LSToast · @LSToast
19th Aug 2019 from TwitLonger
Typing on my phone at some point of the day part 4
What’s that? I missed like 15 nights? I don’t have any topics in mind to write about? It’s past my bed time? Am I trying to hard to think of actually interesting and semi relatable topics because I feel like it is now expected? Have I turned what was supposed to be a simple, fun and relaxing habit into a stressful task of trying to impress people?
Anyhow, that’s not what I want this to become so I’m gunna talk about THE FASCINATING WORLD OF CARDISTRY AND THE COLLECTABLE CARD INDUSTRY SURROUNDING IT.
Cardistry is the art of card flourishing. Although it is related to magic in the sense that you are using a deck of cards in a rather impressive manner, it isn’t magic. I was fairly into magic as a kid but never really put the time or effort into becoming good at it. I had some books, a couple dvds, few card decks, and even spent $20 on FLOAT THIS (which, to no ones surprise, was a bunch of thread and a lump of wax). I didn’t really discovery cardistry till the launch of Virtuoso’s S/S 15 deck. Virtuoso has an interesting business model where you can get one deck for free if you just pay shipping. They have a deck specifically designed for cardistry and they want everyone to have access to it. The decks sold for I believe $15 each (after you got your first free deck). However, looking at launch edition and the S/S 14 decks at the time you would generally see them selling on eBay for $200 and $100. This is due to the limited nature of each run of cards. I’m not sure how many decks were made for these editions, but the rarity and the hype surrounding the company not only made their older decks go up in price but also the demand for their new ones to jump. Seeing these resale prices made me want to grab a few decks, hold them for a few years and turn a profit. However, as the decks continued the resale prices dropped off. The launch edition sells for about $150 now, the 14 for $50, the 15 for $35 and 16/17 decks for a few dollars above retail. And I’ve wondered what caused this.
It could be due to the repetitive deck design causing a lack of interest. Maybe the sparse yearly releases didn’t keep the hype of the company going. Or maybe an oversaturation of their decks in the market drove resale prices down. I can’t be sure of any of these. Looking at them today, they haven’t released a deck in two years and they are very few of their decks left on eBay. It’s not to say their last deck didn’t sell well, I think it sold out in under an hour. Their last promo video “rise” hit over 1 million views on YouTube. I’m sure if they released a new deck it would do just as well. But even if the company is doing well, why aren’t the resale prices?
This brings be to the main company I want to focus on: Fontaine. Fontaine is a card deck that started off as a red background with two Fs on it. That’s it. Fontaine started out on indiegogo with a price of $12 a deck and a run of 2500 cards. They had a goal of $10,000 and reached over $21k. After the VERY successful launch, they moved to kickstarter for their second deck. Same design but blue. Same price at $12. But this time they upped the run to 5,000 decks with a new goal of $20k. And they reached over $67k. By this point red Fontaines were selling for upwards of $60 each. Again, they changed the color to black with a run of 5,000 and a goal of $20k. Got around $61k. Pink Fontaines I believe were the first non crowdfunded release of Fontaines and have the most interesting market value. Again, a release of 5,000 but this time at a price of $15. Green Fontaines, 5000, $15. Now sleight is where things started to change. Sleight Fontaines are a dark navy blue colored deck made after the release of the movie sleight. In the movie black Fontaines were used, but they wanted to make a deck similar to what was seen in the movie but also special. However, the most important thing is they doubled the amount of decks to 10,000. After this Fontaine started collabing with other companies, first Carrots (now at three editions and a limited v3 edition with gold edge and only 1/200), then Chinatown market, then Guess (TWO DECKS), then RipNDip, and now I think two more Guess decks, along with two surprise releases of watermelon and chocolate Fontaines.
