First up this month is Contrast by Victor Sanz and SansMinds. A visual colour change of a signed card – leaving an impossible situation where the torn off piece – and signature – match the different coloured 3/4 card! This looks amazing – but the SansMinds trailers always do! But having spoken to a few people who’s opinions I trust this does seem to be one of their better releases. £32.99

As you know, we love playing cards here at Bicycle-Cards.co.uk and finding the best way to display them is always a challenge. The Orbiter 2.0 system looks fantastic – and allows you to see front and back of your prize decks – a very clever idea. This price is for the 4-deck model I believe. £30.99.

On the subject of cards there are not too many decks that have caught our eye recently, but perhaps it is our imminent trip to the United States which has drawn our attention to the Federal 52 Silver Certificate Playing Cards. Its a striking design, inspired by US bank notes from the 1800s and magicians will be pleased to note the double back card included. I’ve got a bit of a thing about retro styled decks, but even so this is a rather nice example and printed on good quality Bee stock. £16.99.

And finally, a noble mention for Tom Elderfield’s Space Time – this is a visually stunning moving hole routine which leaves your audience with nowhere to go! If this is half as good as he video it is worth getting. Again, we’ve not had the chance to play with this yet – but we’ll let you know when we have. But if you want to get in there first it is only £20.99 (do check out the video!)

Lots more magic news and reviews coming in the days ahead.  Hope you enjoy the journey with us.  Follow us on Twitter or Like us on Facebook to keep up to date with all our latest posts.

The post Trick of the month – February 2016 – it’s all about the cards appeared first on Bicycle Cards.

Let’s start with one for the magicians.  I’ve always had a soft spot for the Ellusionist Vintage 1800s – one of the first ‘aged’ decks produced.  They’ve recently printed a new batch which are marked – which obviously makes them a fantastic weapon for the magician.  They look old but handle like new.  What’s not to like?  £6.49

The Run Playing Cards – which are available in two different colour ways – seem to make a bold statement.  They come with a hardened cover which seems to go around the normal tuck case – which is quite cool.  Both editions are fairly limited (10,000 for the red and 15,000 for the cheaper green deck).  Heat Edition (=Red) is £12.99, Standard Edition (=gamblers green) is £8.99. If you really like them, why not go for the Uncut Sheet?

We have noticed a real increase in the number of ‘historical themed’ decks produced recently, and the Golden Spike Deck is a nice example of this trend.  Beautifully illustrated court cards in the style of the artwork of the late 1800s. Update – there is also a Limited Edition Gold Edition.

The Rarebit Copper Edition is a really unusual deck of cards – and we just love the glorious tuck case  (see below)!  If you get in quick you might still be able to get the pre-order price on these (£7.99 instead of £8.99) – and if they’re anything like their first edition predecessors – they will sell out quickly and become highly collectable!

And finally, if you’re buying lots of new cards for Christmas, you’re going to need somewhere to put them. We’ve mentioned JP Playing Cards range of storage boxes in the past, but they have recently introduced a new 18-deck box, which is a nice compromise between the previous brick or 36-deck boxes. Available in black or white and highly recommended (we use them ourselves!). The 18-deck box is a very reasonable £6.49.

Enjoy your Christmas cards!

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Enter our friends at JP Playing Cards who have a variety of solutions to this problem – depending on the size of your collection.  We review some of their offerings below…

If you just have an individual deck you want to store and protect, then you need look no further than their handy Plastic Playing Card Storage Box.  At only 99p (with reductions for bulk) they are a very convenient solution.  As you can see, they comfortably fit a deck of Bicycle Cards still in their tuck case and wrapper.  Great for keeping your decks and tuck cases clean and tidy.

If you have a larger collection they sell 12 deck (one brick), 18 deck or 36 deck (three bricks) solutions.  We looked at the 36 deck solution and the ‘Cut out brick box’ (they do another brick box with no window, but we didn’t look at that one). [if you look closely you will see that we actually have 39 decks in our 36 deck box! This is because newer decks tend to take up less space and there is a little room for expansion!]

These boxes come arrive flat and you have to assemble them yourself.  This is a straightforward task – if you know which boxes you are expecting.  I must confess I was a little confused until I worked out that I had a couple of different types of box in my parcel.  After that it was fairly intuitive.

The cut out boxes are of a single piece and pretty much fold themselves up.  The 36 deck boxes have a separate lid, and also two extra dividers which fold into the overall design.  But unless you are very spatially challenged you should have no problems putting them together.

With the large storage box, the lid felt a pretty tight fit when the box was empty, but it became much easier to put the lid on and off when the box was full.  If you load the box to its full capacity (36 decks) then it is a little hard to get a deck out [NB – this was true for us when we had 39 decks in! it would be different for only 36!] – since there is barely any finger room.  But I think in storage terms a snug fitter is better than a loose fit, so this is a sign of something which is fit for purpose.  The ‘Cut out brick box,’ as its name suggests, has a cut out in the top allowing you to easily locate the deck you are looking for.

These boxes are made of a heavy cardboard and will keep your decks well protected.  But if you are particularly concerned about humidity or damp problems they would probably not be a good choice since the cardboard wouldn’t provide that much protection.  And obviously the cut away boxes expose more of the decks.

JP have a couple of other options on the storage front including the, to my mind, mildly ridiculous ‘deck stays’ (for reinforcing your tuck cases!).  But for the convenience of a purpose built and reasonably robust storage solution and a fair price, these storage boxes are well worth a look.  And if you want to spend a bit more, the Carat Cases are gorgeous!

Why not get some to store all your Christmas decks in?  Or buy one for the magician in your life to house their collection?

And whilst you’re there, why not look at their fabulous collection of collectable playing cards.  They have a great range…

And check out our competition (coming soon) for a chance to win some playing card storage solutions.

The post How do you store yours? Or how to solve a problem like playing card storage… appeared first on Bicycle Cards.