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Bit late for my Mailman Monday, but this deck came from across the pond so I have some extra leeway with this curiosity. Obviously an early ARRCO Streamline deck from before they put the Streamline name on the Ace of Spades, but I have never seen one in a KENBER box like this. Don't know if this was a brand name for oversees or a store brand or what. Here's a link where you can scroll through my previous ARRCO Streamline posts: search.php?keywords=streamline&t=6900&sf=msgonly

Just another Mailman Monday ... I've been wanting one of these for a while - 5 Star Playing Cards from E.E. Fairchild Corp. c1930. For the longest time I thought that EE Fairchild only made bridge size decks, and this is the only poker size deck I am aware that they made.

Chuqii wrote: ↑Mon May 08, 2023 9:24 am Just another Mailman Monday ...

Not quite Ephemera Friday, but no deck backs so I think it still counts. Did you ever wonder when Bicycle decks discontinued their big, beautiful four color court cards for the shrunken and simplified version we have today? Well, it was sometime in 1954. I received a bunch of 1954 decks, and the decks with a dark "T" date code all had the big, beautiful court cards, while all the decks with the yellow "T" date code (which it seems they had trouble deciding where it should go) had the shrunken and simplified courts. Here's a bunch of pics showing the old v. the modern.


And here's a set of the original court cards from my c1889 deck for additional comparison:

Back to the archives for today's Mailman Monday. This particular deck was most likely a low-end USPCC brand from the early 1900s ( I have seen it online with the Derby box). This particular deck is gilded, which I wouldn't expect to see in the low-end brands, but here you have it. This back design was also used on the Hornet #6 decks.

Bit of a low-key Ephemera Friday here at UC. I promised some pics of my Entertaining with Cards book, and here they are, but they aren't very exciting. I have the Fourth edition (1903) and it is not very photogenic. Has some good stuff on the inside though. And, since it is so bland on the outside, I decided to add my 1921 How to entertain with Cards booklet. It at least has an illustration on the cover, but the insides are very meh. Each book covers practical hosting tips and themes for card parties.

Today's Mailman Monday is brought to you by Acme Fast Freight - Dependable, Daily Service. c1963-5 This two deck set from Brown & Bigelow shows off its Nu-Vue playing cards with a blue-green tinted back ground and redesigned playing cards meant to reduce eye strain. Nu-Vue was first introduced in 1963. I added a B&B booklet from 1964 for more info on Nu-Vue.

Thank God it's Epemera Friday - TGIEF - This week an 1890 Price List from The National Card Co. with deck backs on the front and prices on the rear. Pics came from the Antique Playing Card Price List thread over at the 52 + Joker Playing Card Forum - http://www.playingcardforum.com/index.php?topic=7123.0 - Go check it out for a whole lot of good, antique stuff.

That price list was a fun read to glance at. I had to think about those prices. They are not for a brick. Those are for a gross of decks!

The descriptions were also interesting for me as i am not an expert in these decks. It was interesting for me to read about the differences in quality. I know many of the names. I didn't realize that Steamboats were the cheap decks. I mean in today's terms, they are all stupid cheap. I mean their most expensive deck was about $0.50 each.

Well, with the 20% discount that is more like $0.40 each for the most expensive gilded decks. I need a time machine.

Mailman is taking a break today, but he brought theses last week, so Mailman Monday continues.

1940 and 1941 Ivory Finish Bicycle 808 decks in the Racer and League back designs with all the extra cards. Back of the guarantee card is the Contract Bridge chart. These are before they combined the Guarantee card and the extra joker card to create the Guarantee Joker. That happened around 1943.

It's Monday, and the man brought the mail. This is a fun one. Vroom, vroom.


c2003, The Bicycle Die Cast Race Car (and two decks of Bicycle Rider Backs). Guy has more on eBay if anyone is interested - https://www.ebay.com/itm/175752092950?h ... SwZMNkbDa7

I'm going to dig back into the archives for today's Ephemera Friday. I've been hoovering up images from various sources online for a years, so I can share some of those here.

