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The Alleyman's Tarot

Created by SevenThirteenBooks

Get your own copy of this one-time printing, incredibly unique deck. The Alleyman's Tarot was the #1 most funded (and by far the most backed) tarot kickstarter ever. Made up of 137-cards from various decks, old and modern, the deck is a small art museum that fits in your hand and that divines smoothly. With the Booster Packs, you can include additional cards in the deck to replace or support the pre-existing cards. Grab your box, cloth, and bag while you're at it, and a X/O coin and poker chip, and see what the Alleyman has to tell you.

Latest Updates from Our Project:

The First Wave of Orders is TOMORROW!
about 2 years ago – Fri, Mar 11, 2022 at 05:23:18 AM

First of all, if you want general update information on the project, the shipping timelines, etc, see the update I posted last week


That update also has info on if you are unclear what your shipping address was, if you ever filled out the survey or not (19,836 of you did, no worries-- I'm only waiting on 596 people), check the last update. Please do not message me asking what your ordered or where your specific package is, all the info you need is in the last update. I say this because there are 20,000 of you and only one of me, so I go to lengths to make sure I provide all the info you need to find information on your surveys or orders on your own to save me from confirming 100+ orders every time I put out an update haha. It's faster for everone! :P Thank you!

Second, I included a link for people to donate if they want to to help cover the rise in shipping costs. It was overwhelming and rapid. So many of you pledged so much extra support, and I saw $7,000!!! come in. Thank you so much, this alleviates my worries so much. It didn't cover all the extra costs, but I can do that without fear for making rent for now. Thank you.


And an aside: because I saw people saying it again. My part in getting the project out on time ended almost 6 months ago. Perhaps 7 at this point. Once I sent in the print files, the project's fulfillment was entirely out of my hands. So me promoting the facebook page (which is fan run and I have nothing to do with), or the discord (which a fan set up and I vaguely monitor), doing daily tarot readings, or working on the podcast these last two months has had ZERO impact on the speed with which the project is reaching completion. Every single bit of our delays has been due to the size of the project exploding from an expected 1,000 backers at max to being 20,000 backers plus additional preorders, COVID, and the supply chain crisis. None of the extra things I'm doing or offering affected the speed at which this project was completed in any way, positively or negatively.  They just exist to give you something fun to do. : )


THE FIRST ORDERS ARE GOING OUT!

YES! The first 10,000 US and Canadian orders arrived in the states, got a little delayed on the coast, but as of today were picked up and on the way to the warehouse. The printer/fulfillment team at New Titan Print are telling me that every single one of those should be entering the mail tomorrow, Friday the 11th. 

When they enter the mail, you will get an automated email from them with tracking information. The US orders are going through USPS. 

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

... is the email address you should be looking out for, and where you can send inquiries about shipments in the future.

If your package gets lost, if you had the wrong address for whatever reason, that is the email you will reach out to in order to get things fixed. I will not be able to help with any orders except for the 1200 Im handling in later April, which are the signed ones, the 'touched' decks, the ones with hand-made items in them.


THE REST OF THE ORDERS?

I gave the latest info I had in the previous update, but in summary, remaining 6,000 US and Canadian orders should be shipping and going out/arriving to people in April, as should the 4,000 EU, African, Asian, Australian, South American, etc orders.  

With any luck, by the end of April, the orders should all be in people's hands. There will likely be some delays for packages that get rerouted, lost in transit, or for people who moved in the last month or two and couldn't update their addresses until now (let the customer support email know!), but the people with New Titan Print will get you taken care of if you reach out to them at the email I gave above. Not a single one of you will end the year (or hopefully May) without your pledge rewards, no matter what!


THE TOUCHED BY THE ALLEYMAN ORDERS? SIGNED ORDERS? ORDERS WITH HANDMADE ITEMS?

I should have my 1200 or so orders that I have to complete in hand in mid to late April. I will prioritize orders that just have hand-made items in them first, then the Signed copies. That should cover 700 of the orders I need to handle, and should be doable within two weeks time, hopefully going into the mail before the end of April.

The Touched decks will be my priority at that point. I will work diligently and thoroughly to get them done as fast as possible, but please remember that originally those decks were going to be done in batches of 100 every month. If I stuck to that, I would do a batch of 100 ASAP and try to get them out mid May, then a batch in June, one in July, one in August, and one in September. I fully intend to be launching a new project when the majority of orders are done because I have 3 projects that got super delayed by how long the Alleyman's has taken to complete. So I really don't want to be doing touched decks all the way into September-- plus I don't think anyone wants to wait that long. I certainly wouldn't!

