Betting you can help me restore my dad's card collection
December 13, 2012 10:55 AM Subscribe
Old playing cards: Help me find a specific deck from my childhood based on a description
When I was a kid in the 80s my dad had a desk drawer full of playing cards. Many of them were collected from flights when airlines when they still gave them out. We were not supposed to play with them unless we asked, but I was a poor listener as a child...
Over time I lost or damaged many sets of cards in the desk drawer, Dad must not have cared *that* much or he would have done something about it, but still I feel bad that he doesn't have his collection any more and I've been trying to replace them this year for a Christmas surprise.
I've acquired a lot of the obvious cards in the collection, Delta, AA, USAir, PanAm decks. But there is a deck that eludes me. I have no idea if it was a collectible card deck like the others in the drawer, or just a deck he bought somewhere, if it was feasible I'd like to get two of them because it was my favorite deck to play with - but I can't find anything close.
The specific deck I'm looking for has a forest green back with gold foil stamping, lots of nautical symbols including a mermaid and a ship I don't actually recall what most of the symbols where but I know there was a old style mermaid and a ship, and they were smallish icons, not a large central image.
I can't find anything remotely close, so if you don't have a specific site but can think of additional search terms or older card brands that I could try ebay stalking that would be helpful.
Additionally, if anyone has recommendations for cool sites to browse playing cards with interesting backs, anything outside of the bicycle family that seems to be all you can find nowadays I'd enjoy those recommendations. Bonus points if they're vintage or old, but I'll take interesting new cards too!
When I was a kid in the 80s my dad had a desk drawer full of playing cards. Many of them were collected from flights when airlines when they still gave them out. We were not supposed to play with them unless we asked, but I was a poor listener as a child...
Over time I lost or damaged many sets of cards in the desk drawer, Dad must not have cared *that* much or he would have done something about it, but still I feel bad that he doesn't have his collection any more and I've been trying to replace them this year for a Christmas surprise.
I've acquired a lot of the obvious cards in the collection, Delta, AA, USAir, PanAm decks. But there is a deck that eludes me. I have no idea if it was a collectible card deck like the others in the drawer, or just a deck he bought somewhere, if it was feasible I'd like to get two of them because it was my favorite deck to play with - but I can't find anything close.
The specific deck I'm looking for has a forest green back with gold foil stamping, lots of nautical symbols including a mermaid and a ship I don't actually recall what most of the symbols where but I know there was a old style mermaid and a ship, and they were smallish icons, not a large central image.
I can't find anything remotely close, so if you don't have a specific site but can think of additional search terms or older card brands that I could try ebay stalking that would be helpful.
Additionally, if anyone has recommendations for cool sites to browse playing cards with interesting backs, anything outside of the bicycle family that seems to be all you can find nowadays I'd enjoy those recommendations. Bonus points if they're vintage or old, but I'll take interesting new cards too!
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Trying searching under vintage+cruise+ship+playing+cards.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 11:20 AM on December 13, 2012