It would be nice to see a groundswell to have the collection put online.  Perhaps a kickstarter with a limited edition deck as a reward? Yes, I'm being puckish.  In the meantime you can see some of the collection here:
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008195458;view=1up;seq=11

I understand the actual cards in the collection are over-shadowed by the books in the library that goes with the collection.

Good one.  This author indicates the collection was returned to USPCC in 1983.

Does anyone know what happened to the collection that made up the USPCC museum?

Quote from: variantventures on October 04, 2014, 10:44:30 AM

I see what you mean.  It may be possible that economics play a role in this.  While the technology has made it possible for people to do small print runs, the economics of large print runs are pretty much unchanged.  Selling a small batch of cards can be a lot easier than raising the funding for a large run of cards and then trying to find distributors.  And when you're working at those mass-production levels the profit per deck is measured in cents not dollars.

That said, people do seem to be going out of their way to create artificial scarcity.  Maybe it's because they're afraid of being stuck with unsold cards at the higher volumes or perhaps they're only interested in doing 'art' rather than 'business'.  You mentioned the woman making handmade decks.  I know of three people who make hand-made batches of playing cards.  They're much in demand amongst a very small group of collectors who can afford the prices they charge (which are very low when you consider the work that goes into those decks).  Those people are interested in making and owning pieces of art, not playing cards.

Of course economics play a role.  And yes, there's extra decks to be sold in most cases after the Kickstarter is over, unless the run was very short and funding just stopped - I've seen that happen a few times, though in most cases the creator simply releases an "unlimited" version of the deck, typically in a different color.

I'm not saying a deck of cards has to be sold in the quantities of a Bicycle Rider Back and at the same price points.  There is a middle ground, a sweet spot, where there's plenty of cards to go around at a decent price.  If there wasn't, the Bicycle Masters decks wouldn't exist, nor would the three basic colors of the Crown deck, the assorted non-rare colors of the NOC, Artifice, the Monarchs, etc. - without shipping or tax, these decks all sell for well under ten dollars a pack, and in most cases at discount for larger orders, often as little as buying three decks at once.

It's not cheap to order a deck in huge quantities, but it is manageable to order a print run of what would now be considered a "huge" amount - 5,000-deck runs used to be the norm because USPC was the only quality printer around and that was their minimum.  They weren't twice as expensive all the way around because of the lower per-deck costs.  Imagine finding a price point low enough that people are happy to buy these cards in bulk, or at least in greater amounts than they'd normally be able to afford if the deck was at least twice as rare and more than double the cost.  A company making a go of it could order 10,000, 15,000 or even 20,000 decks at a time if they sold well enough.

If Ellusionist and many others can do it, why can't more people?  They don't employ a zillion people - most of the companies we'd call "the majors" employ perhaps a dozen or less people, at least for their retail operations.  In other words, they're all manageable small businesses - one of the greatest sources of new employment in this country over the past decade.

What's the sweet spot?  Would the Masters decks exist if the Rider decks didn't exist?  Is it possible for a big company to do things a smaller company can't?  Sorry, I don't mean to be argumentative but I don't have answers to these questions.

I think you're correct that there is a niche for some smaller companies out there, but I also think most of the designers are doing this part time.  I did some back of the napkin calculations for my micro-business and determined that I could do it full-time with myself and two full time employees (preferably three) but in any event I would have to be a full time administrator (and part time sales guy) to do it.  Which meant I would have even less time to do design work than I have right now.  In effect, making my hobby my business would kill my hobby.  And I'd be taking a big pay cut even if I was wildly successful.

Maybe the niche is for a company that has the marketing skills and connections to take a design from the hobby stage to the middle ground.  I know I'd take a smaller profit per deck if a company took a lot of the marketing and fulfillment work out of my hands AND could sell to a larger audience.  My designs, of course, are a bad example here, but assume we're talking about someone with a contemporary design.  I haven't looked at any numbers to see if anyone can make a profit doing this, though.

Sorry.  Wish I had some answers when all I've got are more questions.

There's a certain cachet associated with American cards.  In the Middle East, for example, playing cards is nearly an act of rebellion and doing it with American cards just makes it more rebellious.  There's also a belief that American cards are better (because they're rarer?) so having American cards is a status symbol.  I also think cardistry is making new inroads for American cards as European cards aren't exactly designed with this in mind.

Quote from: variantventures on October 03, 2014, 06:36:36 PM

Nothing's wrong.  We've just had a couple of technological innovations come around that have made it possible for people to produce decks that weren't even marginally possible just a few years ago.  Advances in printing, in crowd-funding, in digital design software, in global communication... Now anyone with an idea can make a deck.  Odds are most of them won't be any good.  But a few will be and as people work with printers they are pushing the boundaries of what can be done with playing cards.  Think of it as evolution in action and sit back and enjoy the ride and try to pick the gems from the dross as they pass by.

I think you've missed the idea I was trying to get across.

Yes, it's possible - more easily now than at any time before - for nearly anyone to make a deck.  And yes, there will be crap decks and good decks, and it's largely subjective as to which fall into which category.

