I went into a chain store near me, and figured while I was there maybe I'd pick up a couple of cheap decks to fool around with. Some of them fan pretty good ,and stuff like that. I asked at the register, and the girl said oh yes we have these cards from all the various casinos. I swear they are like brand new. They are all different color backs, have the Casino's name. and maybe a tiny piece of the corner shaved off each card. It is done uniformaly so it doesn't ruin the deck, and so they can't be put back in. play at the casino. So this is what you do. Go in, go to the register, lay down as many decks (face up)as you want. As you start patter about how you are a magician, who allways gets asked to do tricks, she will be distracted for a key moment. This because she thinks magicians are so sexy. Snap your fingers, and all the decks become $1. Yes one Dollar, One Buck! WHAT A BARGAIN! Nice crisp clean casino cards. By this time you must be screaming at me WHERE ***? The store is Dollar Tree! I know we have them all over in NY, but not sure how far and wide they are spread. Google it,and May all your days, and nights be magical!

This exact story happened to me, and I managed to buy 6 bricks of old/new Jerry's Nugget decks. It was awesome!!!*






*And sadly only a card geek's fantasy. But what if...

The shaving of the corner is quite large, not sure I like them
some of the casinos are cool, that is true...

How does the shaved corner hinder you?

It is not about hinder, it is more about aesthetics, the shavings are in 2 opposites corners not on the four, so the deck looks weird, also most of the cards have some marks in black in some cases touching the faces, I used to buy these decks for mercury folding or things like that, but in some shuffles the cards got mixed up in the corners, so at the end I pay 1 more dollar and get a bicycle deck if available or for less than 2 dollars you can get aviators or other similar brands in the big stores.

I do agree the cards feel new and the backs are nice

Shaved corners are horrible for faro work.

They also make reversals tougher. Sometimes they don't square right either. If you can work with them, could ask for more--a dollar for some great decks!

I used to deal in a casino and there are good reasons why they buy decks by the semi load.
1) They get so much play time that they have to be rotated out about every shift change.
2) Since they want to pay as little as they can the stock is thinner, just the minimum that will hold up on a BJ table for 8 hours.
3) Also so that at least 7 decks will fit into a shoe and keep shoe size to a minimum they want the cards as thin as possible.
4) When decks are sorted out at the end of a shift (yes, this is part of the maintenance that dealers have to perform before they go home and they don't get tipped for this service) the cards are not put back into the same decks they came from. In fact, there is no way this can be done. This can mean there are slight variations in length and width. The cutting dies are not kept to as close a tolerance for casino cards as they are for higher quality cards like USPCC.
5) Gaffs cannot be found for them. And, due to the lower quality and cancelation (cut corners) it is very difficult to make your own gaffs.
6) If you do any effects where cards are reversed in the deck the cancellations (cut corners, notches, holes drilled through, etc) then the effect is blown.
7) If you practice with them and then use better cards for performance you will miss some sleights and blow effects.
The only time I would use cancelled casino cards is when someone hands me a deck from their kitchen or desk drawer. Then I have a couple of impromptu effects that I save for just such an occasion.