so i won a few auctions on some vintage cards, 2 bees(deck dates back to 1983) that came sealed with a card game rulebook, and 1 bicycle(that dates to 1980 exactly) that came in one of those blister packs, kinda like what you normally see old stud decks in. i opened them up and both fan terribly! the bees arent nearly as bad but the bicycle almost has a cheapo chinese feel to them, the edges feel like they have burrs like they were cut with dull tools, and they fan worst than when uspc first went from ohio to kentucky.
ive bought used decks from around this time and they were great, most of the sealed decks ive bought until now only dated to the mid 90s. is this normal? do they need a lot of break in time? both of them do have bad warps in them, maybe the moisture has been sucked out of them because the seals didnt break like they normally did, theyre completely pristine but it feels like the adhesive has dried up.
Vintage decks of that era can be found in great condition - IF they were stored properly to begin with. The odds that your decks were kept in conditions that were even remotely climate-controlled for temperature and humidity are slim to none. Imagine what you'd look like if you were kept in a warehouse, oven hot in the summer and freezing cold in the winter, without water for thirty-plus years...
The Bikes were in a blister pack? As in, hanging on a stiff paper card with a hole or a hook in it and encased in plastic? I've never seen them like that. I've only ever seen Studs with a plastic hang tag attached, usually right on the deck seal itself so the seals on a deck found without a hang tag are often found damaged even if the deck itself hasn't been opened. Sometimes, though, the glue that kept the hang tag in place fails and the seal goes undamaged - but then again, the seals also sometimes suffer glue failure and come off on at least one side on an unopened pack. Any time you have glue failures like that, though, it's often due to desiccation - a dehydration of the glue usually caused by storage in low humidity over an extended time, which can be accelerated with excessive heat or cold.
I do know that there are counterfeit Bees out there, but you'd know if they were counterfeits - the quality of the paper is absolutely awful, like the same cardboard used in cereal boxes, and the boxes are of the same grade of paper. I haven't heard about counterfeit Bikes, though - there's not much of a market for them. Bees get counterfeited and imitated because of how popular the design is in Asia, particularly in China.
As far as the Bikes having a rough edge - that could simply mean the cutting die was dull that day and no one bothered to sharpen or replace it before that deck was cut.
In either case, I couldn't say anything for sure unless I actually saw large, sharp images of the cards, not just the tuck boxes.
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