ADVICE PLEASE: Bicycle and designer decks

[jono33]

I just recently started purchasing the more expensive decks of cards, the collector's types, and I'm wondering what their future value might be. Straying from the usual circle back Tally-Ho's or rider back Bicycles, I have invested in some of the Artisan and Artifice decks, some of the Bicycle Karnivals, Alchemy's, Steampunks, etc, etc. Upon recieving these "collector" decks in the mail, I immediately wanted to open them up and see the artwork for myself. Yet I hesitated. Will this be a huge mstake, opening these? Although, do i really want to just lock them away in the dark, for decades? These fancier decks will not serve my needs for magic/sleights, they are too distracting and have too much going on, I plan on strictly purchasing these to collect/appreciate. Therefore, would it behoove me to leave the decks sealed? I know there are thousands of collecibles out there that are worth astronomically more, if they remain unopened (old action figures, LEGOs, baseball cards, vinyl records, you get the idea).

It's torture trying to refrain from opening these, it's killing me. If someone could convince me that the decrease in value of an opened deck, would be minimal, I will gladly open them. But if someone has suspicion that the decrease in value, caused by me breaking the seal of the deck, would be phenomenal, than without a doubt I will not touch them. I have thought about purchasing uncut sheets to frame and hang with the decks, thus showing the artwork on the cards, but its too expensive. The added expense per deck (uncut sheet, frame, etc), will cost more than the deck will probably EVER be worth. If I had the funds, I would definitely go that route, an uncut sheet and two decks for each design. The sheet to display, one deck to open, and one to leave sealed. However, sadly, I have yet to come up with thousands of dollars to spend on playing cards.

I've tried to do some research online, but Bicycle and it's competitors have come out with SO MANY limited release decks, I can't imagine that they're ever really going to be worth aything, there's just a flood of them out there in the market. Any input on this topic would be appreciated.
Thanks guys (and gals), Jono

BICYCLE: Archangels, Faith, Karnival Dead Eyes, Karnival Inferno, Karnival Midnight (foil case), Alchemy v1&2, Anne Stokes v1&2, and Steampunk (all 3 styles).
OTHERS: Artifice v3 (purple), Artisan, Necronomicon, and Necronomicon (foil case)

 

[j.bayme]

Hey Jono,

First and foremost - thank you for your support of our work! Very grateful. We spend hundreds of hours of design and polish on every playing card design we produce. With Artisans, our team hand folded the tuck cases in Cincinnati for the first edition. It was a mountain of work and effort, but very clearly visible in the result: breathtakingly beautiful.

My advice on the question posted: use them. At theory11 specifically, we don't just make playing cards for design and form: it's about function. We specifically price our decks low ($6.95 is our most expensive deck at the moment) in an effort to make things affordable and economical to both collect and use, whether that be for magicians, poker players, or anyone in between.

If in doubt, you could always purchase a few decks to remain sealed for your collection, but I can tell you without question that Artisans, Monarchs, and many more of our signature decks will be active production for a long, long time. So use them - enjoy them - and treat them well!

 

[RickEverhart]

Definitely use those babies. You cannot truly appreciate the custom card feel and look until you've broken in and handled some of these new decks. If you have the money, buy one more deck of each kind you'd like to set back and then you won't feel the guilt of cracking open your others to use. I do the same thing. I order 3-5 decks of each kind when I see something cool come out and then I set back 1 deck that I know I'll never open. The other thing to "realize" is that I don't think ( I could be wrong ) we are going to see these custom decks of new turn into the next Jerry Nuggets because now everyone is thinking the same thing. Let's hoard the cards and the value will rise dramatically. That wasn't the case with Jerry's Nuggets. People didn't have any idea that a deck of playing cards could sky rocket in value like that and then some people went to Vegas and filled suit cases with as many Jerry's Nuggets as they could buy out of the vending machines. The cards used to come in the vending machines for some of you young guys. Mike Powers, who is a great card guy by the way, told me a story that he went to Vegas and kept paying to get the Jerry's Nuggets out of the machine and eventually the guy who stocks the machine came out and said, stop emptying the machine, just follow me and he took him to a back room where there were skids of them. I'm assuming that is how Lee Asher got his bulk of them. He probably purchased an entire skid or more.

 

[WyattSB]

But if someone has suspicion that the decrease in value, caused by me breaking the seal of the deck, would be phenomenal, than without a doubt I will not touch them.

Well yes, if you open them, they will be worth next to nothing, unless they're Jerrys or something. I don't really know much of the value of the decks you have, but I assure you they are worth much less unsealed, particularly used.

 

[Diavo]

If you don't plan on using the fancy decks for real performances, then use them for practice at home. =)