BigSlick4523
4 of a Kind
@suchj0sh sent me a link thanks man
when you type in
angel playing cards
LOL do that and see what comes up haha
thanks for the info man I appreciate it
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TEMU - Tons of cards I've never heard of, some acetate (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter davefr
- Start date
when you type in
angel playing cards
LOL do that and see what comes up haha
thanks for the info man I appreciate it
I’m sure you’re right, but it would be cool if people could refrain from calling anything fake until they actually have them in hand. This thread could become a useful resource.
Agreed, it also matters little if they wind up being nice cards.
I remember buying those on eBay like 7 years ago and they were definitely fake. Stiff as hell.
Edit: Well maybe not? In 2018 I posted that they were real deal copags as far as I could tell. But I don't remember ever having owned copags up to that point. I thought I remembered them being stiff? Oh well, I'll just wait and see.
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BigSlick4523
4 of a Kind
so I got my temu cards in I havent shuffled them enough to give an in depth review on them or anything but they are all made in china and all seem like cheaper cards some shuffle decent
these Shuffle nice but seem almost impossible to pitch once you want to start pitching them its very hard its hard to explain lol
they shuffle decent though they almost seem super dry almost like they stick together like mud hahaha prob be better once shuffled alot
my other cards were the King in a white box also not bad not sure if they are kem material but did not feel all that bad
the pokerstars.net cards are def fake copag they shuffle ok but seem like them $4 decks you can get from the poker store
and the ones I got that say copag on them are def fake but again all of them shuffle decent the ones pictured below just would be hard to pitch maybe unless u shuffle them alot
all in all for the price you can't go wrong but if you are looking for high end cards these are not it
these Shuffle nice but seem almost impossible to pitch once you want to start pitching them its very hard its hard to explain lol
they shuffle decent though they almost seem super dry almost like they stick together like mud hahaha prob be better once shuffled alot
my other cards were the King in a white box also not bad not sure if they are kem material but did not feel all that bad
the pokerstars.net cards are def fake copag they shuffle ok but seem like them $4 decks you can get from the poker store
and the ones I got that say copag on them are def fake but again all of them shuffle decent the ones pictured below just would be hard to pitch maybe unless u shuffle them alot
all in all for the price you can't go wrong but if you are looking for high end cards these are not it
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I received my Temu order today as well, and I'll review the two different types of cards I got separately to keep things a bit more digestible. This first review will be for the King branded cards that Temu currently sells for $3.98 per setup and describes as "2 Pairs Of PVC Plastic Waterproof Playing Cards In Black And Red." Please note that the picture of the cards with the white background is a stock photo taken directly from Temu's website, whereas the picture with the black background is my own photo taken using my iPhone.
Now the first thing I'll mention is that it turns out this 2-deck set might not actually fit the strict definition of a playing card "setup" as we fine folks of PCF typically use it. By that I mean when a PCF person refers to a card setup we usually mean 2 decks of cards - each deck having a different colored back - being packaged together in one box for easy carrying/travel. And I know the picture with the white background kind of makes it look like that's exactly what this is. But as you can see in the picture with the black background, the reality is that this is 2 decks, each in their own completely separate cardboard tuck box. And those 2 tuck boxes are then simply placed side-by-side in a very flimsy cardboard cutout box of their own. So if you travel around to different places and drag your poker supplies with you then please keep in mind that this packaging is going to be nowhere near as durable and convenient as the hard plastic boxes that many card setups come in (like Copag, Da Vinci, and Fournier). And even the thick rigid cardboard boxes that Kem, Faded Spade, Desjgn, Broken Arrow Cardroom, and Cartamundi setups all come in will be way more durable than the cruddy thin cardboard box this King setup came in. In fact, I fully expect that I'll probably end up destroying this outer King box within just a few days purely by accident somehow LOL.
