The Kickstarter campaign for The Professor’s new deckbox, The Academic 133+XL, amassed more than $600,000 in pledges from more than 12,000 backers in less than two hours.
The Professor teased the deckbox Kickstarter back on February 25 in a quick YouTube video that was met with much anticipation. The hype was legitimate as the number of backers soared after the campaign went live at 3 PM ET and was fully funded for $50,000 in less than 20 minutes. The launch attracted so much attention that orders flooded the site and caused issues with backers not being able to get the early bird pledge that offered signed copies of the deckbox for the first 2,000 backers.
The Academic 133+ XL costs a pledge of $45 and can house more than 133 double-sleeved cards. It comes with multiple pull-out drawers, an extra top compartment, and a removable top flap. For an additional pledge of $4, backers can get special “Sizemorph” dividers that can expand and retract from 5mm to 30mm.
The deckbox is a collaboration between The Professor from Tolarian Community College and Gamegenic. Gamegenic is a studio of the Asmodee Group, a French publisher of board games, card games, and role-playing games. Gamegenic makes a line of Ingenious Supplies that includes deckboxes, sleeves, binders, playmats, and more.
Additional stretch goals will be announced tomorrow and it is safe to say many of them will be reached with more than 10 times the amount of money pledged already than was needed to fund the campaign. The estimated delivery date for the project is February 2023.