UnitedCardists.com - The forum for Cardistry, Magic, Custom Decks and All Things Playing Cards.

BRIEF INTRODUCTION
Hello everyone, my name is Ruben. I am a guy who are interested in magic and cardistry, which ends up with me collecting playing cards. I am also in a fandom dubbed the Furry Fandom, which I adopt a persona named Laito, blue wolf husky mix magician.

MY COLLECTION These are my cards collection so far. Counting them all (which not all present in these photos), I would say I have collected at least 200+ decks, those including gaff decks and magic decks.

To see what I have collected, you can visit my page in Portfolio52 - https://www.portfolio52.com/profile/16212/collection
PS: Kudos to Alex Chin to create a dedicated website for card collectors
Feel free to follow my Instagram, which I ussually post photos of individual decks and its cards - @laitostarr777
PPS: A fair warning, it is mixed with other photos, which are not related with playing cards.

COLLECTING HABITS
I begin collect playing cards when I obtain myself a deck of Bicycle. Oh, when I handle those cards, it feels heavenly, greater than all those. And then, it starts to grow, when I get the Black Tiger and Ghost from Ellusionist, later Monarchs and Sentinel from Theory11.
Slowly my collection begins to grow more and more. While I am studying in SIngapore, the collection gets ridicilously big. The playing cards start to get more unique every month and every year - unique tuckbox, unique courtcards, unique design, etc. From there, I am introduced to card designers, who then I begin to observe how they do the design and try to be one.
I tend to buy the cards because it is coming from my favourite magicians, and some I buy because of notable playing card reviewers (I really like to thank TheGentlemanWake for that).

I get my cards from magic shops, as they obviously will sell playing cards (especially cards for magic tricks). Second source would be from reknown playing card retailers, which they are spread throughout shopping malls. I tend to get impulsive when I come to any convenient stores, as I ended up buying cheap quality playing cards (the standard designs).
Sometimes, I have to resorts in getting the playing cards from the main website - House of Playing Cards for example, if there are good deals (i.e. Fort NOC deck, which I bough when it is reduced to it's original price before it gets inflated, thanks to TGW and Chris Ramsay's collaboration with Alex Pandrea). When there are no options left, I have to hunt for other collectors who would like to sell their cards (with reasonable prices of course)

I would like to get a few decks from Kickstarter as well - only those which are really interesting. And I have to do it on Kickstarter as some deck projects might not end up in card retailers. Backing in Kickstarter have its pros and cons.
The pros are: You will get decks which are Kickstarter exclusive
The cons are: You will be tempted by all the eye-catching add-ons ^^;

CHALLENGES
There are a few points which becomes my obstacles in my playing cards collection
First of all, budget. I don’t have all the money I can spare for glass cases and carat cases to store all the cards. Currently, I stack the cards like a building blocks. Exception for House of the Rising Spades, because the decks are just awesome to not be displayed in the open.
Second, my sources. Now that I finished my studies, I can’t access any magic shops and any local cards retailer anymore. So my only source becomes limited. Especially, my country is not available in some of the websites, which I have no choice to ship to a friend first, then have him/her ship it to me (which is a double shipping payment for me).
Also, I might consider this to be a challenge (probably not), is that you will get judged by people who simply thinks that playing cards are nothing more than just printed paper in a box, "All just same numbers and courts, only the artworks changes. I don't understand why you want to buy same thing over and over." is what I usually hear. I made a thread about it here: https://unitedcardists.com/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=15626

CONCLUSION
THAT is al I can say about my collection. It will grow as more new decks are coming out. Cheerio, and enjoy ;3

Some very nice pieces in that collection. What is that Jaws deck in the 2nd photo left of the blue 1001 Aladdins? Looks interesting as a shark fan I might have to get one of these .

Thanks for posting Looking forward to more!

Harvonsgard wrote:Some very nice pieces in that collection. What is that Jaws deck in the 2nd photo left of the blue 1001 Aladdins? Looks interesting as a shark fan I might have to get one of these .

The tuckbox is misleading XD, because the cards have no shark image on the back

laitostarr777 wrote:The tuckbox is misleading XD, because the cards have no shark image on the back

Thanks for the warning, but it doesn't matter. It looks like a fairly cheap deck so I might get one just for the novelty . The fact that you have it in the row with Aladdins, Bicycle Seconds, 808 Eagles and such, strenghtens my suspicion. It's Ronson Jaws?

