My Two Decks of Bees

[Wild Joker]

Me again! I mentioned a while back in another thread about how I purchased two decks of Bee cards (one red, one blue) from a local/region grocery store chain called Food City, but lately I've been reading up about all of these different kinds of counterfeit Bees that are out there, and how some of them are actually pretty convincing that some people weren't even aware they had fakes. One thing I've noticed regarding counterfeit Bees is that most people who were duped in buying them say they bought them in local drug stores, dollar stores, and yes, grocery stores (apparently the drug store chain CVS was stocking these counterfeits for a while).

So, because I bought my decks at a grocery store, I'm wondering if mine may be counterfeits, or if they're the real deal. I'm pretty sure they're real, but I just want to be make sure. Here are some of the details I can provide:

- The price of each deck was over $3 (a lot of these counterfeit stories say the decks are usually $1 each, or both for $1).
- Some of the box details are as follows:
-- They mention the USPCC address as being Erlanger, KY, not Cincinatti, OH.
-- Mentions of a cambric finish
-- Has USPCC seal on the box.
-- Barcode number: 73854 00092
-- Top flap includes trademark information for USPCC (I've seen some counterfeits that include such information in broken English).
- Some of the card details are as follows:
-- The Ace of Spades does say "Made in U.S.A." and has the number 4814-T1113 on it, however, it doesn't include "Fabrique aux E-U," which I notice some Bee Ace of Spades have. Also, the "Bee" logo is the same design as on the box, and not all uppercase, like I've noticed on some Bee Ace of Spades.
-- The front designs of the cards, including the court cards, are virtually identical to Bikes.
-- Speaking of which, the cards' finish also looks like Bikes, however, the finish is slightly rougher than Bikes (you can really feel the tiny little pores in the finish), the stock feels slightly thicker than Bikes.
-- Terms of handling, the fans and spread beautifully, and the finish is nice and slick without being too slippery.

Like I said, I'm pretty sure my Bees, in spite of where they were purchased, are the real deal, however, I do want to be 100% sure, since, again, in some of the counterfeit stories I've read, some of the counterfeits out there are apparently convincing enough until they discover certain little tip-offs. I've even heard of this so-called "green sticker" that's a clear give-away that the deck is fake . . . I don't know what this "green sticker" is, unless its the sticker seal on the box, in which case, the sticker seals on my are black (again, like Bikes). If I need to provide pics, I can.

[HankMan]

Wouldn't it be easier if you attached photos?
But from your description it looks pretty legit

[Don Boyer]

I'm pretty much convinced that your decks are legit.  You'd know when you opened them if they were bad decks.  The majority of the counterfeits are made with cheap cardboard tucks and the cards themselves are of a quality that make Mavericks look like casino-grade in comparison.

The "green sticker" has to do with the original importer in Hong Kong who brought Bees to the Chinese market.  It has the company name on it - I forget the name off the top of my head, but I know people have written about it online, so a Google search of "counterfeit Bee playing cards" should find you a handful of articles pretty fast.

The majority of the counterfeits are based on the pre-1992 tuck box design.  The tuck boxes are printed monochrome, with no gold accents anywhere on them, and list Cincinnati as the city of manufacture.  Modern Bee decks sold domestically have gold accents in the box design and ones that are sold internationally have gold borders.  Additionally, ones made for the Canadian market have copyright information on the back of the tuck rather than the bottom and most of the writing is in both English and French, as required by Canadian law.  Canadian Bee decks also list that they're imported by the International Playing Card Company (IPCC, a USPC subsidiary) but printed by USPC - IPCC used to print in Canada for USPC, but haven't done so for just over a quarter-century, now just acting as the retail arm that sells the American-made decks there.  Other Bee decks for the international market simply list USPC as the manufacturer - IPCC, despite the global-sounding name, only sells in Canada.

Lastly, legitimate Bee decks sold in China by USPC now employ hologram-etched cellophane displaying the Bee trademarks as an anti-counterfeiting measure in that market - I was fortunate enough to be shown a deck Bill Kalush brought home with him from a visit there and the cellophane looks very impressive.  The Bee Diamond Back design is one of the most popular in that country, which is part of the reason why it's so widely counterfeited and imitated.  In addition to the outright fakes, there are many look-alike brands with similar designs that attempt to steal market share from the Bee brand.

I've heard of counterfeits with improved quality, but not Bees - I've heard that it's the Jerry's Nugget casino souvenir deck that's been improved.  Older counterfeits were really bad, I've been told, on par quality-wise with the fake Bees, but that as the value of the deck rose and collectors became wise to the presence of fake decks, the counterfeiters upped their game.  As you noted, the fake Bees are typically sold in dollar stores - raising the quality of those would raise the production cost and retail price past the point that they'd be a good seller in a dollar store.  At that point, it's more cost effective to just sell the real thing.  But a Jerry's Nugget souvenir deck from 1970 would typically sell in the middle three figures, about US$400-600 the last time I looked, so for that kind of product, one could easily imagine a crafty counterfeiter spending a buck or two more per deck to make a better-quality imitation.

The short version of the whole story is that it's simply not cost effective for any counterfeiter to make better quality Bee decks when the real thing sells cheaply enough in the first place, especially outside of major metropolitan areas and in big-box discount retailers, where prices of all goods in general tend to be lower.  Your deck sounds like it's about the same quality one would expect to find of any USPC-made Bee deck produced in the last few years; therefore, the odds of it being a fake are astronomically low.

[Wild Joker]

Modern Bee decks sold domestically have gold accents in the box design and ones that are sold internationally have gold borders.

That's actually another detail I forgot to mention, but yes, my boxes do have the gold accents as you mention. I'm definitely 100% positive for sure now that I got the real deal.