50
« on: April 20, 2022, 06:28:42 PM »
It slowly dawned on me that decks of cards from the 1970s and 1980s are starting to get up there in age. But they are readily available, even unopened. But how to date the unopened decks? I collected a bunch of Bicycle decks from the 70s to present, and noted how you can narrow down the date of a sealed deck of cards from the changes in the tuck.
*** All dates + / 1 a year given that tucks and decks may have been made in different years ***
If you have a bar code on the bottom right that starts with a floating 0, your deck was made between 1980 - 1994.
If your have a bar code on the bottom right with a non-floating 0, your deck was made between 1995 - 2000.
Additionally, Bicycle added the Registered Trademark symbol to the front of the tuck around 1991, and added small slits in the tongue of the tuck around 1994.
Bar code was moved to the bottom left around 2000.
If anyone else has some tips for dating sealed modern Bicycle decks, like when the white cellophane pull strip was in use, add them below. And if I got something wrong, please let me know.