Bee Casino Samples

[Card Player]

Hello All

Most recently I found someone selling bricks of Bee Casino Decks for $15. What a deal! I have seen this Bee back before on the Gold Premium Quality Bee Decks but never quite like this. These decks are in normal Bee Casino tucks with the "security window". On the flap of the tuck insert there is a barcode. They are standard index.

I wanted an opinion from the experts here. I believe these could be "Casino Samples". If not, I still got a great deal ($15 brick). Whats your opinion? (please see attached photos)

[Don Boyer]

They might be samples for handing out to potential clients - buyers from casinos.  I received a few bricks of playing cards from Bill Schildman at USPC for doing him a favor a couple of years ago.  The Bee decks he sent were traditionally cut and had a barcode card with a time/date stamp and another barcode on the back of the ad card.

I deduced that they were probably sample decks for buyers from a casino considering an order with USPC.  The decks weren't that old - meaning it was well past the time that they were using the modern cut on almost all general-sale decks - which really leads me to believe that they are indeed casino sample decks.  The tuck was different from yours - the same exact tuck that off-the-shelf Bee decks come in.

But I can also see a stamp on your deck as a seal instead of a sticker and it was placed off-center, an older practice no longer done except by accident.  If forced to guess, I'd estimate the date of manufacture as between 1965 and perhaps 1980 - it was in the early '80s that they switched to the sticker seals, but I think they stopped placing them off-center before that date.

If that guy has more of those bricks, I'd pay you to get one or two for me!

[Card Player]

They might be samples for handing out to potential clients - buyers from casinos.  I received a few bricks of playing cards from Bill Schildman at USPC for doing him a favor a couple of years ago.  The Bee decks he sent were traditionally cut and had a barcode card with a time/date stamp and another barcode on the back of the ad card.

I deduced that they were probably sample decks for buyers from a casino considering an order with USPC.  The decks weren't that old - meaning it was well past the time that they were using the modern cut on almost all general-sale decks - which really leads me to believe that they are indeed casino sample decks.  The tuck was different from yours - the same exact tuck that off-the-shelf Bee decks come in.

But I can also see a stamp on your deck as a seal instead of a sticker and it was placed off-center, an older practice no longer done except by accident.  If forced to guess, I'd estimate the date of manufacture as between 1965 and perhaps 1980 - it was in the early '80s that they switched to the sticker seals, but I think they stopped placing them off-center before that date.

If that guy has more of those bricks, I'd pay you to get one or two for me!

I just PM'ed you some more info about obtaining the bricks.

A Stamp rather then a Sticker? I've always thought the stamps had the tear-off edges like you see on JN seals. I can see these have a transparency along the white of the seals edge. Is that how you can tell its a stamp?

[Afrank8]

Are there multiple bricks available? I wouldn't mind grabbing one.

[andrew daugherty]

Great find and good deal!

The seal is a sticker, not a stamp. It's red instead of today's blue or black and appears to have some of the adhesive bleed-through common with 20-year old stickers. The box is the 1992-to present style. One fast way to tell? The front is printed with two colors. Bees, until the 100th anniversary of the brand in 1992, had tuck boxes printed in one color, either red or blue on the white cardboard.

USPC made these backs with the joker bee in the middle 1990s. A company that produces "casino nights" in Louisville here used these decks regularly. They are the casino quality Bees we all love and come in red and blue.  They may very well have been casino samples or premiums, but I will leave more sleuthing to others.  I have several mid-90s of these in my collection.  IIRC, I bought them at the USPC Norwood store. And, I do have a brick of 1962 or before sealed Bees for sale, if interested.

Chris Turner (aka Andrew Daugherty on the forum, yes with an "A".)
52 +J and CPCC
Jeffersonville, Ind.

[Card Player]

@ AFrank8

There are two more bricks available that I was offered by the seller. I'm waiting to hear back from someone on this forum regarding that very question.

@ Andrew Daugherty

Thanks for the info. I did some additional research also.

Attached I found a sealed Desert Inn deck that looks to be from the same era as the decks I bought. The desert Inn closed in 2000.

[Don Boyer]

Great find and good deal!

The seal is a sticker, not a stamp. It's red instead of today's blue or black and appears to have some of the adhesive bleed-through common with 20-year old stickers. The box is the 1992-to present style. One fast way to tell? The front is printed with two colors. Bees, until the 100th anniversary of the brand in 1992, had tuck boxes printed in one color, either red or blue on the white cardboard.

USPC made these backs with the joker bee in the middle 1990s. A company that produces "casino nights" in Louisville here used these decks regularly. They are the casino quality Bees we all love and come in red and blue.  They may very well have been casino samples or premiums, but I will leave more sleuthing to others.  I have several mid-90s of these in my collection.  IIRC, I bought them at the USPC Norwood store. And, I do have a brick of 1962 or before sealed Bees for sale, if interested.

Chris Turner (aka Andrew Daugherty on the forum, yes with an "A".)
52 +J and CPCC
Jeffersonville, Ind.

You're right - I mistook that seal for a stamp and not a sticker, but as I look closer I see it's a sticker.  BTW: excellent tips on dating a pack of Bees!