I'm looking for information on taking proper care of your playing cards. The information is proving itself harder to find than I thought, so I figured I'd save the time and frustration and just ask.

How do you take care of your cards? Any special process you go through before/after each performance to ensure you get the most out of them? Anything you don't recommend doing that you see a lot? Please be as specific as possible! Thanks!

Whenever a deck shows even the slightest signs of getting old I immediately put it aside for a few weeks and use a different deck, this creates a kind of "warm bed" principle, like in old submarines: someone is always awake and someone is always sleeping in the bed and when the time for them to switch comes the guy that is awake goes to the same bed, so it always stays warm.
This is exactly what I do with cards, I let a deck that's getting old "rest" for a while, and instead I use an older deck that has got enough "rest".
This way it takes a lot of time for my decks to wear out.
It's like the bad energy that wears out the deck (bear with me on this one) is distributed among three or four decks at the same time, so it gets weaker and that way the decks can heal themselves before it's too late.

Daniels advice is very good for people trying to prolong the life of a "Working Deck" Thereis a very good article in Clear The Decks about caring for cards for collecting purposes. If I get a chance I'll re-read it and try to summarize some of the high points. In the mean time store in a dark, cool, dry place. (NOT A FREEZER!)

I quickly recalled something in the first pages of Card College Vol. 1 in the Instruments and Tools section. The second paragraph in Hand Care says to wash your hands before practicing and before each performance. He uses a Alkali-free pH 7 soap because its a neutral soap that removes dirt without harming the hands natural oils and keeps the hands from drying out after washing.

It also says a few words about using creams to keep your hands dry if you have moist hands. If you have normal or dry hands already, it recommends using a cream after each washing.

Keep the ideas coming! Thanks!

We called that "Hot Racking" and it was reserved for "non-qual pukes" on my boat (USS SNOOK SSN592)...once you had your Dolphins "tacked on" you got your own rack...

Best regardz...
Olmagi52 [RM2(SS)]

keep the jokers and advertasments in the box even if you dont use them because the box is made to hold 56 cards this prevents the cards from bending. and keep them in a card guard this reduces damage also.

My take on taking care of cards.

Back in the day, "Bee" brand was the quality deck to use. Speaking from a mechanic's point of view, the newer the cards, the better one could operate and operate smoothly. I guess this would be the same for doing magic tricks and demos.

I would never play using old cards. New deck were in order, and then after time, they are discarded. New cards are predictable on how they will act when you manipulate them.

Sometimes I would have to deal seconds around three or four players, sometimes more.. It is essential that the tools I am using are in the best shape. Older cards that have been used a lot will tend to stick. In dealing seconds you want everything to be smooth. No sudden moves, no fast moves, nothing to arouse suspicion. Playing with older cards would be just asking for a mistake. In arena I played in, you make "no mistakes".

Cards that have been used for a while, in my opinion should be discarded. Used them for practice or give them to kids to play kid games..

Just the opinion of an old geezer...

The best advice I could give would to just basically take good care of them. Dont throw them around, dont shuffle or bend them harshly, and the finish on them should stay.