Links

Links

BICYCLE PLAYING CARDS FOR COLLECTORS

52 PLUS JOKER
A membership organization originally formed to cater to the interests of collectors of American antique playing card decks, 52 Plus Joker has long since broadened the scope of the club to include the collecting of playing cards and related items of all sorts, and from around the world! The club sponsors an annual convention and an excellent member’s only auction. For more information, please visit www.52PlusJoker.org.
US PLAYING CARD CO.
Home of the United States Playing Card Company, makers of the celebrated Bicycle brand playing cards and other fine playing cards. For more information on their Bicycle brand playing cards, please visit www.bicyclecards.com.
WORLD OF PLAYING CARDS
Simon Wintle’s website is the clear leader in both general and specific content on worldwide vintage playing cards. The content is arranged in a logical fashion, and most decks are illustrated with several high quality color images. Worth a visit, and definitely leave some time to poke around this fascinating, well curated website.
Please visit www.wopc.co.uk
PORTFOLIO52
Discover unique new & vintage decks from the world’s largest playing card database. Explore the world of playing cards with a whole new set of tools. Browse the Portfolio52 database and discover inspiration around the corner or go on the hunt for your favorite deck utilizing the site’s search and filtering systems. Search by the exact specifications you want to be sure you find only the decks you’re looking for. Brought to you by Seasons Playing cards.
Please visit Portfolio52.com
THE DISCOURSE – A Forum for Playing Cards
Discussions on antique and vintage decks, playing card design, magic, deck reviews and all other matters pertaining to playing cards. Whether you are a serious collector, a designer, a magician, or collector of new designs you will find this a great site to learn more about your interests and an excellent place to meet others who share your enthusiasm.
Please visit www.PlayingCardForum.com/discourse/index.php.
LEE ASHER’S WEBSITE
“Learn Sleight of Hand”
Lee Asher develops original sleight of hand magic based on his lifetime experience as a magician. He looks at the art of magic from a real-world perspective and approaches it with skills very few possess. His site provides free tips, quality information about card magic, plus paid tutorials on his authentic material designed for rising magicians and hobbyists alike.
During the past decade, Lee has taught his style of magic to other magicians worldwide. Lee Asher’s raw visual style of magic is easily recognized and universally acknowledged as among the best.
please visit LeeAsher.com
GIANLUCA GIMINI’S VELOCIPEDIA
“Back in 2009 I began pestering friends and random strangers. I would walk up to them with a pen and a sheet of paper asking that they immediately draw me a men’s bicycle, by heart. Soon I found out that when confronted with this odd request most people have a very hard time remembering exactly how a bike is made. Some did get close, some actually nailed it perfectly, but most ended up drawing something that was pretty far off from a regular men’s bicycle… A single designer could not invent so many new bike designs in 100 lifetimes.”
Gianluca has collected hundreds of these drawings and rendered some of them as almost photographic digital images, as if the weird bikes were real. The results are familiar yet odd, and sometimes very funny.
please visit www.Behance.net – Velocipedia
ELLUSIONIST.COM

Home to the great Lloyd Barnes and the incomparable Daniel Madison. A vast array of incredible routines and some fantastic playing cards for the performer and collector, in equal measure. Videos feature many mind-blowing live street and bar performances.

“At Ellusionist, we have one goal: to give you the power to perform magic beyond belief. We want to make you the life of any party. We want to make you into a performer. To achieve that goal, we built this site with YOU in mind.
“Welcome to magic. Perform like never before.”
Please visit www.Ellusionist.com

