To summarize...
These are ALL the David Blaine decks, in approximate order of release.
Original Split Spades (also called Tally Ho Split Spades, with Tally Ho Ace of Spades)
Comes in red (red box back, red seal), black (black box back, red seal) and blue (black box back, blue seal).
Bee Split Spades
Comes in black and "inverted black". Both came in a Bee casino box with a clear cellophane window in the back, the black had a black seal, the inverted black had a white seal and they were sold as a two-deck set. Most inverted black decks were sold unwrapped and autographed by David Blaine; the only ones that were sealed and unautographed came in the recent Variety Box. Has the Bee AoS.
Split Spades Lions
Came in red, black and blue, matching backs and seals on the boxes, unique AoS. A sepia-back box was also created - the color was considered and rejected, but the boxes had already been created, so the small number of them were "recycled" to pack blue decks in. Despite being the third Split Spades release, the boxes were marked "1st Edition". They were also the only Blaine deck to NOT have a one-way mark.
(I don't have the full details on these, but there were apparently some gaffed cards in these and possibly other decks created for Blaine to use in performance. I've seen photos here of a Split Spades Lions joker autographed by Blaine with a gaffed back to appear like four or five cards layered in a staggered stack - this type of gaff is used to fool a spectator into thinking you're holding more cards than you are. If any of you know more about these, by all means, don't keep it to yourself!)
Bicycle Split Spades - the trick decks.
These were Bicycle-branded and had the Split Spades Lions design. The color indicated the deck type: the blue "Discover Magic" was a stripper deck, the red "Transformation" deck was a Svengali deck and the black "Mind Reading" deck was a marked deck (at the time of release, it was one of the cheapest marked decks of respectable quality on the market). The release versions had the "split spade" logo on the front, ace pointing up. Prototype versions were also created, never intended for sale, but have made it "into the wild" - two were included in the recent Variety Box release. These boxes have the SS logo pointing down; it reads as "db", Blaine's initials. There was a white prototype box in addition to the other three colors, it was another prototype model for the red Svengali deck. The blue and black prototype decks were included in the Variety Box.
White Lions - "Series A Blue"
This deck originally came in a single color, blue - "Series A Blue" was marked on the box front. In addition to having a simpler, repetitive back design, they also had a simple marking system hidden in the back design allowing you to determine value, but not suit, of the card. Blaine also released a special two-deck set similar to the Bee SS: one deck sealed, one deck unwrapped and signed.
Split Spades Lions gaff pack
This was a two-deck boxed set released shortly after the the Series A Blue White Lions consisting of a red and a blue Split Spades Lions deck and a black envelope containing eight gaff cards meant for those decks: two red double backers, two blue double backers, two blue Ace of Hearts cards with a "thumbprint" 8 of Hearts reveal in the pip, a blue 7 of Spades with a one index altered to 9 of Spades, and one blue 5 of Spades with only four diamond pips on it.
White Lions - "Series A Red"
There were three special "rainbow edition" decks made - the boxes were all marked "Series A Red" on the front but mentioned the rainbow edition on the bottom in the copyright text. Inside the "Anything Is Possible" bottle created by Jamie Grant for David Blaine was a red deck and was packaged with a two-deck box containing another red deck and a "purple" deck - the purple wasn't a consistent shade of purple, but a transitional color created when changing ink for the card backs in the middle of the print run from blue to red, so different purple decks could be different shades of purple. The Variety Box came with a red deck as well, along with a blue UV deck - the stock glows under an ultraviolet lamp, and is believed by some to be the same UV500 stock that Ellusionist used on its earlier decks before it became prohibitively expensive.
As mentioned above, the AIP bottle was three decks in a set: one red in the bottle, a red and a purple in a box. They were limited to 100 individually-numbered sets.
The Variety Box consisted of a dozen decks from Blaine's entire production run. It consisted of:
2 White Lions blue deck
1 White Lions "Rainbow" red deck
1 White Lions "Rainbow" UV blue deck
1 Bicycle Split Spades prototype blue stripper deck
1 Bicycle Split Spades prototype black marked deck
1 Bee Split Spade black deck
1 Bee Split Spades inverted black deck, wrapped, no autograph
2 Split Spades Lions blue decks in sepia boxes
1 Split Spades Lions blue deck
1 Split Spades Lions red deck
and the envelope of gaffed Split Spades Lions cards included in the gaff set
250 Variety Boxes were created. 249 were simply autographed by David Blaine. Exactly one was both autographed and personalized to the recipient. I was that lucky recipient!
I sent an email to a contact at his company about the sudden lack of products on the website. I suspect that they're planning a new launch of some kind - maybe some new products (ooh, new deck??) or maybe a website redesign. When I know, you guys and girls will know.