I am a big fan of the Willis W. Russell decks, so here are some catalog pages from 1908 showcasing their wares and those of other playing card companies. I'd love to be able to recreate this pages with decks from my collection, but I've got a long way to go.

Day late Mailman Monday. Mailman actually delivered this red Bicycle 1984 Olympics deck yesterday, but I did not check the mailbox until today. I added this to the three blue decks I already own.

I love the Olympics Bike decks and wish there were more

No Mailman today, but it is Monday.

Here's a scarce deck that came in last week: Popular Playing Card Co.'s Nestor brand, c1910 from New York Consolidated Card Co.

Mailman has not come by yet this Monday, but he dropped this off last week.

Russell & Morgan Co. Army & Navy deck with box, c1884. Well-loved deck that's showing its age a bit.

Another from the archives for this Ephemera Friday: A selection of American Playing Card Co. ads for their Golf Playing Cards, 1899 - 1902

“$0.25 in 1900 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $9.05 today”

Probably a lot more than that. My great grandmother ran a grocery store back around that time and she said that she could load a wagon with groceries for $5.

Here is a Two Pack Set from Brown & Bigelow from 1928. I like these early Brown & Bigelow decks from before they started their shift into almost entirely advertising decks. The early decks look like they were trying to compete with Congress and Marguerite decks.

A real find for this Ephemera Friday. I don't know if these were design proofs or printing samples or what, but they sure are cool. These are full size prints made for Russell Playing Card Co. tuck boxes from the late 1920s - early 1930s. I'd never heard of Aristocrat Multi-Color Backs or this Russell Square Deal No 6 with Back No 7.. I was able to find a Pageant deck with the same design online, so at least that one was produced. Interesting that the Back No 7 from the Russell Square Deal No 6 was also used with the Russell Aristocrat brand as the Allover No 7 as you can see in one of my earlier posts - viewtopic.php?f=45&t=6900&p=125791&hili ... at#p125791 Hopefully I'll be able to find actual decks to match all of these prints.

Something on the newer side from the Mailman this Monday: Landscape Logo Bicycle cards. Interesting tuck box with the sticker seal on the front of the tuck and the back being just a huge Bicycle logo. These are also labeled Poker Size instead of Standard Size.

Did you just get the one? P52 says it was sold in a set with a matching blue deck (c. 2011 FYI)

Yeah, I just have this red one. First one I'd seen so I picked it up.

I've been out of town on vacation, but that means the mailman left me lots of goodies for Mailman Mondays. For today, we have a Stud deck, with a 10 cent tax stamp and a "W" dates code, which makes this 1936. This is the earliest Stud deck I've ever seen. If you want to see more about the history of Stud Playing Cards, check out this great research from Touya at the PlayingCardForum from 52 + Joker: https://www.playingcardforum.com/index. ... ic=13807.0

Mailman Monday. I got these decks with the 1936 Stud deck, and they also date to 1930s or 1940s. These look to be a couple of lower tier lines from USPCC (top) and Western PCC (bottom), but they are in great shape. The Lark deck uses the Oval back design that originally was used in the Rambler line.

Ephemera Friday starts early this week. Here's a January 1, 1910 Wholesale Price List from American Playing Card Co. based in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Nice to see the full line-up of APCC decks at the time.

Mailman Monday, where we celebrate the folks who bring us our mail order decks.

Today, I have two c1890 Samuel Hart & Co. Faro decks, one with rounded corners, one with straight, both with awesome one-way courts. A bit of water damage. Got to love the worm backs.

Here's a special post in celebration of 80,000 views of Showing You My Cards. Different Bicycle tucks in my collection showing changes from 1888 to 1959, all six sides.

Ephemera Friday. Here are a couple of Bicycle promotional cards showing the revised 1905 box design on the front and Draw Poker odds chart on the back, c1910. The tuck illustrated on the promo card mostly matches up with the fourth one posted above, (which was in use until around 1920), but there are a few differences.