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Messages - Mike Ratledge

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51
what about all the decks that get created after August? Thats why they have the Oscars in February the following year.
Actually I put that in there and somehow the message got all hosed up, and anything that happens on or after August 1st is eligible next year for the 2015 2nd annual 'Cardies'.  I knew I was still missing something when I looked at it the third time.  Sorry...  I need a little more sleep - it's been a l-o-o-o-n-g week!

Thanks, Jackson!  I fixed the OP and came back and updated this one as well.

52
I'd like to announce the First Annual "Cardies" - the Playing Card Awards - nomination period is two months from midnight Monday (12:01AM Tuesday) for two months, closing on 31-August at 11:59PM (all times Eastern).  This year we're doing five categories, but starting next year we'll expand to about 15-18 or 20.

Those five this year are: "Most Creative Design", "Best Deck Accessory", "Best Deck Series", "Best CrowdFunding Campaign" and "Best Overall".  After that two month nomination period we'll determine the Top 25 in each of those five categories and have a public vote from a few days later until the end of November, and award the trophies around the 1st of December.  The cutoff period is August 1st, anything delivered on or after that date or that successfully crowdfunds on or after that date will be eligible for next year in the 2nd Annual 2015 "Cardies".

It's going to be an annual thing, and we're looking for advertising from partners and friends and encourage you to share it to Social Media, etc - as often as you can!  We hope everyone do their best and help make the "Cardies" a success!  We're keeping it pretty simple this year, but next year we'll roll out the red (and black) carpet!  Nominations Here

53
Lotrek has given me the exclusive right to pre-sell his "Venexiana (Black) Gold" decks - the world's first edge-to-edge completely foiled backs, limited edition of 200 and only 2 per customer.  His terms were 10% off to UC members only, so if you don't have an account over there, I'll have to ask you to sign up - use a throw-away username if you want, but you can't access the form to buy them unless you're logged in.  There are only about 30 of these left of my supply, and I'm not getting anything, just selling some before he uses the UnitedCardists account on KS starting Monday or Tuesday to sell the balance for $100 each - still limit 2 per person.  They were painstakingly made with him in continuous supervision of the process from start to finish on a special 330gsm French bond paper stock that's worthy of these decks.  Three of them were bought by key industry partners before they were even made, and you have a chance to get up to two at a 10% discount until midnight tomorrow night.  After that the form will be disabled.  Just look for the "Something Wicked This Way Comes part 6" forum thread in the "Site Announcement" forum.  It's at the bottom of the page in the OP.  Here's a few pix if you've been under a rock:

54
Quote
Ah, sorry - I should have added that information: the 404 is worth some 2 or 3 times as much, I am aware.  It's the unusual case where gold gilt edges means the value is diminished by 60-70% over the plain (404) ones.  This is green box, gold stamp, gold edges, without question the 606 version.  The AoS is indeed version 2, so I suppose that makes it more like 1895 instead of 1880's?  I don't recall exactly where the dividing line on those was off-hand, although as always my trusty Hochman's and supplement are both by my side within reach at all times.  Can you comment on value over the past 10 years for this specific one?  I know that any generalizations are far too much just that, but for this example I find the value for 404 is shown as $800 in excellent condition, the 606 only $300.  One would suppose that this is not quite to that high of a standard, but never-the-less in quite good shape (I need to take better pictures, I know).  That Dundreary type 1 joker (no "U$" in the corners, and unfortunately not the flesh-colored with oval around him which I know to be very rare) is in perfect condition for one that has been around for over 120 years even if we're closer to 1900 than I thought in the OP.
#404 much rarer so probably worth double to the true collector who wants one. The deck you have is late 1880's I think. That Ace was used only until 1890-91 and the Joker with nothing in the corners is the earliest.
Yep, knew that, Tom.  My question was more along the lines of "what do you think it's worth" as a very general idea - but as opposed to the $300 valuation that the Pricing Guide puts on the US6 with first Joker in basically excellent condition, no folds, no tears, no other 'defects', even the OB in 2nd class shape for one that old.  It's not the best one I've seen by far, but certainly better than No-B as I like to call them!  I'd have to say OB2+ since again, it's about 120+ years old.  No gold missing, a little stain on one corner, nowhere near perfect but certainly a good example and no defects.

