The "Hey, look what I added to my collection!" thread

[SilvaAce]

Bicycle Serpents??? Wow, I hadn't heard of those. The Lego deck is pretty cool!

[montecarlojoe]

If you look really closely they are in teh last row of RSLancanster's last pic too.

I think they must have been released this year (as it's the Chinese year of the snake/serpent).


I think my favourites out of this group are the Marlboro Texans - the have a great vintage look to them (a combination of huge face pips and tiny indexes that really work IMO)
These are the only ones I've seen (so far) in an individual tuck box, which has a pleasing matt finish to it.


Yeah the lego ones are nice - like chach I just had to have them.

If they did one with the really old space lego figures from the 80s that'd be ace. I use to literally have buckets of the stuff! Oh the moonbases I built as a lad...

[RSLancastr]

RSLancastr
Those are a lot of bikes! I have to keep my obsessive self under control while looking at this collection. A few months ago I decided to stop collecting every deck I see, but I love seeing pics like this. Cool!

I know what you mean! Nowadays, I generally wil buy any deck I with the Bike Logo on the tuck (that I don't already have), but especially those with custom courts.

With non-Bikes, I limit myself to only those with custom courts (such as the Vanda Polaris decks I recently purchased).

[CBJ]

Here are all of the Bikes currently in my collection (I think there are 204)

Why do you have all of your decks sized as bridge decks???

[RSLancastr]

If you look really closely they are in teh last row of RSLancanster's last pic too.

I think they must have been released this year (as it's the Chinese year of the snake/serpent).

I bought mine in November of 2012, but they were evidently released in time to celebrate 2013 being the Year of the Serpent.

Here's the "RSL Grid" of them:

==========[ Bicycle_YearOfThe_Serpent ]==========


The way the deck is laid out looks like USPCC may be planning on releasing one each year - which would be cool, but waiting twelve years to collect the whole set is a bit of a bummer.

And I would imagine that the Year of the Serpent decks will be pretty hard to find by the end of it all, so buy yours now (if you can still find one!)

If they stick to a similar release date this year, in another two months or so we may see the deck for 2014 (the Year of the Horse).

[MagikFingerz]

The way the deck is laid out looks like USPCC may be planning on releasing one each year - which would be cool, but waiting twelve years to collect the whole set is a bit of a bummer.

And I would imagine that the Year of the Serpent decks will be pretty hard to find by the end of it all, so buy yours now (if you can still find one!)

If they stick to a similar release date this year, in another two months or so we may see the deck for 2014 (the Year of the Horse).

They've stopped printing the remaining decks of a series enough times for me to highly doubt they would actually keep one running for 12 years.

[Kdklown]

The way the deck is laid out looks like USPCC may be planning on releasing one each year - which would be cool, but waiting twelve years to collect the whole set is a bit of a bummer.

And I would imagine that the Year of the Serpent decks will be pretty hard to find by the end of it all, so buy yours now (if you can still find one!)

If they stick to a similar release date this year, in another two months or so we may see the deck for 2014 (the Year of the Horse).

They've stopped printing the remaining decks of a series enough times for me to highly doubt they would actually keep one running for 12 years.

They never finish any "series" they start! I would still love to see the rest of the war series.

[RSLancastr]

The way the deck is laid out looks like USPCC may be planning on releasing one each year - which would be cool, but waiting twelve years to collect the whole set is a bit of a bummer.

And I would imagine that the Year of the Serpent decks will be pretty hard to find by the end of it all, so buy yours now (if you can still find one!)

If they stick to a similar release date this year, in another two months or so we may see the deck for 2014 (the Year of the Horse).

They've stopped printing the remaining decks of a series enough times for me to highly doubt they would actually keep one running for 12 years.

They never finish any "series" they start! I would still love to see the rest of the war series.

...and then there's the "Limited Edition Series". I believe there were supposed to be ten of them, but they seem to have stopped after two.

They weren't all that great, but it looked like the jokers from all ten were going to make a cool set.

ETA:

For those who have not seen them, here are "grids" of the two Bicycle "Limited Edition Series" decks:

==========[ Bicycle_LtdEditionSeries_01 ]==========


==========[ Bicycle_LtdEditionSeries_02 ]==========


I liked the jokers, and thought that a set of all ten (from the supposed ten decks that were to be in the series) would look nice together.

Ah, but it was not meant to be...

[Bikefanatic]

This will be it until the new and KS decks come out.

[RSLancastr]

Nice, 'fanatic!

I recognize the Federal 52 and the Voyager, but not the others (and my monitor and my eyesight prevent me from reading what's on them.

What are they?

[CBJ]

Nice, 'fanatic!

I recognize the Federal 52 and the Voyager, but not the others (and my monitor and my eyesight prevent me from reading what's on them.

What are they?

Bicycle Bape (2011 Edition)





Bicycle Clot





CBJ

[RSLancastr]

I'm sorry CBJ, those images aren't quite large enough for me to make them out.

Could you buy me a projection-screen monitor?

Thanks,

-RSL

[RSLancastr]

Here's two I got yesterday:

==========[ BernhardAltmanncashmere ]==========

A circa 1930 advertising deck for Bernhard Altmann Cashmere.

Bernhard Altmann was a maker of high-end fabric, including Cashmere.

I don't know what the Asian theme of this deck has to do with that, but it is highly unusual.

