Did you manage to get your copy by attending Cardtopia '23?  It was an excellent convention, although perhaps a little short.


I'm eagerly awaiting the announcement of the dates and location for Cardtopia '24!  I heard that New York City is under consideration for its second such convention, but there are also people wanting to hold it in Erlanger, KY, perhaps in hopes of being able to include a factory tour.  Either way, I'm eager to go.


I managed to get a VIP ticket last year, upgraded to include a two-night hotel stay - while the rooms were small, they were well-appointed and (considering the neighborhood) a bargain for the price.  It was a pleasure not having to return home between the VIP cocktail party and the day's events, as well as the "after party" I attended.


I can't recommend it strongly enough - if you have a chance to go to Cardtopia and you enjoy all things cards, GO!  Get the best ticket you can afford - the VIP tickets weren't cheap, but so much was included, that in the end it was really a savings compared to what you'd pay on your own out of pocket.  Prepare to spend a lot - USPC and Cartamundi had some excellent and rare finds available in their merchandise shop.  I now practically have a full wardrobe of USPC/Cartamundi t-shirts!  And there were decks there that are nearly impossible to find elsewhere, some of which at very reasonable prices.


I know - I'm a little off-topic!  I will say they had copies of Flourish special edition for free, and there's a page inside for collecting autographs of your favorite presenters.  Many of the lecturers and performers were mingling with the attendees before and after their events - it was a golden opportunity, to be sure.

Hi,

I have listed every single deck David Blaine has made/released
There are 4 tabs:

1st tab: All Decks Including Signed and Different Seal
2nd tab: All Decks Without Signed and Different Seal
3rd tab: All Posters
4th tab: Other Memorabilia

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1P-vubve0nuC3v04tCWofItEcflCylYkOfulpTHtwwvo/edit?usp=sharing

I'm pretty sure this is everything.
Let me know if I've missed anything or needs changing.

Thanks

For the Split Spades Lions Sepia Edition, if I remember correctly, it was just a sepia card back printed on the box, while the cards inside were blue backed.  Sure, it's less common than a pack of blue-backed cards in the blue-backed box, but I don't know if I'd go as far as calling it the "Sepia Edition."  As I understand it, they considered making cards with that color, got as far as printing boxes for them, but decided before printing the cards themselves not to make the sepia backed version.  Rather than waste the boxes, they used them for blue decks.

That a c1918 USPCC salesman?s sample book I picked up a while ago. The seller was overseas, Greece, I think.

It's not simply "circa" 1918 - it's on the money 1918!  That was the only year (and not even a full year at that) in which the Victory series decks were available for sale - they were pulled off the market shortly after "the Great War" had been won.  I think they were available from April to November.  Any sales books before that wouldn't have had the samples, and any books after that would have had those decks pulled as they were no longer available - even if only by pulling the cards off the pages.

I am picturing below, five photos of a recently discovered "magic" deck called The Wizard's Pack of Playing Cards, issued by Adams and Company, 25 Bromfield Street, Boston, MA., that is not in the Hochman Encyclopedia. Both the front of the OB and the inside front cover of the accompanying 8-page booklet of directions state "Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by Adams & Co., in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington." The first photo is of the front of the original box and the second photo shows the rather plain Ace of Spades. The third photo shows the KH which clearly indicates that this deck was manufactured by Dougherty. The cards are square cornered with no indices and the fourth photo shows the pattern back design. The cards measure 2 15/32" x 3 9/16" but, as is indicated in the instruction booklet, the deck has been taper cut (very subtly) so that one end is approximately 1/32" shorter than the opposite end, thus, enabling the user to perform a variety of tricks with these cards. The fifth photo shows the opening two pages from the booklet of directions. I found it interesting to note that later in that decade, The Waterproof Playing Card Co., would have their place of business several doors down at 50 Bromfield Street but Adams & Co. had already relocated to No. 4 Pearl Street in Boston by 1874. Although the name Adams was quite well known in Boston, I also had to wonder if there was any connection between the Adams who issued this deck and the famous S.S. Adams in N.J. who issued the many different marked decks some 50 years later.

Hey, Toby,


If I was a betting man, I'd wager that these cards were manufactured not so much for magic as they were for gambling, specifically cheating at gambling.  I could easily imagine a few ways that a faro dealer could take advantage of a deck like this and not have to resort to faro shuffling - perhaps it's possible that some card players were getting wise to the faro shuffling trick used by the house in order to keep the deck stacked with a certain number of tie draws, allowing them to keep all the bets made.  It's just that they look so much like a faro deck, I suspect strongly that many if not most of these decks, back when they were made, ended up on gaming tables and not in a magician's routines.

I am picturing below, five photos of a recently discovered "magic" deck called The Wizard's Pack of Playing Cards, issued by Adams and Company, 25 Bromfield Street, Boston, MA., that is not in the Hochman Encyclopedia. Both the front of the OB and the inside front cover of the accompanying 8-page booklet of directions state "Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by Adams & Co., in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington." The first photo is of the front of the original box and the second photo shows the rather plain Ace of Spades. The third photo shows the KH which clearly indicates that this deck was manufactured by Dougherty. The cards are square cornered with no indices and the fourth photo shows the pattern back design. The cards measure 2 15/32" x 3 9/16" but, as is indicated in the instruction booklet, the deck has been taper cut (very subtly) so that one end is approximately 1/32" shorter than the opposite end, thus, enabling the user to perform a variety of tricks with these cards. The fifth photo shows the opening two pages from the booklet of directions. I found it interesting to note that later in that decade, The Waterproof Playing Card Co., would have their place of business several doors down at 50 Bromfield Street but Adams & Co. had already relocated to No. 4 Pearl Street in Boston by 1874. Although the name Adams was quite well known in Boston, I also had to wonder if there was any connection between the Adams who issued this deck and the famous S.S. Adams in N.J. who issued the many different marked decks some 50 years later.