Breaking in and maintaining the quality of cards?

[Amo]

Hello,
I used to practice card magic regularly a year or so ago but unfortunately stopped due to study and other circumstances, now I'm ready to dive back in in preparation for a little bit of table magic for bunch of friends at Christmas. My question to you experienced folks is how do you break in and maintain a pack of cards, (we'll go with a deck of bicycle if it needs to be specific). I remember coming across difficulty of keeping a good feel to the cards back when I was practicing and would like to avoid burning through decks again! Here are a few things I already know about.
•Wash hands before practice
•pick up dropped cards 1 by 1
• store deck in a card clip between usage
•break the deck in (tell me if there are any specific things that help with this)
Thanks for any help in advance, I look forwards to hearing the advice!
Adam

 

[DominusDolorum]

I've been using the same deck of Bikes for over a year now for most of my practice and it's because I took care of it using the exact steps you listed. To break in a new deck I usually give it a good "wash" on my close up pad and then proceed to give it many riffle shuffles and faro shuffles. Giving it some springs is usually a good method as well as long as you remember to the exact same thing in the opposite direction so the cards don't get warped.

 

[EricShoff]

I know there are some good tutorials on YouTube, search for "how to break in a deck of cards"

 

[dklegacy13]

One I've found helpful: