[drake]

I do not have enough time to organize and work out the details for a Kem Card Group Buy for the Pharaoh Club. How many people would be interested in buying a couple of double decks of Pharaohs and Paisleys from Kem?? The Paisley Kems are the cards featured on Chiptalk's home page with Pharaohs. We play on a 8 foot oval table and have found that Super Index Bridge is the only way to go, especially if you have any players above 55 at the table. USPC is currently only making Bridge Arrows but I'm sure if we had a big enough order they would start producing these. What do you guys think??

[aero918]

Originally Posted by TenPercenter

A ChipTalk.net member PM'd me about info that Kardwell makes custom cards, both paper and 100% plastic. He was told that they use Gemaco for the custom plastics. YOu can get custom backs or custom backs AND fronts.

Now THAT would be the utilmate group buy to organize. Custom Pharaoh's Club Gemacos. The biggest problem I see is that the minimum is 5,000 decks, and that's a lot of freakin cards.

Actually the minimum buy quoted to me over the phone for 100% plastic cards was 500 decks (Gemaco full color backs) and 1000 decks KEM. I am still waiting on a written quote for 500, 1000, and 2000 sets (1 set equal two decks) of Gemaco and KEM brands. I will post some more information on the 100% plastic cards when I receive further info.

I did get the following written information on Gemaco plastic coated paper casino quality cards:

Full Color Custom Gemaco Plastic Coated Paper Cards:
Minimum order is 250 sets (2 decks per set)
5-6 week delivery time (currently scheduling for 6/24/05)
$3.25 per deck or $6.50 per set
One time set-up charge = $37.50 per color
Plus a 15% over-under run charge
Plus shipping


There is a very positive review of Gemaco 100% plastic cards at:

www.homepokertourney.com

Gemaco cards are available in both Bridge size and Poker size with short delivery times. Right now KEM is making the narrow Bridge size and lead times are a lot longer that Gemaco. Many of the people in our tournaments don't like the narrow bridge size KEM Pharohs and would prefer poker size.

JR

[aero918]

Over the past 4 months I have bought many of the "Egyptian" playing cards out there including:

KEM Pharaoh Cards
Lo Scarabeo Ancient Egyptian Playing cards
Greenboard Game Co. Ancient Egypt Cards
Pharonic Playing Cards

The above list is ranked in order of card quality. The Pharonic playing cards were terrible and should be avoided unless you want to give them to your kids to play with. These cards had colored backs that were not consistent from card to card. The paper quality was terrible. These two aspects made them useless. The Lo Scarabeo cards were nice. Card quality was not bad and they had the best face artwork of all the sets. Some pictures of these were posted earlier. The Greenboard Cards has some interesting artwork but the cards are 100% paper. I know that none of these cards (expect the KEM cards) would survive one tournament. The Kem cards were nice but many of the 20 - 30 people we play with did not like the narrow bridge size and prefer poker size. Therefore I have come to the conclusion that the only way to get some good quality Egyptian or Pharaoh's cards are to have them custom made with the artwork of our choice (I mean J5's / Tens creation )

[JM]

The pics I posted were of the Lo Scarabeo Ancient Egyptian Playing cards and I'd have to agree with aero's comments. They are quite nice with really cool artwork, but still paper and no comparison to plastic cards. I believe they are bridge sized as well and my crew and I prefer the poker sized too.

[mkhhawk]

Originally Posted by JM

The pics I posted were of the Lo Scarabeo Ancient Egyptian Playing cards and I'd have to agree with aero's comments. They are quite nice with really cool artwork, but still paper and no comparison to plastic cards. I believe they are bridge sized as well and my crew and I prefer the poker sized too.

Where did you purchase these cards? Would like to have a set to frame and display on the wall. Only sources I could find were overseas.

[JM]

Originally Posted by mkhhawk

[Where did you purchase these cards? Would like to have a set to frame and display on the wall. Only sources I could find were overseas.

That's where I had to get mine from as well. A nice guy in the UK was selling some on ebay and was willing to ship here to the states. Not sure if he still has anymore though, they were tough to find in the first place and that was about a year ago.

[duma]

nice info on the Gemacos. i will definately buy some of these if they are Regular Index bridge size. can we do multiple colors for the backs too?

[aero918]

Originally Posted by duma

nice info on the Gemacos. i will definately buy some of these if they are Regular Index bridge size. can we do multiple colors for the backs too?

I am interested in why you prefer the bridge size. I am actually neutral; however many and maybe most of our regular tourament players prefer the "poker size".

[JM]

Originally Posted by aero918

I am interested in why you prefer the bridge size. I am actually neutral; however many and maybe most of our regular tourament players prefer the "poker size".

I definitely prefer poker sized, as do the guys I regularly play with.

[duma]

bridge size is easier to collect once the hand is over. that means we can get the next hand out quicker. try spreading a poker sized deck on a table, washing the cards, and then time how long it takes you to box them all back together again. now repeat this with a bridge deck. i guarantee it is much quicker with the bridge sized deck.

Plus, casinos only use bridge size for their poker games, mainly for this reason. if we are using real Paulsons for the chips, it only makes sense to stay authentic and use bridge sized cards.

[JM]

We've tried them and everyone agrees they don't 'feel' right. Too small. I suspect casinos probably use them for the speed reason. More games = more rake. I don't think its true for every casino though. We don't have a rake, so the few seconds that may be saved are inconsequential, and we use 2 different color decks, so the person who just dealt is shuffling while the next dealer is dealing. No wasted time there.