Lmited or "special" edition decks - your preferences?

Marion said:

Hi,
Lace???? er, you don't mean *on* the cards do you? That would stop me from buying the deck, that's for sure.

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I do love lace, but I think there may be enough of it in the costumes! I can imagine lace on the box (although in fact we have something sleeker in mind currently) but I can't imagine being able to shuffle cards that had lace on them - wouldn't they end up looking a bit like those First World War greetings cards? Beautiful in their own right, but...

more...

what about a special collector card (one in every deck) like those plastic cards we had when we were kids? you know those holographic cards whose image would change when looked at from a different angle or held differently.

what about a card where the cats' eyes follow you wherever you go, a twenty-third* major called The Mad Cat?? The "I'm gonna getcha" arcana...

seriously i think you should go deeper in the Baroque style when you do this limited ed. An outrageously baroque box for the deck or a piece of lacey fabric to wrap the cards in, something like that. As for the special features in the cards themselves, up to you, dear artists!

Kissa

* i recall Hermes was a special feature for the first ed...?

PS: a tuna fish flavoured treat in each set! a catmint perfumed iron tarot card that can be used over and over again! a bouncing furry squeazing box with a very long tail that can be chewed for hours!
(keep the lady busy in the kitchen, mate, i'm always done with typing our special requests. sure those czech weirdos will fall for it...)

the infernal hairy trio... hum... i mean KISSA!!! uh...

edited to add: extra special requests

darwinia said:

The value has nothing to do with it being limited or extra super-duper rare, or being something others want to collect or having some number in a limited edition.


If other people can get that by spending $300 on an LE, more power to them, but I can't, it would be meaningless for me, I'd rather just have the $26 deck and work with it with my usual joy and delight in such creativity.

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For me, I feel exactly the same way. I think that the BBCT is gorgeous as it is and wouldn't require any more than it already has for me to tap into its energies and use it as a workable tool for my readings.

In terms of optional extras though, I did think about this only yesterday ...
I know that this is not a possibility due to funds but here's my thoughts, if money was not an option.
I was in a pet shop and they had a little machine that made engraved metal tags for cat collars. How lovely would it be to have a little silver cat collar tag with the name of one of the cards engraved into it with the limited edition number.
I know that this would never be a serious consideration Baba, but was just off on one of my little fantasies, lol.

Yaboot (incidently, I don't have a cat, so I would have to wear it myself)

Oh, my, what a discussion...
Now, let's see...

I don't like decks that are hand-glued and trimmed?i'd be too afraid to use them... and although i think that the "high price is totally right", i wouldn't pay it (unless something very drastic would happen to my bank account.)

saying that, I'm up for offset printed decks, and not inkjet laminated, which means that the special edition,will not be that small. (unless it's printed on Epson water-paper with archival inks, and that costs!)

the gold sounds very fitting, and interesting... Gold ink sounds better than foil, not only allergy wise, but also fading wise (scrapped away), I suppose...

Embossing is a great idea too, and if you do a subtle lacey pattern, then it will not interfere with the shuffling. A watermark could be nice too.

i'm not for lace in decks, BUT one thing that I immediatelly thought of, was a grand BOX for the cats! And that can have lace, heavy Baroque embossing, you name it. In a special edition, I would so want a special box! A box to keep and that it does not fall apart. Still, the price has to be reasonable... So, if I really like it, i can buy it.
A compromise would be a very fancy pouch, that it still done in a reasonable budget, but has the "precious" effect.

ps: I also just thought of some makettes I bought once in London, at that tiny toy museum, where you climb up the stairs? (not in Covent Garden, somewhere else)...Anyway, it's like a paper 3-D theater, you put it up yourself with a little cutting and glueing. It comes flat...so, something like this to have the cards sitting in showing off?

Now I have to go and vote...and i don't remember what the options are... I guess something special? the packaging???

Oh, this is getting really interesting - tuna-flavoured treats?! Our cats attempt to chew the cards at the best of times...

What's nice (for me anyway) is that what's emerging here is much the same as my own viewpoint, which is that a limited edition should be mainly about enhancing the deck rather than trying to make a "collectible" for its own sake.

So, large cards - yes (I mean for ours, for some decks it would not be particularly appropriate)
Gold ink - yes (ditto, makes sense for BBCats, but might not otherwise)
Nice box - yes, with caution as personally I don't think the box is the main point - but on the other hand I also love beautiful packaging...
Hand-made and trimmed - no, not for us, but works beautifully for some decks.

