The "Hey, look what I added to my collection!" thread

RSLancastr · Unread post by **RSLancastr** » Wed Oct 24, 2012 9:15 am

Nice. Pete!

I used to live in Los Angeles Countty and was fortunate enough to be invited to The Magic Castle on four occasions.

I seem to recall their deck being a standard deck (face-wise, anyway).

Being a collector of decks with custom courts, I found this to be a disappointment, hoping they had published a deck where perhaps the courts were portrayed by various magicians and their assistants.

Of course, it makes perfect sense that their deck would be standard (other than the back), because magicians generally prefer to use a deck which at least appears to be a standard deck. (when they use a volunteer from the audience in performing an illusion with cards, they often ask the volunteer to examine the deck, and then ask them something like "It is just a regular deck of playing cards, isn't it? Nothing unusual about it?"

Because, if an audience member notices ANYTHING unusual-looking abiout the deck, they tend to assume that it is a "trick deck", made specifically for performing "card tricks".

And, while there certainly ARE "trick decks" (such as Svengali decks, "invisible" decks, shaved decks, marked decks and more), most of them are made from standard decks (Bicycles, Bees, etc) to look as "normal" to the audience as possible (even though they may be gaffed twelve ways from Sunday).

So, while decks with custom courts are highly desirable to those who collect them, they are NOT what a magician generally would want to use in a performance, so it made perfect sense that The Castle's own deck would be as vanilla as possible, with only the custom back making it a good souvenir of an evening spent there.

Are yours standard, or have they made a liar out of me?

Unread post by **PlayingCardz** » Wed Oct 24, 2012 9:42 am

Sharpie posted some pics on the old UC a while ago, here they are :

Unread post by **PlayingCardz** » Wed Oct 24, 2012 9:43 am

and :

Unread post by **PlayingCardz** » Wed Oct 24, 2012 9:45 am

So yes, they are standard, only the ace of spade, the jokers and the ad cards are custom.

In my opinion, they looks very nice and are not too custom to make your audience think they are a trick deck.

We have them in stock :

http://www.playingcardz.net/en/search?o ... rch=Search" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Unread post by **badpete69** » Wed Oct 24, 2012 6:19 pm

RS

Good post on the custom court cards. When I discovered this hobby last year, I was just buying everything that had been released in the past few years and everything that was being released at the time without any specific goal in mind other than collecting (long time sports card collector and comic books). Then I started buying 2 decks of everything just to have that extra but until 2 weeks ago I had not open a single deck. When I made my post on how to display your card collection, most feedback was how great it is to open decks and touch them and appreciate the design etc etc so I decided to start displaying my decks in 9 pocket sleeves, as I am not really a cardist but just a collector . But some of the decks I have been opening are pretty plain visually with barely any custom cards. So going forward I have decided to buy only multiple decks of sets that do have custom court cards or at least plenty of customization so that I can enjoy them visually and I will buy single deck of plainer looking sets because like I said I like to collect everything.

RSLancastr · Unread post by **RSLancastr** » Thu Oct 25, 2012 12:56 am

Interesting plan, Pete!

Years ago I bought some of those nine-sleeve displays which fit into a standard three-ring binder, and used them to display many of my favorite decks when company would come over, but I dunno if I could leave the cards in there for long.

So fgar, the only place I have ever felt comfortable displaying any of my collection for any length of time was on my oldweb site about the hobby, from 1996-2008.

Unread post by **badpete69** » Thu Oct 25, 2012 8:25 pm

Got a few packages tonight. First my platinum seasons deck came in very nice. Second after seeing all the different decks that RS keeps displaying I decided to go out of the box a little and bought 4 decks from Italy and Australia from a seller on ebay. These decks were only about $5 each but looked interesting. The pics are from the auction so that you can see the cards. I might put a pic of the tuck boxes later

First this is a Clown limited deck from the land down under (limited to 300 decks)

Next I went for a Risque beauties deck hehehe

The last 2 decks are from Italy

Also got a medley of decks I was missing for my collection including a Premier Back deck ( finally got one Mike) from a seller on these forums. I will go leave a positive post on this seller now.

RSLancastr · Unread post by **RSLancastr** » Fri Oct 26, 2012 2:36 am

Here are five I got in yesterday's mail:

First, bought on eBay:

(thanks to - I think it was - CBJ - for pointing it out to me!

Then, bought from Brooke Michael's Poker World (http://www.bmpokerworld.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;):

(Thanks as always to the gang at bmpokerworld for great service!)

I think that takes my total of Bike decks up to 111 now!

RSLancastr · Unread post by **RSLancastr** » Fri Oct 26, 2012 4:05 am

badpete69 wrote:Got a few packages tonight. First my platinum seasons deck came in very nice. Second after seeing all the different decks that RS keeps displaying I decided to go out of the box a little and bought 4 decks from Italy and Australia from a seller on ebay. These decks were only about $5 each but looked interesting. The pics are from the auction so that you can see the cards. I might put a pic of the tuck boxes later

Nice, Pete!

