Quote from: ksi on April 27, 2016, 05:06:40 AM

Royal Bee from USPCC.
I think it is a new in-house deck.
I love Bee.  Thus grab it without second thought 

It looks gorgeous - but it's not an in-house deck.  Anything USPC produces for their own purposes has a guarantee joker card - this doesn't.  Plus the in-box print work has a more Asian flair to it - I'd wager this is one of the many popular variants designed by and ordered by one of a handful of Asian companies that have been doing custom Bee decks.

I'm honestly surprised to see it come out - I had heard rumor that USPC was no longer allowing custom Bee decks, restricting all custom work in the brand to casino orders only.  It's possible that the rumor is false or that this was one of the last orders placed before the restriction went into effect.

I think this deck is a newer version (or gold foil version) of the Golden Bee (see my post #1195 in this thread).  Both this deck and the Golden Bee do not contain the guarantee joker. 
Maybe it is USPCC who asked someone to design these decks?  Then they are not fully "custom", as it is USPCC the party to initial the production.
Maybe they are initially planned to have a limited amount?  Then this may be one of the reason the guarantee joker not exist.

I actually have no idea.  Seems USPCC doesn't advertise these two decks in their US website.  However, if these are fully custom decks.  Why there is nobody advertising these decks...

Royal Bee from USPCC.
I think it is a new in-house deck.
I love Bee.  Thus grab it without second thought 

I should add, that whilst the price won't be as low as perhaps we first wanted in GBP, in USD it probably will look much lower simply because of the exchange rate, we are aiming for £6.99/£6.49 so if the current rate stays the same they will be approx $10 USD. Which is without a doubt the best price we've been able to achieve so far. Factor in free delivery for orders over £40 and they're great value, in my opinion.

Paul,

Would you consider to put some of the stocks on the LPCC's website?  Then the customers in Asia (like me) could enjoy lower shipping cost.

Quote from: ksi on December 30, 2015, 03:05:18 AM

Received mine today.

Beautifully printed.  The gold foil shines.  Tuck box is extremely thick.

The deck is thick and tough.  The measurement I read for my deck is 16.8mm (52 cards) and 97.5g.

But it is a bit too thick to do faro.  And maybe too stiff to perform some tricks.

My first feeling is somewhat like the Rhino dart flights.

You couldn't faro them?  I seem to recall being able to faro the sample I tried out at the CARC offices.  Perhaps they need a little breaking in.

Yes I can faro them.  Just they are not very easy to do a perfect faro upon brand new right out of the box status.  I think they need some time to breaking in.

Overall I am quite impressive with this deck.  I like the thickness very much.  And I like it is more "paper" feeling than the diamond/master finish.  The only thing I would comment is, this deck seems a little bit over-stiff for me.  But again, the situation could be improved after breaking-in.

KSI, I don't have any Silver Split Spades decks left... but from what I recall, the Silver Split Spades paper did feel very slightly sturdier than the Black Lions.

I wouldn't say it's David Blaine's fault... it's more USPCC's fault for not even attempting to improve their poor quality paper at a time where EPCC and LPCC paper stocks are tons better.

You're right about the Classic Twins (and also the Classic black and Classic gold) featuring the Classic Finish, as does the Draconian deck. The Elite Finish that the LUXX Palme uses I very good also. Whilst I'm not 100% sure about this, to me they feel like the same paper stock, but with a different embossing pattern (and possibly a slight variation in coating).

The Elite Finish pattern does appear to give the cards more durability than the Classic Finish. For what it's worth, I like the Elite Finish very much.

If only Blaine printed his cards with EPCC of LPCC... they'd be so much better than the badly cut, and cheap feeling, non-traditionally cut cards that they presently are.

HolyJJ, I actually mean the 1st Edition Split Spades Lions which was printed in OHIO.  I love this deck very much.  The thickness and handling is just like an UV500 or OHIO Casino Bee.

For the stock using by USPCC, I think I have similar view with you.  Since 2014 there seems very few Bee Casino stock being used.  I got some 1902 Erdnase Smith back (red and black), which said to be using the Bee 825 casino grade paper.  These decks are quite close to those OHIO Bee Casino stock in terms of thickness and stiffness.  But since then, I never have chance to get a deck with such thickness and stiffness.

And for the traditional cut.  I got a brick of HoneyBee, which said to be under traditional cut.  But the deck I opened, was not.  Yes I think this is an accident, an accident caused by USPCC.  And this accident appeared on your Black Lions again.

Recently I opened 2 decks of normal Tally-Ho, and a Bicycle Cupid back, and a Bicycle Speakeasy Deck, and a Bicycle Skull Deck, and a Bicycle Guardians v1 --  they are all traditionally cut.  My feeling is, it seems that for their in-house decks, there are a significant portion being cut traditionally.  But for those custom prints, the percentage is relatively small.  And even you requested to do so, sometimes accident appeared.

I got a brick as part of a trade (got rid of some decks which I was not having any luck selling)... and now that I've opened a deck and checked them out, I seriously don't like them.

For starters, the deck I opened was not even traditionally cut. As for the back design... the marking system is exactly the same as the White Lions Series B. Yeah, it does have the advantage of allowing the magician (or cheater) to be able to read the card value from backs from across the table, but unless you have the eyesight of an eagle or binoculars strapped to your face, you won't be able to read the suit unless you're very close to the cards. Furthermore, the back design does fail the riffle test.

The Sharps by LPCC still retain their place as the best marked deck by far (can read the suits from across the table also, and the marking system passes the riffle test!), and the Lions (both white and black) by David Blaine are still the second best. Having that second place spot isn't terrible by any means... but I'm kind of disappointed seeing as it's a David Blaine deck, and nothing has been done to improve that marking system.

