with aviators, is there a timeframe where they switched from prefaced congress cards to the aviators we see today? ive been looking for early 2000s aviators for a while now(which is almost impossible for me to find for some reason) but from that i got into collecting aviators in general and i have some from just about every decade since the 40s  to 80s and i noticed something, from the 80s on back, theyre prefaced. i havent really seen legit aviators with the real faces until you get later into the ohio era

i got mine today and i have to say, for seconds, theyre still better than 99% of the kickstarter decks out there lol the handling is still freakishly amazing like all david blaine decks, the borders are probably the straightest ive ever seen in USPCC decks, and there was only one card in my deck that was cut a little too close to the edge on the face side but its not noticeable unless your looking for it

Quote from: darkinertia on July 02, 2016, 05:17:41 AM

now is there a big variance between decks with the same finish or is there more options, like different card stock? i got gamesters, sky islands, and smith no 3s. theyre all master finish, but the sky islands are a bit different than the gamesters, and the and the smith no 3s are WAY different than the sky islands, theyre almost 2 cards taller!

Do a search on this site for the free promo issue of CARD CULTURE that I put together last year.  In it was an article that covered all the stocks used by the Expert Playing Card Company.  Legends uses some of the same stocks - Legends uses the same factory in Taipei to do some of its print work and there's a few stocks they have in common, while the rest of their print work is done from another location somewhere in mainland China.  They use the term "stock" and "finish" interchangeably a lot because they get their stocks pre-finished from an undisclosed source in Europe.  So for example, "Master Stock" or "Master Finish" refers to the same thing - the Master paper stock textured with the Master finish.  All the Expert finishes (including the ones that the two companies use in common) are embossed and the embossing comes in different depths, affecting the feel and glide of the stocks differently.  Stock thicknesses vary from type to type as well.  But within a given type, they tend to be quite consistent, as consistent as is possible with any paper stock, really.

BTW: the "Codename: Iron Stock" featured in the article was eventually released as Robusto Stock - and it's probably the thickest card stock you'll find anywhere.  It makes a pack of Bees look like a pack of Bikes.

very interesting read in that card culture issue, yeah robusto is probably one of my favorite handling decks!but i love thick stocks since my favorite deck is wynns, but my favorite part is for some reason, whether its the actual coating or maybe just the thickness of the cards, but it fans so perfectly like an ohio deck. i need to check out the damask finish decks next, i didnt even know they made them!

i hope one of these days epcc does a smooth finish, CARC was probably the only one making custom decks in ivory finish and theyre great, especially since kentucky aladdins are way worst than ohio aladdins now. if they made a smooth version of their classic finish decks then id be set

now is there a big variance between decks with the same finish or is there more options, like different card stock? i got gamesters, sky islands, and smith no 3s. theyre all master finish, but the sky islands are a bit different than the gamesters, and the and the smith no 3s are WAY different than the sky islands, theyre almost 2 cards taller!

http://i.imgur.com/oB6M7UW.jpg

looks like it might not actually be WWII era since the book "150 ways to play solitaire", if it is the same book that i looked up, dates back to 1950

does aviators fall under different rules with the ace of spades code or something because i know newer ones have the codes but this doesnt...it handles like a dream, it still has that sticky feeling to it though.

man im hooked on vintage decks! this beats buying the same old overpriced magic finish/bicycle stock decks! every deck has a unique feel to its time

oh wow thanks for letting me know, my strategy was just to grudge through trying to break them in, while my hands burn from being so dry while using them lol id figured eventually the moisture from my hands would eventually revive the deck or something. i do have a humidor that i store my decks in, i dont load it with a water cartridge or anything i just use it because it has a hygrometer so i can keep an eye on them, especially during this season where the humidity is insane in virginia.

funny enough, the person that i bought the bicycles from is from Cincinnati so i wonder if that may have something to do with the packaging, perhaps it was a local thing. its strange how even very recent things get lost in history like this 

heres the listings i got them from:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/152108218661?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

http://www.ebay.com/itm/131822185838?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

i really doubt theyre counterfeits, at least they dont seem like it. i meant the blister packs kinda like how toys used to come in. its just strange because the used decks ive found around this timeframe are usually really good even in the beat up state theyre in, but these just feel bone dry...theyre even drying out my hands just trying to break them in lol

ill try to post a video later on, its just strange because i expected them to be like brand new, especially since it looks like the bees were shrink wrapped with the book a looong time ago, you could tell since the book was caving in and the wrap was practically squishing everything

so it looks like i have to look out for more of the older decks, i have noticed almost all the listings ive come across ive asked them if they were bridge or poker and most said bridge sized. honestly i kinda like the feel of some of the vintage  smooth finish decks, i have a couple of the novelty ones like the camels and theyre not too bad, and i got a marvel xmen one from the late 80s that fans better than most of my decks now lol

so you know a thing or two about cards don, are you able to tell the difference between a bridge and poker sized deck just by looking at a pic of the box? i can never seem to tell unless theres a deck right next to it that i know is a poker deck

oh wow thanks cardfool, thats very helpful! guess i know what to look out for now! do you know when the offset vs centered start? ive seen them as late as the late 90s, but im not exactly sure when

oh wow this is interesting ive never heard of a deck press before, this actually looks like something that can be made fairly simple. ive always stayed away from porpers because if there was a deck that i wanted to protect, usually id want to protect the tuck also lol ive usually gotten around it just by faroing the card face into each other and jam it back into the tuck for a while...ive been doing that a lot lately since humidity is killer here in virginia right now.

the thing im really interested in is why the decks that seem to warp the most are usually the ohio, and the older the more easily they warp. my watermelons arent really that bad, but i got a brand new sealed bee deck that warps a little bit, then i have an old streamline from the late 80s that warps more. the one thing i really dont like about kentucky cards as much as ohio is the finish being super slippery compared to ohios so maybe they go crazy on the finish and coating and that stops the cards from warping as much...its just always been interesting to me,especially since i always do the recommended things like washing and drying your hands, the older decks seem to take in the moisture a lot more

THANK YOU so much don boyer! ive been lurking and i caught the posts you did in "card stock" and i learned a lot from it, and this pushed it over the edge. i will have to look into all those mentioned decks, from my research i did find the richard turner gold standard was bee casino stock though i havent bought one yet

and i had no clue that CARC did that will all of their uspc decks though i do have the erdnaseums and they dont feel like casino bees...they have that snap to them but arent as thick, but that might be because of differences between KY and ohio or even that it has dan and daves name on it and i know they usually like aristocrat stock, who knows lol but ill for sure pick up some ask alexanders