I'm glad that my posts have perhaps broadened your card horizons!

The "Risque Beauties" deck is evidently a reissue of a cool deck from the 1800s called "Hard-a-port Cut Plugs".

"Hard-a-port" was a brand of cut plug chewing tobacco.

They, like many manufacturers of chewing tobacco, often included single collectible cards in each pack of tobacco they sold (like chewing gum is now sonmetimes sold with baseball cards in the package).

These cards were sometimes in a series (of sports figures, political figures, racy pics of scantily-clad women, etc), and buyers would buy many packs trying to complete a whole set/series.

Hard-a-port then printed a series of racy (for the time) images of scantily-clad women as a set of playing cards - imagine how much tobacco someone had to buy to collect all 53 cards (52+Joker) in the deck!

The cards were much larger than today's "poker-sized" cards (they were around 5"-6" tall, if memory serves).

Modern collectors, as you might imagine, can go for years, decades even, picking up cards from the deck at conventions and auctions, before completing an entire deck.

I have about a dozen or so cards from the original. I will probably pick up a copy of "Risque Beauties" just to have a complete, modern, "miniature" rendition of the deck!

RSLancastr · Unread post by **RSLancastr** » Fri Oct 26, 2012 4:46 am

Just bought a "Risque Beauties" deck from DenverPete on eBay!

I've bought from him a few times now - a good guy, and a fellow member of "52 Plus Joker", a club for collectors of American playing cards (http://www.52plusjoker.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;).

Once it comes, I hope to post here some images of cards from the deck along side cards from the original Hard-a-port" deck.

Collector · Unread post by **Collector** » Fri Oct 26, 2012 11:08 am

badpete69 wrote:...

First this is a Clown limited deck from the land down under (limited to 300 decks)

...

The Clown Deck by Ross Schmidt. As I remember he is (was) the member of Australian Playing Card Collectors Society (unfortunately their site is inactive now http://www.apccsinc.org.au) and made that deck for the members of that organization. And there is one thing… as you can read everywhere there are only 300 original decks. But you can easily find some of them per several dollars (searching Internet). It’s suspicious... especially if you know that they were printed in China.

badpete69 wrote:...The last 2 decks are from Italy

...

These decks are produced by Lo Scarabeo (most of them are printed by Modiano, Cartamundi, KZWP (Poland) since 2012). They sell internationally (as I remember free international shipping for orders over $100):
http://www.loscarabeo.com/lang-en/36-cards

I can say that they are quite communicative and polite with a good customer service (it’s all from my own experience).

You can see almost all of their decks in full here:
http://a.trionfi.eu/WWPCM/WWPCM/italy/scarabeo.htm

RSLancastr wrote:Just bought a "Risque Beauties" deck from DenverPete on eBay!..

He sells the same decks per different price. Do you know why? Also the quantity of "made in China" decks without appropriate indication confuses me a little. Don't get me wrong I don't have nothing against this seller/collector.

RSLancastr · Unread post by **RSLancastr** » Fri Oct 26, 2012 2:02 pm

Collector wrote:
badpete69 wrote:He sells the same decks per different price. Do you know why? Also the quantity of "made in China" decks without appropriate indication confuses me a little. Don't get me wrong I don't have nothing against this seller/collector.

As to the differing prices for the same deck: I had not noticed it, and do not know why. Perhaps a discounted price for members of 52+J? Or one price for his sales via eBay, and a lower price for direct sales?

I'm only guessing. If you can give me an example of this, I would be happy to ask him (I have found him very open to questions).

I did not know that there is an "appropriate indication" for a deck's having been made in China (although it is good to know. I think that if knowing that is important to you as a consumer, it would be something you could/should ask the vendor about before purchasing anything online, and that you should not expect the vendor to announce/disclose it in his or her description of the deck..

Unread post by **badpete69** » Fri Oct 26, 2012 2:08 pm

RS

That was Collector asking not me....I did buy these 4 decks from denverpete and did notice that sometimes he had the same deck for sale but with different prices. Also I am not too worried about the limited to 300...just bought these decks as something different that is all but i do appreciate all the extra info you and Collector have brought up about these decks

RSLancastr · Unread post by **RSLancastr** » Fri Oct 26, 2012 2:28 pm

badpete69 wrote:RS

That was Collector asking not me...

Ah, right. My bad, Pete.

badpete69 wrote:I did buy these 4 decks from denverpete and did notice that sometimes he had the same deck for sale but with different prices. Also I am not too worried about the limited to 300...just bought these decks as something different that is all

It would not have worried me either (although it was good of Collector to point it out), unless the deck was being sold at an exorbitant price.

badpete69 wrote:but i do appreciate all the extra info you and Collector have brought up about these decks

That's the power of this forum, ain't it?

Evan · Unread post by **Evan** » Sat Oct 27, 2012 6:30 pm

I received my Altruism and Sultan Republic decks today!

RSLancastr · Unread post by **RSLancastr** » Sun Oct 28, 2012 6:07 am

Nice, Evan!

