HudsonGray
LOL, Astra, don't let this all put you off from doing your own deck! I fully intend to get mine out. I even looked at 'how cheap can I go' and came up with $2.10 a deck if it's strictly black & white photocopy where I don't care if the ink isn't waterproof and I have to do all the card cutting myself.
I'm doing a ferret based deck (realistic and cartoony, but no clothing on the animals except for one Egyptian style card). I figured hey, maybe 30 decks tops...then posted a notice & URL to a few of the cards over on some of the yahoo ferret boards....I got requests for 75 decks in less than 2 weeks from just three boards....ok, upped the ante to maybe 100 decks. Got more feedback, now I'm thinking 300 would be a better print run with 'first edition' on it. With the original first 30 decks I was thinking I could do up drawstring bags for them...but not for 100 or 300 decks. I run in science fiction/SCA groups so there's a cross market right there for it too. I do think 300 would be a good amount, if I can afford it. Even if I have to store them here for 4 or 5 years till they're all sold (or longer).
It's a black & white deck so I've not got any color separations to work with which reduces cost quite a bit. And I've bopped around to 9 different printers and found out most of the basics I think I need to. I was even looking at marbled paper (fake looking marble threads on light gray card stock, not the paint marbling), speckled card stock, and textured stuff in various tinted shades. I wasn't sure if I should stick with white card stock when the parchment color made it look so ancient/archaic and 'different'. Hmm.
Still--there's stuff to consider before going to the printers & doing the next steps once you have the art done.
1. Do they work off disk? Can you scan the entire deck on a disk & let them work off that rather than cut & paste up hard copies?
2. How much will they do for you & at what price?
3. Which box company has the best prices? (there's a thread on this under tarot deck creation somewhere). Uline is pretty good on small box prices, but there was another company that beat them out in prices. Neither of them had any minimum order requirements which was great. If you pre-buy blank boxes, do you need to have stickers made up for the fronts of them?
4. Can you do with a 'cheat sheet' instead of a little white book? The LWB costs will equal the deck printing costs if you decide to go with the entire booklet.
5. Do you do 80 originals (1 image multiple times per card stock page plus a back and front card image) and have those cut in groups so each entire deck goes through the cutting machine at the same time, making decks whose edges all match up----OR do you do 10 originals with 8 cards per page (reduces costs because you have fewer originals) then hope the cutting machine is accurate so all the card edges match perfectly? The Hello Kitty decks are done with 80 originals, he's the one who suggested it this way for me. I was thinking of doing it the other way with fewer originals, to save money, but he had a good point & now I'm waffling.
I'm doing a ferret based deck (realistic and cartoony, but no clothing on the animals except for one Egyptian style card). I figured hey, maybe 30 decks tops...then posted a notice & URL to a few of the cards over on some of the yahoo ferret boards....I got requests for 75 decks in less than 2 weeks from just three boards....ok, upped the ante to maybe 100 decks. Got more feedback, now I'm thinking 300 would be a better print run with 'first edition' on it. With the original first 30 decks I was thinking I could do up drawstring bags for them...but not for 100 or 300 decks. I run in science fiction/SCA groups so there's a cross market right there for it too. I do think 300 would be a good amount, if I can afford it. Even if I have to store them here for 4 or 5 years till they're all sold (or longer).
It's a black & white deck so I've not got any color separations to work with which reduces cost quite a bit. And I've bopped around to 9 different printers and found out most of the basics I think I need to. I was even looking at marbled paper (fake looking marble threads on light gray card stock, not the paint marbling), speckled card stock, and textured stuff in various tinted shades. I wasn't sure if I should stick with white card stock when the parchment color made it look so ancient/archaic and 'different'. Hmm.
Still--there's stuff to consider before going to the printers & doing the next steps once you have the art done.
1. Do they work off disk? Can you scan the entire deck on a disk & let them work off that rather than cut & paste up hard copies?
2. How much will they do for you & at what price?
3. Which box company has the best prices? (there's a thread on this under tarot deck creation somewhere). Uline is pretty good on small box prices, but there was another company that beat them out in prices. Neither of them had any minimum order requirements which was great. If you pre-buy blank boxes, do you need to have stickers made up for the fronts of them?
4. Can you do with a 'cheat sheet' instead of a little white book? The LWB costs will equal the deck printing costs if you decide to go with the entire booklet.
5. Do you do 80 originals (1 image multiple times per card stock page plus a back and front card image) and have those cut in groups so each entire deck goes through the cutting machine at the same time, making decks whose edges all match up----OR do you do 10 originals with 8 cards per page (reduces costs because you have fewer originals) then hope the cutting machine is accurate so all the card edges match perfectly? The Hello Kitty decks are done with 80 originals, he's the one who suggested it this way for me. I was thinking of doing it the other way with fewer originals, to save money, but he had a good point & now I'm waffling.