"extras" - not sure. We did like being able to give out postcards for the BBCats pre-orders, and everyone seems to have enjoyed them. But that might be a bit of a one-off.
I LOVE the idea of a silver cat tag - but impossible really (sorry Yaboot - but it is a gorgeous thought). I also really like the idea of something you could cut out and assemble. Oddly enough we were going to do this for the deck originally, but again, it shot the price right up so we dropped it - it does tend to be the kind of thing that won't appeal to everyone.
One or two new cards? Yes, that seems to make sense.

We did briefly discuss adding the map of the Grand Catdom of Bohemia, (we have it painted) but then decided that it's a bit irrelevant to the deck really - although in some ways it would be nice.

Anyway, that's how I see it for us - but there seems to be some good general stuff about preferences on a LE deck coming out of this thread too.

edited to add - by the way, M-Press, we do print on Epson water-paper with archival inks, and yes, it does cost! It's one reason we may not go on offering prints (or may put the price up a lot). I've never worked out what it costs to do 78 cards this way, but yes, it must mount up. I honestly don't think it gives a better quality than really good professional printing - though it can look different, and that can be nice in its own right.

baba-prague said:

Epson water-paper with archival inks\

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yes, I meant for the whole deck not one print. I tried to print a few on a big sheet, and it was too heavy...so it didn't work. Now my files are not THAT heavy. .
If you do succeed, at least no need to laminate, but the price will be ..oh, rocket!!!
I also prefer regular printing. More connection between the colors-a more organic look...

baba-prague said:

We did briefly discuss adding the map of the Grand Catdom of Bohemia, (we have it painted) but then decided that it's a bit irrelevant to the deck really - although in some ways it would be nice.

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Now that idea would be wonderful for the endpapers of your picture book; remember the enpaper maps in the various editions of The Wind In The Willows? I spent many an hour (and still do, occasionally) looking wistfully at those maps: Oh, to be on Pan Island just as the sun is rising.....

Bob

Le_Corsair said:

Now that idea would be wonderful for the endpapers of your picture book; remember the enpaper maps in the various editions of The Wind In The Willows? I spent many an hour (and still do, occasionally) looking wistfully at those maps: Oh, to be on Pan Island just as the sun is rising.....

Bob

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Ah ha! Great minds and all that...

Yes, we commissioned the hand-painted map (from a very nice lady in Belarus - she was staying here for the summer and is a very traditional painter - so she loved this work) specially for the endpapers. The whole book has a bit of a retro feeling in some ways. We have a "this book belongs to" page as well. It's all going to be very lavish - cloth hardback etc - we just wanted something that feels REALLY cared about - something that will last.

The map is fairly detailed and a lot of fun. It's nice to be able to see where everything is and the kinds of things that are essential in the Catdom (like the Creamery, which is a rather large building!)

I'll try to post a picture of it, perhaps on the "Decks" thread when I get time to make it small enough to put somewhere.

Oops I thought I could vote more than one...Now I voted larger cards. I would only buy a special edition if the deck had special artwork and that stands out better on bigger cards.

I would also have voted "no more than 100 $" but even to pay $ 100 for a deck I would have to be totally in love with it.

Now it would be nice if there was something special like an added card or a few alterations in cards. Like the two death cards in the ToP, it is nice if for a few cards you would have a choice.

I don't care about rarity value, if I like it I like it for itself and not because it is rare.

I voted for In some way unique... etc.

I've been watching this thread for a little while, thinking about it. I don't have a limited edition deck (well, I suppose I do - the NatureSpeaks, but that's not quite what this is about), but I think if I were to purchase one, it would have to be affordable, primarily, but I would like to see extras of some sort with it. Like the Sakki-Sakki preorder packs..

I think the number of them does matter, but I don't really have an idea of how many that should be - I would think that could be quite varied, depending on the "commercial appeal" of the deck.

I'm a sucker for packaging, but I would expect it to be environmentally sound.
I'm a sucker for freebies too - and again, I would expect them to be environmentally sound.

I think if *I* were putting together a limited edition release, it would have special packaging, and extras. I would expect that the extras would be from nature, and would be unique, and would be created/put together/collected by hand, and therefore, would be in quite a low numbered release.