PLAYINGCARDS.NET
Hundreds of stock and custom playing cards to choose from, including Bicycle, Ellusionist, Theory11, and many other specialty decks. PlayingCards.net is a division of Gambler’s Warehouse, where you can find all types of gambling items, including custom poker chips, gaming wheels, and table layouts.
please visit www.PlayingCards.net
THEORY 11
Magic and many newly designed beautiful decks of playing cards, several based on classic USPC Bicycle designs.
“Our team is unparalleled.
Don’t learn magic from fly by night websites and “supposed” professionals – learn magic from the best in the business, and learn things correctly the first time. We produce all of our products in house, which means that we value quality over quantity.
We work with over 30 artists – the best in the industry.
Our artists are the foremost experts in the conjuring arts. Our team runs the spectrum from new upcoming talent to magic’s greatest historians. We strive to take magic to the next level, pushing forward in its natural progression and evolution as an art form.
We produce all of our products and videos entirely in house.
We live for innovation. We encourage imagination. We challenge the ordinary. We believe in pushing the envelope. We love the adventure. We respect all of those that respect the art.
It’s our goal to deliver only the most effective, hard hitting magic. We are on the bleeding edge of magic, and we like how it feels. Start learning today and support our mission, objectives, and team.”
Please visit www.theory11.com
RAREPLAYINGCARDS.COM
“Based in the United States, RarePlayingCards.com was formed to help magicians, collectors, cardists, and poker players find and purchase some of the most sought after playing card decks from one trusted place. All of our decks are stored in a climate-controlled, secure environment to ensure that they remain in mint condition. We were inspired to bring some of the highest quality, most popular designer decks printed by well-known – and even obscure brands – to you.”
The site offers many decks for sale with better photographs of the cards than most sites offer. I especially like “Card View” for a quick look at the back design and key cards. Categories include “Rare-Limited cards” and “Extremely rare cards.”
Please visit RarePlayingCards.com
UNITED CARDISTS
“The forum for All Things Cardistry, magic and custom decks.” Main topic categories on the site are Cardistry & Magic and Playing Cards. The latter forum has several sub-categories, including Knowledge Base, New & Custom Decks and Deck Reviews. This is a terrific forum for serious designers of custom cards and fans of the discipline. If you have a Kickstarter playing card project that has any graphic value or sophistication, it will be commented on here. And it’s not just nitpicking–many good suggestions and helpful comments are posted.
Please visit UnitedCardists.com
THE MUSEUM OF GAMING HISTORY’s ChipGuide with Playing Cards 
The Museum of Gaming History (MoGH) maintains a database of over 250,000 images of casino-related gaming equipment and ephemera, including thousands of playing cards used at casinos world-wide. Be sure to use the “ChipGuide Query Facility” to search the database for any and all documented playing cards. If you have images of playing cards not on ChipGuide or additional data about any listed deck, please visit the “Submissions” link to offer your inputs. The MoGH and it’s ChipGuide are an Educational Project of the Casino Collectibles Association, a 501(c)(3), not-for-profit organization.
Visit us at: http://chipguide.themogh.org/cg_home2.php
BICYCLECARDS.NET
Currently under construction. Brought to you by the folks at BicycleCards.org (that would be me).
Please visit www.BicycleCards.net
ARTICLES ABOUT PLAYING CARDS by EndersGame
EndersGame has a passion for playing cards, card games, card magic, card flourishing, and card collecting. He has written hundreds of reviews on boardgames and on playing cards, and regularly writes articles about playing cards for the blog at PlayingCardDecks.com. He is well respected for his knowledge about playing cards, and has written extensively about their design, history, and function. He has many contacts within the playing card and board game industries, and in the magic community.
Of his many articles, these two may especially be of interest: FAQ: I’m New to Collecting Playing Cards, So Where Should I Start? How to Create Your Own Deck of Playing Cards: A Guide to Publishing Your Own Custom Deck
Please visit playingcarddecks.com/pages/playing-card-articles
MAGIC TRICK STORE
Thousands of items magically shipped around the world!
Please visit www.magictrickstore.com
PLAYING CARD WIKI
“This wiki will aspire to contain information on all different kinds of playing cards. It is currently in development, and new pages will be added frequently.” The Playing Card Wiki has a growing list of the constantly evolving new Bicycle editions, which relieves me of the desire to post that information on this site. There is also a good history of the U.S. Playing Card Co. by Dazzleguts from the United Cardists forum.
please visit playingcards.wikidot.com/
Pryor Dodge’s Bicycle Collection
This collection offers a glimpse of the 19th Century from the handlebars of a bicycle. More than 2,000 original artifacts from Europe and the U.S. portray the technical, social and esthetic aspects of this medium during its first 100 years, dating from 1819. Pryor’s website also offers many interesting bicycle-related links.
Please visit www.pryordodge.com/Bicycles.html
Playing Cards + Art = Collecting
“Notes about Playing Cards and Art for Collectors and All Interested. I am a playing card collector. This blog came into being February 3, 2013. It is dedicated to notes (sometimes articles) about playing cards and art for collectors and all interested (artists, producers, curious persons, etc.). Its name “Playing Cards + Art = Collecting” reflects its specificity. I write about playing card art (design), art inspired by playing cards and of course about playing cards. Also I share interesting information with my readers about art requests regarding different playing card projects and about unique/rare decks of playing cards.”
Please visit playingcardcollector.net/
MAGIC MAGAZINE
“The purpose of www.MAGICmagazine.com is to offer a sampling of what is appearing in the current issue of our monthly magazine. There is also our WebSource page, which is just that — a resource for web contacts that are appearing in the issue. Also, we will occasionally “reprint” material that relates to a current issue. I hope that all of this will pique your interest enough to join our ever-growing family of subscribers. MAGIC is celebrating its 18th year of publication, and we’re very proud of being recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest-selling magic periodical in the world.”
Please visit www.magicmagazine.com/

COLLECTORS WEEKLY – Playing Cards

The above link sends you directly to their Playing Card page.
CollectorsWeekly.com is a resource for people who love vintage items and antiques. Their aim is to build a great place to explore, learn, and experience the passion and knowledge of collectors everywhere.

What’s there:

Please visit www.collectorsweekly.com/