X's Stone Soup Project (free army cards and more)

[Xorlof]

Want to play some C3G/C3V/SoV, but wish you had official-looking cards to make the experience just that much better? Well, you've come to the right place. Coming soon, I'll be sending free* pre-cut army cards printed on high-quality semi-gloss card stock. They are two-sided prints (comic and mini sides for C3G/basic and advanced sides for C3V) and look very close to the Hasbro cards.

UPDATE: HoSS and Project Pokemon now also allow me to print their cards! The HoSS cards will have the project's official card back on the second side. PP's will have a generic Pokemon graphic on the second side.

I saw the asterisk next to "free." What's the catch?
Not much, really. You've got to send me the stamps I'll use to send your cards back to you. If you're in the U.S. I could send you a 5 cards with 1 first class stamp (45 cents). If goes up from there; for example, 15 cards weigh about 2 oz. and thus would require a total of 65 cents of stamps. Full details in the spoiler.

Spoiler Alert!

To calculate postage, you first need to know how much your package weighs (1, 2, or 3 ounces):

-- Ordering 1 - 5 items: 1 oz rate
-- Ordering 6 - 15 items: 2 oz rate
-- Ordering 16 - 25 items: 3 oz rate

Grithog cards only count as half an item, weight-wise. For example, you could can order 10 grithog cards for the 1 oz rate, instead of the usual 5. Once you know the weight, consult this chart to know how much postage to send:

-- 1 oz: 0.45 / 2 oz: 0.65 / 3 oz: 0.85 -- if in US/US territories
-- 1 oz: 0.85 / 2 oz: 1.17 / 3 oz: 1.49 -- if in Canada
-- 1 oz: 0.85 / 2 oz: 1.44 / 3 oz: 2.03 -- if in Mexico
-- 1 oz: 1.05 / 2 oz: 1.92 / 3 oz: 2.79 -- if in E. Asia, Europe, Australia
-- 1 oz: 1.05 / 2 oz: 1.85 / 3 oz: 2.65 -- if in W. Asia, Africa, New Zealand, Latin America / Carribean

Note: a "forever" stamp is worth 45 cents, so if you send two of them that would more than cover 3 oz of postage for U.S. destinations.

Another "catch" is that I'm rolling out eligibility to use the service out in waves and imposing limits on how many you can order each month. This is done to avoid too many orders all at once. Here's the projected timeline of when various people can begin ordering cards:

• NOW: C3V/C3G/HoSS/PP members (current or former), site supporters, members with 12+ rep squares
• Nov: Above plus members with 6+ rep squares
• Dec: Above plus members with 3+ rep squares
• Jan: Above plus members with 2+ rep squares or non-negative rep and 2-years on site

So some of you many not be able to order for a while. Sorry. Perhaps I'll get fewer orders than I expect and will move up the timeline. Check back here for the latest.

Once you're eligible to use the service, you can request up to 10 cards per calendar month. Site supporters and 12+ rep people get an additional 10 cards per month. And members of customs groups get an additional 10 cards from their group each month. So, if you are (for example) a site-supporting C3G member, then beginning in October you can order 10 cards from the C3G list plus an additional 20 cards from any group.

No matter how many cards you can request, please make sure they are cards you will actually use. Every card you order costs me money. It is well-spent if it means another custom is getting used, but it is money-wasted if the card just sits in a box somewhere, and that money should have been used to get a card to someone who is going to use it.

Will you print Hasbro/WoTC cards for me?
Sorry, no-can-do, at least at this point. What I can do is send you Grithog's playing card sized cards instead. They are a very nice substitute, and I prefer their size and shape over the originals. Don't try to convince me otherwise regarding printing Hasbro cards--your petition will be ignored. However, if you happen to know somebody at Hasbro or WoTC who could give me permission to print their cards, then I'm all ears! I've already tried going through the standard customer service channels.

OK, I promise I won't ask about Hasbro cards, but what about other customs? Will you print those?
One of the goals of this army card printing service is to promote the use of quality customs. "Quality" is subjective, so for purposes of this project, I will define a quality card as one whose development has a formal process with multiple independent playtesters informing the final product. If your customs project meets this guideline and you want your cards included in this service, PM me and I'll get it added. (HoSS and Project Pokemon have already done so. Other qualifying groups, such as Heroes of Fiction, just have to let me know it's OK.)

Alright, so how do I go about ordering?
Well, when you qualify (see schedule above), send a PM to me with a list of which cards you're interested in. Put "xxxxx Stone Soup Order" in the subject line, where xxxxx is the current month. I'll confirm your order with a PM and give you an total of how much postage is needed and what address to send the stamps to. Don't expect an immediate reply to your initial PM since I'll only be processing these order requests weekly.

How quickly will my cards arrive?
Not quickly, usually. After the initial surges of orders, I anticipate doing a print run only every few weeks, so if you happen to order cards right after a particular print run, it'll be a few weeks before I do another one and after that there's all the cutting and mailing...it can take a while. If time is of the essence, check with me first for a time estimate.

What do you mean by "free army cards AND MORE" in this thread's title?
I also offer free plastic sleeves for your army cards. The plastic sleeves are those clear plastic CD/DVD sleeves with a flap. Ordering plastic sleeves does not count toward your 10 card limit. You can order as many as you want up to the 3 oz weight limit. For example, if you order 5 cards you can order 20 sleeves (5+20=25 items, the max for 3 oz rate).

