I love these things! (Tons of pics)

[GuestUser]

The United States Playing Card Company (Bicycle) opened their Club 808 this past month on January 1st and their private merchandise has finally gone up for sale but before that I've been collecting various card decks as a small hobby and find it interesting that many people use Bicycle cards for games and such but few realize how many custom and designer decks are out there so I thought it would make for an interesting thread to post them and get a chance to practice using my new camera.

Lighting is difficult to take advantage of in my basement but I've been getting better at using my Canon Rebel T3i so hopefully the pics aren't too bad.


1st up is the Wounded Warriors deck which Bicycle donates a portion of each sell to Veterans in need of finding jobs, resolving issues in seeking VA service, and empowering Veterans to help each other.












My mother, grandmother, girlfriend, and a few friends of mine have had to deal with breast cancer so I bought a few decks Bicycle had made to support cancer research.








The Hemp deck seems to be a favorite with people, I can't imagine why.






Here is Bicycle's Zombie deck for you Walking Dead fans and the Harley Davidson deck as well.










This is their Vintage deck first introduced back in 1895, it's one of my favorites.

[GuestUser]

These 2 are the Arch Angels and Alchemy England decks.








The Eco Deck, it's the only one I don't like since it feels very different than any other cards and is a bit hard to shuffle cleanly.











Another one of my favorites is the 125th Anniversary deck.













The Guardians deck which was made for Theory 11.

[GuestUser]

The Prestige deck which is the highest quality cards Bicycle makes. They are very heavy than a normal deck but are also extremely flexible. Anyone can shuffle like a pro with these.










The Official Club 808 membership deck.








They offer a cool little flask too.





If you join the 808 Club you get access to rare decks, posters, and other merch. I have these 3 posters coming...

The Best Bower was the design that later on became the joker everyone is familiar with today.




The iconic Joker created by Russel Morgan.



This is the original Ace of Spades design Bicycle made when the company first came out.





This is the Griffin deck and the back design was found in the USPC archives. Only 5,000 will be made. These pics are from the Bicycle website. Mine are ordered and on the way.

[GuestUser]

I was thinking of creating a C5G playing cards deck and wanted to see if you all might be interested. A deck themed with Camaros or various decks showcasing different Camaro models or pictures of our members cars but I'd have to research what is possible to do since we would have to consider copyright issues with Chevrolet and cost.

You could have your own design of the face cards and aces and the back of the cards, color choices and such.

If that sounds cool to you all let me know and I could look up what it would take.

[FreakyFastFreddie]

Very cool, thanks for sharing. Makes me want to be a card guy.

[GuestUser]

Very cool, thanks for sharing. Makes me want to be a card guy.

Glad you like them! I just wish I was better at taking pictures.

[BumBLUEbee]

I never knew that. Thanks for the share. I like the wounded warrior & zombies

I want a deck with my Bee on it... AWESOME!!!!

[Toasty]

That's cool

[Mantis RS]

Very cool collection. Makes me want to start collecting decks now. I'd be down with idea of a C5G deck.

[GuestUser]

Very cool collection. Makes me want to start collecting decks now. I'd be down with idea of a C5G deck.

I have to get a template and play around with it and talk to Bicycle to see what is possible and how to stay clear of copyright infringement with Chevy. If I do something up I'll pass it along to all the officers and see how they feel about it.

I'd also like to do custom guitar picks which are very cheap and super easy to make.

[Toasty]

I'd think that our club logos would be fine

[GuestUser]

I'd think that our club logos would be fine

Yeah it shouldn't pose a concern. When I've had custom Zippo's and guitar picks made in the past the manufacturers wanted to avoid any negative language and symbols, like racism for example, and trademark stuff was easy to avoid.

[GuestUser]

Ok I did some snooping around and this is what a custom deck is.

You get 56 total cards, either bridge side or poker size (poker size is a little wider), you can customize the design of the cardboard box and the cards and have them delivered in their own special tin. They consist of 2 jokers (our design), 52 playing cards (standard numbers or jumbo), and 2 extra cards we can put info on (history of the club, the Camaro, dates of events attended, founding members, whatever).

For the back of the cards we can use a standard design from Bicycle or make our own.

This is a standard back design....





We can also do some interesting stuff with the face cards. Here is an example of Tragic Royalty and they also glow in the dark.








I know a personalized deck is about $20.00 each so the custom decks are gonna be pricey and that will probably kill the idea but if you all want to play around with this I have the templates from bicycle. You can enlarge them and see what ideas you can come up with if you are interested.