Link to album: https://imgur.com/a/79Lmh
I posted these on Reddit yesterday and I was told that you guys here might be able to shed some light on these cards. I don't really know a whole lot about playing cards but I was hoping that you guys could tell me a little bit about them and their value. I could only find a tiny bit of information on the KEM ones through a ebay auction, they say they are from 1947.
The birds and city scenes seem are from Northbrook while the leaves and flowers are from KEM, the other two pairs I'm not really to sure about but I can assume that the pair with stars inside circles are KEM make as well. I know that printing techniques have changed over time which leads me to believe that the cards with the white borders are older than the ones without borders but I could be wrong. They're all in mint condition except for the blue/orange pastel-esque city scenes which have seen some play and are fraying at the edges.
Thanks for your help!
Edit: I added a couple decks that are still in there wrapper to the end of the album, they're from the same source which is the only reason I would think anything of them to be honest.
There's a little I can tell you about these.
I was not familiar with the Northbrook Plastic Card Company until I read this. The only thing I know about them is that they're out of business! (Sorry, not helpful, I know.)
The two decks still wrapped appear to be of paper manufacture, and I recognize the joker design. I could be mistaken but I think it might be an old Arrco design from back before they were a USPC subsidiary. I do know that it was common around the time of my childhood (late 1970s to early 1980s) to find bridge decks, even gilded ones, being sold in a simple cellophane wrapper such as this - this gave the retailer options to either sell it cheaply as is or place a deck or paired set of decks into a special case suitable to furnish a home or give as a gift in order to get a higher price.
Now the Kem decks... It's a frequent misconception (often accidental, sometimes intentional) among eBay sellers that their particular deck is from either 1935 or 1947. The reason for this is that the Ace of Spades has a copyright of 1935 on it, while the card used for ordering replacements for broken/damaged cards states a copyright of 1947. So seeing either of those two years mentioned should raise a red flag on the accuracy of the claim.
As it turns out, however, a little research turned up a tidbit of useful information. Prior to ownership by the US Playing Card Company, Kem did something very similar to USPC - they printed a date code on the Ace of Spades in their decks. The Kem code is MUCH simpler to figure out - the code is either three or four digits long, with the last two digits being the year of manufacture and the remaining digits being the month. For example, someone is presently claiming their two-deck set on eBay was from 1947, but the date code of 571 indicates otherwise: May of 1971. Another Kem set of two plastic canasta decks has an Ace of Spades listing the month of manufacture as being April of 1953 (453).
If you don't see the Ace of Spades code on a Kem deck, make no assumptions about the age! I will say that the "vertical" cases, usually made of Bakelite were common in decks made from the origin in 1935 at least through the 1950s and possibly into the 1960s as well. By some time in the 1970s, the cards were coming in a less-attractive plastic case that were low and flat, holding two decks laying flat rather than on one side. By 2004, the company was taken over by USPC - the low, flat boxes remained the norm, but below the logo on the lid, where it used to say "Kem Plastic Playing Cards", it was changed to read "US Playing Card Co." The variety of decks was drastically cut to only a handful of models where many dozens used to be made and some die-hard card enthusiasts feel that the formula for the card plastic has changed for the worse - Kem as a solo company called the material "cellulose acetate", but I'm not sure if USPC maintains the same composition and/or states such. I can't say with certainty, but I think USPC might be maintaining the same Ace of Spades codes that the original company used.
It is also terribly uncommon to find a Kem deck being sold as a single deck in its own box rather than as part of a two-deck set. I see them very rarely, though I confess I'm not exactly rushing to seek them out. I can say, however, that the current Kem product line is solely made up of two-deck sets. USPC is also manufacturing a Bicycle Prestige line of plastic decks - these are not made in the same way as the Kem decks, but are manufactured by USPC subsidiary Naipes Heraclio Fournier S.A. in Vitoria, Spain. The original two red and blue decks were sold exclusively as single decks, while the newer, plainer-designed green and brown decks are sold in pairs and a variety of card and index sizes, much like the Kem line.
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