UnitedCardists.com - The forum for Cardistry, Magic, Custom Decks and All Things Playing Cards.

Let's say you've worn out a deck of playing cards - it's clumpy and no longer handles well enough for card magic or cardistry, and it's ready for retirement.

What do you do with it?

And does it make a difference if it's a standard Bicycle rider-back deck or a custom deck?

If it gets to the point where it's clumpy and no longer handles well I would just give it to my friends to play poker. All they need is a complete deck to play. However if it's a Jerry then I would probably keep it just to say I have one.

I've only let standard bikes from Costco get that dirty and I use them in weekly card games. When the edges turn black, they go to the trash.

Custom decks I'll open to look at them and maybe fan them, then I sell the open decks to make sure I only keep 5 or 6 of the open ones around.

I will abuse standard USPCC or Expert decks until they start getting clumpy and miserable. At that point they either go on a shelf of used decks or donated to people that I know who play card games. Custom decks get opened and played with, since I almost always get two of everything, but never really get abused to that point. The open deck collection is a mix of these two.