Harvonsgard wrote:

laitostarr777 wrote:The tuckbox is misleading XD, because the cards have no shark image on the back

Thanks for the warning, but it doesn't matter. It looks like a fairly cheap deck so I might get one just for the novelty . The fact that you have it in the row with Aladdins, Bicycle Seconds, 808 Eagles and such, strenghtens my suspicion. It's Ronson Jaws?

Yes, your guess is correct; it is Ronson Jaws - plastic coated, disposables and cheap, sold in convenient stores.

I also collect some playing cards which is much more cheap quality, which..... their only best is with card play. Well, i can do magic and cardistry with them, but it prooved to be very hard X.X (and smells terrible too)

Very nice collecton! Definitely some interesting pieces and some ones on my list to get!

Hello guys, I’ve recently acquire these set of playing cards called Ornate
Are these rare addition of playing cards collection?

laitostarr777 wrote:Hello guys, I’ve recently acquire these set of playing cards called Ornate
Are these rare addition of playing cards collection?

Randy Butterfield is the creator of those, and is the guy behind Midnite Playing Cards. He is a fairly popular designer, and you'll find a complete list of the actual number of decks he produced of each deck (including the Ornate decks) in this thread here:

[Buyer's Guide] Midnight Cards

Local Card Resellers
Instagram has been a great platform for collectors, designers, and other people alike who shares passion in playing cards had gathered, sharing the beautiful artworks of 54 pieces of papers and its stunning tuckboxes. I made a few local friends who also collect cards, so I know I am not alone in this community. While hanging out in Instagram, I discovered these three prominent card resellers. It is not as varied as with other stores, as it mostly catalogs some of well-known and best seller decks - but at least I can get some of the decks I want locally - such as cards that were successful Kickstarter projects years ago, some of the cards that I didn't know it exists, and some of the new released cards till now. These three Instagram accounts have accounts in an online shop in Indonesia. They're well-favoured card resellers in Indonesia right now. They will hold auctions in Instagram, where people will bid and the highest bid wins. The auctions are great way to get the decks cheaper than it's original price and a chance to get rare decks.

COVID-19 Struggle
Currently we are facing the worldwide threat of COVID-19 pandemic. Many business are struggling to survive, healthcare becomes severely overload with infected cases, content creators are living in isolation and seclusion. Playing cards keeps on coming up with new designs, especially with Kings Wild Project monthly new decks. Productions of new cards will be slow as companies are coping with the situation. Money becomes a real constrain this year, especially with the exchange rate that is still relatively high.

The Curious Case of Indonesia's Postal Service
Apparently, now all orders which are coming from international shipping, will have taxes overdue when you are receiving them. I have one case (not playing cards related) - I backed an educational board game, which is held at Customs and I have to personally visit the place and paid overdue taxes in order for them to release it. So, everytime you received international packages, the sender will give you a paper slip that states how much money you have to pay for the tax. I think the tax is calculated based on the written value of the items pasted on the packages, so the more accurate the value, the more I have to pay. I don't know whether what I said it's true or not, but there are two times that I never received a slip like this - My rewards for the Parlour Playing Cards and Authentic Jerry's Nuggets reprints (which is shipped with recycled energy bars package box).

And, I heard of cases where Customs might have tampered with your playing cards packages. My friend mostly got these cases, where his cards are tore open, breaking the cellophane and tore the seal and might had jumble the cards. I might have one case too, where my orders for the Silver Gatorbacks apparently had been opened - the top part of the cellophane had been torn up and the cards are not in Mnemonica order. As I speculated, this cases will happened at random. You are lucky if your cards arrived safe and sound, but if not, well.... we can't do anything about it. No matter how you are feel so violated and totally pissed, the Customs will simply say they are just doing their duty to prevent illegal contents to pass through.
I have posted a thread about this incident, you may go to think link: https://unitedcardists.com/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=16529

As for the duration of the shipping, shipments from USA to Indonesia usually took around 4-6 weeks. That is a month long wait in order to get playing cards either from Kickstarter fulfillment and international online stores. This duration is what makes me worried over purchases in international online stores, as the tracking numbers tend to give status of packages being stuck or something - the number won't work as sson as it arrived (possibly) in Indonesia. For Indonesians who don't lived in the capital city, will have a longer waiting time, as (I think) the international packages will be processed in Jakarta first, before it being directed to respected cities. This is the main reason I am hesitant in applying subscription to KWP.

Collection Update - 21 August 2020 These are new additions since December 2019 up till now. Most of them are older decks that I managed to win at local auctions.