Have you seen this particular color back before?  I saw an almost identical one that was blue with rectangles inside rectangles instead of this almost herringbone pattern.  That deck went for about 1/2 the price this one did.  I'm hoping that the community in general knows what they are looking at and for.   The backs being purple I think is unusual, now how unusual - I have no clue.  Like Hochman's says - they're top end by far, and price-wise WAY beyond anything else (I remember the comparisons by gross).

55
Always keeping an eye out for the unusual, I noticed this original Congress 606 (Hochman's US6) with Dundreary type 1 Joker and Purple geometric backs. Obviously it has to be an 1880's version, but those are listed in Hochman's Encyclopedia Of American Playing Cards as having "geometric red, blue or black" backs. Obviously this IS original, but where how did Gene Hochman & Tom both miss the fact that there are at least a few Purple backed decks? Must be a rare(r) version, not to even be mentioned as existing in Hochman's? We'll see, Tom - what do you think about this one?  Just not as well-known perhaps, or is it truly an unusual find?  Words of wisdom, sir?  This deck is in fabulous shape, since the 606 brand was the best made of the original brands.  I take such crappy pix myself - I used those from the listing on eBay instead.  The joker is actually not as dark as it appears in the photo, it is clean and crisp and all cards are in excellent condition for an open deck likely some 130+ years old.
A couple of comments -
We don't usually comment on back designs, colors, etc. in the Encyclopedia - exceptions are Bicycle, Marguerite, Society, etc., so any mention is more likely to be illustrative vs. all-encompasing.

The comment as having "geometric red, blue or black" backs was neither Gene's nor ours. It was a direct quote from R&M promotional materials produced in 1887. Perhaps purple backgrounds were added a bit later [a thought supported by the fact that this deck has the second Congress Ace of Spades - not the first]. We also don't know if this was a Congress #404 deck [the version to which the quote on colors was directed, or a #606. If you have the wrapper or box we can determine the version. Likely if it has gold edges it is a #606.
Ah, sorry - I should have added that information: the 404 is worth some 2 or 3 times as much, I am aware.  It's the unusual case where gold gilt edges means the value is diminished by 60-70% over the plain (404) ones.  This is green box, gold stamp, gold edges, without question the 606 version.  The AoS is indeed version 2, so I suppose that makes it more like 1895 instead of 1880's?  I don't recall exactly where the dividing line on those was off-hand, although as always my trusty Hochman's and supplement are both by my side within reach at all times.  Can you comment on value over the past 10 years for this specific one?  I know that any generalizations are far too much just that, but for this example I find the value for 404 is shown as $800 in excellent condition, the 606 only $300.  One would suppose that this is not quite to that high of a standard, but never-the-less in quite good shape (I need to take better pictures, I know).  That Dundreary type 1 joker (no "U$" in the corners, and unfortunately not the flesh-colored with oval around him which I know to be very rare) is in perfect condition for one that has been around for over 120 years even if we're closer to 1900 than I thought in the OP.

56
Always keeping an eye out for the unusual, I noticed this original Congress 606 (Hochman's US6) with Dundreary type 1 Joker and Purple geometric backs. Obviously it has to be an 1880's version, but those are listed in Hochman's Encyclopedia Of American Playing Cards as having "geometric red, blue or black" backs. Obviously this IS original, but where how did Gene Hochman & Tom both miss the fact that there are at least a few Purple backed decks? Must be a rare(r) version, not to even be mentioned as existing in Hochman's? We'll see, Tom - what do you think about this one?  Just not as well-known perhaps, or is it truly an unusual find?  Words of wisdom, sir?  This deck is in fabulous shape, since the 606 brand was the best made of the original brands.  I take such crappy pix myself - I used those from the listing on eBay instead.  The joker is actually not as dark as it appears in the photo, it is clean and crisp and all cards are in excellent condition for an open deck likely some 130+ years old.

