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TheGentlemanWake wrote: I've been in Vegas over the last couple of days shooting content with Alex Pandrea...

Can you tell him to knock it off with the NOCs and that THIS (Tavern) is what a custom deck should look like? Or should we be expecting a TGW NOC deck to be released soon?

vasta41 wrote:

TheGentlemanWake wrote: I've been in Vegas over the last couple of days shooting content with Alex Pandrea...

Can you tell him to knock it off with the NOCs and that THIS (Tavern) is what a custom deck should look like? Or should we be expecting a TGW NOC deck to be released soon?

Ok not to veer this thread too off topic but It’s amazing what meeting someone and talking to them teaches you! Alex has sold so many NOC decks over the years that he’d be a fool to stop. He is completely aware and has no delusions about what the NOCs are. A cheap workers deck designed to be color coordinated with the users wardrobe. They are also a fantastic source of revenue of course. He does think that the discerning collector deserves more attention but at the moment he feels like he’d rather sell as many $5 NOCs as he can rather than put in the required effort to potentially make much less by attacking the collectors market.

As far as working with him goes. I tell you what. I’d be a fool not to If he did offer. Some may view that as a selling out. But honestly it’s such a fantastic way to extend the reach of a brand. And in the process make people aware of the TGW channel where I can continue to do what I love; which is to show folks how amazing and beautiful and functional and versatile playing cards can be.

Gotta admire Pandrea. Plus there’s the fact that he was willing to collaborate with a fledgling channel like ours. He will help me in many more ways, in much more tangible means, than my small (by comparison) reach would. He’s really been beyond generous.


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I agree with you TGW. Alex has a large following. Frankly (surprisingly to me) a number of them are subscribers to your channel. I am not a fan of NOCs by a long shot, but I agree he would be crazy not to keep cranking them out to a hungry audience. I don't like his hype, but I am not a fan of other card seller's hype either. I guess it is just a part of the business.

Keep growing your channel and producing great deck reviews, even NOC's, and I will be happy.

I ordered mine when i heard that they were available. i was lucky cause the wife liked them too when we saw the instagram preview.
I made it a green day and ordered the green Tycoons too. The limited moniker has made me panicky lately.
I've fallen in love with some limited decks that are just impossible to obtain. It's disheartening.

Yeah, it is hard to know if it is just hype or real. I decided to pick up a few too. I have to doubt that they are seriously limited, but I like them.

Yeah, it is hard to know. If they are being honest, they did say on IG yesterday that half of their supply was already GONE. They never said this about the limited Green Tycoons, so maybe these are going faster. Maybe.

You can also get the cards from the Tavern on the Green Gift Shop. Only $12.

https://store.tavernonthegreen.com/prod ... ying-cards

TheGentlemanWake wrote:

vasta41 wrote:

TheGentlemanWake wrote: I've been in Vegas over the last couple of days shooting content with Alex Pandrea...

Can you tell him to knock it off with the NOCs and that THIS (Tavern) is what a custom deck should look like? Or should we be expecting a TGW NOC deck to be released soon?

Ok not to veer this thread too off topic but It’s amazing what meeting someone and talking to them teaches you! Alex has sold so many NOC decks over the years that he’d be a fool to stop. He is completely aware and has no delusions about what the NOCs are. A cheap workers deck designed to be color coordinated with the users wardrobe. They are also a fantastic source of revenue of course. He does think that the discerning collector deserves more attention but at the moment he feels like he’d rather sell as many $5 NOCs as he can rather than put in the required effort to potentially make much less by attacking the collectors market.

As far as working with him goes. I tell you what. I’d be a fool not to If he did offer. Some may view that as a selling out. But honestly it’s such a fantastic way to extend the reach of a brand. And in the process make people aware of the TGW channel where I can continue to do what I love; which is to show folks how amazing and beautiful and functional and versatile playing cards can be.

Gotta admire Pandrea. Plus there’s the fact that he was willing to collaborate with a fledgling channel like ours. He will help me in many more ways, in much more tangible means, than my small (by comparison) reach would. He’s really been beyond generous.


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I have always and will always commend deck designers for making money. And if Alex is still making money off the NOCs then I say good for him. I can't understand why but if people are buying them as much as he says then why should he stop? Don't hate the player, hate the game, right? But it doesn't change my opinion (TL;DR Quantity over quality I guess). Back on topic, what I'm trying to say is I'd rather T11 release 4-5 custom decks (like Tavern) per year in the $10-12 range than 4-5 recolored NOCs in as many months in the $6-8 range. But since people vote with their wallets I guess I'm in a minority here

EDIT: As far as Alex goes I've never met him (came close) but I have many of his tutorials and enjoy them thoroughly. He's a great magician and I respect what he's done in the magic world AND the playing card world. After all he has been making cards since before a lot of current people on this forum even started collecting.

Theory11 Limited Editions are 5,000 (or less) printed.

This is a really nice deck, reminds me of the green Nationals deck quite a bit.

I snagged this, Navigators and the Black Hudsons, all for $3 shipping.