So back to my original point. Resale value. During the release of Chinatown Fontaines, they decided to do a deadstock sale of old decks they had been holding onto for lower than resale prices. Now this is where I join the hype train. They dropped a few reds, a lot of blues, some blacks, a few pinks, some greens, but I don’t think any carrots. I picked up three blue fontaines for $15 each. I think red fontaines were in the $100-$150 range at the time and blues were in the $50 range. Everything sold out pretty quick. You didn’t really see the red fontaines. After this sale blue fontaines dropped a bit in resale due to the sudden addition of more decks into the market. Down to like $35-$40. Slowly everything continued to rise. Now we get to cardistry con this year, with another deadstock sale. With basically every deck ever for pretty cheap prices. I picked up more than I should have. But I noticed there were ALOT of blue fontaines. More or less everything sold out pretty fast except for Chinatown and blue fontaines. But it got me thinking, would this HUGE sale impact the market even more? Having decks in stock for way less than retail for several days made it seem like it should have a decent impact on the market. And yeah, again, the decks that stayed in stock for a while ended up dipping a little on eBay, but not by much. OH not to mention chocolate fontaines were dropped DURING the deadstock sale. Sold out eventually, I think 5,000?
Red fontaines are higher than ever at upwards of $500. Pink fontaines at $100. Blue fontaines STILL HOVERING AROUND $50 IM NOT SALTY OK IM JUST
But then cardistry con hit. And oh boy ZACH HDJWKDJFBEND. Fontaine futures. 6 new decks. But all in blind packs. And all different rarities.
Parrot Edition: 1 of 3000 decks printed.
Floral Edition: 1 of 2500 decks printed.
Window Edition: 1 of 2000 decks printed.
Polka Edition: 1 of 1500 decks printed.
Glitch Edition: 1 of 1000 decks printed.
500 Edition: 1 of 500 decks printed.
And hard core collectors need to buy HOW MANY BLIND BOXES TO GET EVERY DECK? Cardistry con was insane, to the point where they were limiting how many decks people could buy. The online release sold out in under a minute due to bots. Resale prices for a blind pack is over $30 a deck, and opened packs with confirmed editions can sell from $25 to over $200 for a 500.
Resale values are still climbing for their decks, they have two more guess decks coming out this year and are dropping the rest of futures online. Zach has created an insane brand out of just a simple design on some cards. I’d be so concerned about flooding the market and killing off the hype with over production, but even dropping deadstock, chocolate fontaines and futures all in one week (maybe almost 20,000 decks?) everything is sold out. Whatever decks he held onto are worth more than before. I’m just amazed how things like this exist in the world. Companies that have created their own demand to the point where they sell everything they produce. It’s really cool to me.
I feel like this is really more than a deck of cards. When you spend $16 on a pack of futures, you get so many things. First, you get the adrenaline rush and hype because YOU ACTUALLY MADE IT THROUGH CHECK OUT AND GOT A DECK. You get a blind package that you have the hype of opening. You have a deck that is ultra rare and hype. And you are in a community of like minded people who are stoked on learning new moves and having fun. It’s a product that comes with and experience that keeps you following the company. Rather than the company following you.
When you get an email advertising a product because you signed up for their news letter, you probably don’t get hyped at all, you just try to get off that email list. But for me, getting an email from Fontaine is exciting. I want to hear more about what their doing. I want to see their latest deck. I want to know when it drops and how I can get it. And I know this isn’t exclusive to Fontaine, or even companies like supreme.
As someone who was going to major in business administration with an interest in entrepreneurship, I want to know what made this company this way. How did they get to the point they are at? What makes the special compared to grabbing a deck of bicycle playing cards at Walmart? What other products can this kind of marketing work on? What could I create that might blow up into this kind of community surrounding a brand? It’s just interesting to me.
Some paper. But hype. So paper worth $500 now POG.
Anyways, a lot of hobbies I have gotten into have that one HYPE brand that everyone just wants. I saw this with CLYW in yoyos. CLYW ended up oversaturating the market and although they still sell well that don’t have that same driven following. I think this is because you don’t really need all 40 models in 10 different color ways each for upwards of $150 each. With yoyos, you need to keep things limited so you don’t get too much out there, but at the same time you need to get stuff out there to become more well known. Finding that balance is difficult. Card decks have a much lower price point and are easier to collect and store at your house.
Anyways I’m starting to ramble at this point since I haven’t really thought through how this is supposed to end. Fontaine is special. That’s about it.
Next time on typing on my phone I talk about how water is actually just a giant ditto.
Not actually I have no clue what to write about LIKE RETWEET SUBSCRIBE FOLLOW AND COMMENT TOPIC IDEAS BELOW FOR A CHANCE TO WIN A FREE HALF OFF VOUCHER FOR ABSOLUTELY NOTHING