There are four which are successfully fulfilled Kickstarter projects - The Parlour Playing Cards by TGW and S17, Jerry's Nuggets reprint by EPCC, the Testament Playing Cards by Ben Green, and the Titanic Tarot Cards by RJ Thomlison.

The Silver and Rosegold Gatorbacks made me realized that these decks are awesome, and totally regret of not getting the previous color - which now had been expensive.

The Arabesque Players and Less Silver are decks that solely made by Lotrek that I owned, which I must say the designs are gorgeous. It's hard to keep up with Lotrek's creations to be honest, with the pricing and such.

Also, it is very hard to keep up with KWPs decks as well, as he comes out with new designs EVERY MONTH for his shorts series, AND not to mention if he comes up with something new outside of the Shorts - you guess it: the Legal Tender Holographic. Currently my order of Legal Tender Holographic is on it's way, and I pray it arrive safe and sound. Currently, the new additions of KWP are 20/20, the Postage Paid, Americana series, and the Table Players vol.1. I finally resort to join his subscription this month for the Robin Hood deck., have to hold the horses of getting higher tiers.

I managed to get Virtuoso Launch edition and the 2013 version, finally be able to complete the Virtuoso decks as of now. Made pre-order for the upcoming P1.

More Monarch colors, more addition to the collection. I just love Monarchs, because they got featured in Now You See Me movies. This is probably very bias of me haha

Gosh, there are SO MANY NEW DESIGNS COMING OUT THIS YEAR, and in a pandemic situation, I try not to get wild on buying cards. Everything still struggling while that virus is still out there... I hope when the cure has been found, everything had returned to normal once again.

Enjoy viewing these collections! ;3

Alien Playing Cards by Albino Dragons
The only deck that I owned which is made by Albino Dragon is this deck - Alien Playing Cards, official licensing with 20th Century Fox. "In space, no one can hear you spring..."
"The perfect organism. The most extraordinary species to be studied."

This deck dedicated to H.R.Giger's celebrated grotesque sci-fi horror, the dangerous Xenomorphs. It starts it's life from a breeding parasite that hatched from the freshly opened egg. The spider-like creature, called Facehuggers, quickly leaps onto your face, clutching tight onto you, as it's tail wrapped around your neck. No one can help you detached it, as it only gripping tighter and tighter. You are helpless as there is something put inside you while it gives you air to breathe. A few moments later, it detached from you and died instantly. You think that it is over, but the nightmare has only just begun. Suddenly, you feel something inside wanted to burst out, as your ribs start to break and your chest is bleeding. With a quick stabbing pain, the slithering creature got out and slithers away as you dropped dead from blood loss. The Chestbuster is on the loose. As it is very swift, your friends can't find it so easily..... until it was too late..... The Chestbuster quickly grows into a full-grown humanoid alien, called Xenomorph. A bloody killing machine which is hard to kill - acidic blood, sharp tail, spiky claws, agile, able to hide in the dark, drooly, with piercing tongue-maw. It will go into a bloody rampage.

"If anyone can hear me, I am the last survivor of the USS Sulaco.... Hurry.... it is here...."

I remember when Alien first came out and watching with a friend. Since it just came out, no one in the theater knew what was going to happen. When that dang thing broke out if his chest we all about died...that was an insane scene at the time.

Bradius wrote: ↑Mon Aug 24, 2020 1:27 pm I remember when Alien first came out and watching with a friend. Since it just came out, no one in the theater knew what was going to happen. When that dang thing broke out if his chest we all about died...that was an insane scene at the time.

Wow, you watched Alien when it was in theaters?! Damn, must be a REAL HORROR seeing that scene!

MY LOVE for ANTHROMORPHICS
I am so happy that I managed to get the Olive Tally Ho, so here I explain why I must get this deck in my collection.
From my introduction, I mention that I also in the other community, which is Furry Fandom, a subculture where the people love animals that can behave like humans - hence why it's called anthromorphics. I would totally appreciate for anthromorphic animals to be applied in the design of playing cards, whether it is as jokers or as courts - or maybe both! So far, these three decks in my collection have the anthromorphic animals.
Olive Tally Ho by Kings Wild Project
Tally-Ho is another classical playing cards made by USPCC. It is made by Andrew Dougherty back in 1885, which was bought by USPCC long time ago. The cards have linoid finish, making it very smooth for cardists. The cards back design have either the circle back or the fan back. The deck comes in two standard colors of red and blue, and later due to the popularity of Tally-Ho among cardists and conjurers, it comes in many different colors and/or made specifically for a few magic companies [i.e. Tally Ho Viper by Ellusionist]. You can tell the deck is Tally Ho by seeing it's very big and intricate Ace of Spades and the Jokers presenting fox-hunter wearing his red coat and yellow pants, holding a whip and shouts "TALLY-HO!". Kings Wild Project - Jackson Robinson decides to design his custom Tally-Ho, and comes up with this deck: the Olive Tally Ho. The color vibes of the deck gives the feeling for a fall season, with it's brown, pale green, and ochre. The back design is completely custom designed to fit in the theme - circular leaf patterns. The court cards are Jackson's signatures court with color swatch that matches with the deck.
The jokers present fox wearing the fox-hunter outfit, with the red coat is the only one colored - holding a martini with an olive. There is a part of a Bible verse on top of the card - a favorite verse of Jackson.

