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Bargain Priced Deck

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Bargain Priced Deck
« on: November 06, 2013, 12:14:57 AM »
 

Anthony

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What's your favorite bargain priced deck, not the best deck you got for a song, but an inexpensive deck that just wowed you in some way.

I recently picked up a couple Massa decks for $2.00 a pop and I love them. Nice back design, clean tuck box and I like the deeper red used on the courts and pips. While I'm no professional I can get some really nice fans with it too  :)
« Last Edit: November 06, 2013, 12:15:42 AM by Sparkz »
 

Re: Bargain Priced Deck
« Reply #1 on: November 06, 2013, 12:51:53 AM »
 

Firdawesome

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I'd have to say the Aladdin decks. They're quite cheap where I'm from - less than US$3 a pop. It was only after I started collecting playing cards that I began to appreciate their quality.
 

Re: Bargain Priced Deck
« Reply #2 on: November 06, 2013, 01:06:08 AM »
 

Don Boyer

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What's your favorite bargain priced deck, not the best deck you got for a song, but an inexpensive deck that just wowed you in some way.

I recently picked up a couple Massa decks for $2.00 a pop and I love them. Nice back design, clean tuck box and I like the deeper red used on the courts and pips. While I'm no professional I can get some really nice fans with it too  :)

There was a lot of hoopla and fanfare surrounding this deck when it was first released, with people lauding the performance characteristics.  Then after two weeks, when they wore out and handled like crap, people got over it and the price dropped to as low as you see it now.  In fact, I heard of one deck dealer who started using Massas as padding material in shipments of more costly decks.

My favorite cheap deck is a pack of US-made Streamlines.  WalMart was selling them for a buck a pack for a while there, but I haven't seen them there in months.  They're on par with Aviators, which are basically Bicycles with a smooth stock and a more boring back design, but they have Arrco faces so they stand out just a little - recognizable but more unique than most off-the-store-shelf decks.
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Re: Bargain Priced Deck
« Reply #3 on: November 06, 2013, 01:10:25 AM »
 

agera94

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What's your favorite bargain priced deck, not the best deck you got for a song, but an inexpensive deck that just wowed you in some way.

I recently picked up a couple Massa decks for $2.00 a pop and I love them. Nice back design, clean tuck box and I like the deeper red used on the courts and pips. While I'm no professional I can get some really nice fans with it too  :)

There was a lot of hoopla and fanfare surrounding this deck when it was first released, with people lauding the performance characteristics.  Then after two weeks, when they wore out and handled like crap, people got over it and the price dropped to as low as you see it now.  In fact, I heard of one deck dealer who started using Massas as padding material in shipments of more costly decks.

My favorite cheap deck is a pack of US-made Streamlines.  WalMart was selling them for a buck a pack for a while there, but I haven't seen them there in months.  They're on par with Aviators, which are basically Bicycles with a smooth stock and a more boring back design, but they have Arrco faces so they stand out just a little - recognizable but more unique than most off-the-store-shelf decks.

I can confirm that I have received some decks received wrapped in Massa cards. Favourite cheap deck would have to be the aladdins.
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Re: Bargain Priced Deck
« Reply #4 on: November 06, 2013, 01:21:00 AM »
 

Don Boyer

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Favourite cheap deck would have to be the aladdins.

Cheapest I've seen them is $4.50 each if you buy a dozen - bought individually they're closer to $7.  If THAT'S considered cheap, then Kentucky-made Tally Ho decks are the best cheap deck I can get - the fruit-and-veg stand in my neighborhood sells them for $3 a pack and you don't have to buy in bulk.
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Re: Bargain Priced Deck
« Reply #5 on: November 06, 2013, 01:26:10 AM »
 

Anthony

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Quote
There was a lot of hoopla and fanfare surrounding this deck when it was first released, with people lauding the performance characteristics.  Then after two weeks, when they wore out and handled like crap, people got over it and the price dropped to as low as you see it now.  In fact, I heard of one deck dealer who started using Massas as padding material in shipments of more costly decks.

For how I use my cards..........they'll never wear out then, lol
 

Re: Bargain Priced Deck
« Reply #6 on: November 06, 2013, 01:34:07 AM »
 

Firdawesome

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My neighbourhood fruit-and-veg stand is where I buy the Aladdin decks as well! To be honest though, they're everywhere here. Almost every 7-11 stocks a brick of them, from what I see.
 

Re: Bargain Priced Deck
« Reply #7 on: November 06, 2013, 04:18:40 AM »
 

Sovereign

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I bought two dozen decks for 99c each at Slots a Fun in Vegas, brought them back home and thrashed the hell out of them performing close up at gigs and events. They were casino stock bees with the corners clipped: I have a little craft corner clipper here so I just clipped the other corners so they didn't look too weird, and they handled great and did their job nicely, plus I quite liked the story (which involved me getting stopped by customs because stacked together the decks looked like drugs on the X-ray, at which point the customs guy starts pulling all kinds of magic crap, bent forks and the like out of my bag.)

