Which cards are worth buying now?

Jun 25, 2011
14
0
I'm a bit confused about which cards now have a high quality and which ones have a bad quality. What I've heard is that when the USPCC moved to Kentucky and printed their first batch of bicycles and tally-ho's they were of noticeably worse quality that the ones printed in Ohio, and that later they fixed the issue and the cards are again of high quality. Is this true? If yes, is there any way to differentiate the early Kentucky cards from the newer, fixed versions before opening the box? I've also heard that the quality of some of the custom cards (i.e. Ellusionist/Theory11 cards and such) has also decreased, is this true too? If yes, then which ones have remained high quality cards and which haven't? I've also heard that the web press on the Kentucky factory produces cards that are of even higher quality than the Ohio cards, if that's true, then why not reprint such cards as the smoke and mirrors or other high quality cards that have sold out on the web press?
 
Dec 23, 2010
8
0
Cards that will last you a long time are Fournier 605s. They last ages, and are great quality. They are $10.99 I think, but you get what you pay for with those.
 
Feb 18, 2011
83
1
Under your bed
You haven't told us what you need the cards for.. Cardistry or Magic.

If both, I would say Aladdin's (printed in Ohio) are the best, due to the smooth finish, Amazing stock, long lasting-ness, and the fact that they're not overpriced.

You can get a brick of them here: http://cgi.ebay.com/12-DECKS-1001-A...763?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a67405deb (I just got one)

Or get two here just to try them out: http://cgi.ebay.com/2-DECKS-1001-Al...848?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a655e9268

Let me know if this helped.
 
Jun 25, 2011
14
0
You haven't told us what you need the cards for.. Cardistry or Magic.

If you can, tell me which are more suited for cardistry and which ones are better for magic.

By the way I've heard that Aladdins are one of the few cards that did not change with the relocation of the USPCC's headquarters, is it true?

And thank's for the tip about Aladdins, I knew about pokerstud52, but with all the confusion with the relocation of the USPCC I wasn't sure if the ones that he sells are what I expect them to be.

And yeah, if this matters, I'm not a professional magician or anything, I just have this interest in cards and magic and flousrishing thing as a hobby.
 
Sep 1, 2007
723
2
I'm a huge fan of bicycle gold seals, they're great cards. However if you do a lot of folding and signing in your magic then get regular bikes. They don't last for weeks, but they won't dissolve in your hands during a performance. I practice with gold seals and split spades but I open up a new deck of regular bikes when I perform.
 
Oct 18, 2010
31
0
smoke and mirrors: last forever
old arrcos: extremely durable, fan and cut well
aladdins: good for flourishes
bee WPT diamond: some of the longest lasting cards i know
ohio tally ho: the best cards for anything
any of the bicycle vintage series (tangent, fan, cupid, ect.)
bee smith back no. 2: my current favorite cards, good for everything, mainly magic (cambric)

although to be honest, a brick of bee wpt and a brick of tally ho (old) will last you forever
http://cgi.ebay.com/12-NEW-BEE-WPT-...ultDomain_0&hash=item5198c11c92#ht_1752wt_932

the old tally ho's are easy enough to find
 
Jun 25, 2011
14
0
Thank's for the help, I didn't even know of the existence of bicycle gold seal cards :).

I've seen about a year (not sure of that) old post where they talked about some rumors that the new USPCC is producing bicycle 809 cards that are made specifically for magicians and are of high quality. Now I see some bicycle cards that are called "Mandolin back", which have a sleightly different back design than the traditional bikes and they say that they are the bicycle 809 cards. So if you have any experience with these mandolin backed bicycles, could you tell your opinion? Are they just the same bikes with a different back or are they something special? If they are better, that would be good because they are sold at my local magic shop, which now only sells the bikes and tallys that are produced in Kentucky and seem to have a crappy quality.
 
Oct 18, 2010
31
0
from what i understand, mandolins are said to be nice, but from what i understand, they suck. get some bee smith backs from DnD, you will not be disappointed.
 
Dec 26, 2009
242
0
As far as Bikes are concerned, there are only two ways I can tell you to know the difference in new Kentucky and old Kentucky Bikes. The first is the colors of the spade on the front of the card box. The new Kentucky Bikes spade is a much brighter color compared to the old Kentuky Bikes which is a darker shade of either red or blue, depending on the color of the deck. The only problem with this is you have to have a deck of old Kentucky Bikes with you while buying cards to compare colors. The other way to tell new from old is to open the deck and look at the large joker card. If they are new Kentucky Bikes the joker will be in color.

BTW - Around this time last year only the first batch of Kentucky Bikes were out on the market and I saw a lot of the pro guys at EMC using them. Just some food for thought.

I am not saying anyone doesn't know what they are saying because I do believe the quality of USPCC cards did go down for a while but NONE of the cards we all use as magicians is of a quality that made them "unusable".

EDIT

Another thing about regular Bikes is you can get 4 decks of them for the price of 1 specialty deck.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Dec 12, 2010
117
0
In my opinion, aladdins are good for both Magic and Flourishing. However, many people say that they are best for flourishing.
 
Jun 25, 2011
14
0
Thanks for all the help guys! I think I'll go with the 2 pack of Aladdin's (I have no idea why would I need any more that two) from pokerstud52, as they seem to be suitable for what I'm doing and the international shipping fee seems relatively low (I live in Finland, so the shipping cost sometimes tends to be more than the stuff that I order). So thanks for all the help and the time that you've used to write some nice replies. I hope that if someone stumbles upon this thread sometime in the future he/she will also find it useful :).
 
Jun 22, 2010
164
0
Martinez, CA
This may ruin your choice but.. I personally Don't like Aladdins very much, when I flourish with them sure it's easier but if your hands are sweaty the cards stick to your hands That's more of a personal thing that may not affect you. However another reason I dislike them is because if you use Aladdins for too long and you try to handle an air-cushion finish it seems too slippery to flourish.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

S.G

Feb 9, 2010
664
1
You haven't told us what you need the cards for.. Cardistry or Magic.

If both, I would say Aladdin's (printed in Ohio) are the best, due to the smooth finish, Amazing stock, long lasting-ness, and the fact that they're not overpriced.

You can get a brick of them here: http://cgi.ebay.com/12-DECKS-1001-A...763?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a67405deb (I just got one)

Or get two here just to try them out: http://cgi.ebay.com/2-DECKS-1001-Al...848?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a655e9268

Let me know if this helped.
Well, the particular ones that you just bought are actually from Kentucky...but besides that, yes they are great.
 
Jun 25, 2011
14
0
Haven't yet bought anything, I first have to return from my vacation and make myself a paypal account to pay for the cards :).

Also what do you think of the Aristocrat 727 banknote and the bicycle masters edition? I heard that aristocrat stock is one of the finest stocks out there and ellusionist is really shouting that the masters edition is so much better but is it?
 
Oct 18, 2010
31
0
the old masters edition were awesome, but they new ones are essentially bikes, as for the aristocrats, i hear they're excellent
 
Jun 25, 2011
14
0
Do you mean that the new masters edition are like the good ol bikes or like the new bikes?

About the aristocrat 727 banknotes, I've heard that they don't actually use the aristocrat stock but something else, they're just called aristocrats, is it true? Are they still any better than average?
 
Sep 9, 2007
17
0
the old masters edition were awesome, but they new ones are essentially bikes

All of the newly printed Masters will have the Kentucky Quality (or lack thereof). However, there are still the old UV500/high-quality Masters in stock over there.
 
Searching...
{[{ searchResultsCount }]} Results