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Playing Card Chat ♠ ♥ ♣ ♦ => A Cellar of Fine Vintages => Topic started by: jmrock on April 24, 2012, 04:11:58 PM
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I finally secured a near mint Bicycle Ace of Spades Secret Weapon Deck complete with newspaper articles from the period... This has been a long time coming and will be a treasured deck in my collection...
The Second Deck is a Spotter Deck from the 40's used to train soldiers to spot whether an aircraft was friend or foe... Outlined in the decks are German, Japanese, British, & U.S. Planes... All have Bicycle Rider Backs...
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Very nice find!
I'd love to have them in my collection
CBJ
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Very nice find, love the history behind those decks.
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Those decks are awesome... Me want decks... :)
Seriously, that's some real history you have there. That's a pair of decks you pass down to your grandkids.
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Its awesome that you were finally able to track down one of the original Secret Weapon Ace of Spades decks, I could tell how much you wanted it from your eagerness to get Aaron's ;) . As I have said before, you always find a way to get a hold of some of the coolest decks. Nice find!
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Nice to see you found one :) I like the look in red and yours looks to be in a little better condition than mine. And the other deck looks really cool also.
What are these newspaper articles? Do they relate to the deck or are they just random articles from that time?
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Here are the articles relating to the Bicycle Secret Weapon Deck...
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Those look awesome! they are an excelante adition to having the deck.
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I'll forward you the articles Aaron... I know you treasure your deck as well because the numbers I was throwing at you would have made any sane man sell... They are an interesting addition to the cards themselves and adds to the value of the deck (in my opinion)...
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I'll forward you the articles Aaron... I know you treasure your deck as well because the numbers I was throwing at you would have made any sane man sell... They are an interesting addition to the cards themselves and adds to the value of the deck (in my opinion)...
ok thank you very much :) I was close to selling a few times, but then just thought about the deck and had to keep it for the collection. In the long run a nice rare deck is better to me than the cash.
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Beautiful! A small piece of history that most of the world doesn't even know about.
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Congrats Jm! I really love collecting war related decks, as you know. That deck is wonderful!
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Okay i am really jelly of your finds. :(
WHAT KIND OF SORCERY IS THIS!
its really beautiful. Great great historical decks. :P
Congrats on your awesome find!
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now that i know the meaning of the deck .. it more meaningful to have the deck
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Some very nice decks you have there JM. These were such important decks in history! How do they handle (I know these aren't made to be handled, but I'm just curious.)?
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Some very nice decks you have there JM. These were such important decks in history! How do they handle (I know these aren't made to be handled, but I'm just curious.)?
The ace decks don't handle great, they clump a bit and are kinda rough. But thats not really what they made them to do so, ya.
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When it rains it pours... When Aaron would not let go of his Secret Weapon Deck (and for good reason), I took it upon myself to start a thorough search and a few months later... Voila... My first sealed Vintage Secret Weapon Deck... I have two additional mint decks (1) Red (1) Blue... I wanted to share a pic of the trio... I was thinking of letting one of the open decks go to offset the costs necessary for this venture, so PM me if interested (heavy pockets only)... This wasn't so much about selling, but rather showing what hard work, perseverance, and a couple of bucks will get you... I wish you all luck and hope you all find the decks that you desire...
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Hey jm,
I was wondering how you can tell the difference between the Vietnam ones as apposed to the desert storm secret weapons??
Either way this is a TRUE collectors item you have hear. Not an un cut sheet of a magic convention or of something that was specifically created to be rare and collectible ( I find stuff like that quite silly actually... Ala ltd.deck and clip joints with the "special" seal.) The decks you have were not ever meant to be saved past what they were meant to be used for, yet over time they became appreciated as a true collectible and a piece of totally awesome history!
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The modern reprints have "Desert Shield" Printed on the front of the Ace of Spades both on the box as well as the individual cards. However, the silly thing about the reprints is that the Ace of Spades meant something to the Viet Cong - it was the "Death Card" and they were very superstitious when it came to the Ace of Spades... To my knowledge, the Arab population could give a $#!T about an Ace of Spades... Thus, the reasoning behind printing the Secret Weapon Deck for Operation Desert Shield was not at all as significant as it was for the Vietnam War...
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That is pretty funny actually, especially seeing as it wouldn't be much of a secret weapon if we used it twice!
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Thats a hell of a find man, I love all the old school war memorabilia in general but thats something you dont see every day
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The modern reprints have "Desert Shield" Printed on the front of the Ace of Spades both on the box as well as the individual cards. However, the silly thing about the reprints is that the Ace of Spades meant something to the Viet Cong - it was the "Death Card" and they were very superstitious when it came to the Ace of Spades... To my knowledge, the Arab population could give a $#!T about an Ace of Spades... Thus, the reasoning behind printing the Secret Weapon Deck for Operation Desert Shield was not at all as significant as it was for the Vietnam War...
The reprints were more of a tradition than a secret weapon.
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Shit, how did I not see this post earlier, I really would love to get my hands on this. I actually have a friend in the army who recently asked me to find one of these for him. Looks like my search was easier then I thought.
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Shit, how did I not see this post earlier, I really would love to get my hands on this. I actually have a friend in the army who recently asked me to find one of these for him. Looks like my search was easier then I thought.
Yeah, still on sale, $3.99 a pack.
http://www.shopbicyclecards.com/Secret-Weapon-P220C42.aspx
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no he has that one, he wants the vintage original.
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no he has that one, he wants the vintage original.
Good luck - they're exceptionally rare, due to the fact that they were made to be distributed by soldiers in the field. JMRock made mention of the Viet Cong being superstitious of them, but it was actually more myth than fact. Soldiers believed it because it helped their morale in a war that was pretty unpopular and all too dangerous.
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Yea, I believe I saw that jmrock had a couple so I shot him a message.
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What a great deck to have as the story behind the cards is just amazing and so unique.
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After reading this thread, I will now put these on my "must have" list. Great perseverance!!