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You can't get lower cost than free delivery (orders over £50 of course) but I'm afraid Legends will not be selling this edition of LUXX, sorry.
I should add, that whilst the price won't be as low as perhaps we first wanted in GBP, in USD it probably will look much lower simply because of the exchange rate, we are aiming for £6.99/£6.49 so if the current rate stays the same they will be approx $10 USD. Which is without a doubt the best price we've been able to achieve so far. Factor in free delivery for orders over £40 and they're great value, in my opinion.
Received mine today.
Beautifully printed. The gold foil shines. Tuck box is extremely thick.
The deck is thick and tough. The measurement I read for my deck is 16.8mm (52 cards) and 97.5g.
But it is a bit too thick to do faro. And maybe too stiff to perform some tricks.
My first feeling is somewhat like the Rhino dart flights.
You couldn't faro them? I seem to recall being able to faro the sample I tried out at the CARC offices. Perhaps they need a little breaking in.
KSI, I don't have any Silver Split Spades decks left... but from what I recall, the Silver Split Spades paper did feel very slightly sturdier than the Black Lions.
I wouldn't say it's David Blaine's fault... it's more USPCC's fault for not even attempting to improve their poor quality paper at a time where EPCC and LPCC paper stocks are tons better.
You're right about the Classic Twins (and also the Classic black and Classic gold) featuring the Classic Finish, as does the Draconian deck. The Elite Finish that the LUXX Palme uses I very good also. Whilst I'm not 100% sure about this, to me they feel like the same paper stock, but with a different embossing pattern (and possibly a slight variation in coating).
The Elite Finish pattern does appear to give the cards more durability than the Classic Finish. For what it's worth, I like the Elite Finish very much.
If only Blaine printed his cards with EPCC of LPCC... they'd be so much better than the badly cut, and cheap feeling, non-traditionally cut cards that they presently are.
\Oh... so sad to hear that the deck seems disappointed.
How about the paper? Feel like casino grade? Or just close to normal bikes?
I personally more concern on the paper quality, handling and finish. My recent experience on USPCC decks are not good. All feel soft and relatively thin. My hope is DB would be one of fews who are still able to push USPCC using more high quality paper.
I think it's more that the BUYER was disappointed. The deck I'm sure is perfectly happy!
The paper isn't as bad as cheap mass-produced Bikes, but it's not Bee Casino grade. I'd say it's on the heavy end of Bike stock. And yes, they are definitely not traditionally cut. The quality is on par with the previous recent Blaine decks.
Don, from my experience, juiced decks are the ultimate when it comes to marking systems -- my 8 year old cousin (who is obviously not a magician) found the marks on the Madison dealers, and so I'm never comfortable handing out decks like that for inspection. Sharps on the other hand, I don't mind if a person inspects them for hours!
The marking pattern on the Sharps is very similar to that on the black lions (at least for card value/number).
KSI, Don's assessment of the Black Lions is correct -- the card stock doesn't feel anywhere near as thick or study as the Bee Casino decks from around 8 years ago.
I personally preferred the card thickness and feel of the White Lions more.
Expert Playing Card Company's classic twins feature a stock which has much more of a Casino quality paper feel than anything that USPCC is putting out these days.
I got a brick as part of a trade (got rid of some decks which I was not having any luck selling)... and now that I've opened a deck and checked them out, I seriously don't like them.
For starters, the deck I opened was not even traditionally cut. As for the back design... the marking system is exactly the same as the White Lions Series B. Yeah, it does have the advantage of allowing the magician (or cheater) to be able to read the card value from backs from across the table, but unless you have the eyesight of an eagle or binoculars strapped to your face, you won't be able to read the suit unless you're very close to the cards. Furthermore, the back design does fail the riffle test.
The Sharps by LPCC still retain their place as the best marked deck by far (can read the suits from across the table also, and the marking system passes the riffle test!), and the Lions (both white and black) by David Blaine are still the second best. Having that second place spot isn't terrible by any means... but I'm kind of disappointed seeing as it's a David Blaine deck, and nothing has been done to improve that marking system.
The edges on the Bicycle metal luxe deck that I got were pretty good (for USPCC standards), and so I thought maybe that improvement would be noticed on the Black Lions also... but sadly, the edges were as bad as they get.
On the plus side, the tuck on this deck is pretty awesome, as is the silver foil deck seal.
Overall I'm disappointed though. I'm going to have to try and sell off the remaining decks!
These designers and companies frustrate me. Why they insist that I go through the trouble of actually ordering is beyond me. They know what I like, and they have my credit card number on file. They should just drive by my house, jam as many into the mailbox as they can, and then charge me accordingly. Simple.
:-)
Here's a video of the foil backs. Still doesn't do them justice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNJn52T_bpY
So, any guess on the deck if the is marked or not?
Never tried LPCC.
Only got 1 deck from EPCC (NOCv3). But I don't like it. The feeling is so plastic. And it started clump together after around 2 weeks. Yes I agreed the plastic feel might make the deck last a bit longer. But I prefer paper feels.
However, I don't mind to pick some LPCC or EPCC to try on, in the case there are some great designs available.
Although I prefer USPCC a bit more, I am a bit disappointed with their recent years production. It seems that all are from the similar (if not the same) stock.
I love my UV500 decks, I love my OHIO Propaganda, I love my Split Spades Lions. They are all bold, solid and with luxury paper feeling. Sadly such feeling is too difficult to find from those decks produced in recent years.
I would suggest you try classic finish from either EPCC or LPCC. Some example will be Mirage deck, Soundboard Deck, Draconians (LPCC) or Classic Twins (EPCC). To me they do have that plastic feel, not as much as diamond or master but still better than USPCC deck.
