Card Collections

One thing that many magicians do is start collecting cards. I know that I have and while it's not an extensive collection by any strech of the imagination, I love getting interesting playing cards.

So I figured that I'd go through and find a bunch of cool/interesting/odd playing cards that you could add to your collection and links to where to find them.

 The first deck of cards I wanted to point out to you is the Bicycle "Eco Edition" playing cards. The cards are made from sustainable forest paper and use starch-based laminating glue and vegetable based printing inks (it's from the back of the box.)


Now these cards come in a rough cardboard/paper box with a green USPCC seal. Popping these open, you immediately get the same quality feel of standard bikes. They feel and sound like regular cards.

The backs are an olive green as are all of the red cards. That's right, the pips on all of the red cards are olive green. The other difference is that all of the face cards are olive green and black (for black cards) or olive green and gold (for red cards). They make for a fun addition to your collection and are 100% recyclable.

The next deck is the Bicycle "Tragic Royalty" playing cards. These cards are amazingly unique and offer some real fun characteristics.

First off, the backs are black with the cherubs in red. It adds for a crazy feel to the cards. The faces are all grey, with pips being the normal color. The Ace of Spades is a hollowed out ace that is a little whimiscal with some spider webs inside it. But the real fun is the face cards. They are all black and red and grey but all the faces of the figures are twisted and distorted in a fun way.

Need a little more? The cards are UV reactive.

The Bicycle Pro Peek playing cards are something of an oddity.

These cards have the standard backs but on the faces, the markings are a bit bigger and they have a small version of the pips in the top corner. I suppose it's to help you see the cards without having to pick up too much of it. A decent idea for poker players.

Unfortunately for Bicycle, when these were introduced into the World Poker Tour (what they were designed for) the players requested, almost immeidately, the cards be replaced with regular bikes.

It's too bad they look so weird for an almost normal card, because they feel great, better than regular bikes.

Stepping away from the Bicycle brand, what we have here are KEM brand, paisley backed bridge sized cards. You can find them here.

Now what's really great about these cards is the unique design on the back as well as the fact that, for me, these cards are very inspirational. They make me want to go out and develop a character or act that would have the same aestetic as the cards do.

Other than that, they are standard KEM cards.

Alright, now for the crown jewel in strange and unique cards. This is the Bicycle Peace Deck. This deck is a tye-dye style deck that has peace symbols integrated into it. The ace of spades has a peace symbol in it and the jokers are a dove and a peace symbol. Even the face cards get in on this with them flashing the peace hand sign.

To top it all off, many of the peace symbols are decked out with the stars and stripes. This is an amazingly unique deck to add to your collection.