Guys (and Katie),
So it's the night before release of the 2nd Edition Guardians, and we wanted to give you guys the full story on all we went through to make them happen. As a warning, this is a long post, and this is the full story.
We released the 1st Edition Guardians with the launch of the site just six weeks ago. Within 2 weeks of the release, we were sold out. I even had to send out my own stash of them to some of you guys because of a shipping glitch that caused 36 more decks to be sold than we had in warehouse. They're all gone. Not a single one left. I might buy one off eBay ($20 a piece!).
After release of the 1st Editions, we got an incredible amount of feedback and compliments and comments and suggestions. We read everything you guys write, and we take in feedback-- both positive and negative-- as much as we possibly can. We read what you guys liked about the 1st Editions, and we read what some of you thought could improve about them. And we acted on it.
Over the weeks that followed I worked alongside the Director of R&D at the US Playing Card Company. We tested over 17 different card stocks, finishes, coatings, amounts of coating, and moisture contents (that dictates how well the cards perform in humid environments). The process was extremely lengthy, and involved an enormous amount of research and laboratory testing of the decks at the USPCC. Yes, they actually do laboratory testing on playing cards. For serious.
Prototypes were then sent to Aaron Fisher, Wayne Houchin, Dan and Dave, and Jon Raiker from the theory11 crew. They tested the durability in double blind testing-- all of the test decks looked the same, and were only identifiable by a letter code written on the sides. They were asked which deck of the bunch lasted the longest and felt the best out of the choices provided.
At that point, we thought we figured it out. We thought we nailed it by changing the precise amount of finish applied. So over 10,000 decks were produced the following day. We were very excited about the news. Then, we felt one of them. And our heart sank. It was good. But it was not great. It was better. But it was not up to our high standard. It was a difficult decision, but we knew what we had to do-- we had a commitment to you guys to raise the bar with each product we release. So we did the only thing we could do: we scrapped them. The whole run. All of them. And we went back to square one. We joke that we might use the scrapped run as wallpaper for Wayne's house.
At that time, we had a revelation. In the USPCC's testing, we figured out that the issue in making these as long lasting as possible was not in the amount of finish applied, or the ink-- it was a combination of all of these elements. So we changed... everything.
The NEW 2nd Edition Guardians exhibit a new card stock, finish, coating, amount of coating, and even a different press. The cards even look slightly different-- the black is a darker shade of black on the back design. I got the first deck off the press in the mail today, and I anxiously opened up the cellophane: They. Feel. Amazing.
I tried to be as objective as possible when handling them-- if they felt exactly like the first editions, I would say so. But they don't. The feel is ENTIRELY different. They fan flawlessly right out of the box. They're not too thick, and not too thin. They are printed on a different press than the 1st Editions, so the printing does look a little different, but it's hardly a noticeable change and if anything, I prefer the darker black shading.
If you've got the 1st Editions in hand, you WILL notice a distinct difference. And I think you'll love them. Needless to say, the 2nd Editions were a labor of love for us.
We do want to make it clear that we do not claim that this will be the most durable, longest lasting deck of all time (that is dishwasher safe and you just throw it in there when it's dirty). That would be really frickin' cool though. Someone should do that. But we do promise that we worked long and hard on improving every aspect of this deck. And we promise that we took every bit of feedback from you guys to heart. And we hope that you dig 'em.
Now Released: Bicycle Guardians
So it's the night before release of the 2nd Edition Guardians, and we wanted to give you guys the full story on all we went through to make them happen. As a warning, this is a long post, and this is the full story.
We released the 1st Edition Guardians with the launch of the site just six weeks ago. Within 2 weeks of the release, we were sold out. I even had to send out my own stash of them to some of you guys because of a shipping glitch that caused 36 more decks to be sold than we had in warehouse. They're all gone. Not a single one left. I might buy one off eBay ($20 a piece!).
After release of the 1st Editions, we got an incredible amount of feedback and compliments and comments and suggestions. We read everything you guys write, and we take in feedback-- both positive and negative-- as much as we possibly can. We read what you guys liked about the 1st Editions, and we read what some of you thought could improve about them. And we acted on it.
Over the weeks that followed I worked alongside the Director of R&D at the US Playing Card Company. We tested over 17 different card stocks, finishes, coatings, amounts of coating, and moisture contents (that dictates how well the cards perform in humid environments). The process was extremely lengthy, and involved an enormous amount of research and laboratory testing of the decks at the USPCC. Yes, they actually do laboratory testing on playing cards. For serious.
Prototypes were then sent to Aaron Fisher, Wayne Houchin, Dan and Dave, and Jon Raiker from the theory11 crew. They tested the durability in double blind testing-- all of the test decks looked the same, and were only identifiable by a letter code written on the sides. They were asked which deck of the bunch lasted the longest and felt the best out of the choices provided.
At that point, we thought we figured it out. We thought we nailed it by changing the precise amount of finish applied. So over 10,000 decks were produced the following day. We were very excited about the news. Then, we felt one of them. And our heart sank. It was good. But it was not great. It was better. But it was not up to our high standard. It was a difficult decision, but we knew what we had to do-- we had a commitment to you guys to raise the bar with each product we release. So we did the only thing we could do: we scrapped them. The whole run. All of them. And we went back to square one. We joke that we might use the scrapped run as wallpaper for Wayne's house.
At that time, we had a revelation. In the USPCC's testing, we figured out that the issue in making these as long lasting as possible was not in the amount of finish applied, or the ink-- it was a combination of all of these elements. So we changed... everything.
The NEW 2nd Edition Guardians exhibit a new card stock, finish, coating, amount of coating, and even a different press. The cards even look slightly different-- the black is a darker shade of black on the back design. I got the first deck off the press in the mail today, and I anxiously opened up the cellophane: They. Feel. Amazing.
I tried to be as objective as possible when handling them-- if they felt exactly like the first editions, I would say so. But they don't. The feel is ENTIRELY different. They fan flawlessly right out of the box. They're not too thick, and not too thin. They are printed on a different press than the 1st Editions, so the printing does look a little different, but it's hardly a noticeable change and if anything, I prefer the darker black shading.
If you've got the 1st Editions in hand, you WILL notice a distinct difference. And I think you'll love them. Needless to say, the 2nd Editions were a labor of love for us.
We do want to make it clear that we do not claim that this will be the most durable, longest lasting deck of all time (that is dishwasher safe and you just throw it in there when it's dirty). That would be really frickin' cool though. Someone should do that. But we do promise that we worked long and hard on improving every aspect of this deck. And we promise that we took every bit of feedback from you guys to heart. And we hope that you dig 'em.
Now Released: Bicycle Guardians
Just to see which is better, you know....
