As far as I can tell the gold trimmed ones are exactly the same, of course if you get the pale blue one it does have a different joker and some of the red ones have the same joker, depending on whether they are from the Japanese magician or not.
Allow me to clarify a bit...
Quality-wise, Tally Ho decks are all made at the same high quality. They're my favorite decks. They were also the deck of choice for "the Professor", Dai Vernon.
There's a few varieties.
It's a regional brand, according to USPC. They only sell it in magic shops and in stores throughout New York City. There's actually a vegetable stand near my apartment that sells Tally Ho black-sealed decks in Cincinnati boxes. They're made in Erlanger, but late enough that they're actually better quality than the last of the Cincinnati-issued decks.
You know the standard varieties, for certain:
red, circle back
red, fan back
blue, circle back
blue, fan back
In general, magicians like the circle back better because it's a simpler design. Flourishers will go for both, but some like the flashier fan backs, with a more interesting pattern in the corners for spreads and fans.
A magician, whose identity I do no know, commissioned some black circle and fan back decks. These are only found in magic shops.
Of course, there's the Ellusionist Tally Ho Vipers, the "black deck" version of Tally Hos. The circle backs have red ink for the red suits, silver ink for the black suits and faces - these are still in print. The fan backs were recently discontinued due to lagging sales - these had all-silver pips, awesome for some flourishes, nice enough for some magic, but terrible for playing solitaire or poker! Another thing to note is that unlike all other Tally Ho decks, these are NOT traditionally cut. A traditionally cut deck can faro face down with ease, making certain sleights and flourishes simpler to manage, and they shuffle better as well. It's one of the reasons why even basic Tally Ho decks tend to cost a bit more than other standard brands.
There are the gold-bordered backs - these are circle backs in red and blue. But there is another...
A prominent Japanese magician named Tomohiro Maeda commissioned some gold Tally Ho decks for his act, and many were made available for sale. They came in THREE colors, all fan backs: red blue and LIGHT blue! The light blue packs are exceptionally hard to get and terribly expensive. And I give you a warning: the red and blue Maeda decks are IDENTICAL on the outside to ordinary gold-bordered decks. The only difference is there's custom jokers made for Maeda. Be certain a seller isn't (accidentally or intentionally) passing off Gold decks for Maeda decks - buy from someone both reputable and organized!
Maeda also had another custom Tally Ho deck made for himself and for retail. The proper name for them is Platinum Tally Ho, but most people simply refer to them by color: they're the green Tally Ho circle backs. These are hard to find in the US, relatively easy to get in Japan (if you hurry, you can order some through Phantom1412, who's planning a big order soon). These are green with a "platinum" border around the backs, and came in a boxed set with a set of cool-looking Tally Ho stickers and a set of magic trick instructions printed in Japanese.
And THAT is pretty much the entire run or modern Tally Ho decks and variants. Now if you go vintage...
...let's just say the waters there run deep! Remember the recently-issued Bicycle Dragon Backs? They were supposedly found in the archives at USPC and no one was certain if they were ever printed as a Bicycle deck. Truth is, they weren't - they were a Tally Ho deck design! So many people collect Bicycles, Tally Ho vintage decks are still sort of like unexplored territory. A copy of the Hochman's Encyclopedia of American Playing Cards would be a huge help for you there - it covers all US decks made before 1950.
One last tip: the circle backs made these days actually have a slight design flaw. In the center of the top and bottom of the card back, there's a little "flower" pattern. Over the years, one of the flowers has a larger gap in-between the top two petals than the other, effectively making it a discreet one-way back! Remember this was originally a hand-made design; computers didn't come into the picture until the last few decades. At some point, some designer didn't watch carefully enough and the flaw became part of the back.
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