Save money by practicing with Plastic cards

[Houdini]

How you can save money by practicing with Plastic playing cards and some of the advantages plastic cards can offer a magician.

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[SkySpirit]

i think they just don't have the same feeling!i preffer to use regular decks for practice!

[haroldross]

I am not an expert here but I don't think using plastic for practicing card magic is a good idea. I have several different brands of plastic cards and I feel they are worthless for most card magic. They may shuffle fine but are terrible to fan. Double lifts are possible sometimes. The cards handle like greased pigs. The tend to fly all over the place. After working with them for a few minutes, really gives you an appreciation for air-cushion Bikes. Practice with the best cards you can get. That is my advice.

[Jesse_Owen]

Yeah, this doesn't click with me either...I think you should practice with the props you perform with.

Jesse

[JosiahGately]

I would never use plastic cards instead of my regular cards, but that is my opinion.

[Just1pin]

I can't understand the sentiments about not wanting to use plastic cards and wanting to practice with the same deck you are going to perform with. I think that is the desired situation, however there are cases where i can see using plastic cards could make sense.

Here in the US it is relatively easy to get decent playing cards pretty cheap. We have a large company that produces large quantities of cards and a large gaming industry that uses a lot of playing cards. There are still places in the world where it can be difficult and very expensive to get high quality playing cards, still upwards of $10 per deck. In these cases i think plastic cards might be an option to keep cost down and not keep yourself from practicing.

Has anyone handled the new Bicycle Prestige Dura-flex Plastic Cards? I hear these handle a bit more like normal cards.

There is also the notion that at least knowing the limits of a plastic deck could be useful for borrowed deck situations.

-J1P

[Will Thong]

It's my opinion that you need to know how a plastic deck works, sure, but only so that if you are handed a borrowed deck you know how far you can and cannot go. It seems that practising regularly with a plastic deck is a bit like playing tennis with a child's racket or gaming with an ancient rig; it might be cheaper, but the practice is going to be inferior in so many ways.

And even in remote parts of the world, it is relatively easy to pick up a brick of Bikes for a low price; you just have to be committed enough to want 12 of them!

[Allen]

I own a deck of plastic cards and they were nice at first.. but now they just sit on the shelf.

[haroldross]

I do have several high quality plastic decks including the Bicycle Dura-Flex and the Bicycle New Era Deck. They are terrible for most XCM and card magic. I have spent considerable time learning their characteristics and dislike them more the more I use them. It is IMPOSSIBLE to get a decent fan out of them. I can get acceptable ribbon spreads most of the time. One of the biggest drawbacks is the problem of static electricity. They can get so charges that dust and such is attracted to them creating more problems. This also causes the cards to stick together.

This is why I do not use plastic cards to practice and I encourage others also not to do so. A cheap deck of cards from China (I apologize here, I know that there are also quality products from China) will perform better than most plastic cards.