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Is making your life complicated really worth-while???

7 replies [Last post]
Tue, 07/30/2019 - 22:47
questccg
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I've always had this stupid idea that it would be cool to print "Plastic Cards" (PET). I did a lot of Googling and found a printer that has the format that I was looking for and at a reasonable price: $0.186 each (double the price of their paper counter-parts).

Here's the "mental" problem:

1> I could use The Game Crafter (TGC) and have everything done on paper with UV Coating (for dry erase markers). They would manufacture and ship all orders I set-up with them. Simple and Easy.

2> I want these "stupid" plastic cards BECAUSE they solve a PROBLEM: not fitting in a box when you use plastic sleeves. Sleeves are 70mm x 70mm in the "square" format (for 64mm x 64mm).

This would make my life so much more complicated because I would need to order cards in batches of 1,000 cards and put together the cards for each order!

And then I would need to go to the Post Office to SHIP all my orders... One-by-one... What a freaken nightmare?!?! And still I'm thinking about those PLASTIC cards... Because they would so BE AWESOME!

What do you good people think? Should I abandon this moronic "dream" of making plastic cards and use TGC to make my game from A-Z. OR should I continue my "crusade" demanding the best possible quality for my backers??

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Wed, 07/31/2019 - 07:32
#1
let-off studios
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Time = Money

It sounds to me like you have two options: pay more in money for the plastic cards, so you don't have to do the labor later on, or pay a little now and then pay in labor and shipping later.

I personally value my time over money in the vast majority of cases. So if I were in your situation, if the plastic cards seem affordable, then I would pay it up front instead of drag it out later in the form of additional shipping costs and manual labor. If things were ideal and cost wasn't an issue, then that sounds like the most effective option.

If you feel the cost for plastic cards is prohibitive, then suck it up and do the labor yourself. It will take you -much- more time, but if the money isn't there, it isn't there.

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Wed, 07/31/2019 - 08:53
#2
evansmind244
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1000 Fan's

I see it from a value added perspective. The plastic is much higher quality, will last longer, and will really WOW your fan's. I see you get excited about the idea of having these awesome plastic cards....I think that's exactly what your fan's will do. Man these cards are AWESOME!!

I realize you can't eat all the cost of the plastic cards because money is money, and you need to be in the Green but I take a long term perspective on eating the cost based on the 1000 fan rule. If you just scratch by in the green now while building trust with your customers and demanding an amazing standard of quality for your fan's now, later you may be able to make up those margins on the expansion pack cards, special interest cards or rare cards!! In the beginning it would be hard to sell an expensive game because it has plastic cards. The average person wouldn't realize why the price is high, unless you spend much time and effort educating them. Later when your customers buy the game and see what an amazing deal they got on such a high quality game, they will totally understand why the expansion pack cards are expensive, and they will be happy to pay the premium at which time you make up for lost money on the first print run of the game. IMHO

What about sending the plastic cards to TGC and having them add them to your game? Will they do that?

Also, I feel like your a great option to partner with someone like me to help pay for the landed cost to get your game manufactured in China at a very reasonable cost, and then benefit from your already good following and email list. When comparing my China numbers to TGC there is so much more profit to be had and the quality isn't different. Where is the Manufacture of these plastic cards?

A few years ago I was working with that "one off shop" to do art and manufacture. At that time I wanted a US penny in my game. After talking with the manufacture in China it was determined that I could send out a bag of Pennies to China and they would put them in my finished game. It was no problem, and how can you get a component manufactured for cheaper than a US Penny??????? hahahahahaha

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Wed, 07/31/2019 - 09:25
#3
Jay103
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Personally, I would not take

Personally, I would not take on that much complication.

If the suggestion of sending a large box of cards to your manufacturer would work, that would remove some complication. I'm sure it would work on their end.. they must outsource parts regularly.

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Wed, 07/31/2019 - 10:17
#4
larienna
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By plastic card, do you mean

By plastic card, do you mean ID card printers?

Because those plastic cards are relativevely thick. One of them that I hold in my hand is 1 mm thick.

Now depending on the type of game it could work. For example, in "From collar to crown"(or to court the king), it's a dice game where the cards are tapped for special abilities. Which means that they are never shuffled, and you do not need many hundreds of them. So it works.

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Wed, 07/31/2019 - 11:14
#5
Jay103
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He's thinking like KEM

He's thinking like KEM cards.. something you could play poker with in the swimming pool :)

https://www.kardwell.com/plastic-playing-cards.html

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Wed, 07/31/2019 - 12:15
#6
questccg
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I have come back to my sense...

Yes they are 1mm Plastic cards. But NO, I will not be making them...! The main reason was SHIPPING. It's too much of a hassle to ship from the USA to Canada and then from Canada back to the USA. Plus it's very EXPENSIVE also.

Product-wise it might have been possible IF I tried using the "After-market" business model and sell SETs in various quantities (based on the number of players). But again, that would make things much more complicated and I'm not even certain IF it would work.

Having TGC pick & pack the plastic cards would not work either... Because $0.25 a card is too high a price to pay. This is because I would need to order EACH CARD in quantities of 1,000 units.

Which means that I would have to do it ... and it's not feasible because of the exorbitant cost of all the shipping.

And so I have come back to my senses and have chosen the more rational choice: which is to use cardstock and let TGC handle manufacturing and fulfillment.

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Wed, 07/31/2019 - 12:17
#7
larienna
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Was not there a card game

Was not there a card game made of translucent plastic, was it "gloom"?

Ho! there was also "hecatomb". Which allowed stacking.

If you want to take advantage of translucent stacking, that could be interesting.

Not sure if plastic cards are actually more resistant. I thikink they tend to scratch a lot after a while, still the sleeve can scratch a lot too, but you can change it if it really bother's you.

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