Who wants a grayscale card game???

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Wednesday, September 09, 2009 - 09:43 am: Edit

Thats what we get twice per year out of the CLog for SFBF and/or FC? No one seems to be complaining there. SFB has been grayscale its whole life. Seems to have done okay there.

If I had to choose I would choose grayscale game to no game at all which is what we are getting at this point.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, September 09, 2009 - 10:54 am: Edit

The problem is not color, it's the cards. Once you pay for "real cards" (stiff "snappy" stock, satin finish, rounded corners) you've paid 80% of the cost of full color cards.

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Wednesday, September 09, 2009 - 11:10 am: Edit

To me it is of prime importance that expansion cards blend with the original deck.

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Wednesday, September 09, 2009 - 07:00 pm: Edit

Yeah I was afraid (and kind of figured) that it was the cards themselves and that the color, while not an inexpensive process, was in this case ancillary to the cost of having 'real cards'.

I too would prefer a seamless infusion of the expansion and I would also purchase the original set and the expansion because my original set is rather 'weathered'. Untill then I will just continue with the sleeves. I do hope that the CLog can continue to produce a page or two of expansion cards to keep the SFBF'ers interest going.

By Michael Bennett (Mike) on Wednesday, September 09, 2009 - 08:07 pm: Edit

I'm just sayin...with the type of game that SFBF is (a card game that is not-so-serious), it *has* to appeal to a wider range of gamers. Hence, color cards.

Is the cost of making cards as great as it used to be? Could the original cards be reprinted in a format that would match future expansion cards? Are there too many SFBF game sets in the warehouse to "throw away" the old type of cards?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, September 10, 2009 - 11:07 am: Edit

There are thousands of decks in the warehouse that cost about $2 per deck.

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Thursday, September 10, 2009 - 11:45 am: Edit

Stickers!! Make new cards from stickers on old warehouse decks!



(cheap if you don't count the tonns of labor... maybe we stick our own?)

Anyway, yeah... no.

By Mike West (Mjwest) on Thursday, October 01, 2009 - 02:55 pm: Edit

One idea I was wondering about is, would it be possible to take the SFBF PDFs available in the SFBF Download section, combine them into a single PDF, colorize them, then sell them through e23 for a nominal price?

OK, OK, of course it is "possible". However, does that sound worthwhile?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, October 02, 2009 - 10:49 am: Edit

It would be less trouble to do small runs of real cards. I just haven't had time. With the new management system, I may be able to find time in a month or two.

By Phil Shanton (Mxslade) on Saturday, November 07, 2009 - 11:48 am: Edit

I'll post this here:

I have two promo cards from SFBF and if anyone's interested in them email me with your address and I'll send them to you.

By Phil Shanton (Mxslade) on Sunday, November 08, 2009 - 07:48 pm: Edit

Cards are spoken for and in the mail.

By William F. Hostman (Aramis) on Tuesday, December 08, 2009 - 02:56 pm: Edit

If one is using card sleeves with opaque backs, print-your-own cards work really well just by using 110# card and sleeving them. My local wal*mart carries 110# card stock in letter size.

I've done that for several games.

That said, I'll buy PDF card games occasionally, and I print them on 110# card, laminate with clear con*tac paper, and then cut... produces a card with less weight than sleeved, but still very damage resistant.

And 110# runs nicely through most printers.

Oh, and a thought on the "oversized" cards: perhaps they could include a standard sized ship card that shows the silhouette and points, and says "use the oversized card", for those who want the monstrosities in their decks.

By Raymond Cameron (Whitewind) on Friday, January 15, 2010 - 07:37 pm: Edit

Hey dreamers just droping by to say hi. I did not know they made card sleeves in this size. I have to check it out!

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, January 16, 2010 - 11:06 am: Edit

Stop buy in a couple of months. If I get beyond F&E 2010, PDF, and FA before I get buried in CL#41, I may have a few hours to get something done about this.

By Xander Fulton (Dderidex) on Thursday, April 15, 2010 - 03:27 pm: Edit

Stickers. Small (0.5" square? 1" square?) stickers.

