So back in the summer that I was 8 years old, that would be 1987, and in order to surprise my grandparents for their anniversary, my father and his siblings got together to rent a house on Cape Cod for a week. It was cool, same ocean but different huge beaches, different woods, all that. Now grandma loved card games. She powdered her cards and won more often than not at her weekly bridge/pinochle/gin/poker game. I don't know but always imagined that she was a sharp

That day she taught me how to play gin and even allowed me to win. And then she taught me how to riffle shuffle. Heh and then she showed me how to keep an ace on the bottom. And at the end of the trip, she gave me the deck. It was just a cancelled casino deck but I thought it was the coolest deck in the world with that hole in it and that Bee card back that was so unlike the only decks I'd seen up to that point in my life. I practiced and played with that deck until it was dirty and dog eared and wouldn't do anything but stick together in 6 or so clumpy packets. I still wonder how and when I lost it.
Anyway, I've been acquiring cards ever since, more seriously in the last 6 or 8 years, and have what I would call a medium sized (small to some here, no doubt) collection, which is to say that most people that have seen it in real life seem to think I'm a little crazy. I collect Bicycle brand and whatever else catches my eye when I am looking and have the extra funds. I also occasionally visit local thrift stores looking for old decks. Found some interesting things that way, but not yet any historical scores like I'm hoping for.
So that's my story. Glad to be here!