What tuck boxes and cards are black around the base of the face and sides?

Oct 4, 2022
79
21
I got a fun little dime-store magic item, with which you might be familiar, a black plastic case with an open window and one open end. I describe only the performance here, no reveal of the gimmick. You can have a deck of red Bicycle 808 cards in it, open the tuck box end, pull out a card or two from the visible end of the deck in the opened box, put them back in if you like, close the tuck box, slide the case off of it, and with certain very easy manipulation, make the deck of cards disappear. About US$2 here in Taiwan. The problem is that the decks of cards supplied have VERY low quality tuck boxes that are super shiny and not the right shade of red, so they're not convincing enough. You get what you pay for.

I am re-engineering the gimmick so that it looks far nicer and have found that it will work much better if the deck of cards is one that has pure black (no trim, no decoration, nada) around the lower 4mm or so of the tuck box's front and sides (no white border), and also it will work better if the cards are also black along their lower 2+ mm, better yet if actually printed on black material so there's no white edge showing where the card is cut (same with the tuck box, although I can stain the edge for the box or card). Bicycle Spectrum boxes are good but the cards don't qualify. Bicycle's Black cards have white edges on the box and cards. Some ideas of what deck names to search for, especially if available at Penguin (which has free shipping to Taiwan), would be appreciated. I can also search locally online in Taiwan but some brand and deck names would help. Thanks!
 

DavidL11229

Elite Member
Jul 25, 2015
589
314
Seattle
Zen Pure looks like it has the box you need, though the cards are not borderless, nor do I know if they are still made. These are/were manufactured by Expert Playing Card Company which is in Taiwan, so it may be worth looking at what their offerings are.
 
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Oct 4, 2022
79
21
I got a fun little dime-store magic item, with which you might be familiar, a black plastic case with an open window and one open end. I describe only the performance here, no reveal of the gimmick. You can have a deck of red Bicycle 808 cards in it, open the tuck box end, pull out a card or two from the visible end of the deck in the opened box, put them back in if you like, close the tuck box, slide the case off of it, and with certain very easy manipulation, make the deck of cards disappear. About US$2 here in Taiwan. The problem is that the decks of cards supplied have VERY low quality tuck boxes that are super shiny and not the right shade of red, so they're not convincing enough. You get what you pay for.

I am re-engineering the gimmick so that it looks far nicer and have found that it will work much better if the deck of cards is one that has pure black (no trim, no decoration, nada) around the lower 4mm or so of the tuck box's front and sides (no white border), and also it will work better if the cards are also black along their lower 2+ mm, better yet if actually printed on black material so there's no white edge showing where the card is cut (same with the tuck box, although I can stain the edge for the box or card). Bicycle Spectrum boxes are good but the cards don't qualify. Bicycle's Black cards have white edges on the box and cards. Some ideas of what deck names to search for, especially if available at Penguin (which has free shipping to Taiwan), would be appreciated. I can also search locally online in Taiwan but some brand and deck names would help. Thanks!

Edit: Found a few good ones, Black Widow, Empire Keeper, Bicycle Ghost, etc, although any other suggestions are still welcome.
 
Oct 4, 2022
79
21
Thanks, David! Nope, not a trace of Zen Pure so far here or on Penguin. I looked up Expert Playing Card Company and found only a New-York-based website, expertplayingcard.com. Much obliged, though!
 
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