The preorder in this case was all about timing.  When we saw Natalia's art for this deck, we loved it, and thought it deserved a USPCC run.

However, with prepress, proofing, and production we knew we would be able to have the deck done JUST in time for Christmas.  The preorder is so that folks have enough time to order ahead of Christmas, but it also helps logistically.  Our warehouse team can prepare labels and other things from preorders so that decks can start going out to door to customers the same day that the decks hit our warehouse.

If we'd put the deck up for sale when they hit our warehouse, it would've taken that extra day or 2 to get them into customers hands, and we want to do everything we can to put these in your hands before Christmas.

We also didn't want to put them up for preorder too early.  USPCC runs are subject to a plus/minus 10% over or under-run, so we needed to be at the tail end of production to make sure everything went correctly with the run and that there were no major glitches or anything like that.

Hope that makes sense and sheds some light on things.  The decks are in transit to our warehouse as we speak and will be shipping out to everyone soon.

Thanks for the feedback!

They Honeybees were ordered with Traditional Cut, and while I've only opened and handled a couple of decks personally, I found them to definitely be traditional - they actually faro well for me both face-down and face-up.

My guess is that the deck you opened may have had that particular sheet flipped (or un-flipped), but the majority of the run should all be traditionally cut.

As always, you can feel free to contact our customer service line via the website (Live chat, email, or phone) and they'll be happy to assist!

Thanks Fes, really appreciate that!

The response to the Honeybees so far has been great!  We've sold over half the run in about 4 hours, so we definitely don't expect these to last long.

Thanks so much for the support! 

Tony at Kardify has posted a very nice First Look at the deck, with some beautiful photos of the deck.  Check 'em out!

http://www.kardify.com/2015/10/first-look-honeybee-by-penguin-magic.html

I gotta say, I'm a little bit of a sucker for Green decks - I think these look pretty sweet!

The convention this year was AWESOME - I loved all the decks that debuted, and of course getting to make so many new friends and reconnect with some old ones.  In a couple of cases, I got to finally have face-to-face meetings with people I've worked with via email for 3-5 years!  I am without a doubt going to be attending the convention every year that I possibly can.

Here's a little more info for everyone about the Honeybee and White Tally-Ho decks.  They will both be launching very soon.  You won't have to wait until 2016 for either of these.

The Honeybees are another great piece of work by Randy Butterfield with a custom back design, 2 gaff cards (No ad cards, hurray!), custom jokers, a custom Ace of Spades, a custom tuck, seal, and courts with custom texture and color. The cards are printed on Bee stock and have a traditional cut for all you table faro and gambling demonstration folks.

The White Tally-Ho are the classic Fan and Circle back designs, with inverted Black and White color schemes.  For maximum mix/match with classic Tally decks, we kept all faces fully traditional and unaltered.  Duplicate jokers, plus a Blank Facer and Double Backer.  Again, no ad cards.   And where these decks really shine is with the tuck.  We used a premium matte white tuck stock and did the design entirely in Black Foil.  There is no ink used on the Tally tucks.

Also, if you (or a friend of yours) has a solid following on Instagram and/or YouTube and you want a chance to get your hands on some decks early to review and show off, please PM me or email me kevin (at) penguinmagic.com to discuss.

Kevin

Hey guys!  I'm so excited for this to be my first official project with Penguin!  We think you guys are going to love it!

Yes - we are aiming for ALL of the decks to be different throughout the year with no repeats.  Maybe if we LOVE a deck we might include 2 different colors of it or something at some point, but overall you can expect a pretty wide variety.

Up until now Penguin has really been pretty much 100% a magic company, so it doesn't surprise me that there will be card folks who've not really heard of or shopped with us.  We are in the early stages of expanding our deck offerings and the Card Club is part of that. Our goal is to be able to bring the amazing selection and customer service that Penguin has been known for in the magic world over to the card world.

Of course, some decks are limited no matter what - it'll be just as difficult for us to get our hands on inventory from a 500 or 1k deck run as anyone else!

If you're wondering about my credentials and why I'm spearheading this project - I've been an avid magician and card enthusiast for over 20 years.  I started collecting vintage decks on a more serious basis about 15 years ago, and of course have keenly followed what I call the "modern" custom deck market that really launched in 2004 with the first Black Tiger deck.

I produced my first custom deck (The Lefty Deck) in 2009, and have been involved with the design & production of countless dozens of designs in the years since then.

I hope you all love the new Card Club, and feel free to let me know if you have any questions.  Also, if you are a card producer and are interested in having your decks on the shelves at Penguin (and possibly being highlighted and featured in Card Club!), then definitely get in touch with me!

Kevin

Have to make one little correction for ya Don - ALL of the Crown decks have had Magic finish - right from the v1.

The v1 Crowns were one of the first decks ever produced with Magic finish, back when it was brand-spanking-new.  All of our decks since have used Magic finish, with the exception of the Nauticals, which were not printed by USPCC.  All of our decks also have the embossed paper, except for the White Aladdins, which have a smooth magic finish.

Magic finish is simply the best that USPCC has to offer, so we stick with it.  We choose stocks from deck to deck.  Also, there is definite variance at USPCC with their stock thickness/tolerance.  So "Bike stock" one one deck may be thicker or thinner than "Bike stock" on another deck.

The Summer Club vids will be sent out to members in weekly emails - a la the "Free from AP" series.  They will NOT appear in your account on the site when you log in.

First vid should most likely be going out to all members later on today.  Keep an eye on your inboxes.

Hey guys, few points to clear up...

The 10 downloads are from a variety of artists - it is not all material from Alex.  Alex is in there but you'll see a few other faces as well.

Don nailed it on the head with the rare decks.  Most members will get either a Black Crown or a Gold Crown (not both). One member (chosen randomly) gets a Jerry's Nugget as their rare deck.

Memberships are not quite totally gone yet - we do still have a few spots remaining as of the time of this post.

There will definitely be new releases between now and the end of September.

The Orange and Light Blue NOCs are basically the only Summer Club item that is not 100% exclusive to the club.

Summer Club members will get these Summer NOC decks before they go up for sale.  But they will be released later in the summer.  Limited run.

All of the other Summer Club items (Shirt, downloads, etc) are exclusive to the club and will not be sold.

All of this will be clear on the product page when it launches in about 30 mins.

I have an unopened brick (12 decks) of the Magic-Con v2 decks.  These were from the 3rd Magic-Con convention (The first one did not have a deck, which is why these are v2)

I'd like to sell the brick as a whole, price is $275 which includes Priority US shipping.  No international sales on this one, sorry.

Ships from NC.  Please email mercury52@gmail.com with any questions.

5 pending, 5 still available..