57
heheheh, good guesses every single one, and I can tell you that we've been in touch with every single one of them in one way or another, and several are already partners, like Gambler's Warehouse's "KPak" division is one of our fulfillment partners, for instance.  So is Kings Wild Fulfillment (Jackson), and all of these people have expressed either direct interest, or a position that's a bit too popular for our enthusiasm right now - a "Wait and See" position, meaning they want to see us "Walk the talk" first, and I guess you can't blame them.  Never-the-less, there are plenty of people that are just itching to get off KS (anywhere - but CardLauncher is meant to be exactly that: the reasonable and thinking person's alternative to KS for playing card decks projects.  All of these people probably will run projects on CL sooner or later, and a few of them have committed to running as one of the "big boy" decks for the 1st, 2nd or 3rd wave of projects, as well.  We've got quite a few people that want to get onto our system the moment we can unlock the door.

That being said, we're always open to suggestions and also of course to having anyone that knows someone that might be interested in running a deck(s) project get them in touch with us, and let's talk about funding your project on CardLauncher.  We'd love to see someone like David Copperfield, David Blaine, Lee Asher or another primarily magician-oriented or cardistry-oriented person that's a big name draw to run a deck on CL, and we feel certain that doing so will insure that both they and CL benefit to the maximum possible from such an arrangement, so much so that for the first few months (end of 2014, actually), we're offering to let any really big name artists, cardist, or magician run their CrowdFunded deck(s) on CardLauncher for 20% off the standard 5% fee which everyone is used to paying and has been for more than 5 years, now.  That means we'll accept their project(s) on a 4% fee base through the end of the year.  It's one of those marriages made in heaven, frankly: we want to see a big name artist run a deck or decks on CardLauncher, and we're willing to be flexible enough to entice them to do so as well.  Don?  See that not-so-gray Fedora right now?  Maybe it's time for YOU to be having someone design a deck for you?

58
Mike, I thumbed around the site. Looks pretty cool. Do you already have submissions?
The site isn't even alpha quality yet, it's just the white label version with a CardLauncher logo in the corner.  I'll have alpha with branding, partner logos, customizations we initially asked for in a few days and beta skin quality in about ten days.  Right now any projects that are built have the "no charge" token in them to prevent them from actually trying to authorize against PayPal - but we're building several projects this weekend, by Lotrek, RJ Tomlinson, and a couple of other people that I can't say - and Jackson is supposed to do one, but as always he's so busy I can't say for sure what day it will be done more what exactly he's going to do, either.  Bill Kalush is standing ready to make these decks happen, and of course now we've got USPCC and their Bicycle brand as partners with a dedicated Custom Decks sales rep, too.  It's getting closer by the day, and we're 75% customized for our part of it: Facebook & Twitter integration done, PayPal and Google Analytics done. We're waiting for the branding and customizations we've talked about to be coded and that's happening right now, along with code mods we've found in the pre-alpha testing, even.  I suspect a realistic launch date is about 15-July, but I won't commit until every single thing is working precisely like I wanted it to start with, and I've already put a design hold on things until what I wanted is done right first, then we'll add more features.  The "point and shoot" basket model instead of the "one tier fits all" model that every single other CrowdFunding site uses isn't in there yet, but it should be in the alpha code.  Beta code should have the shopping computations in it and then we're ready to launch as long as we don't see major problems, so two weeks out from there I'll unlock the doors.  I'm ready - have been, because I've been knee deep in this quietly for 5 months, almost 6 at this point.  I think everybody is ready - including the third graphics artist partner that I can't mention yet because he wants to be anonymous for now - but I know that you know him, you have to. That will come out in the next couple of weeks.  Be ready: "Expect the bets and handle the rest"...

