talkmagic.co.uk

The Effect
Just Plain Old Bicycle Cards.

Where from :-
Magicbox
http://www.magicbox.uk.com/shop.php/sho ... p_252.html


Cost
75p


Difficulty
Whatever difficulty you like.

Review
What they say :-

Bicycle Seconds are the USPCC factory seconds. This means that the cards may have minor printing defects (i.e., the cards may be printed slightly off-centre), however, in our experience most of the decks are more than usable and if not are perfect for practicing.


What I say :-
I thought for 75p Icouldn't go far wrong. So I bought 6 packs of red.
I think they are excellent for the price. The ones I got look as if the printing is slightly of centre. I have seen no other discernable difference. I will be using these like any other deck as I expect nobody is ever going to notice the small imperfection. If you are a perfectionist then they may not be for you but for the average card guy or magician go and buy some.
Excellent as you don't care if people write all across the faces of them as you will allways have spares. (Use 1 pack as your main deck then add cards which you will be forced for routines and then written on - different card each time).

One thing that may be of concern is the boxes. There is nothing wrong with the boxes other than they are completely different to normal bikes and have the words seconds printed all over them. There is a picture on the website.

At the moment I am developing a template for printing onto card stock for a card case replacement. I was doing this anyway as I had an idea for a gaffed card case I wanted. If I manage to produce a descent one I will post back.
(The templates not difficult but the printing onto a card stock with an acceptable finish is)


Overall
10/10 - (Don't buy them all up as I want more )

I must pick some of these up soon. I'm sure they were 99p recently; they must have reduced them again. Either way, even 99p is a good price so 75p is fab.

Magic Nevin sell flat-packed card cases that you just glue together. 39p each with free postage over a fiver. They also have seals. http://www.magicnevin.com/products.asp?cat=111

another alternative for a £1 deck of bikes is available to anyone with access to costco. Either yourself, or often if one is nearby someone you know is bound to have a card.

They sell bricks of bikes (12 packs) for about 11-12 quid.
They are normal decks, so do not have seconds printed on the case.

The local magic shop in Hull only has seconds, so its what I'm used to. Can't say I've ever had any problems with them. They also stock Bee cards, but never given them a go.

These are very good quality for seconds. I use them for practice, but wouldn't use them for performance because they can be very off centre and there can be flashes in certain circumstances. But that depends on how off centre they are, of course. All in all for £0.75 they are very good!

I buy these for practice and they are very good quality. Sometimes it's even hard to find what's wrong with them. If you are not too picky, you could actually use them all the way....

And I also highly recommend this to those from country where the exchange rate to dollars are low, that still wanted to use Bike decks but complaining that the normal ones are too expensive, grab a brick of the seconds, and will last you a while. You can do torn and restored, cardwarp, or some other effects where you have to throw the cards (CTW, cardstab...) .... then your heart won't feel so painful... i meant mentally ($_$)... not physically

I bought mine from magicbox as well.... and i seldom see them available from other magic dealers.. !!??? Anyone know online magic dealers from US that sells this?

I've only seen these for sale at Magicbox. I don't know why more dealers don't stock them. Very low profit margin perhaps? They must only be making a few pence per deck sold. I guess that's a good reason not to stock them. Thank goodness for Magicbox!

International Magic always have them in stock.

I have used seconds alot. (Not only good for magic, but I also play cards once a week and we get through decks like mad.)
Its strange that I was actually in need of some cheap decks and found that site last saturday.
For the person that said that the profit margin must be small, is most likely correct. Yet I think it is a very good business strategy.
I have not done magic in a while (just a hobbyist) and finding that site to buy some cheap cards has wanted me to buy a load of magic from there too.
Its bad. Very bad. But good for them.

I have been buying these from Magicbox for ages. Really good value at 99p so if they have come down to 75p they are a snip.

I have never had any problems with them and usually can't spot why they are seconds.

I ordered ten decks at 3pm yesterday and received them this morning. Thanks for a blindingly fast dispatch, Magicbox!

I could find only one card which had a noticeable fault; one of the AC had a tiny speck of ink on its face, which you would only see if someone pointed it out to you. Some of the backs and faces were very slightly off-centre but, again, this is only noticeable if you scrutinise the cards like I was doing. And the backs are certainly not as off-centre as my Ghost decks!

Personally, I would not class the decks as seconds as the quality is up to the usual Bicycle standard, but the guys and gals in the USPCC Quality Control team obviously have a more discerning eye than me. Out of 520 cards, I have no real complaints with any of them - and I checked every single card because I have way too much time on my hands! And I now have plenty of cards to keep me going through all the Card Warps, T&R, etc. etc.

I would have to give these an easy 10/10 for sheer value alone. Buy some now.

I quite like the box design as well and explaining to people what seconds are. It removes that idea that it is is gimmicked deck. A bit less suspicious than getting out a tiger pack or something that is unfamiliar to the average person.

As I have said before there is very rarely enything discernably wrong with the cards:

The way I understand it, when the USPCC manufactures the cards they come off the press on a big sheet, one sheet per deck of cards. You can actually buy these sheets framed as souvenirs, would you believe it (Have a look at some similar ones here. USPCC ones are hard to get, I can't find any at the mo).

If any ONE of the cards is deemed to be misprinted in any way, such that the deck cannot be used for normal play, then they will be rejected and seconded.

In my experience this means that one of the cards will be misprinted in some way (I've never seen more than one misprint per deck). The worst I've ever seen is a big inky splodge on the back of one of the kings. I just threw it away. Hey presto.

At it's best, you can get a deck of cards with no discernable fault. Obviously the quality control guy/gal at USPCC has a better eye than I do. If this is the case then you get a perfect deck of bikes for £1 and you can easily get away with using them in performances.
Oh aye, but don't forget to save a 'normal' box to put them in.

NUMS sell flat pack card boxes for £1.10 for 5, I got 10 of red and blue boxes, to rehome my packs of seconds, as well as some of my normal decks which the boxes are worn.

they are perfect.

For future reference, Costco sell bricks of 12 decks (6 red, 6 blue) for £9.97, which is 83p per deck. Prices include VAT.