So I will be working as hard as possible to get them done and into the mail as soon as possible. I'd like to say that I will have them done and in the mail to people by the start of June at the latest. I'll keep "touched" backers apprised as I begin the process and get a real feel for how long it takes to do.


I'm so excited for the next 30~ days as people begin getting theirs in the states and international packages start going out and-- just in general I'm so excited to see people get their items! Please tag me on Twitter (@daneasmund), instagram (@publishinggoblin), tumblr (@publishinggoblin), etc! I can't wait to see it all get into your hands!

We made something truly remarkable together, thanks for joining me on the journey!


(reminder that I'll be updating more frequently now because we're in the final phase as things go out, so I want people up to date on that!)


7DA, your Pub Gob

The Current Delays | Future Decks | The Podcast Heats Up!
about 2 years ago – Thu, Mar 03, 2022 at 03:32:11 AM

First of all, hello! I'm sorry I'm making so many updates in a row now, but we're getting into the busiest time of things coming through and going out. I will be making updates whenever I get new info on the shipping, good or bad.  First a few things.


1) If you are not sure if you ever did your survey, or want to check what you sent in, what your address was, follow this old update. You must fill out the survey and pay shipping costs to get your items. 

2) I cannot and have not been able to change addresses for a while. Please do not ask*. (Also I said I couldn't do refunds of any kind late last year. That's still true. The money doesn't exist to give back to you.) After we get packages out and it's clear some are going to the wrong addresses/get returned to us, we will open communication for you to tell us about your new address at that time if you didn't get it updated in time. You will get your package, no matter what. No one is just 'out their money' because it went to the wrong address the first time.  That's never been the case, never will be.

3) *You CAN have your address changed if you had a signed copy, a 'touched' copy, or if you ordered the $200 or $400 wooden boxes, or the $250 patchwork bags or the $25 hand-made drawstring patchwork bags. To do so, you MUST message me on Kickstarter or email me at [email protected]. Tell me your new address and who you are on the kickstarter by name, or with your order number, or your email used on kickstarter. Thank you. (Unsure what you ordered? Go follow bullet point #1. DO NOT ASK ME. <3)


SHIPPING

I got an update mid-last week that the 10,000 orders that were on their way to the US got delayed a bit. Most notably, they were off the coast of the US for a few days for no discernible reason. Like the boat wasn't allowed to dock I guess? What I understand is that the packages should be mailed out by the 15th of March now. Please be on the lookout for packages coming from LA. You should get shipping notices by email, so be sure to check spam folders over these next two weeks.  A couple weeks delay isn't too bad at this point, so I'll take it!


Now the rougher news. I want to be clear that ocean freight is brutal right now. It's wildly expensive, it's unpredictable, it's overbooked-- it's just a mess. COVID and the supply chain crisis are making things that used to be cheap and easy extremely complicated and difficult. 

At this time, the rough guess for when the remaining 6000 US and Canada orders, and the ones I'm handling, will arrive to the US is April. 

Know that things are on the way, and that New Titan, the printers, are getting Guaranteed Expedited service for the remaining US and Canada orders, so they may arrive earlier than April. 


When I get my pallets of items, I will be focusing first on the non-touched orders. Things that just have a hand-made item in the package or that are signed I can get done pretty rapidly to get it back in the mail to you. The touched decks were always going to be later than everything else, but I will give them my full attention as soon as I can to get them out the door in a quick fashion.


UK and EU orders should arrive by the end of April, with the War potentially delaying it a bit.

AU orders should arrive end of March into early April.

Asian countries should see packages end of March into early April.

and remaining countries in Africa, South America, and a few European countries will be likely late April.

These ones have largely stayed the same!


THE INCREASE OF COSTS

First, I want to be clear that there is no increase of costs to any of you at this time. However, I way undersold these decks, and I undercharged for shipping. I overpaid the artists who worked on the project (literally I misquoted them at one point what the bonus was and decided to go with it even though it was more than it was supposed to be). I have always been bad at capitalism, I want things to be affordable for people. I want artists to make what their worth. Always. As much as possible. 


