Are you more interested in how cards feel or how they look? (1 Viewer)

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Royal Flush
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What’s more important to you, the art or the stock? I suppose we could all put percentages on how we feel about it, but I know I’m hugely more interested in how cards feel. I want a thin flexible plastic card with some nice texture - cards that you can hear, but riffle like butter and without effort.
If you can put some nice looking art on the front and back, great, but that is so secondary. I’m probably 80/20 stock/art. Maybe 90/10.

The reason I ask is I’m baffled when smaller vendors, like faded spade most recently, and desjgn, switch stocks. I guess I got a feel for why it happens with desjgn’s very open struggles on his latest release. Dealing with card printers can clearly be a challenge. But from what I can piece together, this is at least his 3rd different stock in four releases. And faded Spade has now released two different cards on two different stocks. I would think they’d avoid changing stock at all costs. To me, the stock IS their brand - it’s what guides my purchase. But I guess what I’m pieceing togetger is maybe these guys are more interested in getting their art into our hands, and if a different manufacturer can do it more quickly, or cheaper, that’s who they’ll go with.

What do you guys shop for - the look, the feel, or some combination?
 
looks. I am sure there is a tipping point somewhere where I might take slightly better feel for less good looks. But if I simply have to choose one then I choose looks for sure.

80/20 looks. I use KEM and Design so I might not really know how "bad" some cards can feel...perhaps I am spoiled.

I use plastic cards for durability...not necessarily because I prefer the feel. I actually like paper cards more.
 
Both, but how they feel trumps how they look. For me it goes jDesjgn, Fournier, old school Kem.
 
Taking both looks and feel to the extremes, I'd much rather use ugly cards that played well, versus using really pretty cards that played like crap. So I'm definitely in the feel category. But I'm most likely to actually use a card that has both characteristics, and pass on any cards that don't.

I think serious card collectors buy for the art (and other collector characteristics, like rarity and uniqueness). Serious card users buy for the feel and other play characteristics (like durability, etc.).
 
For me, there is a minimum legibility requirement that must be met for the cards to be considered as a viable option (i.e., clear differentiation of suits/ranks). After that is met, first priority is durability to ensure they don't quickly become marked. Second is deal-ability, to save my hands. Aesthetics finish dead last.
 
70/30 or 80/20 feel vs looks. If a particular brand has a great feel and looks good, well that’s just icing on the cake. On the other hand, if a card brand is fugly as hell, then it better be the best feeling card on the market or I won’t consider it. I’m looking at you Faded Spade cards. Blech :sick:
 
IMO, the most important aspect of cards is that they can be seen easily by all of the players at the table. Consequently, I prefer a plain jumbo index, except for a few that are too jumbo. This rules out regular (my former favorite), poker peek, and super/colossal/magnum indices. I also rule out 4-index cards as being too distracting and sometimes causing errors in reading the board.

That said, I appreciate cards of good quality, meaning great feel, easy shuffling, and consistent backs with a border (no bleed).

As a player of mixed games with 3+ hole cards, I prefer bridge cards.

So I guess I'm around 80/20 looks, but by looks I mean easy to see as opposed to pretty designs.

My faves: Desjgn, Fournier, Dal Negro.
 
Rank of importance:

65% feel
35% looks

But looks are important at least to me for sure especially to begin with. If I don't like the look of the cards, especially the back design, then I'm probably not going to buy the cards to begin with. The look of a card is what make me want to try them out in the first place. But whether I continue to use them over time totally depends on the feel.

I think the Faded Spade folks did themselves a favor by changing the stock and going with a thinner card stock. The original Poker decks were ridiculously thick and I wasn't going to ever really use them for poker & they would be relegated to other card games duty. The change to a thinner stock for the bridge cards will improve their sales IMO.
 
Definitely feel. But, as others have said, there is a limit to how ugly they can be before it's just distracting.
 
looks. I am sure there is a tipping point somewhere where I might take slightly better feel for less good looks. But if I simply have to choose one then I choose looks for sure.

80/20 looks. I use KEM and Design so I might not really know how "bad" some cards can feel...perhaps I am spoiled.

I use plastic cards for durability...not necessarily because I prefer the feel. I actually like paper cards more.



Ppppppaper cards? What is this shenanigans?
 
I'm in the 60% feel / 40% looks camp. I tend to be drawn originally by the looks, but if they don't play well, I won't use them a second time. I'm a fan of Fournier / Bicycle Prestige cards, along with Desjgn. The Fournier's first caught my eye watching older EPT episodes, and I find them to be a really good combination of looks and feel. The ink on the faces does wear a bit too easily, but overall I'm happy with them.
 
60/40 feel over looks.

I even hate playing go fish with paper cards.
 
Just like in people, looks are the advertisers, face or back:LOL: :laugh:
To live with them though, you have to find out how they feel.
I do not include in "looks" the readability of faces (honesty and "decency" without artsy crap) which is a must - btw I would only give my money for 4-index decks. Even better 4-color on top of that, but that limits the spectrum of choices way too much. I don't care about jumbo [yet:D].

