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If you do a less specific ebay search (empire playing cards) there are others for sale. The two lowest are for $110 and $99.99

So, $50 is definitely a great deal, by comparison, if you are looking to pick one up.

It is also a ton cheaper than anything I could find listed on our sell/trade section. I would say it is a very good deal.

Normally for a deck with that price, I would expect a semi-Lotrek artwork or gilded Jacksons, but I went on to check the artwork and decided I'd rather stick with Nicolai's Ragnarok/Helheim design. However, I dig the latest Outlaws deck.

The original Empire deck was okay. The full bleed on the court indices meant that they were somewhat marked if you could see the edges, and that left me disappointed when I first received mine. I haven't opened them since, except to compare them to later editions.

Lee is a very good designer, and I'd love to see him continue to develop his craft. If I recall correctly, he was one of the principle designers of Ellusionist's Arcane decks, which were really quite stunning in their day. Although later Empire decks didn't contain the same mistake with the full bleed marking that the red edition did, I'm not seeing a lot of development in his style. Perhaps that's because he is spending less time on this craft than my favorite designers (which is not a knock; the demands of the day job can be quite distracting). Don't get me wrong, his work is very good, but you had asked if this deck is worth Lotrek-high prices. Clearly, they are for some people -- but, no, not for me.

I do not buy cards with the intention of selling them later, although I often buy *extra* decks of cards I am going to buy anyway, with the intention of lowering the per-deck price and selling the extras at some point or using them as trade bait. If the going rate of the Red Empires is $100 per deck, I'll be selling off my unopened ones sometime soon (or maybe using them to trade for other decks). Not because they are bad, but because I could use that money to pick up other decks that I want more.

Your mileage may vary.