I understand the point made by both you and Gunnar, but I have to respectfully disagree.
Hey, that's not a problem and is what TM is based upon - good debate and being able to put forward a different opinion
I personally never use gaffed cards of any sort
I don't think that I mentionned using gaffed cards - just different back designs and colours and whether this alone gave the impression to the lay person that the deck may be gimmicked in some way.
trick decks used to be advertized in the US on television. I am not sure about the rest of the world but when I was a kid I remember seeing adverts for "TV Magic Cards" (a Svengali deck).
I've never in my life seen a trick deck of any sort advertised for sale on a TV advert in the UK but this may account for some suspicion in the US - I don't know...
but can you be certain that they may not attribute the amazing effects to the cards themselves and not the magician's skill?
No. In fact some people are just naturally suspicious of everything, even coins, notes, fruit, rope any ANY other think that you care to do magic with.
Many of the USPCC branded cards are understood by us Europeans to be very familiar to the majority of Americans who can spot a Bike, from A Tally from an Aviator etc. Most Brits don't know one from the other and are perhaps just more trusting. It should be remembered that many lap people wouldn't even consider that a gaffed deck is gaffed and trust that it's normal and that even logically thinking, the magic MUST have happened by sleight and misdirection. That's why they all shoult 'DO IT AGAIN' immediately afterwards so they can try to catch you
I've used a gaff deck or two in my time, such as a Svengali deck and people have asked afterwards "is it a trick deck"? I always reply "NO" and then riffle the cards to show them as all being different faces and people jut say "oh", believe you and scratch their heads and try to think of another explanation. I'm very sure that Mr Lewis who is the expert on the Svengali will have had similar experiences.
My point is that I do agree that you will always get the occasional spec who will be suspicious of everything but in the whole, the majority of specs just aren't suspicious of colour and design any more.