Vasta: I think you're ignoring the fact that NOCs aren't necessarily targeted at the same audience that the T11 decks are. NOCs are for street magicians/cardists, who will be ordering a couple bricks at a time for performances-- without that niche you probably wouldn't be seeing as large a market for custom cards (I know I was drawn to collecting from my interest in card tricks and sleight of hand). T11 decks are marketed to a much wider audience: players, magicians, hobby cardists, collectors, etc.

ICantShuffle wrote:Vasta: I think you're ignoring the fact that NOCs aren't necessarily targeted at the same audience that the T11 decks are. NOCs are for street magicians/cardists, who will be ordering a couple bricks at a time for performances-- without that niche you probably wouldn't be seeing as large a market for custom cards (I know I was drawn to collecting from my interest in card tricks and sleight of hand). T11 decks are marketed to a much wider audience: players, magicians, hobby cardists, collectors, etc.

You're 100% right. Different strokes for different folks!

vasta41 wrote:

ICantShuffle wrote:Vasta: I think you're ignoring the fact that NOCs aren't necessarily targeted at the same audience that the T11 decks are. NOCs are for street magicians/cardists, who will be ordering a couple bricks at a time for performances-- without that niche you probably wouldn't be seeing as large a market for custom cards (I know I was drawn to collecting from my interest in card tricks and sleight of hand). T11 decks are marketed to a much wider audience: players, magicians, hobby cardists, collectors, etc.

You're 100% right. Different strokes for different folks!

"Everyone has their own taste" said the fly and continued to eat shit.

I just received my Tavern on the Green decks from Theory 11. I think the decks are awesome with their typically awesome tuck box with inner foil. Lots of tuck bling. Then the cards. Wow, they finally did it. Super design with custom courts and pips. Metallic ink. It checks off my wants, and for under $10. That is hard to beat.

The decks are still available at Theory11's website.

Does anyone know if these will be sold by other retailers? Shipping cost to Europe is $18 at the moment. That's for one deck. Three decks = $30.
I can't really understand how they can charge that much for standard shipping without tracking that takes up to 6 weeks, while Art of Play ships two decks for $9.

Rez wrote:Does anyone know if these will be sold by other retailers? Shipping cost to Europe is $18 at the moment. That's for one deck. Three decks = $30.
I can't really understand how they can charge that much for standard shipping without tracking that takes up to 6 weeks, while Art of Play ships two decks for $9.

It's hard to say, could be a gamble but AoP sometimes picks up T11 decks. I guess it depends on how many are made and bought. Worst you could do is message T11 to find out about stock.

I thought I would share my brick of Tavern on the green in one of CCC's XCB Brick boxes. I really like these boxes.

Man, that looks amazing. I only got 1 deck.

I need some of that Texas Oil money. It's sad, but the Carteles won't cut me in on any of that sweet black-tar heroine action.

I'll sell it on eBay in a year or two as a "Museum Quality" investment in limited and out-of-print playing cards specially made by Theory II and designed by Kevin Cantrell for the iconic Tavern on the Green Restaurant in New York City. Investment grade. Fully custom deck with brilliant use of foils on tuck and gold metallic ink throughout on front and back of each card. etc.... $5,000 Buy It Now. Free shipping.

In fact, a special just for UC members, I'll sell it now for half off, because I love you. XCB Carat Case included. Free shipping. [BACON]

Keep in mind this deck has GOLD foil and GOLDmetallic colored ink

Why not just sell it for like $300? You'll still be profiting quite a bit (a brick of T11s is, what? $130).

Or, are you talking about a recent auction for a set of bejeweled card decks? I saw that one, too.

Yeah, if someone wants it for $300, come see me for sure. No, I am just being silly and poking fun at the few people on eBay that are selling things for so much that they are living in la-la land.

I could use the money. I just picked up a Heretic Lux Gran Reserva for a small fortune.

I really like their new release (Tavern Green), the tuck case is pretty epic; can't wait to get these into Australia.

According to T11 these are almost sold out. Get them now!

I just saw these are now sold out! I hope everyone that wanted them got some!

These are still available at Tavern on the Green's website, though at 12 a pack

https://store.tavernonthegreen.com/prod ... ying-cards" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There is currently one on ebay which is bid up to 42 dollars......one deck !!

Sorry these took so long to upload, card scans available on https://www.flickr.com/photos/167981955 ... 5731858401

mcstrat, those were really nice photographs and well-presented. How did you do it?

Bradius wrote:mcstrat, those were really nice photographs and well-presented. How did you do it?

Flatbed scanner and photoshop. They are scanned in as multipage TIFF files, then split into JPG sheets, 9 cards per page. The Tiffs are backed up. Photoshop has a built in script called "Crop and Straighten Photos" which takes the pages, separates the single cards, and straightens them. I wrote an action that runs that script, then saves and closes the files. Any additional straightening/cropping is done in Lightroom if needed. Then they are uploaded to Flickr. A storage box of 20 decks takes about 6 hours from start to finish.

I started doing it this way because I live in a small space so displaying my collection out in the open is not doable. So I stream the card images to a 32" digital picture frame hanging on my wall.

6 hours per deck?!! It shows though. That is a great image and an amazing way to display your card collection. It would be great if I could get those images. We have a section here called “Show us your cards”.

Bradius wrote:6 hours per deck?!!

6 hours for 20 decks.