With the increased costs of shipping, of freight, etc, I am going to be paying back what I earned from the campaign to the project to afford getting your packages shipped. That really sucks.  I have always been transparent on this campaign on where the money went. I paid myself $75,000 for the year+ of work I did on this project to get it ready, and now the nearly year of post-campaign work. I had no other income leading to that payment, and I have no other real income now. This has been what I've lived on since the campaign ended. I am going to be paying at least $40,000 back into the project to cover these extra costs for now.


If you want to, you can help with a few bucks by sending the business some money on paypal. This is not required, and no one's shipping is going to be fast tracked or held up over this. It's just to alleviate some of the costs on my end. Let me be clear, things are already going as fast as they can. There is not any issue where there isn't enough money to keep things going. What I'm trying to avoid is becoming broke myself to finish shipping things out before I can begin selling the extra copies and remain afloat.


To offset this and to price properly for the future, when I put the remaining copies of the deck, booster, etc up on Ebay, Etsy, Amazon, or wherever else they're going, they are going to be more expensive. Shipping is going to be more expensive. I originally toyed with $60 as an idea, but realize now I could go $70, $80, or $100 and it would still be reasonable for the deck, the guide, the boosters, the quality of the printing, etc. I'm not sure just yet what they will cost, but it will be more expensive.  All my products into the future will probably be more expensive than I'm comfortable with to save myself from my recurring issue of undercharging to make things affordable.


As of right now, the pre-ordering on Backerkit is closed. So no more copies of the deck will be available until the price increase when we start selling directly. I'm open to people's thoughts on what it should cost. People have told me to do $100, because it's the only printing that will ever exist, because of the uniqueness, because etc etc etc. I super hestitate to raise the price so much but the business has to recover the ridiculous costs that are mounting here. So feel free to share your thoughts.


THE PODCAST, etc

Now, finally something more fun.

First, I've been doing DAILY (weekday) tarot reading spreads. It's a great way to become more familiar with the deck's cards, a few cards a day. You can see them on my twitter, tumblr, instagram, or over in the discord. People on facebook are still having a great time and being so wonderfully pleasant. And I have been writing, directing, and producing the podcast. RSS feed link here. There's a whole fake reddit board for the fake podcast(s) the show takes place in. There are incredible actors. The writing is phenomenal (okay I'm the writer so I'm biased.) Patrons over on my Patreon (even just $1 a month) get access to the episodes a day or two early, so if you're really into it, head over there!

Please please please take a listen. This was the million dollar stretch goal, and it's what I was originally going to do before deciding to make the deck instead, because I thought it would be less work. To be clear, the podcast IS a ton of work, but it has felt so worth it. If you are interested in the story behind the deck, the lore of the Alleyman, this is for you. In episode 4 the host of the show roasts me. It's great.

And this week, a brand new episode is releasing today, tomorrow, and Friday! Normally episodes release just on Fridays, so this week is absolutely an exciting time to start listening to get a nice audio treat each day leading to the weekend.

Listen to episode 5 right here, right now even!

The slow downs have been rough. The project taking more time than originally expected was, in itself, expected. It made 1600% more funds than it was supposed to. That stretched out the timeline. Then COVID, the supply chain crisis... these have made it take so much longer. But there is a community on the facebook, the discord, and in all the extras I'm putting together to keep the excitement alive. Please tune in if you want to stay excited as the items begin going out. It is so worth the wait.

I'll ping you all again soon as I hear things are officially being sent and received.


Thanks again,

7DA, your Pub Gob

No More Address Updates! Alleyman Podcast! What's left?
about 2 years ago – Thu, Feb 17, 2022 at 03:00:41 AM

First off, apologies! I try to keep it to one update a month, but this month is busy as things finalize and get sent out. 


Any day now, the first 10.000 US orders should be arriving on our shores and being sent out to people over the next 5-7 days, and this includes many Canadian orders, apparently. By the end of the month, the rest of the Australian, UK, and EU orders will be sent out.


The remaining orders to various countries (1000 orders or so) will be going directly from the manufacturer at that point, and that should be completed quite quickly in the first week of March or so.


This means there are NO MORE ADDRESS UPDATES! Not even for international!

The only exception to this are orders that I am taking care of which were signed, 'Touched by the Alleyman', or that include the hand-made patchwork bags or the fancy $200+ Walnut boxes. This does not include the cigar boxes or the satin bags. You must email me or message me on here to get your address updated for those orders and those orders alone. 

