1 dozen packs of Jerry's Nugget cards JUST sold for $1500+!!

[castawaydave]

Holy Mackeral:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Jerrys-Nugget-Pl ... dZViewItem

[Rennie]

Everytime I see the exorbitant prices that are realized for Jerry's Nugget cards, I say to myself...Why, Why ???
P.T. Barnum was right, "There's One Born Every Minute"
Rennie

[Robert Newman]

Actually P.T. Barnum never made that remark.

It was made by a showmen by the name of David Hannum.

Hannum unsuccessfully litigated Barnum for exhibiting a copy of The Cardiff Giant and claiming it as authentic.

Hannum was the exhibitor of the same phenomena and claimed that his was the authentic Cardiff Giant

His remark was aimed at the crowds who waited in line to see Barnum's fake.

A casebook example of the pot calling the kettle black as Hannum's giant was also a fake

Barnum was vindicated by the court in the law suit based on the theory that he had done nothing wrong by calling Hannum's fake giant a fake.

[Rennie]

Robert,
Very interesting story. I never heard of Hannum, but would be interested in reading more.
You cleared up a misconception I (and probably others) had.
Thanks,
Rennie

[Gary Kosnitzky]

I had once bought 3 dozen decks back in 1997 from Jerry's for a buck a deck -$36. They were very old and brittle. All Jerry's Nugget cards are very old. If you bent one in half they snapped. I really was very disappointed in them. Nice colors, big deal.
They were not worth more than a dollar then and I felt a little ripped off spending 36 dollars on them.

[Pete Biro]

I know the lucky seller and i think I may know the buyer. (A very successfull pro).

[castawaydave]

Pete, do you think you can find out what the buyer plans to do with them? Are they an investment in a rare antiquity?

--Or does he (she?) plan to open a few packs and manipulate the hell out of them?

[Terrence]

From Bored of the Rings:

"hint:a <blank> and his <blank> soon are <blank>."

Kudos to the seller!

[Michael Close]

I bought them, and I'm using all of them for Card Warp. :)

Close

[Dustin Stinett]

Back in the early/mid 1980s I purchased dozens of these decks (at a buck each, including standing in front of a vending machinean old fashioned pull-handle number; kind of like a cigarette machinebefore an employee told me, you know that you can buy those by the case in the gift shop": DOH!) and never regretted it.

The story behind the cardsas told to me by a Jerrys employeeis that the cards were ordered in 1968 or 69 and were meant to be the house cards, to be used at the tables. So, of course, they ordered many gross of them; thousands of decks. Upon arrival, the owners hated them and decided to sell them as souvenirs at a buck a pop (making a tidy profit, by the way).

So what makes them so great? Its a case of they dont make em like they used to. Nuggets were made from top of the line US Playing Card card stock. A side by side comparison with the cards as they were being made in the 80s (and todays crap) to those old Nuggets and, well, there was no comparison. The Nuggets were far superior. They lasted forever and when they were broke in they were like butter. (Then RK turned me on to Aarco cards and, well, forgetabout it! Best cards I ever used.)

What Gary describes as brittle was actually a characteristic of cards in those days; they didnt crease, they would break. That was a term I learned from my mom, who taught me to shuffle at the ripe old age of five. She would tell me to handle the cards gently and not bend them so much at the corners; otherwise they might break (youd get a corner that would flap in the breeze for while before finally falling off). The upside of that characteristic is that they could be bent to a point without breaking; and they would hold that bend. So when you put a crimp in those cards (and the crimp could be tiny), it held. And when you took the crimp out, it came out.

Another thing I loved about them was how easy they were to split and make gaffs from. A couple taps on the corner and you were peeling; and they peeled clean. I still have several double backers, facers, and various other things I made.

I still have two new decks; one red and one blue. I have not opened them (they are now a part of my card collection), so I dont know what condition they are in today. That being said, I have some used decks still, and they are in pretty decent shape for 40-year old cards.

Presuming the buyerwhoever he isperforms using Nuggets, then he likely prefers them over the junk that we have available to us today. So if he makes his living performing with cards, its an investment in his business.

Dustin

[Robert Newman]

Pete, do you think you can find out what the buyer plans to do with them? Are they an investment in a rare antiquity?

--Or does he (she?) plan to open a few packs and manipulate the hell out of them?

He plans to use them to fund his IRA.

[Pete Biro]

Close... I wasn't going to tip your name. Phil probably didn't want to either.

[castawaydave]

$1,525 divided by 12 works out to $127.08 per pack. (Thank you "calculator"!)

A dozen decks of "Bicycle brand" are about $1.10 per pack.

As orgasmic as Jerry's Nuggets may be, are they REALLY 125 times better?! Honestly, a full one hundred twenty fives times better?! Ay carumba!

THOSE must be some pretty Damned Amazing cards to feel in one's unworthy hands. (You'd damned well better wash first!) --I can only IMAGINE how great it'd feel to rub them all over one's body! "Mmm...Vernony".

Has anybody ever broken down during shows from the pressure? --Knowing deep down they weren't worthy of doing a glide with Jerry's Nuggets?
"Double undercut?! Aiiee!" --As they crumple into a puddle of protoplasm, trying to live up to the responsibility, the sheer weight of performing with the Stradivari of card magic...?

[Aside: I have a friend who pays about 10 times as much as I do for a haircut. His hair, while admittedly fabulous, doesn't actually end up 10 times better than mine...If he paid 125 times what I paid (the $1,125 haircut), people might think he was a kook.]

[Cugel]

Congratulations to the seller! The buyer, on the other hand...

[Eric Rose]

I gotta admit, I sold 4 still in cellophane decks of Jerry's Nuggets last year for about $600 total on ebay. I felt so bad about the price that I packaged each one in its own cushioned metal box that I bought at Hobby Lobby. The buyers were each thrilled that the decks came so well protected and each sent me sweet personal notes. It was probably the best $8 I've ever spent to enhance a $1 deck of cards.

Guess they were happy - two were girlfriends buying for their boyfriends. That takes the sting out a little.

e