If you have any Marlboro Texan 45's in your collection, be aware that they do exactly the same thing as the Palmetto 45's are famous for doing.

I was playing around with a deck today and noticed that the possibility might be there for some B.E.W. and put the deck of Marlboro 45's back to square one "arrangement" and Voila!, there it was.

That is good to know. However, the Palmettos are in my opinion a lot nicer looking than the Marlboros and are a lot more subtle too since the marlboro star is very much one way. Isn't the Marlboro one a big obvious 5 point star? If we are talking about the same card. The one that looks more like an old communist banner than anything out of Texas? So I would still go with Palmetto cards personally. For esthetic reasons I mean, not for fear of anti-communist witch hunters.

I have seen the Marlboro Texans real cheap on eBay whereas the Palmettos were pricier. Outside of the States however, I think they are about the same since the Palmettos are only made for export and therefore less rare in other countries.

I live in Norway and since I have to order all cards from abroad anyway, I got my Palmettos from the UK. Also have the book, but I haven't read more than half of it. What I love about the Palmettos most of all is the feel of them. Nobody ever says anything about that. They are just lovely to use!

The Palmettos haven't been printed in many years. If you've got some on your shelf you've got part of the ever dwindling supply. They're getting hard to find, and expensive.

And yes Noobini, I agree with you that the Marlboro Texans are......well, they're junk.

I have said before here on the Café that the Palmettos are the nicest handling card I've ever used. Nothing even comes close.
They're also the most beautiful card I've ever seen.

That they're also the finest edge readers right out of the box is the sugar.

Yes. I found tho that the red Palmettos were a bit disappointing in appearance compared to what I had expected from photos I had seen. The blue ones are the beautiful ones in my opinion, although like most people I nearly always prefer red backs in other cards.

If they are out of print as you say then I suppose I should buy a few more decks before they disappear. Too bad that the nicest cards are always the first to disappear. How is the saying... only the good die young.

There... ordered another 5 decks just after my last post. It's not a big stash but I hope it will last me for a few years. It is good to have a few holy grails left to search for in old shops and flea markets.

A few years back I found a dozen packs at department store prices, in of all places, at a Texas grocery chain. When I went back recently, they had all been replaced by Bicycs.
I too have the book but have yet to dip into it. Guess I'll find the time now to pursue some use.
Larry

I found ten 'dealers dozen' cases a while back (130 decks) at a wholesaler that supplies goods to small grocery stores.
Do an internet search for 'novelty store supplies' and see if they list 'Texan' cards in their catalog, then cross your fingers that they're not the '45's' or the Marlboro's. I actually phoned them and had them look at the back of the card to confirm the design was in fact Palmettos.
If you're willing to buy in bulk, they'll sell to anybody.

I actually found these after doing a simple Google 'image' search for 'Palmetto'.....and there about 6 or so pages into the search was an image of the back of the Palmetto the little wholesaler had in stock.......(yes I bought 'em all!)

Remember that these haven't been made in just under a decade, so it's likely very old stock that the wholesaler will be more than happy to get rid of.
Of course whe wholesaler wouldn't have any idea of what the cards were or how much they were worth..........No guilt from me I'm afraid.

I must admit my heart rate went up a bit when I found this web site, the real bonus being that I paid grocery store wholesale for the 130 decks of Palmettos.
I don't actually expect to make too many of these types of finds in looking for cards, but it would be a treat to find some little supplier that had been sitting on Tahoe's for the last 40 years, happy to be rid of them for a dollar a deck!

Great story, Silverking! That is the kind of thing that I wish will happen to me one day.

You must have been incredibly lucky to find them through a search for "Palmettos" tho, since the cards aren't actually called that and no wholesaler would use that term unless he knew exactly what they were. He must have opened a box to look at the actual cards and then just picked that word to describe what the pattern looked like.

A Google search for the exact term "novelty store supplies" yields no results at all. By searching unquoted you get a lot of novelty stores rather than wholesale suppliers. Maybe that is a good hunting ground too.

The Palmetto's are being sold on ebay for two decks (one red, one blue) for twenty bucks. It's an ebay store with a buy now price and he lists "4 available."
Dennis Loomis

Yes Dennis. I have looked at those eBay Palmettos. Thank you.

For me at least, it is cheaper to get them from the UK, at $6 a deck. They are here: http://www.cards4magic.co.uk/acatalog/US......cks.html
For US residents, the eBay option may be cheaper because of the shipping. Full Boat Dealer is a very reliable and efficient eBay seller who doesn't overcharge on shipping like so many (most) do. Actually it would be cheaper for me here in Norway to get them from him if he had a bigger stock, since he can send up to 14 decks overseas for the same price. I can get 5 decks at the time from the UK.

I still prefer the UK site for these cards regardless of price since I don't like the red Palmettos. Ugly things. So when I buy the single decks I can get only blue backs.

I don't know... I should probably stock up on these. I have about 5 decks with 5 more on their way. I hope that they will last a long time since I don't use allover backs that much. Even though I love these cards.

what? for their "back"?