T11 is no longer the bees knees

[BrettH11491]

I have been a avid collector of decks and specifically T11. However as of 2024 this is no more and ill share why. Todays region blocking of the new Star wars deck is the final straw.
1. Damaged Decks - Constantly having to deal with damaged decks. Apparently according to a random Jonathan post this has been fixed. (see the next one)
2. Postage has sky rocked - What used to cost $12-$13 now costs $40 USD, This is an increase in postage granted it has happened everywhere. However about 25% of that $40 is an Australian sales tax. However how it is being collected is illegal. If T11 decides to sell in Australia and charge GST (goods and services tax). The entity collecting the GST must be printed and you cant charge a fee for collecting the GST technically illegal. T11 has been approached about this only reply is we will refund the tax not fixing the root cause.
3. Jonathan only cares about money and marketing - He posted on an Instagram post where I was angry at T11, he was invited to message me to discuss T11s change and from an international customers perspective what was not working. Of course when reaching out to him no reply was ever received. Only wanted to try to put a "positive" message on the thread. No real care to actually follow up.
4. Clustered production - Instead of releasing at a fairly regular rate you have been dumping large groups of decks at a time, by my count we have had 6 new T11 decks in 6 weeks. That's rather insane. Why is this annoying its a good thing right? Not when most of the new decks end up being recolours or very slight changes to an existing deck.

I am not talking as if I have bought 1 deck and got upset I have about 25,000 elite points so i have spent several $1000 USD with T11 over the years. With the way you care about your customers and only really give lip service. I think you guys will now be known as Fontaine 11.

It used to be cards for card people by magicians and similar, now its cards for money first.

-Unhappy former customer.

 

[Laitowoof]

I also impacted on the ridiculous shipping rates to Indonesia, and how I really pissed right now is that:

When I had paid for the order of the new Star Wars deck along with the other decks, my inbox quickly get spammed with notices that my order got cancelled with an apology letter saying that deck can’t shipped to Indonesia. What bonkers is this?! Are now decks in T11, some of them will be region locked?

So yeah, I hope you are happy that you keep screwing international supporters…

On minor thing, this complaint is about the state of the decks right now: I REALLY HATE THAT PLASTIC TABS pasted on the back of the decks: combined with how fragile the cello, everytime I tried to pull the tab away, I always ended up tearing the cello.

 

[Laitowoof]

Oh yeah, also, to add up to my posts, is my pet peeve on your social media posts:

IS IT THAT HARD TO credit whoever designed your decks?

All your posts of new decks, you decided to never included the designer responsible for making the decks, as if you want the whole credit goes solely to T11 and not the hardworking artists behind the decks - and these designers have to post themselves to let us know about it. Are you afraid that by tagging the designer, the fame goes towards the designers instead of you? If it’s within contract that designers won’t be mentioned in your posts, then I understand - but that is still silly if you asked me.

 

[j.bayme]

Hey Brett,

First and foremost, happy holidays, and apologies in advance for the length (!!) of this message. I'm writing this stream of consciousness, to address the questions and notes you mentioned.

As a preface, our primary focus is and always has been the relentless pursuit of creative perfection. Our standards are unbelievably high, and I feel confident this is shown in each and every product we produce, and the hard work and dedication of our team. From the decks themselves to every individual product page visual, our team SWEATS the details and puts hundreds of hours of time into details that sometimes don't even go noticed. It matters to us, and I'm thankful for the support as we've grown from a tiny operation in a garage - when collecting playing cards was a tiny niche that was widely dismissed - now to full chain visibility at Target, Walgreens, Walmart, Barnes & Noble, and more. Achieving that, while maintaining the quality standards and 100% original design and craftsmanship we're known for - was, to put it mildly, no easy task. The amount of sleepless nights and early mornings not just of myself, but all of our team members - many of which have been with us since day one 17 years ago, cannot be overstated.

My inbox is always open and if I missed a message from you, I sincerely apologize with the only salvation being that I was probably in the thick of holiday product print deadlines. Please always feel free to reach out to us directly via our support email, and I'll reply personally or tag in the appropriate team member, if it's something beyond my area of knowledge. We care, we listen, and we're always here to help.

With regard to the specific points you flagged, I'll address those here below point by point, and I happily invite any further discussion directly via DM.

1. Re: Star Wars Country Restrictions - this is unfortunately 100% out of our control. When we're working with partners like Disney, we unfortunately have no control over country restrictions of the sort, and we contractually must abide by their requirements of which countries we can sell to (or not). We'd love the ability to sell all of our products to every single country - and most of the time, we can - but with certain partners, we have to abide by their restrictions (due to whatever corporate stuff they have to enforce). I feel you on this one 100%, and we do our best to avoid it whenever possible.

