Cardistry in the Land of Oz!

Dec 23, 2019
6
3
Unfortunately the reality of living in Australia is not nearly as glamorous as I can make it sound!
:p

I've only just got into cardistry a few months ago.

I've mostly been focusing on one handed shuffles at this point, so my current repertoire includes:
The Charlier
The Running Charlier (or Triple Cut)
The Charlier Triangle (working on The Square)
The Scissors Cut
The Revolution
The Triple Revolution

(Apologies if some listed are non-standard names, I'm just learning through YouTube atm)

Besides the one handed cut I've also got the:

The Sybil Cut
The Smear Fan (working on the Thumb Fan)

And I'm also working on The Russian Pyramid from Ekaterina

Working on the Square, the Thumb Fan and the Pyramid has made me question the cards that I'm using as I got the hang of the others fairly quickly. And when I say fairly quickly I mean dropping the cards 50+ times and swearing my hands are too small and my fingers are too fat and this is impossible until one time I nail it and my brain goes "Hey this isn't that hard..." :mad:

:rolleyes:

Now I feel cards are sliding or sticking/clumping in places I feel they shouldn't, even though I think I have the positions right.

Where I live in Australia (not one of the big cities you would know if you don't live here) the most common card found in shops are bridge decks, not poker decks, and if you are lucky enough to even find a poker deck in a common store, it's almost guaranteed to be made in China...

Our made in China decks at a 7-11 will cost you $6-$7 and if you're extremely lucky you will find a $2 shop (yes $2 shop not $1 shop, they even double that >_<) that actually has poker decks instead of bridge decks...
This is particularly frustrating as I was actually born in the US, so I remember seeing Bicycle decks everywhere.

All I know about card quality is a little that I've gleamed from the internet in that the USPCC generally makes the best standard cards including your basic Bicycles, which are dirt cheap and can be found basically anywhere in the US... Le sigh... :(

I've now purchased two Bicycle Decks (red and blue) and two Tally-Ho Circle decks (red and blue), which cost me $40 due to the shipping fee (yes more than double the price of the cards themselves). I hadn't heard of the Tally-Hos but since they are featured on here I figured they should be good. My hope is that by having these I'll have some baseline for card quality to compare to.

I found some Bicycles cheaper on ebay, but they are from China or Lithuania, so I have no idea if they will be rip offs and I would have no way to really tell if they were once I got them.

TLDR: In any case, the main point of this post is to inquire if anyone else lives in AUS and if so, what cards do you use and where do you get them from?

Or if you live outside of the US, do you know of a place online that sells the genuine decks but has cheap shipping?

Cheers!
 

Aristotilean

Elite Member
Dec 6, 2018
136
150
This will only apply to certain areas of Australia, but Costco typically carries bulk packages of Bicycle playing cards. I believe there are only 10 locations in Australia, but if you happen to be near one, it might be advantageous to find someone who is a member so that you can go in.
 
Dec 23, 2019
6
3
Wow, I had no idea that Costco was over here.
Just read something on the net saying they are aiming at opening a new store a year, that's pretty awesome.

Unfortunately the closest one to me is a bit over an hour away so the fuel price + travel time + membership cost...
It's also in a direction I never actually travel otherwise, so I won't find myself close to it on any trips, nor do I know anyone who lives around there. But we might get one in the future, which would be great, even playing cards aside.

That said, I've had to wait 15 years for us to get a Taco Bell and now that we have them. Two Taco Supremes cost 6.75. A meal is 10.95. So they are 4+ times the price and not made exactly the same, so I was quite disappointed...
 
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