That said, the cards themselves look beautiful because they are basically cheap knockoffs of Kem's famous "Arrow" design in a bridge sized card with a standard index. But there are numerous notable differences between these and legitimate Kem Arrows that cannot be ignored.
Now the first thing I'll mention is that it turns out this 2-deck set might not actually fit the strict definition of a playing card "setup" as we fine folks of PCF typically use it. By that I mean when a PCF person refers to a card setup we usually mean 2 decks of cards - each deck having a different colored back - being packaged together in one box for easy carrying/travel. And I know the picture with the white background kind of makes it look like that's exactly what this is. But as you can see in the picture with the black background, the reality is that this is 2 decks, each in their own completely separate cardboard tuck box. And those 2 tuck boxes are then simply placed side-by-side in a very flimsy cardboard cutout box of their own. So if you travel around to different places and drag your poker supplies with you then please keep in mind that this packaging is going to be nowhere near as durable and convenient as the hard plastic boxes that many card setups come in (like Copag, Da Vinci, and Fournier). And even the thick rigid cardboard boxes that Kem, Faded Spade, Desjgn, Broken Arrow Cardroom, and Cartamundi setups all come in will be way more durable than the cruddy thin cardboard box this King setup came in. In fact, I fully expect that I'll probably end up destroying this outer King box within just a few days purely by accident somehow LOL.
That said, the cards themselves look beautiful because they are basically cheap knockoffs of Kem's famous "Arrow" design in a bridge sized card with a standard index. But there are numerous notable differences between these and legitimate Kem Arrows that cannot be ignored.
- Instead of the normal blue and red colored backs that Kem uses for their Arrow sets these come in black and red.
- These do not have any actual "Kem" branding on them, which instead has been replaced by "King" branding. But these definitely do have branding on them suggesting that King Playing Cards is owned by the United States Playing Card Company (USPCC)... which of course it most certainly is not.
- Interestingly, these list an address for the United States Playing Card Company as being 4590 Beech Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45212. In reality that location stopped being a USPCC factory back in 2009, then sat vacant for well over a decade, and eventually became an apartment building called Factory 52. But the box also lists a website of www.usplayingcard.com which is still the valid homepage of USPCC.
- Just as @davefr mentioned a few posts above, these also came with a fake service card claiming that you can request replacement cards when necessary. And the address they say you should send your request to - 2 Beck Place, Poughkeepsie, NY - was indeed a Kem factory for nearly 60 years. But a quick search online revealed that this location was actually sold to Marist College back in 2005 and is now a parking lot. Good grief LOL! I also noticed that there is a typo on this service card where it says "Seod" instead of the word "Send" which is a dead giveaway that it's a cheap Asian-manufactured knockoff. Plus the USA flag on this advertising card has only 48 stars on it, which no real "Made In America" product would ever do.
- Most importantly, the card stock of these Temu Kings itself is just "meh" in my book. I messed around with playing cards for about 45 minutes while watching TV by switching between these Kings, and the Angel cards that Temu sent me (which I'll review later), my authentic Kems, and Desjgn cards just to feel the differences between all of them while performing various actions. And I will say that I had absolutely no problem doing table riffles, hand riffles, or overhand shuffles with these knockoff King cards. I even managed to do a couple of ugly Faro shuffles with them (although nowhere near as easily as I can with Desjgn cards which are my favorite). And pitching these King cards didn't seem to be an issue either.
- Even though they shuffled and handled fine, these King cards just don't feel "great" to me by any measure... and they certainly don't have the high quality feel of real top-end cards like Kem, Desjgn, Faded Spade, Fournier, etc. This was especially true for the front (AKA the face) of the cards, which are noticeably "slicker" or "smoother" than the back of the cards are. In fact, this was actually the only type of card I messed around with tonight where the fronts felt significantly different from the backs... with each of the other brands both sides of the cards are relatively similar to each other. But the front of these King branded cards are probably among the slickest-feeling card faces that I've ever felt, which isn't necessarily a deal breaker but certainly isn't a plus either. If these really were manufactured by USPCC then I'd definitely suggest that they give them a bit of the old Bicycle "Air Cushion Finish" to improve them going forward because these are a tiny bit slippery for my liking LOL. And of course these knockoff Kings are definitely nowhere near as buttery soft as my real Kems are. Please note that these Kings assuredly aren't bad though... they just aren't great either.
