Thanks for the info.
I was looking at one for sale and was trying to determine if it might be a reprint. I couldn't find an example of a reprint in my online searches so I ended up buying it.
Probably overpaid but sometimes you have to pull the trigger and take what's available as the choices are often few at any given time.
I've seen a few decks that make elaborate Ace of Spades reproductions, but they're never quite identical to the originals, always with some detail or other that's been changed or tweaked. For example, for the vast majority of repros that were produced by USPC themselves, even if they do manage to leave the original manufacturer names intact, they will often use the updated AoS date codes indicating the more modern manufacture date. For some of the Aristocrat reprints, in addition to having modern date codes, some have an "A" instead of an "R" in the large spade on the Ace of Spades, for "Aristocrat", while the "R" was for the original maker, the Russell Card Co. (no relation to Russell and Morgan). The blue and red repros that were printed roughly a decade ago have "A"s on them, while the newer green reprints have "R".
The new codes make it very easy to identify when it was made, and have been in use since around the time of the Erlanger move - if I remember correctly, there are four digits and a dash preceding the letter in the code; the first two digits are the last two digits of the year and the last two digits are the week when the deck sheet was printed. Thus far, I don't think there's been a single deck made with "xx51-" or "xx52-" preceding the letter - the company takes a break, completely shutting down for the week of Christmas and New Year's Day. Odds are slim of finding an "xx26-" as well - they take a similar break mid-year, right around the fourth of July. But I'm digressing here...
Sometimes, a LACK of a date code can be a telltale. While USPC was never completely religious about always using uniform date coding on all of their Aces of Spades, they were mostly consistent about it. When a third party orders a reprint of a deck - such as the example I gave above, the green Aristocrat reprint, commissioned by Big Apple Magic Co, if memory serves - or for that matter, for any third-party printing of a new or old design, USPC generally leaves out the date code altogether. So finding a classic-looking Ace of Spades without one, especially if it doesn't look terribly old, would be a pretty good sign that it's a reprint, not an original.
Simple point is, even for closely reproduced vintage-style Aces - not just Bicycle, but across their brand lines (Bee, Tally Ho, etc.) - there's generally something about them that's made just a little different, some kind of telltale that let's the buyer know this isn't the original but a lovingly-made reproduction, or an homage, if you will. As far as what you paid - hey, a deck or a card is worth whatever someone's willing to pay for it, and that particular deck or card that crosses your path today may not do so again tomorrow or ever again, so sometimes, you just have to take the plunge! So for you, whatever price you paid for it, it was worth it, at least for you.
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