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Playing Card Chat ♠ ♥ ♣ ♦ => Playing Card Plethora => Topic started by: magicphill on August 22, 2014, 03:34:14 PM
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Hopefully someone knows the answer to this one as it's another of the new USPCC's quirks
I picked up a few Bee decks in a bricks and mortar store in the UK as they were clearing out a number of decks cheaply with a few dents to the boxes but nothing major. I picked them up on the basis that they would be Cincinnati made since that's what it said on the box but low and behold upon opening the deck the Jokers had Kentucky plastered on them and the "Bee Quality" was severely lacking misprinted quality check card (yes the quality check card was misprinted) and judging by the code I would say these are probably as recent as 2013. Also the deck had a strange varnished edge to it and they wouldn't faro for love or money both from the bottom up or down.
Does anyone know why this might be ? I thought of all their boxes had been changed to the Erlanger address so it seems the Bee cards maybe escaped a redesigned box for some reason. So I guess the question is how would you ever tell an Ohio made deck other than buying up some of the casino decks for the now defunct casinos such as Binions etc.
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I've read this in a few places and wondered if there was any truth behind it
Did the USPCC change to only black seals on their decks after the move to Erlanger, Kentucky ? The reason for the question is that I have some Tally Ho Decks with black seals but Ohio addressed boxes and i've read before that if it was truly one of the old Ohio decks it would have a bright blue seal. Is there any truth to this ?
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Hi,
I think you are right in your thinking. When they moved to the new plant they changed all the deck seals to black.
There were still a load of Cincinnati tuck boxed left so they used them up.
A black seal on a Ohio box means Erlanger made cards.
Don't quote me on it & I'm sure someone will jump in to give you the full, proper answer. It this is what I have been led to believe.
The only way to guarantee an Ohio made deck is for it to have a blue seal. Not a black.
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This has been answered before:-
http://www.playingcardforum.com/playing-card-plethora/$1-decks-from-t11/
Don gives a pretty concise explanation on the differences between the two factories.
Hmm not sure why the full link isn't being hi-lighted. You can search for it anyway :)
,
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Hopefully someone knows the answer to this one as it's another of the new USPCC's quirks
I picked up a few Bee decks in a bricks and mortar store in the UK as they were clearing out a number of decks cheaply with a few dents to the boxes but nothing major. I picked them up on the basis that they would be Cincinnati made since that's what it said on the box but low and behold upon opening the deck the Jokers had Kentucky plastered on them and the "Bee Quality" was severely lacking misprinted quality check card (yes the quality check card was misprinted) and judging by the code I would say these are probably as recent as 2013. Also the deck had a strange varnished edge to it and they wouldn't faro for love or money both from the bottom up or down.
Does anyone know why this might be ? I thought of all their boxes had been changed to the Erlanger address so it seems the Bee cards maybe escaped a redesigned box for some reason. So I guess the question is how would you ever tell an Ohio made deck other than buying up some of the casino decks for the now defunct casinos such as Binions etc.
There's a couple of possibilities.
Some old Cincinnati boxes were leftover when the move to Erlanger was completed and the boxes were used instead of being wasted - said boxes were labeled with black seals.
But the transition took place in 2009 - you shouldn't have any 2013 decks in the old boxes, unless they found a few leftover boxes in the back of a room somewhere... I'd consider that unlikely. Did you check the AoS code on the decks in question?
Last possibility: there's some Chinese companies that are making forged Bee decks - it's one of the more popular imported brands in China. Bee decks made by USPC for sale in China have really cool holograms in the cellophane to tell them apart from the knockoffs. Those cheapo Bee decks sometimes end up in the retail chain passed off as the real deal - while most of them wind up in dollar-stores, sometimes legit retailers end up getting them from their wholesalers.
This has been answered before:-
http://www.playingcardforum.com/playing-card-plethora/$1-decks-from-t11/
Don gives a pretty concise explanation on the differences between the two factories.
Hmm not sure why the full link isn't being hi-lighted. You can search for it anyway :)
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Let's try it this way...
http://www.playingcardforum.com/playing-card-plethora/$1-decks-from-t11/ (http://www.playingcardforum.com/playing-card-plethora/$1-decks-from-t11/)
The pertinent posts are here (http://www.playingcardforum.com/playing-card-plethora/$1-decks-from-t11/msg91552/#msg91552) and here (http://www.playingcardforum.com/playing-card-plethora/$1-decks-from-t11/msg91730/#msg91730).
The super-short version: yes, there were many decks made by USPC while they were moving operations from Cincinnati to Erlanger (the official opening of the new plant was August of '09) which were printed in Erlanger and packed in leftover "classic style" Cincinnati tuck boxes - most of the boxes fitting this description were sealed with black deck seals, while genuine Cincinnati-made decks would have blue or red seals, mostly blue in the later years.
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Don's such a dreamy boat of playing card knowledge.
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Don's such a dreamy boat of playing card knowledge.
You been drinking again? ;D
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Don is definately a helpful wealth of knowledge
Checking the deck again i'm quite sure it is a USPCC deck as all the characteristics are there. It has a black seal and the date code doesn't follow the original format which i believe has changed for recently made decks. The guarantee card has the Erlanger address on so guessing they did have a few boxes still floating around but those aside it's an awfully made deck not even worthy of being called seconds let alone a "casino quality" deck.
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And a further check using one of Don's earlier posts says the deck was made in 2010 so probably around the time they were still ironing out some of the printing issues i'm just glad I picked this up for only 50 pence as the box was damaged.
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Yeah, some of the decks they produced in 2010 were really awful. Custom deck producers had the worst of it.
Letter codes on the AoS still work - but with the addition of that four-digit prefix code, why look on a chart for letters when you can simply read the year and WEEK of manufacture? :))