As a single deck, I would probably pick a Crown deck. As a series, I went with Fulton.
I don't have any Crown decks, and maybe I'm wrong(I'm sure Don will correct me if I am), but they are just different colors. The Luxury deck has a different tuck, but the backs seem only slightly different.
I only play poker with my cards, so wear is never going to be an issue. I went with the Fulton's because of each deck being unique.
Case could be that Fulton's are not a series. Just different decks designed by the same guy. Jackson's Fed 52 & Sherlock Holmes projects would be 2 different series by the same designer.
I don't own either yet, I have the Luxury Crowns on my list and out of the Fulton's, only the Clip Joints are wanted. Based on just visual aspects I went with the Fulton's for the same reason Rob did, as a "Series" it wins. Individually may be a little different, even if you went Luxury vs Clip Joints I still see it being a 50/50 split. CJ Slightly more custom overall, Luxury nice tuck and backs.
Wait - Rob, you think your deck won't show the wear if you're playing POKER instead of performing? Dude, I never worked my cards harder than I did at the card table! We'd buy Bikes by the brick and plow through them like a farmer on speed.
However, Rob, you do raise an excellent point about the nature of the series. Is it really something you could call a series, or is it simply a bunch of decks designed by the same guy? Beyond being made on paper, the designs bear few elements in common with each other. It would be like calling all the decks from T11 the "Theory11 series" or all of David Blaine's decks the "David Blaine series".
Think about it. The first design was the Fulton's Clip Joint, reminiscent of a speakeasy. One deck, done.
Next, Fulton's Chinatown. The orangey-red deck was disappointing, but there was a second more-rare one, the "Game of Death Edition", which was a blinding yellow and black. One could call those two a series by themselves.
There's absolutely no doubting that the Ace Fulton's Casino decks were a series unto themselves. Five decks in total, three with an embossed finish (brown, orange and the rare "Midnight Fuel") and two with a smooth finish (red and blue, in colors extremely reminiscent of a famous vintage deck that everyone talks about...). That is a SERIES, right there, all by itself. Completely different in every way from the earlier decks.
Lastly, Fulton's October - unless I'm missing something in-between?
As far as the Crown Decks go...
There was first-edition Blue, Red and Green Crowns.
These were followed by second-edition Blue, Red and Green Crowns. The back design had some small changes to it, not the least of which being the removal of a hidden one-way mark.
Then were the two rare premium decks, though they were also available for purchase at various times: the Black Crown deck with silver metallic ink and the Gold Crown deck, identical to the Black Crown but with gold metallic ink instead. These had a radical change in the box design, an extremely clean and elegant box that was lauded at the time - a box covered in the color matching the deck's name, with a little foil crown in the bottom left corner of the face. Black had a silver crown and a gloss finish, if I recall, while Gold had a gold crown and a matte finish.
Lastly, two more deck, the Luxury Editions of the Blue and Red Crowns. Back and face received a redesign from Randy Butterfield, they were limited editions, and a special über-limited edition of each came out with actual metal plates on the box front, hand-autographed by Alex Pandrea himself. The design has never been attempted before or since and the Custom Department was freaking out over how complicated a box it turned out to be - not as crazy as the laser-cut boxes for the rarest version of the Aurum deck, but not a walk in the park when compared to the vast majority of the tuckboxes they make.
So no, you really couldn't call it just a bunch of color changes. But without a doubt, they're all in the same series.
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