DIFFERENT TYPES OF PLAYING CARDS

Although playing cards have been around for hundreds of years, custom playing cards are a fairly modern concept. Before the early 2000s there was only really standard decks or promotional decks with a few collectable decks that were rare due to the age. The different type of playing cards listed below refer to decks from 2000 onwards.

• HYPE DECKS 

When it comes to decks, there are a lot of different brands and styles. Hype decks are 'trendy' and produced by companies that have a good following. These are normally cardistry decks, and will be the rare ones that people open and you see a lot on Instagram. An example of a current hype deck is the Kiss deck by Anyone worldwide. Hype decks tend to sell out fast and after a couple of years and few are left sealed they become collectible decks. The top brands right now for hype decks are: Anyone, Fontaine, LotusinHand, Dealersgrip & Missing New York

• WORKERS

These are the decks that you would use to perform with, easily accessible and have quite a large print run or are in continuous print. One of the most popular worker decks would be the Cherry Casino playing cards. 

A lot of company's that print workers decks also print other more limited versions of this same deck, in the case of the cherry casino playing cards we have the Holographic edition and the Limited Bee x Cherry collaboration deck.

• LUXURY DECKS 
• Luxury playing cards fall somewhere between the every day worker decks and the collectable decks, they aren't necessarily a limited print run but tend to be a little more expensive than workers due to the artwork, fancy tuck boxes and seals

• Collectable decks

These are the ones that are hard to come by and are either rare because of the limited print run or because everyone has opened them and very few own a sealed one. An example of a collectable deck that has become rare overtime would be the Orbit Third Edition.

• Standard decks

Standard decks are decks that magicians or cardists would use to practice moves that will probably end in the cards getting destroyed. As magicians tend to use Bicycle playing cards as their standard, these are decks that are very cheap and can easily find gimmicks that match such as double backers and blank cards etc. If a spectator signs them or you do a torn and restored, these are the cards you want to do it with.
A standard deck for cardists would be the Tally Ho decks. They are cheap, good looking and good to handle when you first start.