As cool as that AoS is, I'm trying to imagine how you'd incorporate Edison into it in a similar fashion... Will Edison be naked and draped in a partially revealing cloth? 

Very thorough response, I learned like 10 new things reading it, so thank you in advance. Forewarning about my own response here, my knowledge is obviously very limited, so I can only provide reactionary thoughts.

Regarding the custom deck performances, everything you said makes sense, I also imagine that a lot of cardistry moves are and can be used effectively in a routine for the "googly-eyed" misdirection. In conjunction with a fancy custom deck, especially with standard faces, it's the perfect distraction. It would be like watching cirque du soleil magic show. You'd have no idea how any of it is being done, but it looks beautiful and still mystifies you. I love it, and I hope magicians one day soon feel comfortable enough to use them on TV. Like I don't think I've seen anyone on Fool Us for example using anything besides a standard rider back-looking deck.

As far as markings go, I assumed if I had looked at enough of all the custom decks I've been buying I'd see in the range of 20-40% of them as marked. But it sounds like you're saying it's much lower, maybe single digits. That's good to know, because I honestly prefer that the decks are not marked. Primarily because if I were to use the custom decks it mostly likely would be to play poker and not to actually perform a trick.

All of your pieces about the markings are very illuminating for me, like I had never even heard of the RFID chips inside a card method of marking, I didn't realize that RFID could be made thin enough to even be put into a card without it being noticeable. Also thank you for the lesson on the riffle technique for identifying the marks, it's now in my arsenal.

You should definitely consider making a sticky or something for some of us rookies outlining exactly what you said here, because every paragraph breaks down the topic incredibly well. Thank you kindly for taking the time to write it.

Hello everyone, my name is Hagop, I'm from Southern California, USA.

I'm new to the forums and new to collecting playing cards.

I've been a part time collector of lots of different things over the years. Tools, knives, posters, coins, cards, pretty much everything.
I recently got into collecting decks because of the crazy explosion of artists working in this area on some amazing looking pieces and I wanted in!

Most of my pieces tend to be "safe-queens" so I don't open maybe 98% of the decks I buy, even the extras I buy convincing myself I'll open and play with for once, I never do. Maybe that speaks to my ocd, but that's my thing. Any time I want to learn some basic cardistry move, I'll usually use a more standard bicycle deck.

Anyway, I'll probably explore the forum in due time, but in the mean time, anything I should know about this place? Popular threads/subforums? Any etiquette besides the basics I should familiarize myself with?