Beyond that, I'd like to expand this project in several ways. There are still things to work out, but we'll get there in due time. Here are some areas I'm headed:

• If you've got spare official Hasbro cards, please send them along with if you're already sending me postage for a card order, and I'll keep a list them here (crediting you). If someone needs one, I'll send them out their requested. You can actually do this now if you'd like. I don't need nor will I keep any of them. I'll just send them on to others for free. This is a little bit like the great Free Army Card Exchange, but with one person acting as a clearinghouse.
• Free pre-printed base stickers
• Free Heroscape-style bases (for rebasing minis)
• Free minis. Not super-desirable ones, but useful and, yeah, free.

Misc notes: Thank you to all of the customs groups who have given me the OK to print their cards. / This free service is intended for your personal use, not for any resale or even gifting purposes. / C3G has asked me to point out that this project is not endorsed by C3G. / I only print finalized cards, not draft cards. / Yes, I can print the Samuel Brown card because Hasbro said that fans can freely print it--it is the only exception to the "no Hasbro card" rule.

This project takes it's name from the stone soup folk story. I see us all working together on this site, helping one another. Inspired by others on the site, this project is me throwing some carrots into the pot.

[caps]

Sweet!

As a C3V Public Access Member whose "term" ends in mid-October (I think), will I get the same privileges as that group?

[Xorlof]

Correct. Even if it expired (for example) mid-September, you'd still be OK. All current and former members of both groups get the October "privilege level." I guess I should clarify the no-set-limit on ordering applies just to group(s) you are a member of (or former member of). So there's no-set-limit for you on C3V cards, but if you order from the C3G cards, you'll be limited to 10 per month the same as anybody.

I reserve the right to deny service to anybody if I feel they are not participating in the good-neighborly manner it is offered (i.e., trying to exploiting it (not that I would think you'd do so, caps)). But yeah, if you anticipate using all C3V/SoV figures, go ahead and order all of the cards.

[IAmBatman]

Not to be a skeptic, because this sounds like an awesome service to the community and you are clearly both a gentleman and a patriot, but how can you afford to print all of these cards for folks for free?

[Xorlof]

Pretty simple. I've set a monthly budget line-item for the project and will tweak the parameters until the project falls in line with the budget. In other words, if going over budget, there will be greater limits on who can order and how many cards they can order. If I'm consistently running a surplus the parameters will be tweaked in the other direction. I've also worked hard to keep costs down. My out of pocket expenses are about 18 cents per card, and there is opportunity to lower that further.

The "monthly budget" for the project has actually been accumulating since April of this year, so I've got quite a bit built up to hopefully cover the initial bursts of orders. Even if it doesn't, I'm willing to be a little "loosey-goosey" with the budget for a few months.

[IAmBatman]

Cool. Thanks for the quick answer.

Another quick question - considering the volume of cutting you're looking at, in the interest of you not getting arthritis out of this, have you considered investing in a die cutter at all? (Granted, that'd probably set your budget back a few months, but it'd certainly save you tons of time and energy moving forward from there if all went to plan). GreyOwl talked a lot about getting such a thing back in the day.

[Xorlof]

Yes, I use the KNK Zing. NO WAY am I hand cutting all of those, and no way could I do it as precisely as the machine. Working on the last kinks with the die cutter is why the project isn't launching now. It's been a pain.

This machine isn't quite as convenient as something like the Silhoutte die-cutter, but is much more durable and doesn't cost a fortune to operate when cutting card stock.

[IAmBatman]

Ah, cool. You're five steps ahead of me. Carry on, then.

I might have to take advantage of this eventually, since Staples got uptight with me last time I went there to print, but all my printing needs are currently unreleased, so not in this cycle.

I wonder if it'd be kosher to accept donations for this service? I just feel bad that you're shouldering so much here at personal expense when you're doing such a great service to the community. Maybe something to think about?

[Xorlof]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

I might have to take advantage of this eventually, since Staples got uptight with me last time I went there to print, but all my printing needs are currently unreleased, so not in this cycle.

Yeah, I stay out of areas I haven't been invited to. If C3G allows me to peek in at some point, perhaps after this thing has been running for a while, that would help me with being able to get an early start before each new wave comes out. As it is, when a new wave comes out, I can tool up pretty quickly. For C3G, it's actually dependent on when Snappleman's updates his PNGs, since I piggyback on that work to make things easier for me. (I don't use his handy program for actually printing the cards though--I print them out on larger sheets of paper to keep costs down).

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

I wonder if it'd be kosher to accept donations for this service? I just feel bad that you're shouldering so much here at personal expense when you're doing such a great service to the community. Maybe something to think about?

I'd love to, as it would stretch the budget, but there are reasons I'd rather not go into right here. I'll PM you about this.

[Arch-vile]

This really is a fantastic thing you are doing for the community, Xorlof. I too was amazed you were doing this all funded by yourself, not to mention the cutting involved. If I ever get extra minis or Army Cards I'll be sure and send them your way.

[Jim]

Cool! I may have to take advantage of this for the C3G stuff I have gotten figures for...

[IAmBatman]

Thanks, X. Good notes. Carry on!