2. Re: damaged decks - Our team has (and always will) replace any damaged products that arrive. We have a stated goal of support response of 12 business hours, but our average support response time this month is 44 minutes (during business hours).

You are absolutely correct that during our warehouse migration earlier this year, there was a span of time when too many packages were not properly padded. This was escalated to the owner of the new warehouse facility - that also houses Go Pro and Beats By Dre - and five of our team members (Chelko, Jon, Hannah, Casey, and Kyra) flew out to the facility in person to ensure it was corrected and communicated. Over the past two months, we've seen damage reports go down to less than 1 out of 2000 packages, although (to be totally transparent), there still is the potential for a warehouse worker to make a mistake and rush too quickly in rare occurrences, especially during peak season. When that happens, we replace the product at our cost, and we escalate it to find out (in a positive, constructive way) how it happened, to get this rate down even more.

3. Re: international postage - We lose money on postage every month. It's a net loss item for us, and we lose thousands of dollars each month on it. Our goal on shipping prices - from the beginning - is just "try not to lose money" - meaning, our ultimate aim is to make $0 on shipping and postage. Shipping costs overall, especially international shipping, has gotten significantly more expensive in recent years. Due to our volume, we get discounted postage rates, and we pass those savings along to customers directly. Even with monthly audits of our shipping costs, we still lose money on shipping, every single month. There has not been a month this year when we haven't lost money on shipping, despite our best efforts to breakeven. To reduce shipping prices further, we're always pushing our shipping partners to use smaller boxes (to reduce dimensional weight), while keeping products safely padded inside.

4. Re: international taxes - these are charged directly by Shopify or Passport, our international shipping partner, and these fees are not collected or controlled by theory11 in any way.

5. New releases - of the products launched this year, the overwhelming majority were totally original, new designs that we're SO FRICKIN' proud of! I'm biased, but I think our creative team knocked this year out of the park, with new designs including:

Outkast (with a red velvet tuck case!), Obey (THREE decks, with IMO one of the coolest box set designs we've ever done), Superman (inspired by the 1938 original comic), Beetlejuice (released with the new movie, and these were actually sold in movie theaters too!), Deadpool (and Wolverine!), Game of Thrones (insanely epic work by Peter Voth), Elf (one of my favorite movies of all time - I think this design nails a perfect blend of elegant and fun), WICKED (directed by our friend Jon Chu, who also directed Now You See Me 2), Star Wars YOTDS (all original, new design!), two original puzzles for Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings - both with all custom design and insane production quality - and more.

At no point in that process were any decisions made based on what would be the cheapest production method - much the contrary. With Game of Thrones - with five foils and production processes - one of our printers called me and said: "don't you think it's a little silly that there's TWO types of gold foil on this design, even though they're very similar in appearance? The cost will be 20% more as a result." Our answer was no - it's critical to the integrity of the design, even if those foils are (admittedly) similar in color. We spare no expense and pursue the best quality final product. The end result - I hope - speaks for itself.

That list doesn't include the 007 Box Set (with a CNC-etched brass pen with a secret compartment in the bottom of the box, devised by magic mastermind Blake Vogt), the Stranger Things Box Set (love the Upside Down edition), Tavern on the Green Red Edition (with gold foil on the cards themselves), 007 Silver Edition, Artisan Silver Edition, and multiple magic releases (Candyman, Phoenix, Notarized).

We're a SMALL team of 11 people, so that list above represents thousands of hours of time and craftsmanship. There are details within those - like the easter eggs in the puzzles - that most people haven't even seen yet, but that represented months of time and hard work on the part of our team. I'm so proud of the end result, and moreso by the process and passion infused in every single one of them.

I hope this response helps shed some light on our process and our progress this year.

We are not perfect and we have, we will, and will continue to make mistakes as we move forward and continue our work. What will not change, though, is our commitment to excellence and genuinely trying to become the best possible company and community we can be.

 

[AlexMaher928]

We're a SMALL team of 11 people, so that list above represents thousands of hours of time and craftsmanship. There are details within those - like the easter eggs in the puzzles - that most people haven't even seen yet, but that represented months of time and hard work on the part of our team. I'm so proud of the end result, and moreso by the process and passion infused in every single one of them.

I hope this response helps shed some light on our process and our progress this year.

We are not perfect and we have, we will, and will continue to make mistakes as we move forward and continue our work. What will not change, though, is our commitment to excellence and genuinely trying to become the best possible company and community we can be.

JB's response is why I am and forever will be a theory11 loyalist. They are not perfect, but their integrity both creatively and in business is top tier. They clearly care, and it shows in their work and communication like this. 🙌