Cheapest Kems I've ever seen |
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Posted Thu Feb 10, 2005 5:13 am GMT by Iron Butt
For all you Kem freaks out there, here's the best deal I've ever seen on them: $17 for a double deck, $21 shipped. This is a sale price FYI, they seem to change it fairly often. They even have several designs available at that price including some of the plainer non-obnoxious ones, and a bigger selection for a few bucks more.
Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with this site in any way. I don't really care where anyone gets their cards. If anyone feels this is spam, mods please delete this.
Further disclaimer: People have been reporting problems with Kems lately. I have no idea whether these are good or bad Kems. I can post on that when I get mine if people want to wait.
http://store.yahoo.com/chess4u/kemcards1.html
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Posted Thu Feb 10, 2005 3:12 pm GMT by TGuns
I should have posted about this place before when I bought mine there. Definitely a great place to buy cards from - fast shipping, good customer service and they have a lot more in stock than typical internet dealers do.
I'm not affiliated with these guys either - even though the store is in my city - but I do highly recommend them.
Posted Thu Feb 10, 2005 3:14 pm GMT by TGuns
follow-up:
I have purchased maybe 5-6 decks of KEM cards (and a few Copags as well) with no problems like people have mentioned with the new KEMs - missing cards, etc.
Posted Thu Feb 10, 2005 4:21 pm GMT by Bleakill
well, looks like they have many casino cards for good rice, but arrows are super index only and are $30 per deck 
Posted Thu Feb 10, 2005 4:31 pm GMT by TGuns
Actually, I don't think they update the in-stock items on their site 100%. If you call or email them, you can request KEM arrows and they'll tell you what they have. In my case, I got some reg index bridge-sized arrows (red) for approx $15.95, not bad considering they're going for on eBay.
Posted Thu Feb 10, 2005 6:40 pm GMT by Nugzy
I bought my double deck of Arrows for $20 shipped a while back. Should have bought more.
Posted Thu Feb 10, 2005 7:24 pm GMT by PocketRocket
If you look further down the page on the main KEM page, you'll find single decks of standard index Arrows in burgandy and red for $15.95 each.
| Bleakill wrote: | | well, looks like they have many casino cards for good rice, but arrows are super index only and are $30 per deck |
Posted Fri Feb 11, 2005 8:52 am GMT by TGuns
yeah it's kinda confusing, if you click on the link that says "selection of KEM poker decks" it narrows down the selection and knocks out the arrow bridge decks...
Posted Fri Feb 11, 2005 11:28 am GMT by B_rock
Thanks for that link Iron, I ended up getting two decks of the bridge size red arrows! So sweet. Good bye Bicycle, hello KEM.
Posted Fri Feb 11, 2005 8:31 pm GMT by PocketRocket
Be careful, it's a Yahoo! store and the check out page does have that Reservations Rewards scam on it I clicked on it by accident, but I'm not sure if it phished any of my payment information. In any case, I'll be keep an eye on the activity on that credit card.
| TGuns wrote: | | yeah it's kinda confusing, if you click on the link that says "selection of KEM poker decks" it narrows down the selection and knocks out the arrow bridge decks... |
Posted Sat Feb 12, 2005 12:31 am GMT by Ford69
I am just about to order, some kems from this site. i think that they are going to be great cards, have a deck of copags that i got a month ago, i love them. Cheapest kems ive seen also, thanks for the site iron
Posted Wed Feb 16, 2005 7:20 am GMT by Iron Butt
Well I got mine yesterday (Happy Valentine's Day babe! Look what I got myself! LOL), a double deck of the circle backs. They came in less than a week which is as good as it gets.
HOWEVER, freakin' BOTH of the Tds are marked, print glitches on the backs. So I guess I'll be reviewing their customer service as well... grrrrrr.
