones of threads (even on here) about issues people have had with your service. This thread is a great way to start (re)building a relationship with potential new customers but the thread will only go so far. The much read about Original Lenormand debacle is still a topic talked about in back channels with designers as a reason to not use you guys.
 

Winterchild

Another huge box....

Sorry but have to report yet another huge box for two tiny decks. The box weighed in at the same as the contents. Photo attached so you can see how silly and wasteful it is. I do care about the waste as well as shipping costs.

Once again I absolutely adore these decks. (NZ Naturally and Petit Etteilla)...Just sad they could all have easily fitted in this box with the Zombie in a ziplock and not been overweight. I checked on my kitchen scales. Room for peanuts and brown paper too :)
 

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The Game Crafter

I am wondering how it works now with the credits and payments of the authors. I understood at first that authors who had their decks published, were paid in credits of Game Crafter and not in money. Is this still the case? Because that would be something I think you should consider changing. It would make using Game Crafter more accesible. But maybe this information is already obsolete...

Authors can either be paid by shop credit (the default), or if they enter their PayPal email address we will pay them in cash via PayPal.