I'm specifically talking about how the costs of decks are rising and the size of print runs are falling, making the hobby more and more rarefied with each new release.  If taken to the logical extreme, there will be a release of a one-deck print run made of solid gold paper with laser-etched embossed cards, debossed boxes with limited edition "1 of 1" stickers, hermetically sealed cellophane impervious to the elements and depths up to 100 meters, etc. - and the few hundred of us still bothering to collect will be fighting tooth and nail over it, while the thousands who used to collect but gave up will shrug our shoulders.  Artificial rarity and higher costs versus a deck "for the masses" that people can afford as well as admire and will use and enjoy, confident in the knowledge that there's more where that came from.

I see what you mean.  It may be possible that economics play a role in this.  While the technology has made it possible for people to do small print runs, the economics of large print runs are pretty much unchanged.  Selling a small batch of cards can be a lot easier than raising the funding for a large run of cards and then trying to find distributors.  And when you're working at those mass-production levels the profit per deck is measured in cents not dollars.

That said, people do seem to be going out of their way to create artificial scarcity.  Maybe it's because they're afraid of being stuck with unsold cards at the higher volumes or perhaps they're only interested in doing 'art' rather than 'business'.  You mentioned the woman making handmade decks.  I know of three people who make hand-made batches of playing cards.  They're much in demand amongst a very small group of collectors who can afford the prices they charge (which are very low when you consider the work that goes into those decks).  Those people are interested in making and owning pieces of art, not playing cards.

Nothing's wrong.  We've just had a couple of technological innovations come around that have made it possible for people to produce decks that weren't even marginally possible just a few years ago.  Advances in printing, in crowd-funding, in digital design software, in global communication... Now anyone with an idea can make a deck.  Odds are most of them won't be any good.  But a few will be and as people work with printers they are pushing the boundaries of what can be done with playing cards.  Think of it as evolution in action and sit back and enjoy the ride and try to pick the gems from the dross as they pass by.

Just updating this.  After a bunch of research I narrowed this down to the two services which came up first in my casual searches: e-Souq and Jumia.  Both of them are pretty much slightly less capable versions of Amazon.  Two consistent issues have come up with these services:

The first issue is pricing.  Both services forbid you from selling your products for lower prices elsewhere.  This means you, technically, must sell your cards at the inflated prices these services require.  Why do I say they require inflated prices?  Because both services tack a fee on top of your purchases.  This is not unreasonable but they do so in non-US currency.  So as the exchange prices fluctuate so do the prices of your finished items.  This is not a deal-breaker for me as I've seen any number of vendors who are breaking or sidestepping this rule.

Cash on Delivery.  This is the deal breaker.  Because the vendors who sell through these services are not trusted (with good reason) the customers in the Middle East and North Africa demand Cash on Delivery terms.  There's more to the issue, of course, credit cards have not widely penetrated the region and online fraud is an enormous problem and etc...  But what that boils down to is I, as a vendor, have to ship the cards to the customer.  The customer can simply say the product never arrived and walk away with them.  They can't do a lot of this, but they can do it.  And there's always the possibility that the product doesn't arrive because it is lost or stolen enroute.  Not a huge problem, but still a problem.  If the customer doesn't like the product they can return it.  It gets returned to the service, not to the vendor, and the service is generally just going to throw the product away.  But leaving all that aside and assuming a perfect sale, the service still doesn't release the purchase funds to the vendor for four, or more, days.  But they take their cut of the sale as soon as it happens.  If anything goes wrong it's up to the vendor to file the paperwork requesting a refund.  Paperwork that takes days or (according to horror-story reviews) weeks to be reviewed and approved.

The long and the short of it appears to be that it's just not worth my while to sell in those markets.  I notice, however, that other vendors of playing cards appear to be making the attempt.  I don't know if it's USPCC doing the work, but I'm seeing a lot of Bicycle cards for sale abroad.  A more significant competitor appears to be the Chinese who are heavily pushing their metallic cards.

Kind of a long shot, but does anyone know of any playing card distributors in the Middle East?  Specifically Lebanon, Egypt, Bahrain, Morocco, Qatar.

I have some playing cards I think would be very well received there and would like to talk to a distributor.

Thanks.

I'll post pictures when I get the actual deck back from the printer.  I'm trying out MakePlayingCards for this set.

Oops.  I'm not pitching anything.  I was just discussing the flexibility that print on demand offers to designers rather than going with traditional batch printing.

In my case it allows for a lot of creative back and forth with customers.  The people I sell to can order a custom built deck from the available components and they end up with a product they're happier with rather than a 'one-size-fits-most' deck.  It also gives me, as a designer, some flexibility because I don't have to choose between doing a court with King-Queen-Jack or King-Knight-Knave, I can do all four courts and let customers choose which they prefer.

The downsides are, most obviously, the increased per-unit cost and the lower general quality of print-on-demand cards; no metallic inks, lighter card weight, lower quality finish, and etc...

I finished these.  Poker-size, King, Queen, Jack/Knave and 10-1 in the suits of cups, hawks, swords, and roses.  I think they look nice.  I'm going to print up a couple through makeplayingcards.com.