Looks like an interesting deck of cards.
What can we say - great or?

De Land's $100 Deck with Instruction Booklet:
http://www.magicmakersinc.com/decks/delandsdeck.html

This is the very first magic deck of cards I got when I was a kid back in the early 50's. Yes, you read that right 1950's. You can do a lot with it. It's stacked. It's a stripper. It's marked such that you not only know the top card but, the bottom and the location of every card in the deck. With it you CAN do miracles. I wish I still had that original but, I wore it out.

The only problem I see now as an adult is: it is not a standard back and you sure can't take it to the movies. Not only can you detect the marks this way but, it puts on a full stage show.

Today it might be a good conversation piece or useful to demonstrate a marked deck to a gambling audience since no one would use this in a gambling game.

Hope this gives you some background.

Ted

As I wrote in my German manuscript of 2nd revised and expanded edition of "Si Stebbins Pro - dusted and tuned":

"The first special deck using the Si Stebbins System was the "Dollar Deck" developed by Theodore L. De Land in 1913!
This famous Marked deck is still selling since 1919. [13]

[13] Theodore L. De Land; „DeLand’s Automatic Playing Cards”, 1919 until yet,
S.S. Adams Co. **, New Jersey

** S. S. Adams Co. was bought in 2009 by Magic Makers Inc.

Magic Makers does own the rights to much of the SS Adams line including what was originally marketed as the Dollar Deck by Theodore Deland who Hand engraved each individual plate for each card, a task that took 13 years. He created the system as a child and pin pricked the old square cornered cards. Later in life he had the opportunity to work around engravers and through the experience he picked up he decided to tackle creating a pack of his cards. There are over 11,000 marks necessary to create the deck and again, each plate was hand engraved singly for each and every card, as well as the courts. Originally the intention was to produce a limited number of the plates and destroy them, thankfully that never occurred.

Later marketed as the Automatic deck through SS Adams who now owned the rights, Deland who I understand was actually employed by Adams also produced the Star, Daisy, Nifty, and League which used the same clock system of marking.

The Automatic deck has been produced over the years by Arrco and Cartamundi I believe and is still marketed today, now apparently as the Hundred Dollar Deck. A card used to be provided that was developed by Deland which when used with the Stebbins setup, told the performer the location of every card in the deck. The Dollar/Automatic deck could be read closeup but the Nifty and League were actually distance readers that could be read from about 10 ft away based on your eyesight.

Deland also produced a deck that could be read from the edges although it was only produced for a short time and is now highly sought after (Wonder Deck). Theodore Deland was primarily associated with this one deck much the same as Alex Elmsley being primarily remembered for one count (I know he was responsible for so much more), but Deland was also responsible for much that was later pilfered or changed and incorporated into many of the tricks we know of today. Single cards that appeared to be more than one card (printed with additional faces to appear to be a fan of several cards), the Two Card Monte, The Sanada gimmick is based on a card that Deland invented pre-1920 with the image of fingers printed on it (Fadeaway Card), Cheek to Cheek was originally a deck from Theodore Deland called the Inverto Pack which was produced a few years after the Two Card Monte effect and further exploited the use of Double Backers. Much of what Deland created was capably chronicled in The Conjuror's Magazine of the 1940's in an excellent series by Walter B Gibson.

I love the Deland Dollar Deck. I have several of them in my collection. I prefer the ones printed in Belgium. I have several of these Belgian decks without the tapered sides.

I was excited about the USPCC printing them istead of having them printed in Taiwan. The ones printed in Taiwan would not even fan decently and the stripping featue did not work well with multiple cards. I was disapointed that the USPCC did not keep the original designs for the court cards. Having them printed on Bicycle stock is nice but the quality of the card edges is pretty poor on the deck I received again the stripping feature does not work well with multiple cards.

I use this deck once in a while and have no problem with spectators thinking that they are 'magic cards.' The current printing of the deck does include a reprint of Deland's 3 Card Monte. This deck may not be for everyone, but I am glad to see it still being printed.

When I was working private parties I would carry a $100 De Land deck. If someone mentioned marked cards I'd pull these out and explain to them that these are marked, and if anyone could figure out the system to please explain it to me.

Why would you want to 'challenge' spectators to find the markings on this deck? I don't see the point of such an approach to magic as a form of entertainment.
Would you do the same with a Ted Lesley and/or Boris Wild deck?

Done tongue in cheek as a throw off...and nobody ever got to handle the deck. The deck never even came out of the box. But then again, I was working last century before everyone was a magician.

I would personally never is the DeLand deck. If it is like the version I saw years ago, it was marked and stripped.

The strip was much too heavy. But, easy to use for a 6 year old.

The marks were many and they will jump out you easily using the "gamblers riffle test".

I personally think the Wild deck and the Lesley deck are much more deceptive even though they also cn be detected by using the same test. But, the marks on the latter are much more subtle and deceptive.

Let's keep De Land for the amatures so they think they know what a marked deck looks like

You are right.
It (or better all the DeLand Deck's) is (are) a collector's item.

My original post's point exactly!

I had written a book on Deland's Deck several months ago.

View thumbnail:

https://cid-351bd2fd68481c65.skydrive.li......DS?ref=2

Well that certainly cleared everything up.

Wow that brings back memories! I remember getting one of these decks in a magic kit as a kid. I would love to get another one just for nostalgia purposes!!

Pricey but one size fits all!

4.50 dollar: http://themagicwarehouse.com/cgi-bin/findit.pl?x_item=CD1229

My father was an amateur magician. He bought a DeLand's Daisy Deck around 1920. The box is whole but the glued edges have separated. Is there any value in having an original deck?

It may definitely have some value as an antique or collectible.

Kevin Reylek is Penguin Magic's resident expert on marked cards, and he organized a beautiful reproduction of this particular deck not that long ago:

https://www.penguinmagic.com/p/13922

He's a big fan of DeLand, and you might want to get in touch with him about your deck. He might be interested in it, or could give you advice about it. If you're looking to sell, eBay is one option.

He's active here on The Magic Café (here's his profile page), and you should be able reach him by sending him a private message here.