Thank you Sher! I have been looking in to a few different options on whether I wanted to self publish my book or look in to publishers. I think I am going to personally do self publishing and this surely looks like one of the cheaper options for me. I would have to contact them about rights to the book and how I would sell them, but I believe that this is going to be a very reasonable way to do it! Thanks for the suggestion!

Does anyone else have any input on self publishing?

Sparkz and Emmanuel: Thank you very much for your support! I really appreciate it!

PurpleIce: To clarify on my locations chapter, it is a generalization of various areas. While I have never travelled internationally, these aren't exact locations like an address for the location. But instead they are general locations, like online auctions, other private collectors, thrift stores, retail stores, promotional events. The purpose of this chapter is to compare and contrast what you can expect so you can optimize your collecting. You can use the locations that you have researched here and focus to get the best results. I would assume that some of them apply towards international collectors as well, but as I have never been, I cannot confirm that.

I really like how everyone is categorizing their collecting styles. I have evolved from The Hunter to more of an Archivist, but I didn't make these categories to lump people together in categories. We all collect cards and that is what it great! However, the reason I bring these up in my book is because depending on which of them we are currently, the book has suggestions for each of them on where to look for cards, and resources for you. For example, the hunter looks nearly anywhere for playing cards. This book gives examples of where to look in order to get the best results!

I also have a whole chapter for "Locations" Which takes 15 different ways or places to get playing cards and ranks them based on quality/variety/rarity/price/frequency. An easy example, a garage sale may have very cheaply prices cards, but the quality would be dismal, versus an antique store where the opposite is normally true.

PurpleIce: I will be sure to give you any discounts I can afford on future volumes! I am just debating on if I should bring this book to kickstarted and self publish it or pitch it to an actual publishing company. Any suggestions?

PurpleIce: You bring up a good point. I will be adding a clearer definition of vintage/modern just to help clarify. I am actually planning on making a glossary of terms in the back of the book. I can include this here as well! I actually have the Hochman with the Supplement as well. That was a good inspiration to my book as well. (Thus why I wanted to interview Tom and Judy) I think of this book like the "little brother" of the Hochman because my goal wasn't to make an encyclopedia. If I tried to catalogue modern playing card, there would be noes decks by the time I printed it, so it makes it difficult. Doesn't mean I won't though!

Sher143: I'm glad you bring up the the different types of collectors. In my third chapter (which might change) I categorize the playing card collector in to one or more of three different types of collectors. They consist of:

The Hunter: The kind of collector who wants to have anything and everything playing card themed. They may buy nearly one of every deck that they can find. Also, they tend to buy anything with images of the courts on them or even pips. This is my category personally. I have mug sets, trump reminders, fine art that is playing card themed, and just about anything that have cards on it.

The Archivist: This form of collector is more specific might their collections. As you said, they may only collect Bicycle branded cards or cards in a certain time period. They probably will not be going to garage sales picking up every deck they can find for a quarter, but instead search for very specific cards that would fit their collections.

The Hobbyist: This is similar to both of the above combined. They normally got in to card collecting because their hobbies allowed them to do so. Like I am a magician or maybe a gambler would do this as well and begin to collect cards and other stuff based on their hobbies. This is why Ellusionist and Theory11 are so successful!

I am obviously not going to copy my whole chapter on here, but I go in to fairly deep detail about it. I'm glad there are such smart people on here! It makes me realize that I am not the only person willing to put this much thought in to this book! Great suggestions from you both! Keep them coming!

That is very true. I have a rather large collection of Bicycle decks from the 40s and 50s that have tax stamps. But they are not worth that much. Heck, I might just send you one to share the wealth!

This is not the first time anyone from Kickstarter has made cheap knock-offs with projects. But they always fail to notice that the backers who may back their projects are probably already familiar with the original ideas.

One of the best examples of this was the very successful microgame called Coin Age. Then a few weeks later a "completely different" game was posted called Wallet Battles. If you read the comments on that second project's most people pointed out that it was nearly a blatant ripoff. However, the creator of that made a better recreation than this deck!

Hello everyone! I am Daniel McKinley. I have been a playing card collector for many years now and I love sharing my knowledge. I am from New Mexico in the U.S. and I seems to be one of the few collectors in the area.

I am a member of 52plusjoker and a professional magician as well.

I was referred by a fellow member, Tom Dawson to join the forum, so here I am! I look forward to meeting you all and talking cards.

Finally, I am actually writing a book about modern playing card collecting. its currently sitting at about 175 pages and has interviews from Tom & Judy Dawson, Lee Asher, Dave Buck, Owen Packard, and Paul Carpenter! I have been considering doing a run of the books on Kickstarter for a while. I will post more about it later if anyone is interested. But please let me know which topic would be the best to post this under. Thanks again!