talkmagic.co.uk

Is it me or has the prices of speciality decks seen a recent but substantial hike in the prices?

It wasn't that long ago that a regular deck of Bikes cost around the £1.80 to £2.20 mark, depending on where you boutght them from but the speciality decks from Ellusionist, Theory 11 etc. were around the £4.50 to £5.00 mark.

While the price of regular decks has remained fairly stable, I've noted that these days the speciality decks are now selling for around £7.50 and there seems to be a big surge in the number of decks that Bicycle are making and selling themselves.

I can't understand who would pay for and use these decks.

Yeah, I have noticed that, unfortunately I don't have money to burn on a deck that screams 'I can use the internet!'. The cards are EXACTLY the same quality as standard bikes, and whilst some may look a little better, I wonder if it is just some sort of collectors/street-magic/xcm style phase which will wear out eventually. All the 'performers' or card stuff I respect use Bikes or Tally's anyway, which have some sort of innocence to them which these 'custom' decks dont have. Maybe it's the 'custom' thing which makes them feel like some sort of exclusive club?

I used to buy the custom decks just for their aesthetic appeal. Then i used to use those Guardians by Theory 11 because they were made of a very thick stock, but i soon went back to Red Bikes and Blue Tallys.

dat is dead right, the cost of speciality decks these days is outrageous. Gotta say, the quality of the cut in the Bikes and Tallys i've been getting recently has been really high and eliminated any desire to buy something fancy.

I've noticed the same...all except Blaine's Split Spades. I think the design is lovely AND the marked deck version...is £6! A very usable, very clear and very nice looking marked deck for 6 quid. Madness.

I liked the feel of the Ellusionist Master Deck, but after awhile I stopped buying new decks and just reused old decks after putting them in the closet for awhile. Though I do like the feel and look of the Mandolin deck. But we'll see. I remember using the white ghost deck and hating how flimsy and just gimmicky the deck looked.

Costco sell the bricks of Bikes, 6 red and 6 blue for £10 excluding VAT so I've stokced up on these as this is my standard deck for performing.

I like the look of the two new decks from Theory 11 and Ellusionist but at those prices I'll think twice about treating myself to one of each.

I'm quite a sucker sometimes for a speciality deck. And I'm not even a card magician. Even if I was I would never use anything other than an ordinary (looking) deck to perform with.

The problem is that I'm like the magician version of a pigeon. I see something shiny and I want it. I even bought the lime green Bikes. (You know the ones I mean ... they make you feel like you have a hangover just by looking at them).

I think prices of speciality decks are creeping up because the vast majority of magicians have realised they should just stick to normal looking decks, so the 'mass' market who would only have paid £5 for a special deck in the old days now wont buy them at all. This market was the only thing that made it economically viable to sell these decks at a fiver. That just leaves the Magic Pigeons who would pay anything up to a tenner for something that looks funky and will stay on a shelf for many years, annoying better halves up and down the country.

I have top admit to actually liking the green backed Bikes, especialyy when Magic Box started selling them at £1.20 per deck.

So much so that I bought a couple of Bricks and occasionally use them when I get fed up with standards.

USPCC hired on a handful of higher ups that were previously employed by trading card companies Donruss and UpperDeck. Somewhere along the way, dunno if it was prior to their hiring or if the suggestion came by them after the fact, USPCC realized that they have a small market of playing card collectors. They are now headed the direction that the trading card companies (at least here in the U.S.) went through in the mid 80's to early 90's which is mass producing a wide variety of the designs.

This approach is to throw out a big net to get as many people interested as possible. If that works and if they continue down the path of trading cards then the next stage is to release severely limited numbers of special decks. Decks would be individually numbered (i.e. 0123/1000). After that you'll start seeing more gimmicks like mystery boxes that could contain a normal pack of cards or a special deck. The price of the box would be somewhere between the price of a normal and special deck. If that works then you'll likely see higher end versions where the box contains at least a deck numbered out of 1,000 but could contain the ultra super duper world wide exclusive 1/1.

It'll be interesting to see how it plays out over the years, if in fact this is where USPCC is headed. It would certainly seem to make sense if they did. Very little risk for a gamble that could pay off huge for them.

I have found that using anything other than a plain red or blue backed deck leads to suspicion. I was bought a yellow bike deck for christmas by my son - When I performed using this deck - the first comment was "Oh, but these are special cards though"
I like to have a few unusual decks - but when performing its blue bike deckes for me

I bought a pack of the Series 1800 aged looking ones, they are quite fun.

Also my daughter wannabe magician bought a pink pack.

On the occasions when I have used something different to the standard Bokes I've NEVER had anyone thins that the cards are suspicious. I think that this is a myth to be honest.

On the occasions when someone has commented onthe cards it's to say that they like them.