I don't remember how, but recently I stumbled upon r/PlayingCards. It's a community of people who collect playing cards. They're focused on new releases, not vintage ones. There are a lot of cool decks that are coming out now, and they can be pretty expensive and generate a lot of hype around their releases. It's all very fascinating. There's also pretty much no mention of actually playing games with the cards. It seems most people keep them sealed. Many people make displays for their sealed decks. There does seem to be a number of magicians and people into cardistry (manipulation of cards for show, like fancy shuffles).
I admit, I got a little drawn into this community. I probably won't be spending loads of money anytime soon, but I have since acquired about 10 decks. Some are just Bicycle decks, which are usually priced nicely and can be found locally in many stores. Bicycle is the largest card manufacturer and makes a lot of special decks, and some people only collect Bicycles. There's also Theory11, which makes beautiful decks and has a lot of licenses, like Marvel, Star Wars, etc. You can find these at Target and Barnes and Noble.
I went to an estate sale last week, and there were a ton of vintage decks of cards, some sealed. I ended up getting 6 decks, and they just gave them to me, which was a nice surprise. They're not worth anything, but they're very cool. Some are old local businesses in Detroit, and I got quite a few airline decks (airlines used to give out decks of cards to their passengers). I also got one that looks like a cigarette box. Looking on eBay, it seems a lot of cigarette companies put out decks that looked like their cigarette packs. I think it'd be cool to either collect airline decks or cigarette decks.
I used to play cards quite a bit when I was younger. It definitely was a more prevalent pastime than now. It seems more people have moved on to board games or specifically designed card games that use a custom deck. I can't even remember the last time I played a game with a regular deck of cards.
So, I find myself with 10 decks of cards, and I haven't found anyone to play with yet. I started looking into solitaire games, and I found one I've really been enjoying a lot. It's called The Bogey. It's easy to learn, fun, and challenging. I've really been enjoying playing at the kitchen table at home, talking to my wife or kids. I've been looking for ways to not engage with my phone as much, and this is a good one. Just something to do during downtime instead of endlessly scrolling.
I've also started reading The Penguin Book of Card Games before bed. Even though I'll never play most of these games, there's something relaxing about reading the rules of card games. It is simultaneously interesting and boring, just enough to put me to sleep.
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jeff@drop7.com