59
Thanks, Sher.  The decks will be about $6-$7 for the basic ones, and shipping is calculated at handling from each of the fulfillment partners plus actual cost by 'bouncing' the weight off the USPS (or UPS or FedEx depending upon who's fulfilling) for "Express" shipping, if you chose. Lake Michigan Mailers already send everything up to 4 decks (13 ounces max) first class mail and anything more by Priority Mail 2-to-3 day, and will offer UPS "overnight" express - if you want it.  Kings Wild does not do express shipment, and Gambler's Warehouse also offers your choice of UPS or FedEx for Express shipment, FedEx overnight and UPS 2-to-3 day delivery.  Average cost will be $10-$11 for a single deck, and that's the worst case example, because 4 decks costs the same for shipping, meaning 4 decks would be around $28-$32 for standard shipping and "Express" is whatever you wish to pay for - and depends upon who the project manager picks for the rewards fulfillment process.  So, four decks will cost you $7-$8 each delivered.  All of them are basically a handling charge plus actual shipping, and "handling" includes packing materials.  The one gotcha is uncut sheets, because CL insists that they be shipped separately and that's adding about $8-$10 depending on which partner is picked.  We're just as passionate about playing cards as everyone else, and it's not going to be a "let's doodle on a piece of paper and run a KS campaign and take $20,000".  It's impossible to run a fraudulent campaign on our system due to the required escrow of funds for both production and fulfillment, and even those few that do self-fulfillment which we strongly discourage but allow for proven groups like Uusi, Jackson, Paul Carpenter, Chris Chelko ("Whispering Imps"), Shane Tyree and the like.  I single project fulfilled is not a "track record" of successful fulfillment, and we will not allow anyone to go outside the escrow system without one.  They also will not be able to display or trademarked "Guaranteed Rewards Delivery" logo either.  We simply cannot guarantee delivery for self-fulfilled campaigns, and that is quite clearly spelled out for both backers and clients (artists, designers or campaign managers that hire the artists & designers to do the artwork).  As we increase the volume, the partners will have to offer us even better rates, and that will make the costs for the backers go down as well.  The 'cart' model - nothing like anything you've ever seen from any CrowdFunding site - will allow you to pick multiples of any items that is allowed more than 1 up to the number set by the client, and add a single "Early Bird" or Limited tier as well, then the actual weight will be used to compute the shipping, which will be presented (if offered) both for standard and express methods.  You get what you pay for, as always.  That means that if the client picks LMM for fulfillment and you order a brick (or even 5 decks or more), it's automatically shipped Priority Mail inside the US (actually anything with a 5-digit ZIP code, so that includes Guam, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Northern Marianas, etc).  Canada/Mexico is "Zone 2" and costs a little more, Zone 3 and beyond (up to Zone 19) are calculated precisely by destination if allowed by the fulfillment center or "homogenized" using a moving weighted average of all campaigns to date if not.  We look up the actual costs on USPS.com, UPS.com and FedEx.com using the weight plus packing materials and add 5% to insure that we don't shortchange the fulfillment partners, or the backers either.  The seller/client receives absolutely not one cent of the shipping costs, but because it has been traditionally calculated as part of the project funding goal, it still will be for us although we at first didn't want to do so.  We listened to the artists and designers that said it just wouldn't work because people are used to seeing it in that number and agreed they were correct.

Those prices are for the standard decks you are used to on KS, and can of course be higher for Limited Edition (we consider that 2500 decks or less, although in my mind a LE is 1000 or less, it's just not practical to do so any more) and certain things like artist signed items have to be self-fulfilled regardless of who does their normal fulfillment.  Of course if the artist is in the US, they could choose to sign these items and have the fulfillment center delivery them as well, but I feel it's unlikely to happen that way.  Anything beyond playing card decks and uncuts is not guaranteed, so coins, t-shirts, artwork, wooden display items, poker chips and cow chips for all we care are all self-fulfilled and not the companies main goal: "We're passionate about playing cards!".

60
Subscribe to -be- notified

....why am I the only one who is bothered by typos? Please nobody answer that.
As many times as I've looked at it, I hadn't noticed.  I'll go fix it.

Thanks!

61
Here's something to fix right off the bat http://www.cardlauncher.com/

I signed up for the mailing list, but the bottom message is cut off. You just need to make a few tweeks.
Oh, gotcha. That doesn't show up while I am designing the page, only after you sign up. I will stretch the window size down just a bit..

Thanks! Apparently nobody else has noticed because I have more than 500 names as of midnight and that is first 30 hours or less.

62
Since we already have the 'sandbox' (unbranded, no customization, no partner logos, etc) version as of Wednesday, I'm moving the target dates up by a week and it could slide this way again, still.  The launch date is now set for July 25th and we hope to really beta test July 4th, but if you'd like to test and look around now, the site is up and running on the vendor's website: http://card.crowdengine.com - feel free to come, log in (it boots you off as soon as you register so you can do the required e-mail address verification) and log in and look around.  If you do, please keep a pen and paper handy, or "notepad.exe" running so you can take notes about what doesn't look right or work right (or as expected) and send it along to me at "cardlauncher@gmail.com".