It will take some time to get the hang of it, but once you broke in the deck it feels much better than any USPCC deck.
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!
My brick arrived last week.
But I just have time to unbox 1 and try it on hands these few days.
The stock is great, the finish is great, everything is great and I love the design.
Except a small issue - the deck I opened is by modern cut, my thumb drag down from the back of the deck to the face of the deck much smoother than the opposite way.
Does anyone with this deck got the same situation with me?
I think this is not the first case that USPCC cutting the deck wrongly.
I am a bit worry if the rest of the brick are all in modern cut.
USPC's production decks and most custom decks are all modern cut, with rare exceptions.
Production decks - USPC's own products - will usually be made on the web press, where the paper is printed and fed into the cutter in a continuous ribbon, and are usually modern-cut decks.
For custom decks, they're made on the sheet-fed press more often than not. Sometimes the deck sheets will get flipped during cutting, I recently learned, due to occasional paper feed issues with the machinery - if the sheets aren't fitting in smoothly, a deck could come out traditionally cut by random chance, but it's not a common occurrence. Normally, USPC will charge extra for traditional cut, if it's something you request. According to one deck producer I spoke with, he was discouraged from using traditional cut - they told him that the cuts aren't as clean so the card edges aren't as smooth. To me, that sounds like someone at USPC didn't want to make traditionally-cut decks and made some excuse up, but I could be wrong.
Casino decks are usually traditionally cut at the casino's request. Oddly enough, their decks never seem to have this "rough cut" issue. I have no idea if they're made on the web press or not, but I'm inclined to think no, despite the volume of decks made. I've been told that registration isn't as accurate on the web press and casinos are sticklers about accurate registration - I'd be shocked if there weren't government-issued regulations covering the topic.
My NOCv3 (EPCC) is the first deck of my collection which is non-USPCC. But I had a very bad experience on it. After the first 10 minutes playing on it, one of the cards got a big black scratch on the back. I know it is done by my nail. But I had clean my hands and let them dry before unbox and touching the cards. It is a mystery that where the black color comes from...
Regarding the stock, I think the NOCv3 is stiff, and durable. It is made of paper but on the hands it feels a bit like plastic. It is relatively thin when compare with normal bike, but it is as heavy as the old OHIO premium casino Bee. An interesting deck. What I don't like is the finish (coating?) seems a little bit shiny (and oily) and it feels like plastic.
Maybe the black color scratch is only an isolated case because of my bad luck.
The black color isn't from bad luck or anything of the sort. It's from the pasteboard itself.
Playing cards are made by layering two sheets of paper and gluing them together under pressure - the end result is called pasteboard. In a good-quality, "black core" stock, the glue is heavily mixed with graphite, which makes the cards opaque - without it, you'd be able to see through a card when you hold it up to a strong light. Cheap playing cards, including some "blue core" stock, have this translucent quality, as do specially-gaffed Hofzinser magic cards.
When you nicked the card, you cut through the upper layer of paper and into the glue area, revealing the graphite. You might also notice, especially with USPC stocks, that if you have even a small amount of moisture on your hands from water, sweat or even the natural oils in your skin and transfer it to the edge of a card, a black stain appears at the edge - again, this is the graphite, made visible by the moisture. My guess would be that the glue is at least partially water-soluble while the graphite mixed it in is not, so the water melts some of the glue and leaves the graphite exposed. I frequently end up with black stains on the edges of my USPC decks which are used for performance under a variety of not-always-ideal conditions and it used to drive me crazy trying to figure out what caused it - I thought it was dirt transferred to the card, but it wouldn't rub off with an eraser!
Not all cards suffer from this design feature. Even though they're layered pasteboard and made with a black core, Lee Asher's Fournier 605s are not susceptible to water damage in this way - you can in fact briefly submerge an entire card in a glass of water, remove it and wipe it off in order to clean the card, despite that it's made of paper. I suspect that it has something to do with how the cards are made - they might be laminated with their plastic coating AFTER being cut rather than before, or it might be something about the way they're cut that seals the edge to prevent water damage upon submersion, or maybe even that they place the graphite only in the center of the card, leaving it out of the border area, thus there's no graphite remaining to make the black marks or perhaps they use a superior glue that doesn't dissolve in water. Lee would know better than I would!
May I know when would more info about this deck be announcing? I would like to know something about the stock. How would the stock of this deck compare with the Bee Casino stock of USPCC?
It will be on classic finish- same as classic twins, classic black, etc. Classic is the closest you'd come to typical bicycle stock in my opinion, but I personally prefer the finish even more. But I'm a not a magician or cardist.
Master finish (diamond is what LPCC call it) is what we used for the original LUXX decks and I love that finish just as much, but we thought classic would be a better fit for this deck.
Don- I know, just not possible on an iPad unfortunately,
That's exactly what I tried to do and it said that Jpegs (as opposed to jpg) were not compatible. Anyhow, thanks for doing it.
You do realize that changing the extension to ".jpg" was all you needed to do, right?I like the design. And I am interested to grab some.
Randy did a great job on the Honeybee. I am happy I got a brick.
My only concern on this deck is about the quality of LPCC. I never tried LPCC decks. But I got one NOC v3 of EPCC and I was extremely disappointed about the quality. This make me hesitate to buy non-USPCC decks.
May I know when would more info about this deck be announcing? I would like to know something about the stock. How would the stock of this deck compare with the Bee Casino stock of USPCC?
Legends and Expert are both known for quality work. It might simply be that you didn't like Master finish/stock. Legends sells the same stock/finish as "Diamond." Most people love Master because of its durability and firmness, but some think it's too stiff and think it doesn't glide as well as the other finishes the two companies offer. It does require a little more breaking in - how much have you used those NOCs of yours?
