New Member Italy

[crixmas]

Hi everyone, let me introduce myself. My name is Cristian and I am Italian. Sorry for my English, but help me with the translator. I am a beginner, I joined the world of cards a few days ago while I was in a store. I saw some packs of Bicycle cards and I was fascinated. I would like to start the collection. Honestly, I don't know where to start, the graphics fascinate me.
My first doubt is. Does the purchased package need to be opened? or is it preferable to collect closed cards?
If perhaps in this stupendous group there was some person who speaks Italian like me and would like to help me understand more I thank him
good day everyone

[STLBluesNut]

There are presumably a couple italian speakers here. Welcome!

Some like to collect cards and open them to admire the art work, myself included. Some leave them sealed and never open them. The other option is living in both worlds by buying 2 or more, opening one and leaving the others sealed.

Sealed decks sell for more, so if you think you may sell them at some point you may want to keep them sealed. I do not care about resale value and open all of my decks. I don't use them and the tuck stays in mint condition. If I had to sell them or wanted to, I would probably be looking at, at most, only 50% of sealed value for most decks.

Again, welcome!

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[Räpylätassu]

Hey Cristian!

Welcome to UC! We do have several Italian members here, Jocu, Thirdway Industries (Giovanni Meroni), Stockholm17 (Lorenzo Gaggiotti) and Passione first come to mind. All 4 actually design decks of their own so you should check them out first if you want to have decks with great design!

To answer your question about opened/unopened cards, do however you see fit. Collect how you wish to collect and apologize to nobody. I personally only buy unopened decks (unless it's an old vintage deck) and them open them myself. Some collectors don't open any of their decks to keep the value of decks intact. A popular thing to do is to buy 2 of each deck you get, one to open and one to keep sealed. This only is worth it though if you have a full time job, I wouldn't do this if you are a student or if money is otherwise tight. Opening the decks significantly lowers the possible resale value but on the basic priced decks it's not really that much of a problem. I would always consider on wheter to open or not to open some of the bit more expensive decks.

You are a new collector so I am going to say to you what I wish that somebody would have said to me when I started. Don't buy everything. Don't fall into the "hype decks." I know that I just said previously that collect on how you wish, but I seriously suggest to buy decks of playing cards with top notch custom artwork instead of the hype bullshit like Fontaine, Daniel Madison and Anyone Worldwide (to name the 3 worst in the business). Good design speaks for itself, bullshit hype decks need artifical hype built around them to make them sell to the fanboys who buy them like blind sheep. Bullshit hype decks usually have a design that was done in around 5 minutes and then is marketed with the typical buzz words like "super limited" "fantastic minimal design" etc. Basically cut through all that and look at what the actual designs on the cards looks like. Also, lack of proper pictures of the artwork almsost always means that the designers have nothing to show. Good design speaks for itself.

I recommend on reading the New & Custom decks section of this forum. I don't want to toot my own horn too much but I have my personal TOP 150 decks list (link on my description). It's full of top notch designed custom decks of playing cards so it is a rather nice tool for new collectors as it lists a whole bunch of decks with great designs, it is missing some stuff still though. I am actually about to update it soon.

Oh, and given that you are from Italy, I can say from personal experience that do check out some of your local antique shops. You can make some amazing finds of vintage decks on Italian antique shops, I know that I have

Welcome to UC!

[Thirdway Industries]

Benvenuto!

Se ti serve qualche consiglio in italiano scrivimi pure giovanni@thirdway.it

Ti consiglio di aprire i mazzi che compri, il bello di solito è all'interno

[crixmas]

Thank you very much, you have been really kind and exhaustive. I wanted to take my first Bicycle ZOMBIE deck. I don't know if it's a deck that you call Hype, but I was very impressed by its graphics

Hey Cristian!

Welcome to UC! We do have several Italian members here, Jocu, Thirdway Industries (Giovanni Meroni), Stockholm17 (Lorenzo Gaggiotti) and Passione first come to mind. All 4 actually design decks of their own so you should check them out first if you want to have decks with great design!