Also, "CardLauncher.com" no longer redirects to the "Something Wicked This Way Comes part 3" discussion on UC, it's a MailChimp e-address collection form so you can sign up to be notified a few days before we launch.

Thanks!

63
Let me re-emphasize the info about the Ace of Spades dating code. Unless it is a letter and four digits on a USPC [or subsidiary's deck] on the Ace of Spades, it is meaningless. Remmeber only the letter has any date meaning.
Tom, there are a very few exceptions where the code is indeed on the Joker instead - like the airplane identification decks.  They are there because the faces were not the AoS as usual, they were too busy to have that code on them with all of the other (2 or 3) perspectives and writing.

64
so Sparkz and I want to know about 52 Jokers - it's also a forum right? But you have to pay to play? Is it THAT much better than the free forums? Or is there still drama and what not just like anywhere?
I meant the wife club, but -
Fair enough, David.

Pretty easy, but Tom can say it best. It's a group for collectors, and yes, it's $25/year,but as I remember $60/3yrs. The quarterly magazine alone is worth the price "Clear The Decks" (we say CTD) is full of a plethora of knowledge about vintage, antique and contemporary decks.

Tom, so I don't mess up, carry on from here? 52plusjoker.org/dnn

65
Wow, I'm really looking forward to this! I really hope that this will encourage a lot of budding artists to be more likely to release their deck designs! I'd love to see all of these ventures thrive in their own niches, complementing each other with a different share of the market. My collection will continue to grow by leaps and bounds! This is a very exciting time in the deck collecting (As it relates to what I do with cards...YMMV!) world! Hopefully, everyone wins!
I think everybody wins this time, we're going to be creating some amazing products from the first day (well, with a 2-to-3 month lead time for production and delivery)!

I hope to see everybody come and see what we have to offer when we open the doors some time around the end of July or first of August.  We live in exciting times, and the world just gets smaller every day.  The partnership has people from Greece, Stockholm, Australia, Singapore, Canada and the US, and people working for us from Guam, Spain, New Zealand and amongst many others.  "It's a small world after all", so they tell me.

66
I'm super unobservant... my wife is right....
Join the club, buddy!  We're all in that boat - or at least most of us, anyway...

67
wait a minute....

I know you from United Cardist... where you're also in charge, but that would mean....

"Einhorn is Finkle. Finkle is Einhorn!"

 ???
David, David, David...
😂

68
Just a note, and reality check from Bill Kalush today, we're going to 'stand down' on the Chromografix decks for a couple of months, and prove the production first, as it is we're still not able to be absolutely certain that we can produce them efficiently enough to sell them on the first day of launch.

In any case, we will be offering CMYK + 1 spot color or 5 spot (PMS) color faces and backs to begin with, and then the ultra high quality decks will follow in a couple of months.  The first decks will all be 5-color and still much higher resolution than the 600dpi standard used today, effectively 1000dpi although all graphics will be in vector format, which means that you can scale infinitely to any size without having to change the files used to produce the artwork.  We'll like go to either 1200dpi equivalent or 1600dpi equivalent shortly thereafter, but unfortunately what we've found is that most artists/designers aren't ready to handle the added work of creating these Chromografix decks - yet, but we'll be working on that in parallel to our proving of the technology and production capacity.

Today, I added U S Playing Card Co and their "Bicycle", "Bee" and "Tally Ho" brands to our production partners, as well as Quantium of Taiwan to perform fulfillment and delivery of products to the Asia/Pacific/Oceania area and beyond, perhaps as far away as Europe, depending on the cost and capacity of that company, which is in fact a very large company owner by Singapore Post, and has branches throughout the Asia-Pacific area.

69
Sounds awesome. That's pricing just about anybody can afford. People will be more likely to use the cards as well. I love the art, tucks, embossing and all the extras of $20 decks, but It's hard for me to justify using them for more than a few hands of poker.
Well, you'll get to spend that on the Chromografix decks, because they cost about 220-250% of what a standard deck takes to create, but then again they will be the world's first large production ultra high definition photographic quality faces and 5-color process (CYMK + 1 or 5 spot color) backs as well.  I suspect that the actual selling price for the first group will be slightly higher, but they're not my decks.  The first groups sold will likely be Lotrek's "Dark Venexiana" decks, next up will be a special new artist's "Stained Glass" decks, and the 3rd is as yet to be determined, but I have a feeling you'll know the artist's work when you see it.  That sample "Boer of Hearts" up there is just that simply because there was no such thing as a digital quality deck back then.

