I already had a red / blue pair (complete, opened) of High Finish Rider Backs, but I didn't think I'd ever have a brick of sealed decks! 6 red, 6 blue, perforated USPCC stamps.

Wow. Very nice! How does High Finish feel in comparison to Air-Cushion Finish?

I just got this in the mail. I have seen one earlier post the High Finish Rider back blue version, and the poster mentioned that it was pretty rare. Anyone know the story about the High Finish Rider Back in general, and if it is really that rare? Usually the rider back comes in Air-cushion finish.

That looks like a nice auction. Definitely participating in that. Are there others like this happening around the year that you know of?

So I finally got my Whispering Imps set from the 52 plus Joker auction (lucky me, I won the Auction by a margin of $5, ehhehe). I could sit and stare at them all day. These cards are going to take front row, when I get my Orbiter displays, that's for sure.

It's not that hard to find out - if you do your research.  If one deck of a single print run had a vellum wrapper with a wax USPC seal around the cards as well as a tax stamp on the box, it's a safe bet that the entire rest of the print run was originally released in the same condition with the same materials.  You only need someone, somewhere, to have opened one box and for that person to tell about the experience!

A lot of information is also available in reference guides like the Hochman's Encyclopedia.

So if a deck has a single print run, and I have seen that the same deck with the box opened has the card wrapped in vellum or vax or whatever I am interested in, then I can deduce that every other deck of that type has the same type of packaging. That is simple enough.

Also, I have searched through Hochman's part 1 and 2 and both vellum and vax never shows up, and cellophane only shows up once in part 2. It seems that information about the inside packaging is fairly scarce.

Do you know of any other references, besides Hochman's, that would be good for determining single print runs, packaging details, etc.? I will also look at the material available at askalexander.org to see if anything interesting pops up, so you don't have to suggest that.

I just ordered the Hochman Encyclopedia from the 52 plus Joker website, and started reading it today. Good stuff already!

I know that this might be the start of a collection that may never finish. But I guess that is what gives the pleasure of collecting: That you are never really finished, because there is always another item you can add by widening your scope. However, right now, in this part of my collection, my scope is standard American brands that can be found sealed in a box, with some kind of foil or cellophane, either outside the box, or wrapped around the cards inside.

And yes, all the brands you are mentioning are within interest, as long as they are to be found as issued in the condition described earlier. I just have to figure out, which come in a box, that originally had cellophane around it, or came sealed with a wrapper around the cards inside, so I can focus my search. The last part, the cards being wrapped in foil or another type of material inside the sealed box, is harder to discover. That's why it would be interesting to know which cards came in that condition.

For instance these "Bee" cards have wrapped cards inside box. http://www.ebay.com/itm/1940s-Sealed-Wrapper-New-York-Consolidated-Playing-Cards-Bee-Poker-Squeezers-/261836861538?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cf6b17062

However, these come in cellophane: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Bee-No-92-Playing-Cards-W-Tax-Stamp-Consolidated-Card-Co-/151666421471?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item235005eedf

Both are prospects to my collection, albeit in "as issued" condition, because they either come in cellophane or wrapped inside the sealed box. But the latter is harder to figure out, when you just see a sealed deck unopened. And I want to steer clear of decks that are sealed without cellophane and/or wrapped cards inside.

However, I am now sipping through Hochman's Part 1, so I hope to discover more :-)

Quote from: MrVamp on May 01, 2015, 02:37:36 PM

I have been looking to take my collection in the direction of collecting vintage standard brands, from now closed American playing card companies, only focusing on the decks that come in standard red & blue backs, sealed and in some kind of cellophane or foil (either outside or inside the box). However, I am wondering, when did standard American playing cards start getting produced with cellophane or foil, and which companies introduced it?

Wow - that's a major challenge you're setting for yourself.

Have you checked in the Hochman's Encyclopedia yet?  That would probably have every bit of information you need to find those decks.

BTW: when you say "standard brands," what's your definition of such?  For example, Bicycle would be considered a standard brand, but there were over eighty different card backs used with the Bicycle brand name prior to 1950.  Some were available for only a limited time while others were around for decades - and one, the Rider Back, was printed first in 1893 and has been in print ever since.  And it wasn't their first design - the design now called the Old Fan Back is believed to be the first, in 1885.  Then, it was just called the Fan Back - just as World War I was a name not used for "the Great War" until World War II took place.

Now, Bicycle was always a USPC brand, originated within the company.  So let's look at the brands that originated elsewhere.  Bee (NY Consolidated) is best known for the Diamond Back, and Tally Ho (A. Doughtery) is best known for two backs, the "Original Circle" back and "Original Fan" back - but both decks have had several backs over the years.  Hoyle (Brown & Bigelow) today is known for their Shell Back - I'd be very surprised if it was their only design.  Arrco (originally the Arrow Card Co.) has their US Regulation decks as well as their Tahoe designs...

There's a lot of possibilities, as you can see.

Nice picture! Unfortunately I did not make it in time to get the special edition, but I look forward to receiving the standard editions, which are anything but standard.

We're glad to have you on board, Thomas.  If you're looking for something that "Search" isn't helping with, go ahead and ask - we're pretty friendly around here and like to help members old and new alike.

Cheers!

Thank you Don. I am glad to be on board. And I have great confidence that any of my upcoming questions not found answered already, will be answered with great knowledge. I have already seen that happen many times with other posters.

Hello,

I am 27 years old, living on Zealand, Denmark. I started serious collecting of playing cards only recently. Before that I have acquired some playing cards for playing or doing hobby magic. In the last few months of serious collecting, I have already spent a considerable amount of time and money buying and trying out all kinds of decks, I found interesting while researching online.

At the moment I am, or have the intend of, collecting vintage casino playing cards (uncancelled decks from casinos with both solid and Bee backs or only solid backs, i.e., Wynn, Playboy, various Nugget casinos), modern limited playing cards (Kickstarter, LPCC, EPCC, etc.), preferably those that come in an series of minimum two, and vintage standard playing cards created by now closed down factories that was bought up by USPCC (Aristocrat, Blue Ribbon, Arrco cards, etc.).

I prefer to collect sealed decks for my collection. However, I also try to gather a matching deck to open and look at the actual cards in person, so as to not limit myself to seeing the cards in online pictures only. Also, I like to play with and handle the cards, and consider the tactile aspect of playing cards very important.

By reading this forum and becoming a member of 52plusJoker, I have already learned a lot about playing cards. Thank you all for this.

I wish everyone the best, and look forward to interacting in the future,

Thomas

I recently received a deck of Playboy Casino Atlantic City playing cards, solid orange back, as the first in my vintage Playboy collection. I am on the lookout for the solid green as well, in addition to the vintage Playboy Rider backs, which have boxes that are similar to the casino card boxes. In the longer term, I might also collect the Bee Playboy Casino Cards from the same casino.  I really like the green and orange monochrome colors for casino cards. However, they will have to be uncancelled and sealed.

The cellophane is wrapped tight around the pack, so there is no prospect of it getting loose, like I have seen on Ebay is pretty common for the Nugget Casino Cards.

Enjoy.