I'd like to put together my own deck of gaffed cards, just for my own use. These are my variations of various gaffs from books, etc. Some of them are the kind that gets used up each time you do the trick, so it would be good to print up a bunch of decks that have lots of copies of those, with a few others that get worn out.

Which company do people have experience with that does small runs of custom decks?

And here's the big one...where do I get a back design that is close enough to Bicycle that it looks OK for platform? I've found the resources for vector art for the faces, that's not a problem. But I need a back design, and after reading the posts here I think that it might be an issue trying to have another company print a Bicycle back. So something similar would be fine.

I think the USPCC outsources small custom orders to Zazzle. Not sure if they also have the rights to the Bicycle back design, but you can contact them to find out. I imagine the finish is the same quality as the USPCC and of course you can upload your own designs.
Good luck!
https://www.zazzle.ca/create_your_own_bi......89110519

Whoops, Zazzle might only let you design the backs - seems the faces are standard unfortunately

Backs that are similar to the Bicycle Rider Back but can be customized are the Bicycle Mandolin and Bicycle Maiden backs. I don't have any info on the ease of getting a small run of custom cards printed using them.

There was a website for the Mandolins (http://809bicycle.com/) but it's dead now. There's a link on US Playing Card Company's site for orders under 100 decks (http://www.bicyclepersonalizedcards.com/), it's dead too. The minimum run at USPCC is 2,500 decks...a bit more than I really need for my own use!

I'm looking at the smaller custom card companies, they are willing to do a run as small as 10 decks. But they don't own the Bicycle or Maiden or Mandolin backs...so I need something else that is similar enough to pass in a platform situation. Any ideas or suggestions are welcome.

Not a perfect answer, but you might look into this:

http://www.card-shark.de/index.cfm?page=......tegory=6

You want the linen finish.

http://www.makeplayingcards.com/

will this website let you design the front] and the back?

Card Shark - great quality, but $35.00US a deck...plus $28.00 set up?! Wow. You would really need to print a lot to make that worth it.

I'll look into makeplayingcards.com, thanks for the tip.

[/quote]

will this website let you design the front] and the back? [/quote]

Yes, MakePlayingCards lets you design the complete fronts and backs.

I just called makeplayingcards.com and they said they wont supply bicycle back but if I supply them the graphics they will print it.

There are about to be some original back designs released for the purpose of making your own decks, and they will be free to use. One or two will be similar enough in look to Bikes that they will work in some performing situations. More news soon!

I got some samples from makeplayingcards.com, the linen finish cards are very nice! Almost the same as USPCC cards. There's a video of someone opening up a new pack and doing flourishes with it on their site. So those willl work.