That's nowhere near the anticipated quality of our decks which can have up to 16+ million colors on the uncut sheet, although of course I do know that the math works out to roughly 7 million dots on the face of a poker card at 1000dpi, so we'll probably go up to 1200dpi or even 1600dpi after we get going.  To compare, most decks done until recently are 400dpi vector graphics, and recently 600dpi has become more common.  That means 160,000 dots / square inch (400dpi) or 360,000 (600dpi), but ours will start out with 1,000,000 dots per square inch and go up to more than 2.5 million when we go to 1600dpi - we're going to do some amazing things for the playing cards industry!

I have to keep a few tricks up my sleeve until we open for business...

70
Very nice - great to get it complete with booklet, extra scoring cards, etc. Felicitation!

I fear for my bank account when I start encountering a few of these decks at Charleston!  :))
Bring your wallet to the late-night scene that we're going to have for everyone with blackjack and poker in one of the suites right under the convention floor (2nd floor on this hotel, suites are all on the first floor, right under the convention area).  Besides, Bill & I will likely be taking up money, anyway!  ;^)

(and you might find some decks for sale, as well!)

71
The deal is that Jackson's funding only his decks, D&D are just a passing fad, and they will likely have to do something different or at least quit selling decks for $20-$30 delivered. I am going to separate shipping from everything else, make it 3 tiered - US, canada & Mexico or "Rest of World"  with shipping costs calculated by weight, and decks will be $7-$8 except for the Chromografix™ ones, which obviously cost more to produce. Average delivered cost will be $11-$12 like you pay now, unless you are overseas, in which case you will be paying half as much for shipment.  The escrow of funds for everything eliminates any possible fraud and even stupidity in campaigns, and we guarantee delivery of rewards, like I said.

72
Over the past 5 months, I have spent every waking moment working on a secret project, and I have announced it elsewhere, but wanted to bring everyone here on The Discourse at PCF into the loop.

Beginning some time between 20-July and 1-August - depending on how beta testing of the software goes - I will be opening the doors of my new CrowdFunding website for playing card decks only (and related things).  It will be a now paradigm in how things work, because we are going to guarantee delivery of all items pledged for so the backers don't end up waiting 7 months to a year for unscrupulous campaigns and projects to finally deliver on what you paid for, as well as totally eliminate any possibility of fraud by the escrow of funds for production and fulfillment of the decks, totally removing any potential for 'rip-off' projects and people that just don't have a clue how to run a campaign, much less how to be successful at fulfillment of the decks.  We have partnered with Expert Playing Card Co for production, Lake Michigan Mailers, Kings Wild Fulfillment and Gambler's Warehouse for fulfillment of shipments, as well as an as-yet unnamed company in Taiwan that will fulfill all decks in Asia/Pacific/Oceania and likely Europe as well, since the costs for doing so using the US Postal Service to that location are absurdly high.

We'll also be introducing a new standard in playing cards, the "Chromografix" deck, which will be on the order of the infamous "Norwood 85" deck prototypes created by USPCC back in 1909, and also 12 color process done by Zander GMBH of Germany from 1965-1972, in small quantities.  These decks will have an ultra high resolution photographic quality faces as well as 5-color process backs - giving collectors something to look forward to every month when the mailman comes. 

I look forward to answering questions, and seeing those of you that are collectors of contemporary decks on CardLauncher.com starting in about 45 days.

There is a more complete discussion of the coming goodies if you go to "CardLauncher.com" - which for now warps you to the discussion thread on UC, but will soon (a week to 10 days) begin presenting our MailChimp email partner's survey to gather e-addresses for those wanting to be notified 2-or-3 days in advance.

Here's a close-up of the Boer of Hearts (Jack in French courts) from a Zander "Fine Papers" deck made in 1968:

73
I am quite sure the decks you pictured are from the mid-1930's
So was I, but not 100% - the box is just unlike any I've ever seen.  That imbedded circle device in the center with pattern to match the cards is the 'tell' that it likely was one of their first, as well as the lack of date code.  I have seen (but not owned) decks with 72 code (July, 1942), so I knew that they likely couldn't be later than about 1940.