Feel-wise, I don't like them to be too slippery, nor too stiff, not easily bent, not too expensive and pretty durable, but, to paraphrase a joke, such cards usually are already in a relationship:)
I wonder if it would make sense to opt for the nice feel of some premium plastic-coated cards, at the expense of durability, which may be balanced by the price.

Long struggle to find and order a fully plastic, poker-size, 4-index Piatnik to see how it feels. Crowned with success: I 'll post when I take delivery. I wonder how and where those people (at Piatnik) sell their cards; do they make them for themselves? They 're next to impossible to find.

Meanwhile, I play with the obvious, sensible choices for this continent ( $4-5), i.e. Modiano and Dal Negro (the latter is better).
Copags cost $12 each here and are too slippery: this outraged some of my players last time, despite the initial enthusiasm of some others among them about the 4 colors, one for each suit. I also have a deck of Fournier Titanium, which I haven't yet put to play because their price ($17) put me on tilt only after I paid it:rolleyes:. KEMs are anyway out of the question for me because they come only with 2 indexes - except for a hard-to-find Paisley model.
 
Just like in people, looks are the advertisers, face or back:LOL: :laugh:
To live with them though, you have to find out how they feel.
I do not include in "looks" the readability of faces (honesty and "decency" without artsy crap) which is a must - btw I would only give my money for 4-index decks. Even better 4-color on top of that, but that limits the spectrum of choices way too much. I don't care about jumbo [yet:D].

Feel-wise, I don't like them to be too slippery, nor too stiff, not easily bent, not too expensive and pretty durable, but, to paraphrase a joke, such cards usually are already in a relationship:)
I wonder if it would make sense to opt for the nice feel of some premium plastic-coated cards, at the expense of durability, which may be balanced by the price.

Long struggle to find and order a fully plastic, poker-size, 4-index Piatnik to see how it feels. Crowned with success: I 'll post when I take delivery. I wonder how and where those people (at Piatnik) sell their cards; do they make them for themselves? They 're next to impossible to find.

Meanwhile, I play with the obvious, sensible choices for this continent ( $4-5), i.e. Modiano and Dal Negro (the latter is better).
Copags cost $12 each here and are too slippery: this outraged some of my players last time, despite the initial enthusiasm of some others among them about the 4 colors, one for each suit. I also have a deck of Fournier Titanium, which I haven't yet put to play because their price ($17) put me on tilt only after I paid it:rolleyes:. KEMs are anyway out of the question for me because they come only with 2 indexes - except for a hard-to-find Paisley model.
Wow, I haven't run into a lot of people who say they must have four-index cards! Personally I just think they look way too busy on the table as community cards. I have a couple of decks but I never use them anymore.
 
I don't know if being left-handed is an explanation or it's pure nonsense.
Edit: to be precise, forced right-hand writer, while all other functions remained left-sided.
 
Definitely feel.

At the end of the day, I want to have an enjoyable experience playing poker, meaning having a nice environment, nice chips, and nice cards. I'll take the cards that look best of course but only if they are equal in terms of how easy they shuffle and generally handle. Bad-shuffling cards slow down the game.

That being said, I still have a bunch of other setups that are inferior in handling than the best ones I have but look better; they just don't get used much. I even have a small collection of "designer" paper playing cards with really nice looks.
 
I'm more on the 'feel' side, but how cards look is incredibly important to me as well. It's probably a 55/45 split. I love the Fournier Congress cards because they have very understated backs, but the pips and suits on the faces also look very classy and understated as well. I don't like crazy-looking suits. Fournier definitely got it right with the Congress decks.
 
Any art card collectors out here? Check out thirdway industries, website in Italy. I've backed several of this guy's Kickstarter campaigns - he's an illustrator that has done multiple series of playing cards based on mythological themes. They are BEAUTIFUL, and I've used them as unique prizes in my charity fundraisers. They are coated paper cards, not really suitable for regular play, but wonderful collectors items.
 
Definitely feel…. but if they're completely unappealing/distracting visually I'm not going to use them no matter how great they feel. So many factors involved with sorting the "perfect" set up, idk if I'll ever be 100% satisfied.
 
This is sort of like asking, "Do you like your food to be nutritious or taste good?" I want both. :)

Feel: Slippery plastics drive me nuts, so I'll stay away from any deck that doesn't have at least some texturing.

Look: I prefer large/jumbo indices to ensure all my players can read the board, and I have a very subjective minimum standard for appearance and legibility.
 
90/10 feel over looks. They have to shuffle well for me to like them. 100% plastic cards for me.
 
I'll just drop this here since it just got bumped. I played with Copags yesterday for the first time in a long time and I have to admit, they felt really great. I will say that this was a dealer dealt game, so I never got to shuffle them. And in my mind, how cards feel while shuffling is more than 50% of it, so the jury is still out, I guess. But I'll probably give Copags another chance, at some point.
 
The feel is by far the most important parameter.
Feeling, shuffling, dealing, pitching, washing, etc. ,to me means enjoying playing cards.
That is the reason why i like more than one different cards brands/models.
After that comes the overall aesthetics. Many cards i enjoy optically, many i am indifferent towards, and a few that i don't like.
 
About 70/30 feel first for me; I can't bring myself to play with poker peak or 4-color decks no matter how well they feel.
 

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