Le Chat Rouge 17 by Stockholm 17
Lorenzo's Gaggioti's earlier works would be the Stockholm No.17 deck series. This version is the last one in the series, and the most beautiful one. It has a thick black tuckbox with red foil accents and has a diamond cut hole on the middle to view the cards. The numbered seal is located on top of the box. The cards have black borders. The back design has small red foil accents. The overall design delves into black cats. The jokers present cat in jester costume, holding up a fancy cane and a card on his hand. Such a fancy pose they did ;3

The Parlour Playing Cards by TheGentlemanWake (in collaboration of S17)
Omar, the guy behind TheGentleman Wake (TGW), starts his journey in Youtube as an in-depth playing cards reviewer. His in-depth presentation of the cards are exceptional, along with the background settings for his videos. He had gathered a lot of subscribers, and it will eventually keeps on growing. One day, he agreed to make his own playing cards based on his brand, thus the collaboration with Stockholm 17. The Parlour Playing Cards converys everything about TGW - The initials as a planchette and intricate design in Ace of Spades, the redrawn court cards holding up items from his study, the King and Queen of Hearts present Omar and his wife Liza respectively, the Damask pattern, and the Dynastinae bug. The jokers present anthromorphic cat and fox in gentleman suit. The cat stands by a sign board (strongly resembles Lorenzo's pet cat), while the fox stands by a box of playing cards up for sale.


UPCOMING
There is another deck with an anthromorphic animal in the Joker - and that is Ravn IIII. Ravn IIII is a deck designed for female magician Caroline Ravn, the latest installment of series. One of the jokers present an anthromorphic raven wearing a gentleman suit, top hat, and goggles clutching a card with his beak and holding up a lot of jumbled cards on his hand. By his legs, there is a jukebox with a raven popping out from it. Currently it is in production, so stay tuned!

Future Project?
I am not sure if people will like anthromorphic creatures though, because I have quite a few ideas of a playing cards that has pure anthromorphic animals: both Courts and Jokers. Would be a great contribution if it ever happened. If I ever had the confidence to create these decks, I will share some progress in the Drafting Board threads, and a lot of research on doing Kickstarter projects.

thanks for showing collection : )

A Dedication to Jules Verne
I like reading books, especially if it's classical stories. Some of the classical stories are simplified and easy to understand, although where is the challenge in that? I would prefer reading unabridged one, as they are the original words and phrases by the author. Even though it lacks illustrations, the unabridged one is rich with words. A few of famous classical literature works is are written by Jules Verne. HIs stories delve in adventure and science fiction are remarkable - in fact, one of his stories is an evidence on how humans desired to reach the space, and landed on the moon.
Although, what if you combine your fond of reading with playing cards? A deck which is a tribute to your favorite author OR a deck which is revolves around a story? Having those kind of decks would be a win-win to both hobbies.

Bicycle Jules Verne by Club 808 "Science, my lad, is made up of mistakes, but they are mistakes which it is useful to make, because they lead little by little to the truth." - Jules Verne

This exclusive Bicycle Playing Cards made by Club 808 is a deck dedicated to the French author Jules Verne. It is a great tribute to him! The cards design is based on Jules Verne's stories collection book cover titled "Voyages Extraordinaires". Each suit represents one of four famous stories written by Jules Verne: From the Earth to the Moon - Journey to the Center of the Earth - 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas - Around the World in 80 Days. The court cards are presenting the characters in their respective stories, with the Queens are not showing any women, but transportations that associated with the characters and stories. Even the Jokers and Ace of Spades catch the references to the stories.

I am looking forward to see any decks that dedicated to an author or to a story sometimes soon.
Check my review of this deck here - https://unitedcardists.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=17103