Thank you very much Helen for posting this thread and thanks everyone for your comments.
First of all I would like to say that all of your comments, including the positives and negatives are mostly correct. Yes, it might be an SUV of cards, it’s easy to shuffle, it makes clunky noise, it’s interesting, etc... I am sure that there are some people out there that hate SUV and some might like them. Some might think they are easy to shuffle and some might think they are clumsy. Some might like the clunky noise and some don’t. The truth is I would never dream of replacing the traditional cards, which is hundred of years old, with my new playing cards. But consider the number of playing cards sold by the U.S. Playing Cards Company alone is 100 millions decks a year and rising (
http://www.cincypost.com/2005/02/22/cards022205.html)
, hopefully some of the consumer will like the new playing cards.
Of course all new products would have some positives and negatives things about it. But let me have an opportunity to talk about the positives. I will respectfully leave the negatives to other posters. Please go easy on it. The product is still new and there is a lot of room for improvement in the future. I will take all positive and negative feedbacks and try to improve the product on them.
First of all, I just want to create a new type of cards that provides ease of shuffling for people with dexterity problem. Consider there are thousands of retirement homes throughout the country and with the current poker craze, a lot of them would like to play Texas Hold’em in their pastime. A lot of my friends including me have bought those shuffling machines for $20 to $30. But most of them end up collecting dust on the shelves since they are clumsy to use and require user intervention anyway. Yet, millions of them are sold during the past few years.
I usually play Texas Hold’em with my friends and we average that after about 10 hours of playing, we have to replace a new deck of the Bicycle playing cards. The new cards are made of ABS plastic which is very durable and scratch resistant. It should last many, many times longer (at least more than 10 times) than a normal $3 deck of playing cards. Of course all products will suffer from wear and tear. If you play with a normal Bicycle deck, eventually you will have bent cards, split corners and dirty marks on them. The new cards are made of hard plastic. I tried to slide them against each other using normal pressure and did not see any visible scratch. Of course if you did it very hard, they would scratch since they are still plastic. But with normal playing and mixing, it should last a long time. As a matter of fact, we have been playing with it for more than a year now before I even put it out on the market and all of my friends loved it. The new card is 90% water proof since they’re made of plastic and high quality glossy plastic laminated label. One time I forgot and left a couple of them in my pocket and after a laundry, they’re still ok. The new cards will not bend and if they get dirty, you can wash them with a little water. Eventually, the label will be replaced by plastic they will be 100% water proof.
Another interesting factor with the new cards is that you can pick your own cards. A designated card dealer is not really needed. A lot of time, my friends keep complaining that I dealt them bad cards. With these new cards, you get to pick your own. So if you happen to have a Royal Flush, it is because you dealt it to yourself. Hence the slogan “Deal Yourself a Winning Hand!”.
How many times you see people go picnic in the parks or beaches and they play cards. It’s very rare since the wind would blow away the cards and make it hard to play. With this new playing cards, people can eat, drink, play balls and play cards at picnics. It will add more variety to different things you can do at picnics or campfires. This also works great on the air plane since you can pass the cards around and nobody will see them until you reveal it yourself.
Another added bonus is the clicking sound when you slide the card up and down. You might have noticed that poker players usually shuffle their poker chips while waiting for others to make a play. This is something that’s not easy to do and not a lot of people can do it. I myself also cannot do it but I have found out that the clicking from sliding the card up and down also generate a soothing and fun sound that almost similar to shuffling the poker chips. If you cannot shuffle poker chips, this will give you something to do while waiting for other players to make a decision.
Of course you cannot play every card games in the world with this new playing cards. But with the majority of card games current being played is Texas Hold’em and Blackjack, I think it’s good for people who mainly play these types of card games. Also with hundreds of different cultures in the world, there are hundreds of card games that only require two or three cards in hand. From the country where I come from alone, we can play at least 3 to 4 types of games that’s not Texas Hold’em or Blackjack but only require 2 to 3 cards in hand. Also I am in the process of designing a holder where you can simply hold multiple cards easily. A design for a mixer like a bingo cage is also in the process. With this mixer, you can turn the handle of the cage to mix the cards inside.
I don’t think the current price of $29.95 is too much considering that it comes with a nice leather case with a glass window. This would make a nice gift for someone even if you don’t play cards. It would look like you have spent a lot more than $30 when they’ve received them.
Additional similar product is also on its way. One of them is a game for kids where they can play a game of memory match. Instead of the playing cards faces, they will have pictures of different animal like dogs and cats. The kids can lay them out and whoever can pair them up in a shortest amount of time win. Look for these types of games in the near future.
Again, I thank you all for your feedbacks. Whether they are positive or negative, I value them all. Please keep them coming.
Binh Quach.
Founder of Shuffle Up Playing Cards.
Posted Fri Dec 1, 2006 11:23 pm
