For me it is one of a pair of Loews Monte Carlo Casino decks. I paid $150 for the pair. they date from circa 1979 and were (judging by the quality of the pack I opened) souvenirs. Rare as hens teeth but I had to know!

It's like a mix of Schroedinger's Cat and Catch 22 - You have in front of you a perfect and pristine sealed deck, but the only way to be 100% certain of that fact is to open them, thereby rendering them imperfect.

For my money - open them. or at least one of a set if you have them. Cards, whether as art, tools, gaming pieces or props exist to be seen and enjoyed. Let them Live.

Oooh - could this be related to the Encarded collaboration that was teased a while back...?

A little bit of unofficial news on this one.

Disclaimer - this info comes from the comments section of the project and I can't speak for its veracity.

One person claims to have made a query to USPCC, and received confirmation that the cards have been produced and are pending delivery. This would seem a positive, but is equally disturbing because his last two updates basically say he's shipping cards.

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Update #20 Sep 23, 2013
Time to make the donuts

Hi gang, I have put on my "do not disturb: shipping" light. I have scheduled my pack and ship weeks to coincide with my vacation so I have ample time to package and ship. This morning I will start opening boxes and loading up envelopes and then before the close of each day make a drive to the post office and mail off whatever I managed to finish that day. Not the way most people spend their vacations, but to do this right I need to make sure I'm focused on the task at hand. For the international customers, I will be emailing you before the end of the week with the shipping information on your packages.

Thanks again everyone, I'm so excited to get these out to you!

Alex

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Oct 28, 2013
Shipping has resumed...

Thanks everyone for your patience and for the kind words and support from those regarding the funeral and subsequent estate settlement. I have finished a long and tiring process and I'm happy to finally return to work and some sense of normalcy. I am picking up where I left off with shipping and hopefully you will get your decks soon.

Thanks again,

Alex

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With no attempt to address this with a real update in the last 6 weeks, and we assume the USPCC info to be true, then these can only be seen as deceptive. At best.

However people are also reporting that by emailing Alex direct they are getting refunds.

Update on the Decks: Legends are here, just waiting on the JAQKS

Update on the project:

Thinking on the comments above, a consolidation service certainly makes sense for an individual - but really this idea is looking at bulk orders from single suppliers, so I don't think we'd see the benefit.

Some resellers are mentioned - do you think we'd see the same savings? We'd have to take into account their profit margins etc. But i guess if decks simply aren't available elsewhere...

Anyway here's a little something I've put together based on the big names:
https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=E0F8A9746CD7F28F!1284&authkey=!AM_Rzh3hiGvn5hk&ithint=file%2c.xlsx

The idea here is that by adding "wants" to the want list, availability is automatically calculated and the summary screen shows how many decks we are collectively looking for from each supplier. Once we hit a threshold (say a 12/brick) we can look at making an order.

If anyone wants an addition to the wishlist, spots a mistake on the availability page, or can recommend other suppliers post or pm and I'll update the sheet.
Any other feedback would be welcome too.

The cost calculator page should give some insight into my calculations for passing the decks on.

The proposed process would be:

1. Update the sheet until we hit a threshold for a supplier
2. Double check with those listed that hey are still interested
3. Update want list accordingly
4. Fill the shopping cart at the supplier to get a quote of cost and shipping total.
5. Run the figures and quote individual prices (I can create a fully itemised quote if people don't mind their "order" shared with the buying group )
6. Collect money! (Would prefer paypal - since I will essentially be acting as a seller you should be protected if I get hit by a bus or am driven mad by power)
7. Make order and update wantlist (remove relevant lines)
8. Wait for arrival and redistribute

As this is still experimental, if this takes off I'd like to do one at a time for a while (not least because the figures involved could snowball...!

(NB Pressers seems like a good starting point )

A final thought - what if we qualify for "free" rare decks for a large order... I guess we'll work that out as it happens. Perhaps some sort of lottery between participating buyers? We'll cross that bridge when it comes!

I had a similar idea a couple  of years back but didn't really know how to go about it. the framework you've laid out seems like a good start building a network of UK collectors would also be good for future sales or Trades.

Oh, and I'll take a black jaqk if theres one going

Done!

3 of each left for grabs!

It's great to see everyone getting on board

Good man - I'll certainly be interested in a Cigar and an Espionage at some point!

With international shipping in the US sky rocketing, it's becoming increasingly difficult to justify buying one or two decks at a time.

One way around this is to buy in bulk and sell them on later - but this is pricey and risky.

Don suggested banding together with other UK buyers for the holiday deals - unfortunately I fell off the map for the last week or so - so missed that boat, but there's no reason not to do so in the future!

So if you're in the UK (or even the EU) make your self heard here and we can look at making a few quid savings by buying as a group. I'm happy to act as a "hub" and make the orders if others are ok with that. (Though I'm not a Club 808 or Black Club member so I wont be able to do so for any club exclusive decks) - Kickstarters would also have to be looked at on a case by case basis.

To get the ball rolling, I did manage to get online at work for a few minutes on Friday and have half a brick each of Legends 2.0 and BlackJAQK each coming. I only really want one of each for myself, and I'll be selling on the rest at whatever the market value establishes itself at. However - for UK collectors I'm more than happy to pass them on at cost (max one of each per person, and first come first served)

They'll be a little under £6 each + UK mainland shipping (Happy to give a detailed breakdown)


Give me a shout if you're interested!

thank you, if there is any chance of me getting a few for a decent/cheap price I will

I guess the other option is to find someone going to teh 2014 convention in Feb and see if they'd be willing to pick up a few and pass them on...

I like the original GoD deck, and the theme on the faces here will probably work really well - but it seems lazy not to have taken that theme to the back of the deck. The faces are full bleed colour, but the backs have kept the white borders. Isnt this an issue for performers? (impossible to "hide" a face up card in a fan now).  If they'd made the borders yellow and continued the black band onto the back they'd be a must have for me...

A novel new packaging technique - are they devalued if you, ahem, unwrap them?

The Doctor Who cards are from the 21st Gallifrey One convention.

Personally I'm looking for a Monte Carlo Loews Bee deck (circa '79)

Hi,

My name's Joe and I'm a collector from the UK - I've been more or less and addict since June and my collection is already pretty healthy!

A fateful and somewhat random google search for "Tron Cards" let me to 4PM Grid 1.0, and from there the rest was basically inevitable!

Long time lurker here, I've spent most of my time over at UC - the time seems ripe to cast my net a little wider!

Hope to be around for the foreseeable - catch you all out on the threads!