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BigSlick4523
4 of a Kind
Nailed it thats exactly how I feel about these but they are not horrible for the $I received my Temu order today as well, and I'll review the two different types of cards I got separately to keep things a bit more digestible. This first review will be for the King branded cards that Temu currently sells for $3.98 per setup and describes as "2 Pairs Of PVC Plastic Waterproof Playing Cards In Black And Red." Please note that the picture of the cards with the white background is a stock photo taken directly from Temu's website, whereas the picture with the black background is my own photo taken using my iPhone.
Now the first thing I'll mention is that it turns out this 2-deck set might not actually fit the strict definition of a playing card "setup" as we fine folks of PCF typically use it. By that I mean when a PCF person refers to a card setup we usually mean 2 decks of cards - each deck having a different colored back - being packaged together in one box for easy carrying/travel. And I know the picture with the white background kind of makes it look like that's exactly what this is. But as you can see in the picture with the black background, the reality is that this is 2 decks, each in their own completely separate cardboard tuck box. And those 2 tuck boxes are then simply placed side-by-side in a very flimsy cardboard cutout box of their own. So if you travel around to different places and drag your poker supplies with you then please keep in mind that this packaging is going to be nowhere near as durable and convenient as the hard plastic boxes that many card setups come in (like Copag, Da Vinci, and Fournier). And even the thick rigid cardboard boxes that Kem, Faded Spade, Desjgn, Broken Arrow Cardroom, and Cartamundi setups all come in will be way more durable than the cruddy thin cardboard box this King setup came in. In fact, I fully expect that I'll probably end up destroying this outer King box within just a few days purely by accident somehow LOL.
That said, the cards themselves look beautiful because they are basically cheap Chinese knockoffs of Kem's famous "Arrow" design in a bridge sized card with a standard index. But there are numerous notable differences between these and legitimate Kem Arrows that cannot be ignored.
So all in all it looks to me like Temu's King Playing Cards are exactly what most of us expected them to be: a Chinese factory basically just took a bridge sized standard index Kem Arrow setup from let's say prior to 2004 and copied them as best as they could using cheap plastic card stock and cheap flimsy packaging. But due to the various changes (and errors and typos) noted above these are definitely different enough that no discerning consumer would ever confuse them for the real thing. And consequently I think the Kem/USPCC/Cartamundi conglomerate probably has no real desire to go after the manufacturer for IP infringement. They know the simple reality is that anyone serious enough about poker or cardistry to shell out $15.00-$50.00+ for a pack of cards isn't expecting to get them for $3.98 on Temu. And admittedly I certainly won't be trying to impress my friends with these King cards any time soon. But at the same time I really think they'd be perfectly fine for any situation where you might not want to use expensive top of the line playing cards. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.
- Instead of the normal blue and red colored backs that Kem uses for their Arrow sets these come in black and red.
- These do not have any actual "Kem" branding on them, which instead has been replaced by "King" branding. But these definitely do have branding on them suggesting that King Playing Cards is owned by the United States Playing Card Company (USPCC)... which of course it most certainly is not.
- Interestingly, these list an address for The United States Playing Card Company as being 4590 Beech Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45212. In reality that location stopped being a USPCC factory back in 2009, then sat vacant for well over a decade, and eventually became an apartment building called Factory 52. But the box also lists a website of www.usplayingcard.com which is still the valid homepage of USPCC.
