the bicycle splitspades ??

[Frost]

is it true that in those decks one card is shorter than the others

[Lushbob]

Yes, in the Svengali deck. That's kinda the whole point of the Svengali deck...
It means that if you riffle through it one way, you see all different cards, but if you riffle through it the other way, you see all different cards.
All the Bicycle Split Spades decks are trick decks.

[Don Boyer]

The red deck is a Svengali, as described above.
The blue deck is a stripper deck - wedged-shaped cards that allow you to do a wide range of tricks.
The black deck is a "mind-reading"/marked deck.  Don't try using them at a card game - the marks wouldn't stand up to hard scrutiny.  But for a quick magic stunt or two, they're fine, and probably the cheapest decent-quality marked deck on the market.

[Joshua Robinson]

I would like to pick up a Stripper deck, and a marked, i already have a svengali, but its not a DB one

[Frost]

ohh i thought they where regular decks and i was going to buy some but now i'm not  thanks for your help guys .

[Don Boyer]

ohh i thought they where regular decks and i was going to buy some but now i'm not  thanks for your help guys .

The Svengali is far from a regular deck, but the marked and stripper decks could be used as regular.

I would like to pick up a Stripper deck, and a marked, i already have a svengali, but its not a DB one

Try a Mirage deck - if you like a Svengali, you'll love a Mirage!

[Kanped]

Personal favourite gaff deck is the pop-eyed popper.  Basically it's a sven deck but rather than cut shorter, the force card is roughed so it sticks to the back of every other card.  There's actually some skill in handling it and if you're good enough and you get a little lucky, a spectator can scrupulously inspect a card and not realize it's actually 2 cards.  Wonderful.

[Don Boyer]

Personal favourite gaff deck is the pop-eyed popper.  Basically it's a sven deck but rather than cut shorter, the force card is roughed so it sticks to the back of every other card.  There's actually some skill in handling it and if you're good enough and you get a little lucky, a spectator can scrupulously inspect a card and not realize it's actually 2 cards.  Wonderful.

Sounds very similar to the Mirage - maybe they're the same thing under two names?

Mirage functions like any Svengali, but it uses roughing spray on the faces of the force cards and the backs of the normal cards, allowing you to do something a regular Svengali can't - fan the cards to show there's no extra force cards.  But you can't let them look too hard or too long, since they'll spot either a) that the cards look awfully thick, b) that the fan is far short of a complete deck or c) both.

Is the PEP the same, or somehow different?

[Kanped]

I think it's the mirage that's slightly different; a mirage deck is a combination of a PEP and a svengali deck (according to cards4magic, who sell both);

http://www.cards4magic.co.uk/cgi-bin/sh000001.pl?REFPAGE=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2ecards4magic%2eco%2euk%2facatalog%2f&WD=mirage&PN=copy_of_xAviator__Fox_Lake_%2ehtml%23a8511#a8511

EDIT; Did that long URL screw up the formatting of the webpage for anyone else?

[Don Boyer]

I think it's the mirage that's slightly different; a mirage deck is a combination of a PEP and a svengali deck (according to cards4magic, who sell both);

http://www.cards4magic.co.uk/cgi-bin/sh000001.pl?REFPAGE=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2ecards4magic%2eco%2euk%2facatalog%2f&WD=mirage&PN=copy_of_xAviator__Fox_Lake_%2ehtml%23a8511#a8511

EDIT; Did that long URL screw up the formatting of the webpage for anyone else?

Yes.  But it's not the first time I've seen the formatting on that site go sideways and pear-shaped.