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I don't do much in the way of modern decks, but I picked up this 1999 Bicycle deck the other day because of the changed Ace of Spades. Best as I can tell, it didn't catch on, because my newer decks all have the old version (as shown by the 1999 deck on the right). Anybody know the history of this Ace of Spades variant?

Update: I found another deck with this same bigger Ace of Spades and logo that is a 2000 deck. Anyone know anything about them?

Chuqii wrote: ↑Fri Oct 14, 2022 12:48 pm Update: I found another deck with this same bigger Ace of Spades and logo that is a 2000 deck. Anyone know anything about them?

I feel like I saw an older Jay Sankey video where he flashed an Ace of Spades like that. It caught my eye at the time. But I've noticed that several times with his stuff. Because he's in Canada I always assume it's the International Playing Card Company (USPC's Canadian arm) decks and tucks which are slightly different, like this frame I grabbed from a trailer on his site:
Although the picture of your ace says USPC not IPPC, and if the era of the Jay's video matches up to 1999/2000, then this may be entirely irrelevant.

Just to be triple sure, do the jokers in your deck have the normal overlapping "U" and "S" in the index corners? I've seen the IPCC decks replace those with a black star in a circle.

Yep, it's a US market deck. Here are some more comparison pics of two 1999 decks and tucks. Only difference is the Ace of Spades.

The variant style of “Bicycle” text is uncommon, and aside from the 2000 deck which I found on Pinterest posted by Art of Play I did spot it being used on the Chinese Opera deck, which is from 2015

Is it possible they used the different AoS to differentiate the deck as being part of a run to a major discount retailer, like a Costco or Sam's Club-style outlet? I'm fairly certain I've seen both of these AoS multiple times, so if I'm remembering correctly, it wouldn't have been confined to just the two years. Hmmm....

On the Guarantee card, the instructions are to send in the AoS if there's a defect found, yes? So, the distinction of the AoS could be used to denote something about the print run that the date code wouldn't be able to delineate.

Just a thought.

Edit: same might also be true of the different typefaces used for the company name, etc.

(Cross-posted on the "Kem" thread.)

Wow, 90s Bicycle

rousselle wrote: ↑Fri Oct 21, 2022 12:09 am Is it possible they used the different AoS to differentiate the deck as being part of a run to a major discount retailer, like a Costco or Sam's Club-style outlet? I'm fairly certain I've seen both of these AoS multiple times, so if I'm remembering correctly, it wouldn't have been confined to just the two years. Hmmm....

Looks like rousselle had the right idea. I found these special value decks on eBay and they have an image of this Ace of Spades on the box, Maybe that is where they come from.

Got my Special Value Pack in the mail and decided to open one of the decks. The copyright date on the flap of the tuck is 2002 (which means I may need to update my bar code date ranges since this deck has a right side bar code. Also, this flap has no notches). Cards are "E" of 2003. No special Ace. I'll just have to keep hunting to find it in its native habitat.

Clay, thanks for trying to satisfy all of our curiosity about where this ace comes from!

I would not have expected the value pack to have been from as far back as 2002/2003. Was it common to have a copyright date on the tuck around that time? Seems like a convenient way of tracking down the dates without having to refer to the year codes. That said, your example shows some that don't match exactly, maybe were printed at different times, etc.

I think that tuck boxes and decks of cards are often printed at different times. I imagine they just fill whatever tucks they have laying around with whatever deck has just come off the presses. Also, I think this Special Value Pack may be a dumping ground for whatever decks they have laying around in excess. But I’ll try to track down a few more and see what we turn up.