- Just as @davefr mentioned a few posts above, these also came with a fake service card claiming that you can request replacement cards when necessary. And the address they say you should send your request to - 2 Beck Place, Poughkeepsie, NY - was indeed a Kem factory for nearly 60 years. But a quick search online revealed that this location was actually sold to Marist College back in 2005 and is now a parking lot. Good grief LOL! I also noticed that there is a typo on this service card where it says "Seod" instead of the word "Send" which is a dead giveaway that it's a cheap Asian-manufactured knockoff.
- Most importantly, the card stock of these Temu Kings itself is just "meh" in my book. I messed around with playing cards for about 45 minutes while watching TV by switching between these Kings, and the Angel cards that Temu sent me (which I'll review later), my authentic Kems, and Desjgn cards just to feel the differences between all of them while performing various actions. And I will say that I had absolutely no problem doing table riffles, hand riffles, or overhand shuffles with these knockoff King cards. I even managed to do a couple of ugly Faro shuffles with them (although nowhere near as easily as I can with Desjgn cards which are my favorite). And pitching these King cards didn't seem to be an issue either. That said, they just don't feel "great" to me by any measure... and they certainly don't have the high quality feel of real top-end cards like Kem, Desjgn, Faded Spade, Fournier, etc. This was especially true for the front (AKA the face) of the cards, where these Kings feel much "slicker" or "smoother" than the other brands mentioned. And of course they are nowhere near as buttery soft as my real Kems are. Please note that these Kings aren't bad though... they just aren't great either.
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BigSlick4523
4 of a Kind
I have seen cards with like 1 line going through the cards but not 20 lines thats wild
BigSlick4523
4 of a Kind
would you say they shuffle nice enough to be worth the $7 a deck lol
I got the red ones coming not sure if I wanna get a blue deck as well
I’d take broken arrow over these all day tbh. These pale in comparison to the Angel Aristo cards I’ve handled.
My Broken Arrows are in the trash. Their red ink fades even faster than Copig. Those Angels are PVC. I haven't noticed any defects in mine decks. The best cards on the planet are Angel Poker (bridge size in Acetate).
Yeah I don’t think these are acetate, and the defects are obvious in the pics I posted. The Angel Aristo Club poker sized cards I have are definitely a lot nicer than these, and some of my favorite cards.
Ive never handled the acetate Angels. The Aristos are PVC, but they’re really nice. I don’t love them personally because I don’t care for cards that have different finishes on each side. But that’s more of a personal preference thing.
divinerites
Two Pair
I recognise the plastic cards I bought directly from Tina with my tournament set (upper red & blue).
They are really good.
May be better than my previous copag.
I use them with my shuffle tech without any glitch.
They are really good.
May be better than my previous copag.
I use them with my shuffle tech without any glitch.
I got one of each of the red and blue Angel card decks as well. Thankfully mine did not come with any of the markings or imperfections that @suchj0sh had in his decks. And I have zero doubt that these are 100% authentic Angel playing cards. From things like the Angel name and logo appearing on the hard plastic case to the Angel name and hearts & diamonds appearing within the cellophane wrapper itself (see the second picture below), I would not expect counterfeiters to include such minute details in a cheap knockoff. I even used Google's Lens feature to translate the Japanese language on the advertising cards that came with them and that all checked out OK as well (whereas we know that Chinese knockoffs tend to include accidental typos and grammatical mistakes). So these definitely appear to be the real deal as far as I'm concerned.
That said, I've shuffled them a whole bunch and tried pitching them a few times and I just don't love them very much. I do like their thickness, which I'd say is kind of middle of the road. By that I mean they aren't as soft as Kems, but they aren't as stiff as Copags.... these have a nice balance between those two extremes. But I think these Angel cards are far too slick feeling for my liking. I feel like I have dropped some of these Angel cards by mistake more times in the past few days than I have with all of my other cards combined just because they are so damn smooth. And I have to be extra careful when I go to pitch them because they seem to glide further than most cards, which I think again goes back to how incredibly smooth they are. I will say that they do shuffle pretty well though. Like I could do a nice faro shuffle with them right out of the box... no "break in" period was necessary. But even doing those faro shuffles, riffle shuffles, etc. seemed somehow less "satisfying" because of the slickness issue.
