Gary Gifford wrote on Sun, Apr 13, 2008 10:21 PM UTC:
Larry wrote, 'Graphics on the discs ... this is highly labor-intensive.
Someone has to cut out all those little graphics. And it has to be neat,
so they can't be rushed. And wage slaves are not cheap. ... the price of
printer cartridges lately?'
Larry is right, of course. My first Xianqi set was made using the method
he describes. Making one set for myself wasn't bad... but making a lot
of sets, or a set with a lot of pieces by that method would be tough.
An alternative would be to have a printer print adhesive sheets with
circular pull outs. Send the ordered sheets and 'blank' disks to the
people who order them. This reduces the in-house labor to shipping sheets
and disks. No printing (it is at the print shop), no gluing, no cutting...
etc.
These days there are many games that use the adhesive sticker method in
which the customer adds the sticker.
Larry is right, of course. My first Xianqi set was made using the method he describes. Making one set for myself wasn't bad... but making a lot of sets, or a set with a lot of pieces by that method would be tough.
An alternative would be to have a printer print adhesive sheets with circular pull outs. Send the ordered sheets and 'blank' disks to the people who order them. This reduces the in-house labor to shipping sheets and disks. No printing (it is at the print shop), no gluing, no cutting... etc.
These days there are many games that use the adhesive sticker method in which the customer adds the sticker.