Introducing RSLancastr (me)!

Where are you from and what are your interests?
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RSLancastr
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Decks Owned: 2500
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Introducing RSLancastr (me)!

Unread post by RSLancastr »

=====[ INTRODUCTION ]=====

Hello all.

My name is Robert S. Lancaster.

I am not a cardist (as I understand the term), but I do have a collection of more than 2,000 decks of unusual playing cards, which I have been collecting since the 1990s (actually, I bought my first unusual deck in 1968 or 1969, at ten or eleven years old!).

By "unusual decks" I primarily mean decks with non-standard (custom) courts, although I also have Transformation decks, Souvenir decks, Tarock decks and lots of other types as well. But custom courts are what I love!

=====[ AN OLD WEB SITE ]=====

some of you may have run across my old web site, "The Bob Lancaster Gallery of Unusual Playing Cards". Opened in 1996, the site was, by today's standards, very simple and old-school in look and feel, but it allowed me to share some of my love of playing cards with the world.

I say "was" because the site was deleted in October 2008 by AOL (where it was hosted), along with all of their other members' web sites. An email warning of the mass deletion was evidently sent out, but I had the bad timing to be in a coma (from a MASSIVE stroke), and so missed the warning. When I awoke, the site, on which I had worked, off and on, for many years, was gone.

An archive partial image of the site can be viewed at The Wayback Machine at this URL:

http://web.archive.org/web/200412090037 ... blgupc.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

(WARNING: Very old school, and many image files are missing. You have been warned!

=====[ RECENT DEVELOPMENTS ]=====

I have only within the past two years started adding Bicycle decks to my collection. For many years, Bikes almost always had standard courts (Hell, in the States, their courts pretty much ARE the standard!), so they did not interest me.

In 2008, that stroke landed me in the hospital for eleven months (the first two of which were spent in that coma). Once I was back out in the real world, I still neglected my card collection for a couple of years, having other priorities in life (like trying to get the left half of my body to work again).

In 2010, I was searching eBay for unusual decks one day and ran across The Bicycle "Purple Deck". It had the standard Bike court designs, but had "full bleed" purple faces on all cards, and custom coloration everywhere!

Intrigued, I bought it, which led me in turn to discover that there was a whole new world of collectible Bikes, some of which even had truly custom courts! (some recent examples being Galvanic, Americana, Blue Blood, Robocycle and Zombie).

I now I have about 100 Bikes in my collection. Custom courts or not, if it has the Bicycle logo on the box, I want it!

Here is a partial list of the Bikes I currently have:

Bicycle_2008ElectionEdition_Democrat
Bicycle_2008ElectionEdition_Republican
Bicycle_AllWheelNo2
Bicycle_Americana
Bicycle_Be@rbrick
Bicycle_BlackSpider
Bicycle_BlackWarrior
Bicycle_BlueBlood
Bicycle_BreastCancerResearchFoundation_v1
Bicycle_BreastCancerResearchFoundation_v3
Bicycle_Bridge_Blue
Bicycle_Bridge_Red
Bicycle_CoffinFodder
Bicycle_DragonBack_Blue
Bicycle_DragonBack-Gold
Bicycle_DragonBack_Red
Bicycle_Eco
Bicycle_Elephant
Bicycle_Faded_Blue
Bicycle_Faded_Cream&Aqua
Bicycle_Faded_Red
Bicycle_Faith
Bicycle_Fashion_Berry
Bicycle_Fashion_Blue
Bicycle_Fashion_Green
Bicycle_Fashion_Pink
Bicycle_Galvanic
Bicycle_HanshinTigers
Bicycle_HopeForHaiti
Bicycle_Jumbo_Blue
Bicycle_Jumbo_Red
Bicycle_LtdEditionSeries_01
Bicycle_LtdEditionSeries_02
Bicycle_Maiden_Blue
Bicycle_Maiden_Red
Bicycle_Mandolin_Blue
Bicycle_Mandolin_Red
Bicycle_Pink&Lavender
Bicycle_Prestige_Blue
Bicycle_PrestigeRed
Bicycle_PurpleDeck
Bicycle_RedDragon
Bicycle_ReverseBack_Black
Bicycle_ReversedBack_Blue
Bicycle_ReversedBack_Green
Bicycle_ReversedBack_Red
Bicycle_ReversedBack_Yellow
Bicycle_RiderBack_Blue
Bicycle_RiderBack_Fuschia
Bicycle_RiderBack_Green
Bicycle_RiderBack_Orange
Bicycle_RiderBack_Red
Bicycle_Roboycle_Black
Bicycle_Roboycle_Blue
Bicycle_Rosefinch
Bicycle_Target_Bungalow
Bicycle_Target_Flirtatious
Bicycle_Target_Rejuvenate
Bicycle_Target_Twilight
Bicycle_Tattoo
Bicycle_TheCat
Bicycle_TheDog
Bicycle_TheGrid
Bicycle_YomiuriGiants
Bicycle_Zombies

It was through searching for info on newer Bikes that I found references to THIS site, and thought I would register and look around, and here I am!

=====[ IN CONCLUSION ]=====

As I said, I am not a cardist.

At one time, I thought it would be nice to learn how to do fans and flourishes, but did not want to bend or scratch any of the decks in my collection, so never tried it.

Now, with my left arm and hand out of commission, there's not many fans or flourishes I could even try. (Hell, simply opening a fresh deck and taking it out of the box is a challenge, and merely shuffling and dealing are pretty much impossible.

I know, bummer post.

Sorry.
-Marcel Marceau
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Emmanuel
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Re: Introducing RSLancastr (me)!

Unread post by Emmanuel »

Hi Robert,

Welcome to UnitedCardists! I'm sorry to hear about the challenges you've had to your health, but I'm happy that you've joined our community :D

Your collection is quite impressive, and even though your site is archived, it's amazing in how much it covers. I too am a fan of unusual decks, and going through your site made my day.

Again, welcome to UnitedCardists, and we're very glad you're here!

Emmanuel
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RSLancastr
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Posts: 1587
Joined: Wed Oct 10, 2012 8:53 am
Collector: Yes
Decks Owned: 2500
Location: Salem, Oregon
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Re: Introducing RSLancastr (me)!

Unread post by RSLancastr »

Thanks, Emmanuel, and thanks for checking out the archive of my site!

Pages can sometimes load horribly slow from archive.com, due (I think) to the extremely complex network of folders they use, so I hope it wasn't too frustrating an experience for you.

I'm glad the site made your day, and I know what you mean - I could spend HOURS looking at images of cards!
-Marcel Marceau
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