To answer your question about opened/unopened cards, do however you see fit. Collect how you wish to collect and apologize to nobody. I personally only buy unopened decks (unless it's an old vintage deck) and them open them myself. Some collectors don't open any of their decks to keep the value of decks intact. A popular thing to do is to buy 2 of each deck you get, one to open and one to keep sealed. This only is worth it though if you have a full time job, I wouldn't do this if you are a student or if money is otherwise tight. Opening the decks significantly lowers the possible resale value but on the basic priced decks it's not really that much of a problem. I would always consider on wheter to open or not to open some of the bit more expensive decks.

You are a new collector so I am going to say to you what I wish that somebody would have said to me when I started. Don't buy everything. Don't fall into the "hype decks." I know that I just said previously that collect on how you wish, but I seriously suggest to buy decks of playing cards with top notch custom artwork instead of the hype bullshit like Fontaine, Daniel Madison and Anyone Worldwide (to name the 3 worst in the business). Good design speaks for itself, bullshit hype decks need artifical hype built around them to make them sell to the fanboys who buy them like blind sheep. Bullshit hype decks usually have a design that was done in around 5 minutes and then is marketed with the typical buzz words like "super limited" "fantastic minimal design" etc. Basically cut through all that and look at what the actual designs on the cards looks like. Also, lack of proper pictures of the artwork almsost always means that the designers have nothing to show. Good design speaks for itself.

I recommend on reading the New & Custom decks section of this forum. I don't want to toot my own horn too much but I have my personal TOP 150 decks list (link on my description). It's full of top notch designed custom decks of playing cards so it is a rather nice tool for new collectors as it lists a whole bunch of decks with great designs, it is missing some stuff still though. I am actually about to update it soon.

Oh, and given that you are from Italy, I can say from personal experience that do check out some of your local antique shops. You can make some amazing finds of vintage decks on Italian antique shops, I know that I have

Welcome to UC!

[crixmas]

Ciao Giovanni,
In primis grazie per avermi risposto e fornito la tua mail. Sicuramente domani in mattinata ti scrivo e se puoi mi spieghi qualcosa di questo fantastico mondo.

Benvenuto!

Se ti serve qualche consiglio in italiano scrivimi pure giovanni@thirdway.it

Ti consiglio di aprire i mazzi che compri, il bello di solito è all'interno

[Räpylätassu]

Thank you very much, you have been really kind and exhaustive. I wanted to take my first Bicycle ZOMBIE deck. I don't know if it's a deck that you call Hype, but I was very impressed by its graphics

Bicycle Zombie is great deck to start your collection! I do have it somewhere. Definitely not a hype deck, you can clearly see that the designer actually spent some time on the design on that one.

If you wish to buy more decks, I recommend on checking out JPGames, Spielkartenshop and Jacks and Jokers. They are the first European Playing Card retailers that come to my mind, all have a great selection and you don't have to pay crazy for the shipping as opposed to ordering from the States.

Also you might find some good deals on our Buy and sell section, but considering that everything there is listed by name only really and not really showing any pictures anywhere, browsing it might be a bit tricky at the beginning as you would have to Google search everything.

[Bradius]

There are two important rules for collecting playing cards:

[BaconWise]

Welcome to UC! I do not speak Italian, but I have watched Under the Tuscan Sun and Il Postino, so I am pretty much an expert at this point.

I hope you find this group fun and informative. Good luck with your new addiction/hobby!

[STLBluesNut]

Also, check out portfolio52. Not only can you start keeping track of your collection from an early point but there are literally 1000s of decks you can look through.

Generally you can only see the tuck there but if something looks good you can usually find pictures of the cards here or on Ebay.

There are so many decks that it will be overwhelming at first and everything will look awesome! Keep your first purchases slow. I look back at some of my first purchases and I may not have bought them now as I have calmed down a bit and my tastes have changed. When you are new and discovering your first decks beyond standard bicycles everything looks so incredible that you want it all.



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[Harvonsgard]

Ciao Cristian,

welcome at UC. All important advice have been given already therefore, nothing left except for wishing you the bets of fun around here.

[crixmas]

Really thanks to everyone for the valuable advice. You have removed many doubts from me.

[theCapraAegagrus]

Welcome to UC, Cristian.