Goodwill Gold

[Cardini]

Hi, everyone, first-time poster.

I'm not a collector, at least not of vintage decks, but I think I might have Done Good.

Now, I like to thrift for boardgames, as the current boardgame renaissance has mostly passed by the kinds of games I like (abstract strategy and classic card games).But  I nearly always skip over the playing cards, since I've certainly got plenty already, and they're cheap enough that second-hand doesn't really make sense. But for some reason (maybe it was the larger than usual number of decks), I decided to paw through them today. There ended up being quite a load of Bicycles, though not rider backs.

I've handled enough decks (having gone through my magic phase) to know that these were old, no coating on the box, just plain paper, and some sort of tax stamp, etc.. At $.49 a deck, I figured it was worth speculating a bit. So I picked up a couple of the ones in the best shape. Wasn't till I got in my car that I made out the cancel in black on the stamps: 4-1-19. At that point, I went back into the shop and picked up anything that looked remotely old. They vary from well-played but still snappy, to still-in-the-original-wax-paper. Boxes range from "pretty chewy" to "mint, but for the glue that didn't last 100 years".

My haul:
bikes (all with at least portions of the stamp dating to no later than 1924, most with that 4-1-19 cancel visible)::
5 expert backs
2 tangent backs
1 wheel back
1 new fan back

others:
1 rexall drug (same stamp as the bikes)
1 uncle sam (only deck not to have a stamp, appears later, as flap states 1942)
1 arrco canasta (later as well, card in shrink, having the 1940-1965 stamp)

I can post pics if anyone is interested. Interestingly, none of the bicycles seem to line up with the alphabetic dating system found on cypressfilms.com. The main "collection" (i.e., not the Uncle Sam and Canasta decks) seem to have had an interesting legacy. Clearly someone was enough of an avid card player to buy up 10 decks, but somehow only through a couple, leaving most of them close to intact for 100 years.

[52plusjoker]

Hi, everyone, first-time poster.

I'm not a collector, at least not of vintage decks, but I think I might have Done Good.

Now, I like to thrift for boardgames, as the current boardgame renaissance has mostly passed by the kinds of games I like (abstract strategy and classic card games).But  I nearly always skip over the playing cards, since I've certainly got plenty already, and they're cheap enough that second-hand doesn't really make sense. But for some reason (maybe it was the larger than usual number of decks), I decided to paw through them today. There ended up being quite a load of Bicycles, though not rider backs.

I've handled enough decks (having gone through my magic phase) to know that these were old, no coating on the box, just plain paper, and some sort of tax stamp, etc.. At $.49 a deck, I figured it was worth speculating a bit. So I picked up a couple of the ones in the best shape. Wasn't till I got in my car that I made out the cancel in black on the stamps: 4-1-19. At that point, I went back into the shop and picked up anything that looked remotely old. They vary from well-played but still snappy, to still-in-the-original-wax-paper. Boxes range from "pretty chewy" to "mint, but for the glue that didn't last 100 years".

My haul:
bikes (all with at least portions of the stamp dating to no later than 1924, most with that 4-1-19 cancel visible)::
5 expert backs
2 tangent backs
1 wheel back
1 new fan back

others:
1 rexall drug (same stamp as the bikes)
1 uncle sam (only deck not to have a stamp, appears later, as flap states 1942)
1 arrco canasta (later as well, card in shrink, having the 1940-1965 stamp)

I can post pics if anyone is interested. Interestingly, none of the bicycles seem to line up with the alphabetic dating system found on cypressfilms.com. The main "collection" (i.e., not the Uncle Sam and Canasta decks) seem to have had an interesting legacy. Clearly someone was enough of an avid card player to buy up 10 decks, but somehow only through a couple, leaving most of them close to intact for 100 years.

Wow. Long time since we found an old Bicycle deck at less than $5 - much less 49 cents. Well done and welcome back into card collecting!

[Cardini]

So here's a couple pictures. I hate opening those stupid long tucks, as it feels like I'm damaging the box every time I do it. Second shot has all the decks in the same order as the first. Now that I've got them out to really get a good look at them, I notice the bottom row (and sealed one, obviously, are still in factory order, and look like they could have been manufactured yesterday! Rest of them at least have some use (and one has lost its joker), but again, I think I did pretty good for $5!

[52plusjoker]

So here's a couple pictures. I hate opening those stupid long tucks, as it feels like I'm damaging the box every time I do it. Second shot has all the decks in the same order as the first. Now that I've got them out to really get a good look at them, I notice the bottom row (and sealed one, obviously, are still in factory order, and look like they could have been manufactured yesterday! Rest of them at least have some use (and one has lost its joker), but again, I think I did pretty good for $5!

Understatement!!!! Nine Bicycle decks from 1915-19 period for $5 = bargain of the year!

[CBJ]

Cardini

I sent you a private message.


Jason

[Don Boyer]

So here's a couple pictures. I hate opening those stupid long tucks, as it feels like I'm damaging the box every time I do it.

Try this to prevent the damage.  Leave the boxes untucked, opened.  Either store them in a clear plastic case (suitable models are available at most shops dealing in sports cards) or, in a pinch, use a LOOSE, low-tension cloth-and-elastic (not rubber) band to keep them closed.  Even a silk or satin ribbon will do the job, so long as you don't make it too tight - it should slip off easily enough so as to not damage the paper.  But the box is the best option.

[Cardini]

That's a very good idea, thanks! This is the same thrift store I found Drueke chessboard last year (http://www.chessusa.com/product/DB-102.html ) so needless to say, I'll be a regular from now on!

With the exception of 1 of the expert backs, none of them have two jokers (and I suspect it was robbed from the pack with none). When was the second joker added to USPC decks? And would they have come with advertising cards back then?

[Don Boyer]

That's a very good idea, thanks! This is the same thrift store I found Drueke chessboard last year (http://www.chessusa.com/product/DB-102.html ) so needless to say, I'll be a regular from now on!

With the exception of 1 of the expert backs, none of them have two jokers (and I suspect it was robbed from the pack with none). When was the second joker added to USPC decks? And would they have come with advertising cards back then?

There's no fixed date on when second jokers became common.  While we started seeing them perhaps in the early 20th-century, particularly in the '20s, there are decks made clear into the 1950s if not later that were single-joker decks.  Ad cards I'm not as sure about - I'd guess in the late '30s or early '40s.  By the '70s, without a doubt (and probably even earlier than that), the USPC standard was two jokers and two ad cards, utilizing a 56-card deck sheet.  Some print shops use a different sized-sheet with only 54 cards, so those presses typically produce two-joker decks without ads or perhaps a joker and an "extra joker" that doubles as an ad card.  Cheaper, fly-by-night presses in Asia making dollar-store decks don't usually bother with ad cards - the company will be gone too quickly to even drum up ad sales.

[52plusjoker]

That's a very good idea, thanks! This is the same thrift store I found Drueke chessboard last year (http://www.chessusa.com/product/DB-102.html ) so needless to say, I'll be a regular from now on!

With the exception of 1 of the expert backs, none of them have two jokers (and I suspect it was robbed from the pack with none). When was the second joker added to USPC decks? And would they have come with advertising cards back then?

In that era they would come with only one Joker