I usually don't buy partial/incomplete decks, but the unusual courts (and the deck's age) led me to purchase it even though there were only 24 out of 52 cards, plus one joker.

Speaking of which, the joker almost seems as though it was an afterthought. The different-colored background, different artistic style and color palette, and even a subtly-different back make it seem like it is possibly even from another deck entirely.

==========[ UltimateMedicalAcademy ]==========

I was curious as to why the Alligator/Crocodile character on the Ultimate Medical Academy deck. Was it the school's mascot?

I found their web site (http://www.ultimatemedical.edu" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;), but found no 'Gators nor Crocs there.

I ended up on the phone with someone there. He was familiar with the deck, which had been created to give the staff there a fun way to learn about their "compliance" program, and he told me that the character was the mascot for that program.

By the way, the deck would not be appropriate for play: Each card has a different back, with a different "Tip" regarding Compliance. The tips are numbered (the one I scanned for the "back" image above was one of the two jokers, which had (IIRC) Tip number 54 on its back), so learning which card had which "Tip Number" on its back would make cheating a breeze!

[RSLancastr]

Got this one today:



It's a Miniature (404) Bicycle Blue Rider Back in a clear plastic case with a Backpack clip attached.

[CBJ]

I'm sorry CBJ, those images aren't quite large enough for me to make them out.

Could you buy me a projection-screen monitor?

Thanks,

-RSL

I'm working on that larger size pic for you hahahah

[Bikefanatic]

I had this deck since 2006. Mines is a lighter blue than picture above.

[RSLancastr]

'fanatic, here are several miniature Bikes I have (plus a standard-sized Bike for size comparison):

[Eoghann]

Took a stroll down my local flea market, found this beauty:

1935 Kem Playing Cards





I had been meaning to show these off, kept forgetting to:

Signed deck from a Facebook contest Randy held a few weeks ago:



A jumbo deck of cards two artists from Deviantart (Bill Presing and Josh Cooley) released:


How are Texan, American, Canadian and Norwegian friends appear in the deck.

[RSLancastr]

Yeah, I was going to say "not very intercontinental"!

[Eoghann]

Haha yeah, all cards have a different country from around the world. Even some made up countries.

[RSLancastr]

It appears to be a take-off on the old (1940s or 1950s) nudie deck "Models of All Nations", with cheesy studio photographs of nude and semi-nude women, supposedly from various nations, but they were pretty hokey. One woman, evidently from Italy, was eating, stark naked, from a big bowl of spaghetti. One card - I think it was the Six of Diamonds - was of a very young Betty White, wearing only a pair of white fur-covered earmuffs (on her ears). I'm not sure what nation she was supposed to be from, though.

[Gareth]

Took a stroll down my local flea market, found this beauty:

1935 Kem Playing Cards

I like the back design - however be warned that KEM's copyright of the Ace of Spades was unchanged from (well, 1935, I guess ) until reasonably recently. There is more information at this ebay guide - which suggests your deck was produced in December of 1949.

[Eoghann]

@RSLancaster: You're right. Inspired from a time where every Asian had a straw hat and every Mexican wore a sombrero. The illustrations warrant an uncomfortable chuckle or two.

@Gareth: that's incredible! Thanks for the clarification! By that article, the deck is from December 1949. Sure wish USPCC had that numbering system. I have an "old looking" deck that could be anywhere between 1950 and 1970 (thanks to Dazzleguts), and no thanks to USPCC's vague numbering system. Either you know your card history very well or you're left wondering.

[RSLancastr]

@RSLancaster: You're right. Inspired from a time where every Asian had a straw hat and every Mexican wore a sombrero.

Yes, I seem to recall a"Coolie hat" and a Sombrero in the "Models of All Nations" deck.

[Eoghann]

@RSLancaster: You're right. Inspired from a time where every Asian had a straw hat and every Mexican wore a sombrero.

Yes, I seem to recall a"Coolie hat" and a Sombrero in the "Models of All Nations" deck.

Now about Betty White wearing nothing but earmuffs...I'll have to look into that.

[MagikFingerz]

Now about Betty White wearing nothing but earmuffs...I'll have to look into that.

Found it :

[Eoghann]

Oh...it's actually from the 1940s, not 40s inspired...

We need a 2013 edition!

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Betty White was FIT!

[RSLancastr]

Thanks for posting that, Tom - I was going to post my scan of it (which does NOT include the "stars"), but I did not know what forum regs were about posting nude images.

When I bought that deck (back in the 1990s), I saw that card and thought it looked an awful lot like Betty back in her younger days. I wanted to post it on my playing card web site, but first I wanted to confirm that it was indeed Betty White. I emailed the image to a woman who was working on a biography of Betty, and asked if it was Betty. The woman replied that it certainly LOOKED like Betty did back then, but she felt that Betty would NEVER have posed for such a photo, but that she would ask her about it the next time they spoke.

I never heard back from her.

A few years later, Betty was a guest on the David Letterman Show, and he asked her about it, even showing the card to the camera. She gave some coy non-answer, and Letterman did not push the issue.

I dunno if she ever fessed up to it or not, but there are many copies of the image on the web now, stating that it is her.

[Eoghann]

Many of us have done worse things for money I'm sure.

[RSLancastr]

Many of us have done worse things for money I'm sure.

Heck, I posed (semi-) nude for a photo calendar once, and I did it for free!!

ETA: And, if you've seen me, you'd know that was worse indeed!