Liberty Playing Cards by Gambler's Warehouse and J Robinson (KS)

[Don Boyer]

Launching tonight on Kickstarter at 6PM CDT (23:00 UTC).  We saw the gold premium deck at the 2015 52+J Convention in October - this will also come in two standard colors, red and blue.  Back art/design and gold deck faces by Jackson Robinson.  The gold deck, as you know, is from Expert PCC, while the red and blue decks will be made by Liberty Playing Card Company, Gambler's Warehouse in-house card manufacturer, with their standard faces.

Here's the preview link - you might have to look for the release link when it hits, this will probably no longer work.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/308247697/1725793793?token=fde2ea46

[HankMan]

Is this the first deck Liberty Playing Card Company produce?
I wonder how this deck will compare to the big players

[Don Boyer]

Is this the first deck Liberty Playing Card Company produce?
I wonder how this deck will compare to the big players

Liberty's been around for a LONG time, having been founded in Chicago in 1970.  In the 1980s, they bought the playing card assets of Western Publishing (meaning all the IP of the Western Playing Card Co., another long-time manufacturer).  In 2003, they were one of the manufacturers tapped by the US Government to make the Iraq's Most Wanted decks - I know USPC made some, possibly one or two other companies as well.  They were bought in 2010 by Arlington Printing and Playing Card Co. (a division of Gambler's Warehouse - or is it the other way around?) and moved to Arlington, TX, a suburb located right between Dallas and Fort Worth, like a bridge between the two cities.  It's only in the past few years that they've really started to embrace custom playing card decks, but most of the full-custom work they've done up to now has been with either Expert PCC or USPC - very little on their own presses.  They do more business-oriented decks, like promotional giveaways, special event decks, tourism decks, etc., but they do have ambitions to break into the custom market in a bigger way - I think that for them, using Expert and USPC is a way of getting their foot in the door while they're improving their own printing process.

[HankMan]

Liberty's been around for a LONG time, having been founded in Chicago in 1970.  In the 1980s, they bought the playing card assets of Western Publishing (meaning all the IP of the Western Playing Card Co., another long-time manufacturer).  In 2003, they were one of the manufacturers tapped by the US Government to make the Iraq's Most Wanted decks - I know USPC made some, possibly one or two other companies as well.  They were bought in 2010 by Arlington Printing and Playing Card Co. (a division of Gambler's Warehouse - or is it the other way around?) and moved to Arlington, TX, a suburb located right between Dallas and Fort Worth, like a bridge between the two cities.  It's only in the past few years that they've really started to embrace custom playing card decks, but most of the full-custom work they've done up to now has been with either Expert PCC or USPC - very little on their own presses.  They do more business-oriented decks, like promotional giveaways, special event decks, tourism decks, etc., but they do have ambitions to break into the custom market in a bigger way - I think that for them, using Expert and USPC is a way of getting their foot in the door while they're improving their own printing process.

Interesting, so this will be the first time Liberty PCC will be releasing custom deck.. I do wonder how this will turn out considering that the prices are quite low compared to the other big PCC

[Don Boyer]

Liberty's been around for a LONG time, having been founded in Chicago in 1970.  In the 1980s, they bought the playing card assets of Western Publishing (meaning all the IP of the Western Playing Card Co., another long-time manufacturer).  In 2003, they were one of the manufacturers tapped by the US Government to make the Iraq's Most Wanted decks - I know USPC made some, possibly one or two other companies as well.  They were bought in 2010 by Arlington Printing and Playing Card Co. (a division of Gambler's Warehouse - or is it the other way around?) and moved to Arlington, TX, a suburb located right between Dallas and Fort Worth, like a bridge between the two cities.  It's only in the past few years that they've really started to embrace custom playing card decks, but most of the full-custom work they've done up to now has been with either Expert PCC or USPC - very little on their own presses.  They do more business-oriented decks, like promotional giveaways, special event decks, tourism decks, etc., but they do have ambitions to break into the custom market in a bigger way - I think that for them, using Expert and USPC is a way of getting their foot in the door while they're improving their own printing process.

Interesting, so this will be the first time Liberty PCC will be releasing custom deck.. I do wonder how this will turn out considering that the prices are quite low compared to the other big PCC

Actually, it's not the first.  The Strange Head Society deck was a Liberty-produced and -printed deck.  It was originally supposed to be USPC, but GW didn't meet the KS fundraising goal and opted to print it themselves on their own presses.

[Eddie Hughlett]

I was gifted a fairly recent (2015) Liberty printed deck last week and must say although they don't quite reach USPCC quality they do not suck. The cards I received are sold at dead.net and are the 50 year anniversary GratefulDead deck (http://www.dead.net/store/art-home/recreation-games/50th-collectible-playing-cards). A deadhead must have!
The cards are overall slightly larger than a standard Bicycle deck by a couple mm. The tuck has the bottom lid that invades the box interior. This makes putting the deck away frustrating at times and especially so if you regularly use a card guard ( I find reasonably good luck in opening the bottom of the tuck and while leaving the end of the bottom flap outside the box putting the box/deck in the guard) To compensate for the extra flap inside the box the box itself is larger. When the deck is in the box it's sloppy or loose. With the deck plus jokers I can still fit 5 extra cards in the box.
The cards neither faro nor fan nicely straight out of the box. They do handle 'awe right' after shuffling a couple hours and faros/fans are doable. The stock is healthy; akin to casino stock, and the finish is average.
I am a fan of the Liberty Gold deck. Since it was unveiled at the 52+Joker Convention I was able to get a couple decks. It is one of my all time favorites. I have handled a standard Liberty red/blue deck and they simply do not compare to the EPCC printed gold deck. I think the deck I tried to shuffle was a prototype, which I'm sure it was, and my hope is the final release falls more in line with the Grateful Dead deck mentioned above.
I betray no confidences when I mention there is an almost unnoticeable error in the gold deck (which shows up front and center on the photo above) and I have shown this error to GW and they are aware. It does not affect play and offers no noticeable advantage that I can see.
I for one welcome another US-based printer to the mix and wish Gamblers Warehouse all the best with this release.

[Don Boyer]

Having another American manufacturer, especially one that's capable of something better than tourism decks, is never a bad thing.  I've run into a few cases of designers considering country of manufacture as a key deciding factor when choosing their printer - and for those who value "Made in USA" on their tuck boxes, most of the time USPC was their only option.  It's good to see there's finally at least a little domestic competition.