Slots a Fun was so nasty it's awesome, and if you wanted a footlong hot dog (that's probably 60% sawdust by weight) for 59c I'm not sure what other option you've got. Looks like it's been rolled into Circus Circus now as something other than a totally skanky mini casino, so I guess that that's done with now. :-(
 

Re: Bargain Priced Deck
« Reply #8 on: November 06, 2013, 11:11:51 AM »
 

Don Boyer

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My neighbourhood fruit-and-veg stand is where I buy the Aladdin decks as well! To be honest though, they're everywhere here. Almost every 7-11 stocks a brick of them, from what I see.

So, lemme guess - you live in Singapore?  :))

I bought two dozen decks for 99c each at Slots a Fun in Vegas, brought them back home and thrashed the hell out of them performing close up at gigs and events. They were casino stock bees with the corners clipped: I have a little craft corner clipper here so I just clipped the other corners so they didn't look too weird, and they handled great and did their job nicely, plus I quite liked the story (which involved me getting stopped by customs because stacked together the decks looked like drugs on the X-ray, at which point the customs guy starts pulling all kinds of magic crap, bent forks and the like out of my bag.)

Slots a Fun was so nasty it's awesome, and if you wanted a footlong hot dog (that's probably 60% sawdust by weight) for 59c I'm not sure what other option you've got. Looks like it's been rolled into Circus Circus now as something other than a totally skanky mini casino, so I guess that that's done with now. :-(

I hear there's a lot of places throughout "Lost Wages" to find casino-used decks cheap.  It's those corners, though...  There's also a fair amount of uncanceled decks floating about, but I imagine nowhere near as cheap.  Perhaps you could re-round that corner with a diamond file, making it less noticeable, while leaving the other corners alone?

I haven't been stopped by Customs yet, but the TSA did inspect my briefcase on at trip home from Fort Lauderdale - I had about 60-80 neatly stacked decks in it and they swabbed it for explosives residue...
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Re: Bargain Priced Deck
« Reply #9 on: November 06, 2013, 11:58:46 PM »
 

MrMollusk

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Definitely the decks I find at D.I. (Deseret Industries. Kinda like a Goodwill, but in Utah.)

I've found Cincinnati Rider Backs there for under a buck on numerous occasions. Just picked up a red jumbo index one last weekend.

As far as retail goes, I'd have to say the Charity Water decks. Awesome tuck case, cool back, phenomenal handling, and you can really support a great charity if you do street magic with them. Helps get the name out in addition to your $1 donation.

If 5 bucks is too expensive, you can never go wrong with Bee Diamond Backs.
« Last Edit: November 07, 2013, 12:00:31 AM by MrMollusk »
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Re: Bargain Priced Deck
« Reply #10 on: November 07, 2013, 01:02:57 PM »
 

Don Boyer

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Definitely the decks I find at D.I. (Deseret Industries. Kinda like a Goodwill, but in Utah.)

I've found Cincinnati Rider Backs there for under a buck on numerous occasions. Just picked up a red jumbo index one last weekend.

As far as retail goes, I'd have to say the Charity Water decks. Awesome tuck case, cool back, phenomenal handling, and you can really support a great charity if you do street magic with them. Helps get the name out in addition to your $1 donation.

If 5 bucks is too expensive, you can never go wrong with Bee Diamond Backs.

When the Charity: Water deck came out, it was originally $10 and the entire amount went to the charity.  I guess that was a limited-time offer of sorts.

You mention these and Bees, but the only way Bee decks get truly cheap is if you buy in bulk.  You never really find a new pack of Bees a dollar each at a local pharmacy or big box store.

You have to look at shopbicyclecards.com (Wingra Direct, a retail company owned by USPC) and look in their closeouts section.  This was where I snagged a pair of bricks of the Bicycle Big Gun deck for 99¢ each, and some others picked up the pink Harley Davidson "Butterfly" deck there as well.  For now, there are no closeouts so the closeout section isn't even visible, but when there are, it's often unpopular but quality playing cards that are being dumped cheap just to empty the warehouse.

The beauty of the Big Gun deck was that it was only unpopular because of the idiotic pricing for what it was when it first came out.  It was supposed to be the first reprint of the entire Victory series, the rarest Bicycle standard-issue decks because of their exceptionally short run, only a single printing in 1918.  The originals were commemoratives to inspire people to support "The Great War" (World War I), but the war ended only a few months after the deck was created.  Anyway...  USPC decided that since custom decks were starting to become a big deal and people were paying big money for rare stuff, they'd create this artificially-rare deck, sell it only in pairs and charge a whopping $39.95 for them.  Maybe, just maybe, if they'd done a stellar custom job on them, they would have been worth half that much, but they really ruined the deck by giving it a wicked-nice reproduction of the original deck's box, a faithful repro of the deck back, and 100% MODERN faces, just like any ordinary Bicycle Standards, right down to the jokers and the AoS code - most people didn't touch them at all until the closeout.  If they'd been more intelligent about the pricing - maybe $4-5 a pack, $8-10 for the set - they wouldn't have found themselves marking it down to ninety-nine cents...  Well, to be fair, they did price them to a lower, intermediate price in the initial stages of the closeout - I think it was $10 a pair - but by then the damage was done and people knew it was a pretty lame effort at a reproduction.
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