Mailman Monday! Here's a sweet little deck that I discovered in a lot of over 150 decks that I bought at auction: Rockwell International Space Shuttle deck c1984. Has reflective silver inks on one of the robot jokers and the custom court cards, and I really like the back design. Check it out, and I'...

This came in last week and I didn’t have a chance to post for Ephemera Friday. This is a 1940’s Bicycle display based upon the image of the tuck in the item. I filled it up with a whole bunch of 1940s decks and it can hold double what is shown due to depth. not exactly sure how it would have been lo...

A very special deck for today's Mailman Monday, the 1905 Cincinnati Souvenir deck which was given as a gift at the 25th Anniversary Celebration of the Cincinnati Commercial Club (Hochman S79) Invited to the celebration were the Commercial Club of Saint Louis, the Commercial Club of Chicago, and the ...

Ephemera Friday! Heading back to the 19th century for today's post: the November 14, 1878 edition of The American Stationer. Every time I take this out of its sleeve, a bit more of the outer covering breaks falls off, so I don't take it out very often. Inside is an ad for Mauger's Pointers and a pri...

Mailman Monday, this time from France. eBay selling in France had a ton of KEM decks up for sale, and I picked up a bunch. Arrived surprisingly quickly. Though I normally collect only vintage KEMs, I picked up some newer decks here. The top row are newer decks, and the top left and top right I'd nev...

Another visit to the library for today's Ephemera Friday featuring two Poker books from USPCC: Poker, The Nation's Most Fascinating Game, 1941 and 1950.

Mailman Monday! I have two new antique decks that I added to the collection, an early NYCCC No. 42 Triton deck c1895 with a back design I had not seen before, and a USPCC Army & Navy deck c1900 with the Nautic back design.

Mailman Monday - I feel like I've been buying a bunch of vintage bricks lately, and here is another one. This is the ARRCO "21" poker deck with the Double Diamond back, and the best thing about these decks is the "FOIL FRESH PACK". This is the only brand I've seen that has the ca...

Ephemera Friday! Quick shot of some of the card game reference library, specifically my Hoyle's Games books. The three I removed from the shelf are my oldest ones, 1845, 1869 and 1875, from left to right.

I have no clue as to why they numbered the deck 4711

Today the role of Mailman will be played by FedEx Guy on Mailman Monday. FedEx Guy dropped off a new deck for me today - c1910 Klondike No. 4711 Playing Cards by Andrew Dougherty. An extremely rare deck that was likely issued to commemorate the gold strike in the Klondike. No gold panning joker, but...

It's Ephemera Friday. On display today we have this c1952 KEM Plastic Playing Cards sales booklet. The Flying Cloud and Blossoms designs came out in the latter half of 1952, so that's what I'm using to date this booklet.

Mailman Monday delayed due to Presidents' Day. This week we have this wonderful Bicycle 808 Rider Back brick box from 1962 with 10 sealed decks. I has an open deck also, and the Ace of Spades has a "D" date code from 1962. I really like the graphics on the brick box. 1962 Bicycle 808 Brick...

Exciting Mailman Monday for me today. I picked up a previously unknown KEM deck. It is an advertising deck from Kemper Insurance and the deck has a unique engraved KEM case and has the Kemper Insurance building in Chicago on the card backs. Deck is from 1957, which is newer than most of my KEMs. 195...

Wednesday supersized Mailman Monday. A little late for Mailman Monday this week, so I decide to post 4 different, though related, card backs. First up is the Bee French Whist #68 c1910, followed by the Bee Bridge Whist #68 c1920. Interesting to note the drastic change in the court cards from the Fre...

Thank Heavens It's Ephemera Friday! 4 more post cards on this edition, all from the early 1900s. Next week will be the Valentine's Day special.

Mailman Monday, Tuesday edition. Here's a companion to a prior post regarding the Legends Serpentine deck and Standard Playing Card Co. - prior pic reposted below under new pic I have now found an earlier edition of the Serpentine card back design that has the glorious original Standard Playing Card...

Thank Heavens It's Ephemera Friday - THEIF! A few more early 1900s post cards for today, a few of these with a literary bent.

Mailman Monday! Found the deck I wanted to post last week. It is the top deck (c1940 KEM Cameo) in the picture below, though the real find for me was the single deck lift top box. I had never seen this version before, so I posted it with all of my other KEM single deck boxes. Decks on the bottom ran...

Thank God It's Ephemera Friday! Starting with today's edition, I'll be posting from my collection of playing card and gambling related postcards. Here's a jaunty fun set of Poker Terms postcards from the early 1900s.

Mailman Monday! Couldn't find the deck I planned to post today, but I was in Little Rock over the weekend and saw a sign and memorial for the Rock Island route railway. Sooooo, why not post this c1915 Rock Island deck from The Standard Playing Card Co. for the Chicago Rock Island and Pacific Route a...

It’s Ephemera Friday! A while ago I posted a picture of my KEM (original) Unicorn deck from 1939 ( https://unitedcardists.com/viewtopic.php?p=215894#p215894 ). Here is an image of the only image I’ve been able to track down that showed this deck back in the day. 1939-06-14 - New York NY Sun - Unicor...

Mailman Monday! Today we have a two deck set of Andrew Dougherty Climax playing cards, c1905, with a shield and squash (or tennis) racquet design. Most likely these were a special order for some sort of squash club and the shield and crossed racquets were its logo.

Since we've spent a bit of time in the 1940s lately for Ephemera Friday, today I present the May 1, 1942 Army Exchange Service EXPORT Playing Card Price List from USPCC.

Mailman Monday, New Year's Wednesday edition Here's a great deck to start off 2024. This is a late 1890s Washburn deck that is similar to my other Washburn decks ( https://unitedcardists.com/viewtopic.php?p=156377#p156377 ) but with a different Ace of Spades, the great Washburn joker, extra cards an...

It's Ephemera Friday! Here's a nifty little 4" x 3" US Playing Card Co booklet from the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, NY in 1901. Would have been great to see that Exhibit in person.

Mailman Monday, Santa edition. Jolly Ol' St. Nick left me a nice US Govt use 1950 inner sealed deck of Club Reno No 103 cards from ARRCO, so I thought I'd post the Club Reno collection. I think the proper order by age should be red top left, blue bottom left, then top reds and bottom blues. Club Ren...

It's Ephemera Friday! Since we were looking at probabilities in a previous post, here's a handy 1960 booklet on Poker Possibilities from Bicycle to celebrate 75 years of Bicycle cards. Since this was 75 years, that may explain why USPCC changed the color of the text of the back name on the tuck to c...

It's Ephemera Friday, again. Here is the last set of my large USPCC ads, this time from 1950 and 1951 issues of The Saturday Evening Post. Moving away from poker and Bicycle and shooting for the Congress bridge crowd. Must have been around the time of the Canasta craze judging by the blurb in the co...

It's Ephemera Friday. Here is the penultimate set of my collection of the large USPCC ads, but you can always find more on eBay. This week's ads are for Bicycle cards , and they go out to all the fellas. Ads hail from 1945 and 1948 editions of the Saturday Evening Post. 1945-10-06 Sat Evening Post -...