I would, however, still very much like to try Angel's 2-deck setup that comes in a green box which are supposedly nicer cards on a premium cellulose acetate stock. Unfortunately the last couple of times I tried to buy those on Amazon.co.jp they said they were out of stock. But at least as far as the Angel cards available on Temu go, I certainly won't be purchasing any more of them. They are definitely legitimate Angel cards, but they just aren't right for me based on how they handle and shuffle.
That said, I've shuffled them a whole bunch and tried pitching them a few times and I just don't love them very much. I do like their thickness, which I'd say is kind of middle of the road. By that I mean they aren't as soft as Kems, but they aren't as stiff as Copags.... these have a nice balance between those two extremes. But I think these Angel cards are far too slick feeling for my liking. I feel like I have dropped some of these Angel cards by mistake more times in the past few days than I have with all of my other cards combined just because they are so damn smooth. And I have to be extra careful when I go to pitch them because they seem to glide further than most cards, which I think again goes back to how incredibly smooth they are. I will say that they do shuffle pretty well though. Like I could do a nice faro shuffle with them right out of the box... no "break in" period was necessary. But even doing those faro shuffles, riffle shuffles, etc. seemed somehow less "satisfying" because of the slickness issue.
I would, however, still very much like to try Angel's 2-deck setup that comes in a green box which are supposedly nicer cards on a premium cellulose acetate stock. Unfortunately the last couple of times I tried to buy those on Amazon.co.jp they said they were out of stock. But at least as far as the Angel cards available on Temu go, I certainly won't be purchasing any more of them. They are definitely legitimate Angel cards, but they just aren't right for me based on how they handle and shuffle.
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Azanulbizar
Pair
The Angel Poker 2 deck setup of cellulose acetate cards are in stock on amazon.jp now. They are running lower in stock but they should be available. Shipping is more expensive, but the cards themselves are around $24 or 25 per set up.
Very interesting! I had tried to buy them literally just yesterday but when I pressed the Checkout button the website immediately gave me an error saying that they weren't in stock. But you seem to be absolutely correct that they are in stock right now because when I tried it yet again just now it did indeed let me officially place the order. It says they should arrive around 08/26/2024, so I really look forward to being able to compare these guys to the Angel cards from Temu. Thank you for the heads up on that!
It's best to buy multiple decks. Shipping the first setup is around $18 but each additional setup adds only around $3-4 extra shipping. Three setups will average around $30/ea which isn't too bad for the best cards on the planet.
NotRealNameNoSir
4 of a Kind
I find them too slippery smooth for my players. Love the design and art but prefer more texture.
That's exactly my feeling towards them. I'm really hoping that Angel's cellulose acetate cards aren't like this and have some type of texture to them, otherwise that was $40.00 down the drain. LOL
Angel PVC are glass smooth. (absolutely no texture front or back). Angel Poker (acetate) does have a light texture front and back. (just right IMHO). I have yet to fumble handling Angel Acetates.
Thanks, that's exactly what I was hoping to hear. T-minus 2 weeks until I'll be able to give them a shot myself. I think my current gold standard for the "feel" of cards has to be Desjgn. When I watch TV I often grab a deck of cards and start shuffling just for practice, and I think I grab for Desjgn probably 5x more often than any other setup. So I'm very curious to see if Angel can dethrone the current reigning champion LOL.
1/16????
I thought they lived in a metric world.
I have a setup of these in the lime green cardboard box. Love them!!! But they are bridge/regular index. Have you seen them in any different size or index?
I recently purchased these Kem cards from a grandma in Ohio. Bridge size /regular index. They bow like real Kem cards and feel like the acetate stock. Is there a way to tell if they are Chinese knockoffs?
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