OK, so after my review of the above Cartamundi Casino cards that sneaky SOB
@surfik tricked me into reviewing, I went on a mission to find more of 'em with a different color/back design printed on the same stock. Yea, I'm an insane OCD card junkie... hey, everybody needs a hobby right? Of course my wife is continuously reminding me that's "
A hobby" ... singular.... eh, what does she know?
Anyway, unlike NASA, around this joint, failure is
always an option.... hence, I bring you.....
CARTAMUNDI CASINO - USA
Umm.... yea,.... USA. As in "Made in USA".... as opposed to Belgium.
If you're getting the feeling that's a prelude to coming attractions.... you'd be right about that, & you might want to stay tuned.
But for now, back to the failure du jour...
So Spinetti's has a Cartamundi "Casino Quality" poker size, jumbo index, 100% plastic offering at 6 bucks per. OK, with shipping that's going to be pricy, but I managed to find something else as well (yea, even more future bloat for the DB to come) that scratched my card junkie OCD itch to defray the shipping cost. So, oh what the h*ll... why not?
Now, while there were no images of the card faces for comparison, if I'd been paying attention, I'd have noticed the little "Made in USA" fine print on the jokers... but, who pays attention these days?
So, no.... these are NOT anything like the Belgium-made casino cards above... in fact, they're another in the line of cheap Cartamundi offerings such as the "
Classic" and "
Ace" decks that you can find pretty much anywhere. Although, I will say that these are the best of the 3.... but just barely. & that's not really saying much.
Right out of the gate, these are PVC not Acetate. Also, as I stated, made in USA like the
Classic &
Ace versions. & while these didn't come with a box, I have little doubt they were produced in the same Dallas Texas facility as listed on the boxes of those.
In comparing
Classics with
Ace,
Classics are thinner & thus more flexible. In fact, they're the thinnest (at a hair-thin 0.105") cards on the entire list. & by far the most flexible of any PVC card. They also use a standard brighter red.
Ace on the other hand, are thicker, with a more medium-soft flex, & uses the darker "security" red ink.
They are similar in that they both have smooth faces & "glossy" or unfinished backs. Which tends to make 'em slippery as h*ll. As is typical of cheap plastics.
So what about these "
Casino" or Casino Quality"?
Well.... if yer askin' me.... no, not hardly.
In fact, I'd call 'em a bit of an improved
Ace. Or, an
Ace that they actually finished.
About the only real difference between these &
Ace, is in that they actually seem to have put a finish coating on the backs. The backs of these are actually not glossy. But, still smooth as the freshly Zamboni'd surface of Boston Garden before the Bruins' afternoon practice. It's almost as though they were trying to actually make something that would compete with
Copag. Well, if that's the case, they failed.
Marion Pro are still your best bet if you're looking for
Copag-ish quality on a budget.
Very similar specs in all regards to
Ace. Thickness & flex are both as close as makes no difference. Only real difference is these have a smooth finish face and back.
The smooth back still renders 'em on the slickery side of things. OK, sure, maybe not as scatter-prone as
Ace or
Classic, but still slicker than
Copags. If you have a ham-fisted shuffler in your group that can scatter a
Copag deck, they'll be doing even more renditions of Mount St. Helens with these. Just maybe a few less of them than they would with
Ace.
As always, specs are now up in the database:
https://www.pokerchipforum.com/resources/the-redneck-poker-card-database-2-0.76/
& stay tuned, when I get some more time I'll put up my thoughts on the mystery guest purchase I also got from Spinetti's. Also, as alluded to above, the search is not yet over. Just in something of a trans-Atlantic holding pattern. So, we haven't given up all hope yet.... Hey, when I was racing cars this was a poster on the lid of the pit-box...