I recently purchased this deck of Stud Playing Cards. All the information I have read about these cards has been pretty conflicting. What I do know is:
1. They were first produced by Arrco and then by USPCC.
2. They were produced in 1980s
Can someone please tell me more about this particular deck I bought?
1. When were these produced and by whom?
2. Why is there no seal on the deck?
3. Do all the studs have this kind of blue packaging?
Additionally, when were the first Studs produced, and how many versions are out there?
Any kind of information is appreciated. Thank you,
The only info I can add to this... I used to know where to find a good Stud article, but I can't find it.
I did, however, dig up a bit on Arrco. Quick background: started as Arrow Playing Cards in Chicago, at some point in the 1920s, became Arrco in 1935. At one point, they were own by some sporting goods company, I think in the '70s.
They did indeed start making this deck for Walgreens Drug Stores in 1980. I've seen people selling them as "vintage 1940" on Etsy - don't believe it for a second! If they were that old, they'd have a tax stamp on them!
In 1987, USPC bought out Arrco. From that point forward, all Arrco decks were manufactured by USPC and the decks had USPC deck seals on them. They redesigned the entire package and card back in 2007, but kept the Arrco faces - some people have a fondness for them, and they charge less money for using them in custom deck orders than they do for the USPC standard faces used on Bicycle, Bee, Tally Ho, etc.
Beyond that, do some searches around here for Play-Right. There was a time a handful of years ago when Walgreens discontinued the Stud brand, replacing them with Play-Right branded cards. They were a very bad idea - one color came in standard index only, the other color came in jumbo index only, meaning you'd never use them for poker night, and the back designs were as deadly dull as you can get - they made Bee look downright expressionistic. Eventually, Play-Rights were ditched and Stud came back, but the revival was short-lived - today, Walgreens stores only stock Bicycle brand decks - all the basic varieties, including pinochle, bridge, jumbo index, etc., as well as some USPC-created custom decks and a small, rotating selection of Theory11 decks (the only exceptions to the Bicycle-only rule). I've seen them carry Bicycle Steampunks, Bicycle Archangels, but also Star Wars and Avengers decks designed by T11, and High Victorian - a very underrated deck in my opinion.
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