Confusion about Santa Backs

[Josh Blackmon]

I am having a bit of confusion concerning the Santa backs pictured here and I surprisingly can't seem to find a satisfactory answer online. Are the multi colored backs and the single colored backs both legit? Were they released at different times? Is one more common than the other, or are they all part of the same bundle. Thanks to anyone who could shed some light.

[Don Boyer]

I am having a bit of confusion concerning the Santa backs pictured here and I surprisingly can't seem to find a satisfactory answer online. Are the multi colored backs and the single colored backs both legit? Were they released at different times? Is one more common than the other, or are they all part of the same bundle. Thanks to anyone who could shed some light.

A fellow by the name of Bill Merz, a.k.a. Merz67, has a habit of taking any clip art he can find, slapping it on a Bicycle design and calling it a new Bicycle deck.  As I understand it, he made a "recreation" of the original Santa Backs that were based off of the Maiden Back design, whereas the originals were based on the Rider Back design.  If you give those two-color jobs a closer look, you'll see "maidens" in the corners instead of cherubs.  The originals are rare, valuable decks, while the Merz knockoffs are not so much...

[Aptombstone]

The single color backs seem to be the rare ones. I had a new set of them in the tin and I sold them on ebay for $75. I recently saw another couple of them sell for similar prices, $50-75.

If you would like to buy the "rare" version, what I'd do is to periodically check ebay and in addition to typing "bicycle santa backs" into the search bar, you can also try the more general "bicycle holiday collection." Sometimes sellers do not know what they have and use the general label, which prevents others from finding the listing meaning you can buy it cheap!

[Josh Blackmon]

Thank you both for the information.

[Josh Blackmon]

Well, I finally landed a set of these. I had been a bit confused on which ones were the legitimate decks and which were the knockoffs, but thanks to all the help, I wound up nabbing the correct ones in the end. I scanned auction sites over the past year waiting on a good deal to slip through and it finally did. I got an opened, but otherwise perfect tin with the two full decks inside. I'm not going to say the price I paid, but it was ridiculously low... Low enough to make a collectors jaw drop, and I couldn't be happier!

Now on to the next question. Can anyone tell me how many of these decks were printed?

Thanks Guys!

[badpete69]

Josh

The Merz decks are the ones with the christmas trees on the front

[Josh Blackmon]

Josh

The Merz decks are the ones with the christmas trees on the front

Yeah, and I like those well enough, just won't be buying any.

[Don Boyer]

Well, I finally landed a set of these. I had been a bit confused on which ones were the legitimate decks and which were the knockoffs, but thanks to all the help, I wound up nabbing the correct ones in the end. I scanned auction sites over the past year waiting on a good deal to slip through and it finally did. I got an opened, but otherwise perfect tin with the two full decks inside. I'm not going to say the price I paid, but it was ridiculously low... Low enough to make a collectors jaw drop, and I couldn't be happier!

Now on to the next question. Can anyone tell me how many of these decks were printed?

Thanks Guys!

USPC never revealed the quantity made, to the best of my knowledge - they can be a little tight-lipped about that sort of thing, particularly in the not-so-distant past.  The fact is that it was a special edition deck that was only available for purchase for a limited time - it was probably just a single, "decent-sized" print run, comparable to the kind of run a company like Ellusionist or Theory11 might make for one of their "standard stock" decks as opposed to a limited edition and sold at least nationally if not internationally in retail stores.  Making these more collectible would be the fact that many were probably just purchased as stocking stuffers and were opened and used by people who didn't appreciate the potential collectible value - to them, it was just two decks of cards with a Christmas theme.  Whatever the print run was, you can bet a good number of those decks eventually ended up in the trash after being worn out, or they got packed with the Christmas decor and only come out after Thanksgiving.