I have a good eye for such things, just like that near perfect for its age and original quality 125+ year-old "Chas Goodall and Son" Tom Thumb deck from about 1865-70.  It didn't "look right" and wasn't really pictured well but I could tell from just the fuzzy pictures that it was something unusual.  The other thing was it was listed as "square" and having plain backs, but they are actually a pale pink.  These two Kem decks were $7.99 and I always look at new listings every day for mislisted items and things where people either don't know what they have or don't care and only want to get a buck out of them.

As I've noted before, those Bakelite boxes are worth $15-$20 without decks in them.

74
Yep
Nope. They used 2 or 3 digits without what we are used to as the third digit after 1949.

23 is February 1943, 116 is November 1946 and so forth. In 1950 they Bagan using the 3 and 4 digits (only in October, November & December) which we are used to seeing. I am told that the codes were absent until near the end of 1941, the lowest I have seen is 91 for September 1941.

But this means that the example you gave for "301" would not have existed, never mind meaning January, 1943, which would actually be represented with "13".
Yep, true.  I was recalling something that I later confirmed to be incorrect, it is a different pair and does have 13 on it instead.  The deck that I thought was the one I was thinking about at the time in fact has has 103, which should be October, 1943 according to everything that I was told.  I have numerous examples of decks with 2-digit and 3-digit codes that have Bakelite cases, and a very few with genuine Bakelite (the later cases appear to be the same, but have a small "KEM" with a crown branded over the top instead of the stretched out K - E - M across the entire surface from top-to-bottom) which have 3-digit codes indicating manufacture between March 1950 (350) and April 1954 (454) as well as two with 4 digits - 1052 (October 1952) and 1251 (December 1951).  All of those that I have found with date codes beyond 1955 (155, etc - and later) are not Bakelite, or are the later side-by-side (flat) cases as opposed to the earlier two examples, bakelite pre-1954 and normal plastic (non-phenolic, in other words no 'odd' smell) from early 1955 on.  I don't have enough empirical evidence to surmise when the precise change occurred, although this does narrow it down to some time in '54 or '55.  That makes sense because as I previously noted Union Carbide (and Carbon at that time) bought Bakelite Company and incorporated it into their brand in 1948 and I suspect that Kem likely had enough of the cases already on-hand to last a few years, apparently quite a few - about 5 or 6 years' worth at most.  It would be interesting to do a survey of Kem decks to narrow that down, as I would have to assume that there was a short period that certain decks were placed in both type (Bakelite or not) containers that on the initial inspection appear to be very similar (except weight, which is drastically different - phenolic plastics are made using formaldehyde which incurs that funky odor as well as they higher weight from the process) and the close inspection of the lid shows the older Bakelite lids have that broad top-to-bottom K-E-M as opposed to the non-Bakelite tops with KEM in 1" high (approx) letters surmounted with a crown.

I suppose that there is a period later where certain decks were in the latter boxes or the flat cases as well, but again I don't have many (2, possibly?) of those and both are 1960's as I recall.  I have one deck with no codes whatsoever - the one in the OP.

One other thing that I have recently noticed that I hadn't though about until then was that the date code appears below the left lobe on the AoS in odd months and below the right lobe in even months on the AoS in post-1950 decks, I suppose to eliminate any possibility of misinterpreting that code?  Not certain, again, I only have maybe a dozen examples, and only 4 or post-1950 dates.  Most are the 2-digit and 3-digit 40's codes and this lone example contains no codes at all.

One more thing I just noticed by comparing it to another Bakelite case, this one is not only about 1/8" less tall, it is also about 1/8" less deep (back to front) but the side-to-side dimension is almost identical.  Again, I have never seen another case where the top "dovetailed" into the bottom as opposed to the opposite.

75
Nope. They used 2 or 3 digits without what we are used to as the third digit after 1949.

23 is February 1943, 116 is November 1946 and so forth. In 1950 they Bagan using the 3 and 4 digits (only in October, November & December) which we are used to seeing. I am told that the codes were absent until near the end of 1941, the lowest I have seen is 91 for September 1941.

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