The edges on the Bicycle metal luxe deck that I got were pretty good (for USPCC standards), and so I thought maybe that improvement would be noticed on the Black Lions also... but sadly, the edges were as bad as they get.

On the plus side, the tuck on this deck is pretty awesome, as is the silver foil deck seal.

Overall I'm disappointed though. I'm going to have to try and sell off the remaining decks!

Oh... so sad to hear that the deck seems disappointed.

How about the paper?  Feel like casino grade?  Or just close to normal bikes?

I personally more concern on the paper quality, handling and finish.  My recent experience on USPCC decks are not good.  All feel soft and relatively thin.  My hope is DB would be one of fews who are still able to push USPCC using more high quality paper.

And I am worrying about the delay issue.  If a majority portion of stock did lost by USPS, then DB would have to ask USPCC to print again immediately.  That might cause the decrease in quality control.  I hope this is not the reason that some of the decks are not traditionally cut.

These designers and companies frustrate me. Why they insist that I go through the trouble of actually ordering is beyond me. They know what I like, and they have my credit card number on file. They should just drive by my house, jam as many into the mailbox as they can, and then charge me accordingly. Simple.

:-)

Or how about a pre-order period?  Let everyone place order in that period (say, 2 weeks) and then print the amount accordingly.  A bit similar procedure as to Kickstarter.

I am happy to share that my shipping status got some progress couple of hours ago.  (Before this, it was idle since 4Dec).

It is now "arrived at USPS facility".

Hope everyone should have progress as well soon.

Here's a video of the foil backs.  Still doesn't do them justice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNJn52T_bpY

Nice video.  Thanks much.

The gold monarch seems not as shine as the Bicycle gold metal luxe.  But still looks cool.

If one day T11 put it on the shelf at a price around $15, I think I would pick some.  But I may not want to spend another $100 for a free, unless they have other things very attractive to buy.

An old release.  I like Bee.  Grabbed it during discount 

So, any guess on the deck if the is marked or not?

My guess is, this deck is likely to be a marked deck (following the White Lions Series B).  But this is just my wild guess.

However, I do hope it is not marked.  So that I can treat it as normal playing cards and can play card games with friends.

Never tried LPCC.
Only got 1 deck from EPCC (NOCv3).  But I don't like it.  The feeling is so plastic.  And it started clump together after around 2 weeks.  Yes I agreed the plastic feel might make the deck last a bit longer.  But I prefer paper feels.
However, I don't mind to pick some LPCC or EPCC to try on, in the case there are some great designs available.

Although I prefer USPCC a bit more, I am a bit disappointed with their recent years production.  It seems that all are from the similar (if not the same) stock.

I love my UV500 decks, I love my OHIO Propaganda, I love my Split Spades Lions.  They are all bold, solid and with luxury paper feeling.  Sadly such feeling is too difficult to find from those decks produced in recent years.

Quote from: ksi on November 11, 2015, 03:02:31 AM

My brick arrived last week.
But I just have time to unbox 1 and try it on hands these few days.
The stock is great, the finish is great, everything is great and I love the design.

Except a small issue - the deck I opened is by modern cut, my thumb drag down from the back of the deck to the face of the deck much smoother than the opposite way.
Does anyone with this deck got the same situation with me?

I think this is not the first case that USPCC cutting the deck wrongly.
I am a bit worry if the rest of the brick are all in modern cut.

USPC's production decks and most custom decks are all modern cut, with rare exceptions.

Production decks - USPC's own products - will usually be made on the web press, where the paper is printed and fed into the cutter in a continuous ribbon, and are usually modern-cut decks.

For custom decks, they're made on the sheet-fed press more often than not.  Sometimes the deck sheets will get flipped during cutting, I recently learned, due to occasional paper feed issues with the machinery - if the sheets aren't fitting in smoothly, a deck could come out traditionally cut by random chance, but it's not a common occurrence.  Normally, USPC will charge extra for traditional cut, if it's something you request.  According to one deck producer I spoke with, he was discouraged from using traditional cut - they told him that the cuts aren't as clean so the card edges aren't as smooth.  To me, that sounds like someone at USPC didn't want to make traditionally-cut decks and made some excuse up, but I could be wrong.

Casino decks are usually traditionally cut at the casino's request.  Oddly enough, their decks never seem to have this "rough cut" issue.  I have no idea if they're made on the web press or not, but I'm inclined to think no, despite the volume of decks made.  I've been told that registration isn't as accurate on the web press and casinos are sticklers about accurate registration - I'd be shocked if there weren't government-issued regulations covering the topic.

Yes I've heard that USPCC normally prefer customers to choose modern cut.  They are quite reluctant to offer traditionally cut.  Maybe the production line is already over-capicity? Maybe they want to keep a prestige image to their casino grade products?  Or maybe they are simply too lazy to do so.  Who knows...

Yes traditional cut is rare.  But there still few choices in the market.  At least most (if not all) of the Bee 1902 Erdnase series by Conjuring Arts are done in traditionally cut.  Customer still can request USPCC to cut traditionally (maybe with a premium paid). 

I was extremely excited when I saw the description posted by Kevin in post #1 of this thread, that the HoneyBee is cut traditionally on Bee stock.  And without second thought I grabbed a brick upon release.   I won't say it is Penguin Magic's problem for just 1 deck I opened was in modern cut.  Because I believe Penguin Magic did made their request (and probably did paid the premium for USPCC to do so).  Also it is pretty sure that Penguin Magic won't be allowing to send a staff to USPCC and monitor the whole production progress.

In many aspects the HoneyBee deck has very high quality.  Both the stock, the finish, the design... and the price is not that expensive when comparing with those Kickstater works.  What a pity the first deck I opened is not in traditional cut.  I can just hope that some of the rest of my brick is cut traditionally.