For packages that don't make it to people, we will take re-sendings to new addresses at a later time after the rest of the packages have been sent out.

As packages go out, you will receive tracking info by email automatically. So be on the lookout! We will deal with packages that the tracking shows as being returned or lost, but we will NOT just send you a new one if the package is taking a bit to reach you, as that's par for the course in the world right now. So please keep an eye on the tracking if you are worried it is not arriving or that it's going to the wrong place.


The Podcast

The Alleyman Podcast

So the Alleyman podcast is rolling! Episode 2 premiered last Friday, and episode 3 has already been recorded for release this Friday. 

You can find it on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEIVEP8NyfY

Or with the rss feed: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/1932315.rss

Or just most places that carry podcasts! It's on soundcloud, spotify, and a lot more. It's still taking a bit to get listed on google podcasts and apple podcasts, but it will eventually be there as well.


The episodes are coming out weekly on Fridays, so Episode 3 will release the 18th, Episode 4 (which I will be in!) will release the 25th, then the week after that will be wildly rapid. Episode 5, 6, and 7 will come out back to back to back the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th.  And from there, the 11th, 18th, 25th, releasing Fridays, until it's done. I may sneak in another weird one near the end, but in total it should be about 11 or 12 episodes. I will CONSIDER a followup season if people are interested, but it would need to be super supported for that to happen, as it is costly to afford such lovely voice talent for it.


I'd like to take the moment to remind people that this podcast was the original goal with the Alleyman. I was going to make a podcast about the Alleyman, largely because of my listening to the Magnus Archives at the time, but I thought it would be too much of a timesink with all the things I'm already doing, so I set it aside. But I couldn't get the Alleyman's tarot deck out of my head. Gorgeous, mismatched, strange... I had to see it come together. That led to a year's worth of work to get enough people on board to make the deck complete, then I launched the Kickstarter. For some of you, this Kickstarter has seemed to take forever. For me, it took all this time plus a year+ of work before it launched to bring it to this point when it was realized, and this podcast is finally bringing it full circle.


I hope you enjoy it, and I hope you enjoy it while the decks are flying to you, and I hope you enjoy it when your deck arrives and the podcast is reaching its conclusion. This has been an incredible amount of work on my part, on the part of the manufacturer, the artists who contributed, you who supported, and all in the face of a global pandemic AND a global supply chain crisis. But not only did it come through in the end, it came through in a massive, incredible way. Nothing like this will ever be done again without just being a poor imitation, and we did this together.


So honestly a massive, massive thank you. I hope the fruits of your patience and support far exceed your expectations, and please join me on the podcast journey. I've never had a chance to write scripts like this, and it has been a lot of fun.


So what's left?

Just a last bit of waiting! Enjoy the podcast, follow me on instagram, twitter, tumblr, or join the discord to see the daily alleyman's tarot readings during the week. The Alley facebook group is really wonderful and fan-run, and they're always trading cards and having a good time! Maybe you want to hop over to the Reddit made just for you to interact with the host of the podcast! Patreon supporters get to listen to the episodes a day early, and may get other goodies in the weeks to come! (And depending on what happens with KS and the blockchain, I may be moving there more permanently in the future.)

Never forget that there is a massive list of credits for all the artists who took part in this project on the KS campaign and in linked updates there as well, and that you can check out PublishingGoblin.com to find more of my work, or check out my linktr.ee/7da for the rest.

I've got multiple card games in the works, a big TTRPG game, I'm doing massive accounting for 2021 taxes with all this money and where it went, more Alleyman stuff, a book of poetry working through the death of my sister, and infinitely more. And soon, I'll be putting it all aside to sign and 'touch' hundreds of decks, so I'm looking forward to all of it.


Fondest regards,

7DA, your Pub Gob

Daily Readings | The Podcast! | Shipping & Address Change Reminders
about 2 years ago – Sat, Feb 05, 2022 at 03:37:59 AM

First off, I haven't shared here, but I have been doing Daily Alleyman spreads on the Discord (Join here), over on my Instagram, Twitter, and a few other spots. I have been intentionally not reading the cards myself-- I want you all to get used to seeing the deck, interacting with it, and sharing your thoughts on what it might mean.

The Daily Read

Today's Daily Alleyman's Tarot reading is the Hole, the Mourning Death, the 8 of Wands, the 5 of Mirrors, and... and a receipt?

The Alleyman Podcast!

