Playingcardsonly/playingcardsindia

[Peter Nordstrand]

Hi there!

Long time no see. I've been preoccupied with ... things. Nevermind.

Here's the question

Have any of you used, or considered using, playingcardsindia.com (apparently they are the same manufacturer that uses this website)?

Please tell me of your experience working with them. They do display Final Twilight on their website, so I assume that daMoose_Neo has used them. Is that correct, Nate?

Is there any other card manufacturer that you can recommend?

But don't bother mentioning all those companies listed elsewhere on this site that don't really specialize in card printing. I know a dozen cheap print on demand shops in my home town that will print and cut up card stock for me, but that's not what I need. I need the rounded corners, the packaging, and the little rules booklet.

Thanks,

/Peter

[cambridgegames]

Hi there -- I'm using them for the upcoming edition of Glory To Rome.

www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/170137

So far they've been excellent -- very responsive to questions; ran a dozen different quotes for me, great pricing for a fairly short print run (7,500 decks) -- I really couldn't be happier.

I can't speak to their shipping process (haven't received the product yet) but given the professionalism they've displayed so far I'm not expecting any problems; if the quality of my final decks matches the samples they sent I'll be a very, very happy customer!

Cheers,

Ed

[Thenomain]

7,500 is a short print run?  Wow, what do you do if you only want five hundred?

[Peter Nordstrand]

Thank you Ed. Please tell me more once you've recieved the cards.

Kent, either you contribute to the topic of this thread or you should go back to lurking.

[Ron Edwards]

Well, better late than never. I should have moderated this right away and forgot it. So, twelve days late ...

Peter, that was a rude post. For one thing, if someone posts inappropriately (as you see it), then click the "report post" link. For another, there is no license to be obnoxious here, even if someone does post in a way which you think isn't right.

Moderator ruling: Kent's post is not out of line. It's a legitimate question that Ed can answer if he wants.

Best, Ron

[Peter Nordstrand]

Acknowledged.

[daMoose_Neo]

Ah! Also late ^_^

Cool, they've got Twilight on the site? Neato ^_^
As for the company:
A) E-mail correspondence, awesome, great help.
No, you won't hardly find anyone to do 500 decks, and really shipping that few from India, it would cost as much to ship as it would to print. 2000~ give or take is their bare minimum. Still better than US printers, where 1k of product will cost you 7k in cash. So, for the money, not too shabby at all.
B) Shipping, quite pokey. Part of it was my overall inexperiance with this kind of thing. I wasn't aware of, nor did they inform me, of what the exact process was. I opted for the cheaper method, the sea. Took more than a month to reach US shores. Its shipped to the nearest port and dropped off at a warehouse there. The warehouse contacts you (or at least this one contacted me, others may have a different process) and let me know it was in, and that I would have to pay a set of broker fees to finalize the shipment and customs stuff, another $350 if I recall correctly. From there, it has to reach you; my order came from the other side of Michigan (Detroit, I live in Ludington, polar opposite). That would have been almost $500 to ship it via a freight truck, so I paid for gas and my dad and I drove to Detroit to pick them up.
C) Quality: Varies wildly. Its more obvious with Twilight because I printed the entire set as my "deck" and then repacked, so its not uncommon to see four different shades of one card. Most of it is ink saturation; some are horridly dark and you can't see anything, some are incredibly faint. It could also be with the shorter run, I got more of the questionable quality results, as 2k is small fry compared to some of the other runs.

Kent; if you're looking for shorter runs, it'll cost you an arm and a leg. I'm working on some stuff, its been a few months since I discussed it,  but it seems the more likely thing is going to be printing yourself or having someone print for you on 110lb cover stock (My dad purchased a high volume printer a couple years back and never bothered to tell me, lol. Once he digs it out of storage, I may have more to talk about!). Otherwise, you're looking at a couple thousand for that 500, if you can find someone able to do it. If you're selling direct, it may not be a bad deal, but if you're going through any kind of distribution its no way to do business.

[daMoose_Neo]

Oops, forgot one other thing:
The box for Twilight was originally designed as a navy blue, and I proofed it as such. The end result was that gold colored box you see in the pics and what I've had available. Dunno why that is.

[Peter Nordstrand]

That's very helpful. Thank you.

[darnest]

Just for information I found a very strong printer who will do short runs of cards.  Quality is very good and they are pretty easy to work with.  They are caled Midwest Graphics and they are out of Chicago.  Contact them from their web site www.mwg-chicago.com and feel free to tell them Lee from roleplayersINK sent you.  might help might not...

Thanx

[Peter Nordstrand]

Thank you for the tip. Unfortunately, printing short runs in the US is not an option for me. I live in Sweden and the shipping alone makes such a venture unreasonably expensive. Any Swedish alternative would be cheaper.

Best,

/Peter