Thomas De La Rue Mickey Mouse Deck Of Playing Cards With Interesting Box Feature

[hones93]

So I did a bit of research to find out that a deck of La Rue & Co Ltd Mickey Mouse playing cards from the 1940s has been sitting on my window ledge for almost 2 decades. They have never been played and are in amazing condition although the 3 of Clubs, 7 of Clubs and the 9 of Hearts have small tears on the top middle section, and the 6 of Hearts has a scratch down the middle. So I'm guessing these are worth quite a bit.

However, I noticed something really awesome about the box. At first glance it looks just like a regualr box, with images of Mickey Mouse with the slogan "You cannot lose if you always use Mickey Mouse playing cards". On the front it also says "Made in England by Thomas De La Rue & Co Ltd with the consent of Walter E. Disney". The dox is quite damaged on the sides.

The back of the box is very interesting. I thought the back of the box was falling apart but it wasn't. What appeart to be the back of the box was actually a playing card that was stuck/ glued to the back. Looking at the underneath of the card I could see part of the card underneath which was the Ace of Spades. The back of the card is identical to the rest of the deck but the other side wasn't similar to the others at all. I had already gone through the cards and found that there was a full deck including the Ace of Spades.

I did some research and found that the Ace of Spades stuck to the box was identical to that of cigarette cards that were designed by De La Rue that circulated in 1933-1934 as a part of the Wills Scheme. This is the site where I found the card: http://www.wopc.co.uk/uk/mardon/wills-scheme-page-2

If you scroll to the bottom, it is the second card on the left. The design in the middle, the shape of the "A" and Spade symbol that can slightly be seen attached to my box are identical to the one in the picture.

So my questions are:

Why was this card glued to the box? How rare is this card/box (as the back has the same design from the 1940s deck but the front has the same design from the 1933-1934 design) and how much would it be worth if sold? How much is the complete deck of cards as well?

Any more info you can provide on this deck of cards and box will be extremely appreciated =)

[Don Boyer]

I'm afraid my knowledge of De La Rue decks is a bit too thin to give you an accurate estimate.  The only things I could offer would be these:

* The damaged cards will decrease the overall value of the deck.

* It's not entirely rare for a card to be glued to the back of a box as a means to show what card back was packaged inside.  I don't think that the difference in the face of the card stuck to the box will affect the value much - after all, it's the side that's supposed to be glued down and hidden from view in the first place.  There's a number of reasons why that might be the case, the most likely of which being that the cards used for the boxes had pre-printed faces.  It's similar to what the US Playing Card Company started doing a few decades back with their Congress brand - because they were offered in a variety of backs which changed frequently, they would pre-print the faces of the cards and store them, so when the designs of the season were decided upon, they could complete printing them more quickly.  In this case De La Rue may have pre-printed the faces of these Wills scheme decks (they were likely used for many different designs, not just the Wills decks, based on their rather generic-looking Ace of Spades), so when card backs were needed for the Disney boxes, they could be used for that purpose - the backs were blank and ready to be printed, while no one would ever see the faces as they'd be glued to the boxes.

* The fact that the box is intact is a good thing - boxes often tend to wear out before the decks do, and a good-condition box can enhance a deck's value.

* Another enhancement to the value is that it's a Disney collectible, meaning it's of interest to both playing card collectors and Disney collectors.

* As a British product, if you offered it to collectors outside of the UK, you might find more interest as it would be that much more scarce out of the country, though there's also the chance that nostalgia value might make it more popular to someone in-country who owned or coveted a deck of these as a child.

Again, any attempt to guess at the value by me would be useless because of my limited knowledge.  But more importantly, what value are they to you, personally?  It's possible that might outweigh any financial considerations...

As far as what other people think - there's a deck that appears to be identical to yours though in slightly better condition currently selling on eBay.co.uk for a "Buy It Now" price of £84.95.  http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VINTAGE-1940s-DE-LA-RUE-ENN-Named-MICKEY-MOUSE-PLAYING-CARDS-MI-3-1-A-/351865063091?hash=item51eccac6b3:g:WIEAAOSw-CpYBAaW

I usually prefer checking completed sales/auctions to get a more accurate value, as not everyone gets the price they're asking, but this item is uncommon enough that I wasn't able to find any sales completed recently enough to still appear in an eBay search.  The deck on eBay sounds a little expensive to me - but as I stated, my knowledge is too limited to be accurate and I could be completely off-base.

You might also consider selling the cards in the "single swap" market, in which case you might get a few pounds each for the cards that are still in good shape, but it's considerably more difficult to sell off an entire deck one card at a time.