What do the faces look like?

Evan · Unread post by **Evan** » Sun Oct 28, 2012 9:15 am

RSLancastr wrote:Nice, Evan!

What do the faces look like?

The Altruism deck has standard, recolored faces. The Sultan Republic has standard shaped pips but the design is custom. The court cards are standard with a nice recoloring.

Collector · Unread post by **Collector** » Sun Oct 28, 2012 3:30 pm

RSLancastr wrote:
Collector wrote:
badpete69 wrote:He sells the same decks per different price. Do you know why? Also the quantity of "made in China" decks without appropriate indication confuses me a little. Don't get me wrong I don't have nothing against this seller/collector.
As to the differing prices for the same deck: I had not noticed it, and do not know why. Perhaps a discounted price for members of 52+J? Or one price for his sales via eBay, and a lower price for direct sales?

I'm only guessing. If you can give me an example of this, I would be happy to ask him (I have found him very open to questions).

For example:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/REPRO-OLD-TRANS ... 1c2c826378" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.ebay.com/itm/LA-TE-DA-TRANSF ... 19d6480c00" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

RSLancastr wrote:I did not know that there is an "appropriate indication" for a deck's having been made in China (although it is good to know...

"made in China"

RSLancastr · Unread post by **RSLancastr** » Sun Oct 28, 2012 4:38 pm

Collector wrote:
RSLancastr wrote:[quote="Collector"made in China"

That's certainly accurate and succinct, but is it "appropriate"?

By that I guess I mean: should that be a standard disclosure by the seller?

Or should it be part of a potential buyer's "due dilligence" to ask whether or not the deck was made in China, if that is important to them?

Collector · Unread post by **Collector** » Mon Oct 29, 2012 1:34 pm

RSLancastr wrote:
Collector wrote:
RSLancastr wrote:[quote="Collector"made in China"
That's certainly accurate and succinct, but is it "appropriate"?

By that I guess I mean: should that be a standard disclosure by the seller?

Or should it be part of a potential buyer's "due dilligence" to ask whether or not the deck was made in China, if that is important to them?

I think my answer is obvious

Chinese quality vary, vary, vary, vary, vary

RSLancastr · Unread post by **RSLancastr** » Mon Oct 29, 2012 4:53 pm

...from Bad to Worse, mostly. And are rarely worth a damn for fans and flourishes, if the ones in my collection are any indication.

elcyciB · Unread post by **elcyciB** » Mon Oct 29, 2012 10:10 pm

I found out about these in looking at details for the Aurum release. I missed the original KS obviously, but have wanted some ever since I saw them. These are very striking visually and great to play with.

*edit-Sorry the photos keep coming up sideways, not sure how to fix that. Maybe just take the photo sideways to begin with? Any help is appreciated

RSLancastr · Unread post by **RSLancastr** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 3:03 am

elcyciB wrote:*edit-Sorry the photos keep coming up sideways, not sure how to fix that. Maybe just take the photo sideways to begin with? Any help is appreciated

Maybe whatever messed up your User Name is also effecting your camera?

neongrey · Unread post by **neongrey** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 7:29 am

elcyciB wrote:I found out about these in looking at details for the Aurum release. I missed the original KS obviously, but have wanted some ever since I saw them. These are very striking visually and great to play with.

*edit-Sorry the photos keep coming up sideways, not sure how to fix that. Maybe just take the photo sideways to begin with? Any help is appreciated

That's very weird, I saved it to disk so I could rotate it and reupload it for you, and then it seemed to be perfectly all right when I opened it...

Unread post by **SeanWhelan** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 2:46 pm

Hey guys,
First time doing so pretty excited to show you my collection:
- roughly 280 decks
- most are first editions
- half unopened due to value
- first edition artifact coins (one gold)
- uncut sheets of my Galvanic deck
- complete set of printing plates (8 in total) of the Galvanic print

Would love to hear what you guys think! I will be uploading pictures later of my uncut sheet frame, printing plates and a very special one of a kind frame I have never seen done before by this community : D

Thanks!
Sean Whelan
3D Artist

Unread post by **SeanWhelan** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 2:54 pm

My beautiful uncut sheet frame displaying my Bicycle deck : D
My girlfriend gave this to my for my birthday this past saturday. She is truly amazing!!

Also a box filled with uncut sheets! Anyone want any?? : P

Unread post by **SeanWhelan** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 2:56 pm

8 printing plates: 4 of the faces and 4 of the backs. (Black, cyan, magenta and yellow)

Unread post by **SeanWhelan** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 2:59 pm

And last but not least: a beautiful display frame that is practically invisible!!
Yup my girlfriend did this for me too for my birthday : )

Evan · Unread post by **Evan** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 3:08 pm

Awesome stuff Sean! I didn't know that you got the printing plates for it!

Btw, I never got my decks, and I've been messaging you and getting no response.

Unread post by **SeanWhelan** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 3:13 pm

Hit me up a pm. And thanks! : D I love these frames

The "Hey, look what I added to my collection!" thread

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