It's Come To This - Card Scarcity!! (1 Viewer)

[Phyffe]

I will preface this by saying I would like to keep politics out of this thread and this community, specially since a lot of us are not from the US (myself included).

A lot of us will have noticed that post-pandemic a lot of brands and sub brands are a lot harder to source, NTP, Guild, Dal Negro just to name a few.

What I've noticed in the past few months is that we are seeing a lot more cards in short supply in the usual channels such as Amazon and eBay.

Most mainstream Modiano cards are now unavailable or out of stock. We saw a shrinking supply of Platinums but now even the Cristallos and Holdem Poker variant are no longer available.

Desjgn currently does not have Jumbo index cars. Faded Spade has limited inventory as well.

Given that tariffs are affecting both EU and China suppliers, does that mean that only USPCA and Copag (Brazil) prices won't be affected? Let's hope not. I don't wanna play with just Copags all the time....

 

[JMC9389]

Not too many of the European card manufacturers have put out any new designs for retail purpose in quite some time. Fournier put out their EPT line of plastic cards over three years ago now. That's the last "major" release of any of the big hitters. Davinci (which is Modiano stock) just put out a couple of new poker jumbo designs a few weeks ago. Dal Negro's last release of new stock was over three years ago. They have a new Treviso line but I've only seen them pop up in a random shop in Greece that I haven't been able to source from yet.

Modiano put out a bridge jumbo offering 4 or 5 years ago, but surprise! Quality control issues. Cartamundi Belgium retired their casino stock line and essentially the Fournier print house in Spain takes care of all of Cartamundi's European printing. They put out a line under their European Copag line but they're difficult to source also.

Piatnik hasn't put out any new plastic in a decade. Kem? LOL.

Sad state of affairs indeed.

 

[RocAFella1]

Has anyone put some thought behind a Dal Negro GB? That or Kuo Kao might be worth looking into as we have fewer and fewer options.

 

[JMC9389]

Has anyone put some thought behind a Dal Negro GB? That or Kuo Kao might be worth looking into as we have fewer and fewer options.

Not sure what the MOQ is for the latter, but last I checked for Dal Negro it was 500/color for custom backs only. 3000/color for custom backs and card faces. Same for Fournier I believe. I think they do custom orders also with similar MOQ's as Dal Negro. That would be my choice if we're doing a high end GB. Bridge blackjack index on Fournier stock.

 

[RocAFella1]

500 setups seems relatively doable. I know MatB tried to do the Piatnik route that never really got off the ground.

 

[RocAFella1]

If the price is decent, I’d probably commit to 25-50 setups myself and wouldn’t mind reshipping stateside.

 

[JMC9389]

If the price is decent, I’d probably commit to 25-50 setups myself and wouldn’t mind reshipping stateside.

Same here. Ditto for Piatnik also. Love the face artwork the best from them. Believe the MOQ was 1000/color though.

 

[RocAFella1]

@Split

 

[chippitydoodah]

I'm in for a set up

 

[Old State]

I will preface this by saying I would like to keep politics out of this thread and this community, specially since a lot of us are not from the US (myself included).

A lot of us will have noticed that post-pandemic a lot of brands and sub brands are a lot harder to source, NTP, Guild, Dal Negro just to name a few.

What I've noticed in the past few months is that we are seeing a lot more cards in short supply in the usual channels such as Amazon and eBay.

Most mainstream Modiano cards are now unavailable or out of stock. We saw a shrinking supply of Platinums but now even the Cristallos and Holdem Poker variant are no longer available.

Desjgn currently does not have Jumbo index cars. Faded Spade has limited inventory as well.

Given that tariffs are affecting both EU and China suppliers, does that mean that only USPCA and Copag (Brazil) prices won't be affected? Let's hope not. I don't wanna play with just Copags all the time....

I think this has way more to do with where you live vs true scarcity. In the US you can get tons of cards and have always been able to.

 

[Phyffe]

I think this has way more to do with where you live vs true scarcity. In the US you can get tons of cards and have always been able to.

Well, I would say that that how it is for most of my favorite brands.

My old favorites such as Modiano are showing to be not available on where I used to buy them, and my new faves such as Desjgn and Faded Spade are out of stock as well (Desjgn just replied to a message from me saying they were out of Jumbo indexes and that they were trying to get new stock but didnt say when that would be).

But as I said, a lot of European setups are hard to find as well. Yes, there is a seller from Lithuania on eBay that sells Modiano Platinums as well as Fourniers but at that price combined with the long shipping time to the states then to me, they may as well be nonexistent for my purposes.

If you have any leads I would appreciate you sharing as I can order from most sites in the US, though Amazon is by far the easiest as it can ship it to me with the least hassle.

 

[davefr]

I think the premium retail plastic playing card business is in a state of consolidation with Copag as top dog. Copag is available worldwide with tons of options and relatively attractive pricing. Copag has also emerged as the primary supplier to the high profile tournaments like WSOP. I don't think anyone else is even close to Copag in worldwide retail sales.

The rest of the manufacturers seem like they have no desire to participate in mainstream retail and only interested in casino/cardroom business. (ex: Angel, KEM, etc).

Let's face it, other than this forum, the average consumer is going to buy based on price and availabilty. That boils down to Copag and the cheap no name Chinese cards on Amazon. The players like Fournier, Modiano, Dal Negro Gemaco seem to have decided to avoid worldwide retail. Desgjn and Faded Spade seem to only want a narrow slice of the premium segment.

 

[Old State]

Well, I would say that that how it is for most of my favorite brands.

My old favorites such as Modiano are showing to be not available on where I used to buy them, and my new faves such as Desjgn and Faded Spade are out of stock as well (Desjgn just replied to a message from me saying they were out of Jumbo indexes and that they were trying to get new stock but didnt say when that would be).

But as I said, a lot of European setups are hard to find as well. Yes, there is a seller from Lithuania on eBay that sells Modiano Platinums as well as Fourniers but at that price combined with the long shipping time to the states then to me, they may as well be nonexistent for my purposes.

If you have any leads I would appreciate you sharing as I can order from most sites in the US, though Amazon is by far the easiest as it can ship it to me with the least hassle.

I don’t as I just buy what’s available to me in the US. There are European cards and Japanese cards that simply don’t make it to the US. Getting them isn’t worth the cost and effort for me personally. I wouldn’t count that as scarcity though. Companies will sell where they can make the most money after their expenses