I'd REALLY like to see, in a "Captain's Log", if possible (if not, a download from the site would be great - adhesive paper is easy enough to find) full-color stickers for SFBF cards.

Specifically, to flag certain cards as having multiple purposes with rules expansions. For example, a "Fusion Beam" square sticker that could be put in a corner somewhere on the 'Disruptor' card to serve as a reminder that it can also be used to fire a Fusion Beam. Or a "Hellbore" sticker to put on the 'Photon Torpedo' card. Or "ESG" sticker to put on the 'Drone' cards in your deck, etc.

Something like this, perhaps (please forgive the crudeness of the mockup).

By Shawn Hantke (Shantke) on Thursday, April 15, 2010 - 08:23 pm: Edit

How about something like this, this website says you can print a deck of cards with your own back and up to 54 different pictures on the front. Link: http://www.make-a-deck.com/

They have a sister site that can print just a picture on one side. Maybe they could leave the other side blank? Link: http://www.yourplayingcards.com/index.php

By Shawn Hantke (Shantke) on Thursday, April 15, 2010 - 08:26 pm: Edit

This site:
http://www.yourplayingcards.com/card_styles.php
part of the above says the do do game card decks.

By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Thursday, April 15, 2010 - 09:48 pm: Edit

Shawn, Did you check the prices at Make a Deck? If you get 100, it is $16 per deck, not counting S&H. That means to sell it to wholesalers is probably double that and to sell it to you is probably double that! (That seems to be the way it works in the book publishing industry.)

The Your playing cards site is charging $9 for 100. Only if you go up to 1000, does it drop to $4 and that's $4000 tied up in inventory. If they sell 100 through mail order and 100 through wholesalers, that would yield $1600 the first year and they'd have to pay inventory tax on the other 800 of the things. It would take 3 years to turn a profit at that rate. The real price would likely have to be around $30 to pay for advertising, artists' fees, and the day-to-day stuff that supports the business. That price would mean that fewer would be sold and that will cut into profits. (People have a visceral feeling when they have to pull out two $20 bills, not just one.)

I don't know how Leanna would like that timeframe ... I know it would make me nervous.

Please note that I am making up numbers based on what I know of the book industry and that has NOTHING to do with the gaming industry.

By Phil Shanton (Mxslade) on Thursday, April 15, 2010 - 09:53 pm: Edit

Actually, I'd like to see the next printing done like this:

http://www.kling.com/index.html

http://www.kling.com/magneticplayingcardsindex.html

By Shawn Hantke (Shantke) on Thursday, April 15, 2010 - 11:51 pm: Edit

Jean, I was refering those links more to the guys that wanted a single blank deck, SVC said printing a blank deck would not be worth it for him to print as it would cost the same as a deck with printing on both sides.

By Xander Fulton (Dderidex) on Thursday, April 15, 2010 - 11:59 pm: Edit

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Quote:

Jean, I was refering those links more to the guys that wanted a single blank deck, SVC said printing a blank deck would not be worth it for him to print as it would cost the same as a deck with printing on both sides

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By Shawn Hantke (Shantke) on Friday, April 16, 2010 - 12:03 am: Edit

For a full on SFBF expansion, maybe one of these links could get some cards printed cheap.
http://www.delanoservice.com/
http://www.chicagogameandcard.com/
SVC could ask SJ were they go for printing, they have had a zillion Munchkin cards printed by now.

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Friday, April 16, 2010 - 01:10 am: Edit

Inventory tax boggels my mind. If you buy a bunch of stuff and keep it over the tax year you have to pay more to keep it? That's criminal. A tax specifically designed to punish business for investing in the future.

By Jonathan Biggar (Jonb) on Friday, April 16, 2010 - 03:00 am: Edit

It's not mind boggling if you think like a politician:

"if business is good, they sell stuff and make a profit and we get to collect income tax. However, if business is bad, they don't sell stuff, so we get to collect inventory tax to make up for lost income taxes."

For a politician, that's win-win. It doesn't matter one whit to them whether it's economically sound or not.