Pssst... they are all the same.
Well, a half-year ago I didn't know any better, but I do now.
Two finishes, regardless of naming conventions: standard and magic. Third (experimental) finish being used on select Vortex decks as a trial run (much like they did with Magic Finish on the Gold Arcanes).
Four stocks: Bicycle, Aristocrat, Bee and Bee Casino, roughly in order from lowest to highest grade as well as thickness. Bicycle Casino stock is discontinued, UV500 is prohibitively expensive and Tally Ho stock was replaced with a variant of Aristocrat.
"Variant? What does THAT mean?" Glad you asked. After the paper has been sandwiched from two rolls into one with a yummy adhesive mixed with graphite (to keep cards from being translucent), there's two ways it can go.
For a big mass-produced deck like corner-store Bicycles and Bees, they're done on the web press because it's faster. In the latter part of the Cincinnati years, people constantly clamored for their decks to be done on the web press instead of the sheet-fed press, thinking the quality of the method was superior. Lee Asher informed me that it was due to the sheet-fed press in Cincinnati practically being on its last legs, being held together with spit, chewing gum and good wishes.
For a small-order deck, the sheet-fed press in Erlanger is used - and this one's state of the art, unlike the clunker in Cincinnati. There was a shakedown period for both presses, but that was worked out by sometime in 2010, so any decks made 2011 or later are better quality-wise. The rolled paper gets cut into sheets, which will then go in the press to become "uncut sheets", and then into the cutter for most of them, since nowadays collectors seem to have taken a liking to the unfinished product so much that they'll pay more for it!
But before either printing process happens, the paper is stored in a warehouse. The temperature and humidity of the warehouse is carefully controlled, because it can change the characteristics of the paper when it leaves the warehouse goes to press.
One does need to remember, however, there's a bit of a wild card factor at play here as well - and that's recycled content in the paper. Paper made with a larger percentage of recycled content has fewer and fewer long, strong fibers from the original wood, and has a negative impact on the paper quality. But nobody doing anything in the paper business DOESN'T recycle - it costs less, it's environmentally friendly and it keeps Greenpeace protestors away... In time, you can expect the quality of paper diminish over the years, until some genius discovers a substitute material that handles like a dream and sells for a song, all while not increasing the USPC carbon footprint.
Want to see an example of variant stocks? Pick up a recent pack of both the Aristocrat reprints and Tally Hos. The Aristocrats are soft like butter, right out of the box - some flourishers dislike this characteristic. The Tally Ho cards are notably firmer and stiffer out of the box, brand new. Same exact paper, handled in different ways at the time of manufacture. Of course, there are other factors at play, too, like the amount of ink absorbed into the paper. Zenneth Kok said in these forums that he noticed a subtle but detectable difference between his black New Fan Backs and his white ones. No surprise there - the white ones absorbed much less ink on the card back.
But to be 100% frank about all this, even USPC can't completely guarantee consistent manufacturing from print run to print run, just due to the fact that the paper itself isn't always exactly the same. They have no control over how the paper itself is made in the paper mill, and slight differences from batch to batch do occur all the time. They can get it to within a certain range of quality, but that's it. You won't notice the difference between two decks from the same brick box, but you will notice the difference between two decks manufactured months apart from each other and kept sealed until they were opened at the same time. (Or maybe you won't notice it because the differences are often rather subtle...)
As far as pricing, USPC currently charges the same amount for
Bee Bicycle or Aristocrat stock. There's premium costs involved with using Bee or Bee Casino, not the least of which being that they farm out the tuckbox manufacturing to a third-party company (and all this time you thought the tucks were the same, right?). Standard finish comes, well, STANDARD in the price of a deck. If you make your deck using one of USPC's brand names, it will cost you a bit more, but Magic Finish is offered as a free upgrade if the designer chooses to use it.
Russell - or anyone else with knowledge on these points - PLEASE correct me if any of this is wrong. I care less about being wrong than I do about finding the unvarnished truth.
Edited for inaccuracy in red.