Today is the release of the FIRST EPISODE of the ALLEYMAN PODCAST! Woooo.

You can find it on Soundcloud , Spotify,  Youtube,  and various other places that host podcasts (Amazon Music, Stitcher, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, etc... Working on getting on Google and Apple and others)

After you listen, hop over to the reddit board set up just for this, and talk with Dr. Ala Okoye about the episode, or feel free to email him at [email protected].

It will be releasing weekly on Fridays from here on, and it should be wrapping up about the time that everyone has received their packages. So please, enjoy the podcast and get hyped for your deck, as it should arrive while the podcast's story is still unfolding.


Shipping and Addresses

We are on track! The first set of 9000 or so US packages should be arriving to the US on the 17th, and then they will very quickly be sent out. At this time, I am still accepting changes to EU, UK, and some international addresses by direct message here on Kickstarter or by email at [email protected]

If you are in the US, I cannot and will not change your address. We are using the USPS, so setup mail forwarding. In the event that your package never reaches you or returns to us, we will send a new one to your new address at that time. For now though, just hang tight!

I CAN change addresses for orders that have hand-made artisan bags, boxes, or touched/signed decks all the way up to March, because I'm handling those packages personally. Message or email me, as explained above.


Thanks everyone! I am so so so excited to pull this project off and wrap it up with all of you. It has all been worth the wait. 


7, your Publishin Goblin

Project Update | Quick changes to last update, Alleyman Podcast
about 2 years ago – Sat, Jan 15, 2022 at 12:26:04 AM

First off, for most people, I cannot take address changes at this point. To see if you submitted your address, or to remind yourself of what you submitted, follow this old upate


Last update I said that we cannot update people's addresses any longer, and shared the timeline for shipping. I'd like to update that. We cannot change US addresses any longer.

We CAN change non-US addresses for a little bit longer, mostly UK and EU addresses. But you must get it in ASAP to me. Message me on Kickstarter or email me at [email protected]

And finally, if you are having your rewards sent by me and not the shipper, you can change your address all the way up to March. Your order would be sent by me if: You bought a hand-made item (the walnut or wenge boxes that were $250+, or the hand-made patchwork bags), your order is being signed, or you got a 'Touched by the alleyman' deck.  I will be working as hard and fast as I can on Touched decks to make sure they aren't delayed too much longer than the rest of the items. Yes, all 500 of them. It's going to be a busy time for me to be alive.


The Podcast!

So I shared the intro of the first episode a while back. The Alleyman podcast will take place in the fictitious Modern Mythologies podcast, hosted by Dr Ala Okoye, religious studies professor and cultural anthropologist. He uses the podcast as a place to talk about urban legends and the modern myth. 

We will enter his podcast on the episode where he begins to talk about the Alleyman myth. This will be intended to be 10 or so episodes long, with a start and an end. I have the first four scripts written out roughly, and am planning the reamining 6. I have voice talent lined up for Dr Okoye and for Fred Pennyland, a host of a different show we will visit in the podcast. I have an audio guy who is also going to make some background and intro music. I've bought the domain to get an email for Dr Okoye so people can actually email him, and I've set up a faux reddit board over on /r/UrbanFolklore, which hosts both Dr Okoye's podcast and his friend's, Fred Pennyland's show, UrbanFolklore. 


Dr Okoye has posted a thread asking for people's stories and thoughts on the Alleyman myth in preparation for his episodes on the topic, so if you are so moved, go share your thoughts!

I will intend to release episodes weekly so that Dr Okoye can read your comments, emails, and questions on the show from time to time, so feel free to hop in there and treat it as real as you want. I am going to write most of the scripts way ahead of time, but I will leave space to have Okoye shoutout or refer to your comments and questions here and there, so feel free to share all you want. (note: posting on the reddit or sending an email does not guarantee a shoutout. But I will routinely grab comments and things from there to share.)


My goal is to have the first episode ready to go online wherever podcasts are (and youtube) start of February, and I'll do my best to put out an episode a week on Fridays until the story is complete.

I will be sharing previews as it comes together on my Patreon, and once this project is complete I will probably try my best to move to Patreon more permanently for ongoing projects like these.

You can join my patreon for as little as $1 a month here.

I'll be reorganizing it and tiers soon, so just sit at $1 and enjoy the short stories on there and look forward to the alleyman podcast shenanigans!


With any luck, it should be hitting its climax as decks are arriving to people!


Regards,

7