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Comment & Question (Russell Playing Card Co, Blue Ribbon 323)

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Comment & Question (Russell Playing Card Co, Blue Ribbon 323)
« on: December 30, 2016, 06:47:41 PM »
 

anOLDman

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I "happened" upon this site today.   

The comment:   I have a very used deck of Blue Ribbon 323 Playing cards, circa 1916 wherein the Ace of Spades shows a serial number of G 4431.    This is a very special deck as it is a manufactured deck of marked cards.   The cards were given to me many, many years ago by a fellow who told me they came from his grand-dad who was in organized crime in the 19teens & 19twenties.  The fellow shared some interesting history of them as told to him by his grand-dad.  I never mentioned them to anyone (nor used them) because I'd forgotten about them and only recently ran across them in an old packed box.   

The question:   Are these worth anything?   

No one would want to play with them (except maybe children to run across their bike spokes as we did in the 50's) since they are somewhat sticky & don't shuffle well.  It's a full deck minus the Joker.

I'm likely to keep them to show my grandson as to why one should be careful with whom he gambles.   There are some very good card sharks & magicians out there.

Thoughts & comments are most welcome.   Curiosity just got the best of me.
Attached is a scan of Ace thru 8 in the first pic & 7 thru 2 on the second pic showing the second "leaf".   Take a look at the top, left, back side "leaf" as one would see an opposite player's hand.  Look at the capstone on top of the leaves.   One would need really good eyes to read them across a poker table.  But maybe folks have such eyes; I do not.
 

Re: Comment & Question (Russell Playing Card Co, Blue Ribbon 323)
« Reply #1 on: February 26, 2017, 01:05:24 AM »
 

Don Boyer

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Classic example of a hand-made marked deck.  The ink used to match the card's back color was excellent - I can't see a difference in shade.

Some collectors would pay money for them, though how much, I don't know for certain.  Have you tried pricing them using the Hochman's Encyclopedia?  The pricing guide would give you a rough ballpark for what such a deck would trade for these days.  Some card collectors would value them lower for the markings, while others might actually value them higher as gambling ephemera.  If you had the original packaging and the missing joker, that would increase the value, as would having the cards in pristine condition - which clearly they aren't as I'm sure they've seen a lot of use over the years.  Lastly, if the claims about the deck's origins as belonging to a gangster are true, there's a chance that if these claims could be verified and documented, a collector of such memorabilia might pay a higher premium for them than a card collector would.
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