The House of Playing Cards‘ Mystery Brick has begun to arrive for those who managed to purchase them last month, during the holiday season. Many took to Reddit to express their disappointment about the brick’s ‘rare’ decks. Here are a few examples:
To put these comments into context, here’s the description on the original product page:
LIMITED BRICKS AVAILABLE. GUARANTEED RARE DECK(S) INCLUDED. ONCE SOLD OUT THAT’S IT
You’ve NEVER seen a mystery deck deal like this one! We hunted down some of our best and most requested inventory and set aside some EXCLUSIVE decks just for you! This holiday season, we want to save you from the insane aftermarket prices of sold out decks! So we set aside limited quantities of rare decks, sold out decks, best sellers and a few surprises if you’re lucky! Savings are great, but why not save in style?
Some of accused Alex Pandrea of false advertising as the photo used on the product page does not reflect reality:
Here is a snippet of Alex’s response. Full Reddit thread here.
Alex on HOPC:
First off, I want to start by saying that in my 10 years of producing playing cards my number 1 goal was to provide good quality cards at a great price. I’ve always kept my prices as low as possible so that people can afford them without feeling ripped off (like other companies and decks being released today). I don’t think anyone in the community sells decks at under $10…NOC Originals being $5-$7. I fought hard to keep these prices this low over many years, despite price increases every year from USPCC, tuck cost and paper cost increases, shipping increases, warehouse and fulfillment fee increases, etc. I constantly do many deals and sales on my site where you can always have a chance to save even more – so I can say with confidence that we have thousands of people who love us for this and I am proud of what we’ve done.
On the Mystery Brick:
Now regarding the decks themselves. ALL decks advertised in the ad copy where used for the 200 mystery bricks. I would NEVER advertise a list like that if I weren’t including them in the product. Why would I ever do that? To risk my companies 10 years of reputation on 1 product? No way! There were in total 50 mixed decks of Fontaines, DB decks, Orbits, Anyone etc, in the bricks- not including the Fort NOC deck, Pink NOC3000X2, and Survival Winter NOCs (which some might not consider rare but I guarantee they are rarer than the decks in the photos!!). These are also all sold out decks etc. I’m truly sorry if you didn’t like those decks. I guess I have to start creating something other than boring old NOCs :/ WITH THAT BEING SAID – I should NOT have used the photos I used for the promotion. That is on me 100% – no excuses for that.
Alex’s apology:
I am truly sorry that I did. I regret it not only because of this ordeal – but because it was a shitty thing to do now looking back, and obviously gave the wrong impression about the product. I didn’t think that one through, so for that I am very sorry. We actually took the initial photos of our “rare” decks that we had way before coming up with doing a mystery brick. We didn’t know exactly what we were going to use those decks for. Just sell them for the holidays? Include them as gifts? Mystery decks? At that point there was no plan. It was only after deciding to do the brick did I decide to use those particular photos to show off some dope decks. It was a very last minute thing – and we printed the brick boxes very quickly, snapped a few more photos, and just didn’t think about it. It’s obvious now that we should have realistic photos of examples of bricks you can possibly get.
Next steps:
Ok, so what now? Well for one, that probably was the last mystery brick I’ll do haha :)) – I know, good riddance. Second, if I ever do similar bundles or different types of product I will make sure to be 100% transparent with all promotional material – AKA don’t scam people I guess. Lastly, if you still feel like your brick was a “rip-off” and you got decks below the value you paid then I would agree you deserve a refund. It’s the right thing to do. This is why I am going to open up my private shop email for those of who want to reach out to me personally about this. The address is : alexpandreashop AT gmail. You will be speaking DIRECTLY with me so you can let me know about your dissatisfaction.
Very well written response. A few Reddit users have started receiving their refunds:
