You wouldn’t be blamed for thinking my playing card collecting journey must have come to an end. No collection updates, despite countless promises that one would soon come. But you’d be mistaken. I still collect playing cards – maybe not as intensely as during the initial years, but I still seek out interesting decks to add to the collection.
Believe it or not, the last update was around two years ago. Back in 2024, I had 83 decks. Guess how many I have now? 172. Yes, you read that right – 172 unique playing card decks. I still pick up Bicycle decks when I spot something I don’t already have; whenever I travel, I’ll always look for a deck to commemorate the trip; and my wife has a habit of surprising me with interesting and unusual finds. The biggest change since the previous update, in terms of how I acquire cards, is that colleagues and my parents now gift me decks too. When they come across something interesting, or when they travel, a deck or two tends to find its way into my hands – not always, but often enough. My collection is no longer made up solely of playing cards I’ve tracked down myself.
I’ve normally tried to show decks bought on my trips in their respective travel posts, so you won’t find any country-by-country breakdown below. Browse through the galleries at your leisure, and drop a message if you want to know anything about a particular deck. The collecting journey continues, even when I’m not posting about it. Once the collection has grown by another 30 to 50 decks, expect a new update – hopefully sooner than last time.
BICYCLE
I have 54 Bicycle decks – up from 30 in the previous update. One of them is a Steampunk deck a colleague picked up on a trip. I checked the date: it is the oldest deck in my collection, believed to be from 2013 – though you can probably tell just by looking at it. If I have one criticism of Bicycle playing cards in general, it’s the box bottoms. The glue used to seal the bottom of the deck box comes undone within a couple of months, which explains why you’ll see sticky tape on most of them. Bicycle, please fix your boxes. Take note from Piatnik.
PIATNIK
Honestly, I can’t remember the last time I bought something new from Piatnik. The collection has grown since the last update, but I couldn’t tell you when or which deck was the most recent addition. Great cards, though – everything looks and feels premium with Piatnik. Bicycle, fix your boxes.
Those of you with sharp eyes will have noticed that one deck appears twice. It’s not a double deck – I simply forgot to swap it out when taking the next photo. A Red Bull for you if you spotted it.
DOUBLE DECKS
Double decks are interesting – you get two decks in one box. Sometimes both are identical, but more often than not they differ in font or colour.
UNUSUAL PACKAGING
Plastic boxes? Metal boxes? Transparent boxes? Metal boxes with an unusual design? Sign me up for all of those. Great additions to any collection.
Playing cards in unusual packaging also tend to have cool and informative designs inside — take the NASA and Survival tips decks, for example: metal boxes with thoughtful, well-crafted cards to match. Worth keeping an eye out for.
TRAVEL DECKS AND SUCH
Here is the biggest chunk of my collection – playing card decks from Portugal, United Kingdom, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and more. Even from Greece and Sri Lanka, countries I have yet to visit.
OTHER
I wanted to end with a few honourable mentions. You should already be familiar with the Steel Watches playing card deck – I dedicated a separate post to it. When I attended my very first live Formula 1 race at Spa-Francorchamps, I bought not just a cap to commemorate the visit but a playing card deck too. Then there’s the deck that is four times the size of a regular one – impractical to play with, but a great talking point. And in the double deck section, you’ll have spotted the Madame Patience decks: those are my smallest so far.
I’ll try not to wait two more years to do a follow-up.
Keep collecting.
Kindly,
Olaaf
