I know what you mean as this project has a strong flavor of Stern ownership / involvement but in private messaging Joe it sounds like Joe from Paperflock can get a better deal printing wise if they have enough people (backers) supporting it.

It does make you wonder why isn't Stern just paying for it but I suppose why would you if someone else can do it for you.

But it is no different to people paying up front to Homepin, Heighway, Spooky and JJP early days for game development, but since multiple people got burnt this is lessoning.