Also, in another thread I saw some folks bemoaning USPCC and Ad Magic's quality. I'm not super surprised at Ad Magic, though I personally find their stuff more than satisfactory, I'm a gamer, not a magician or anything. But I am surprised at USPCC, I expected them to be the gold standard. What other manufacturers do have better reputations?
Here's the deal with printers. No one is ever going to be perfect, that's impossible given the nature of the process. There are however companies who try harder than others. USPCC is one of the companies that doesn't try quite as hard as one would expect or hope. There are excuses tossed around for this reason or that, ultimately the proof is in the pudding and lately that pudding isn't as choice as it should be never mind what it could be. Sure they do occasionally print a show off deck, where they flex their printing muscle and prowess. There is a constant debate going on about who make the best playing cards. No point in drawing that in here.
Admagic is a great printer. They print some of the finest card and board games made today. Here is the thing though, they print games. Games require a shuffle rarely as opposed to a deck of playing cards where you will shuffle the deck many many more times. 1 hand of poker for example = 7 ruffle shuffles. 1 game = 2-3 shuffles or card mixing maneuvers. Expand that over game times, poker vs a board game you get an idea of just how much more wear a deck of playing cards will see than a deck of board game cards. Ultimately here is the biggest difference between the two. Playing card printers print playing cards, board games printers print board game components.
To answer the question of what other manufacturers have a better reputation than USPCC. The short long answer is none. The reputation has been built over a very, very long time, etc etc.
There are companies building reputation now and doing a very good job of it. Legends playing cards and Expert playing cards are the two prime examples of this. Neither is without flaws or blemishes themselves though far less on the actual cards than the soulless brand protector. These companies are out stepping the rest at the moment in terms of what can be done and how precise each deck can be.
Best bet with full bleed playing cards etc, have a look around and check them out. You'll see various flaws showing up it's just the nature of the business. Youtube is a great resource for this too, a few deck reviews will point out things. Like Don said, the whole forum is a great place to look too. So many decks discussed here. Just remember, opinions and tones, take those with a grain of salt. They're prone to changing.
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