With the current craze in poker, why does getting a decent deck of cards have to be such an ordeal??? There's NO shops that I can find in the city that carry decent cards, Kems, the "best" cards you can buy, are useless half the time, I've got a set of Copags ordered two weeks ago now (gave mine to a friend, STUPID!!!) from some idiot on Ebay (who got a 99.8 rating somehow) that can't master the challenge of mailing a package and isn't willing to admit he f-ed up yet... I think I'm going to have to go back to paper. Or at least get a case from Costco for backup when the frickin' faaaanncy cards or their pimps come up short. Have you ever seen a misprinted paper card? I never have... you'd think Kem could get it right for TEN TIMES THE PRICE. My other set of Kems is f-ed up too, but it's just a little smudging on the faces so they're not unplayable. But still that's two for two on f-ed-up-ness, think I'm about done with Kems. So here I am, holding a $20, all I want for it is a few little pieces of plastic that can't cost more than two fitty to make and sells for maybe $7.50 wholesale, and I can't get anyone to pocket the extra $10 of 133% pure profit and gimme the damn cards without it being a huge pain in the ass for everyone involved. RRRAA@#()%*&@#%^%*(@)(@)_#@%RRRRGH!!!!!!!!!!!
You can see why I don't drink coffee anymore.
Posted Wed Feb 16, 2005 8:36 am GMT by circlencircle
IB, all I can say is I feel your pain... I just ordered some Dal Negro Freedoms from pc.com and a set of Copags from ebay. I am done with kem until it’s proven to many times over that I'm not going to be throwing my money away if I buy them.
Posted Wed Feb 16, 2005 10:41 am GMT by ky70
I was ready to try a set of Kems until I read IBs post. Is the quality issue also a problem with "Cards by Copag"? This vendor gets a lot of good press and I'm wondering if there Kems are of acceptable quality.
Thanks,
Ken
Posted Wed Feb 16, 2005 12:01 pm GMT by Buddha
I have never had a problem with any kems, and i have bought 3 double decks from Cards By Kem on Ebay. any print issues with them wouldnt be a result of the vendor because they just sell them. it would be something that started when the KEM was produced.
Posted Wed Feb 16, 2005 3:57 pm GMT by Abused Rib
From my experience and reading about others, there are some defective decks out there. However, in all cases I've seen, the vendor was quick to replace the deck in question. I definitely think it's worth the hassle when you do get a perfect deck, although it would be nice to get a perfect deck every time.
Posted Wed Feb 23, 2005 8:31 pm GMT by B_rock
Well.....I got my KEM's and they feel fantastic! I didn't think there would be such a big difference between paper and plastic cards.
That being said, the red dye on all of the red suited cards is a very dark burgandy colour and dull. Is this a normal trait of KEM's? They were printed 8/97 so maybe it is age that has drained some colour from them, although they were sealed.
If anyone can shed some light that would be great.
Posted Wed Feb 23, 2005 11:48 pm GMT by Double Eagle
| B_rock wrote: | | ...the red dye on all of the red suited cards is a very dark burgandy colour and dull. Is this a normal trait of KEM's? |
Yes. If you look at Copags, they are a much brighter red.
Posted Fri Feb 25, 2005 1:27 pm GMT by Iron Butt
Following up on the bad Kems: RCC responded to my email in a couple days. The rep was very polite and had a great attitude. They offered me my choice of a refund, replacement cards if they had any, or Copags in replacement if not. Replacement cards were apparently not available but yesterday I received 3 decks of Copags, one boxed 2 deck set and an extra deck of weird shiny Copags. I guess to cover the $2 price difference, which I had said not to bother with refunding. I am very happy with their customer service and would gladly buy there again.
The weird shiny Copags are interesting. On the site as:
COPAG Export Full Bleed
These are shiny-slick rather than the matte finish and slightly stiffer, they have a bit more of the 'snap' you get from a paper card. They seem a lot like Gemacos to me. Also very cheap at $9 for 2 decks. (Gemacos go for $25/set or so.) If you want plastic cards that feel more like paper cards or Gemacos for cheap these would be a good choice.
Posted Fri Feb 25, 2005 4:59 pm GMT by PocketRocket
I got mine in a couple of days as well, ordered them right after seeing your initial post. Ordered a couple of sets of Circle Techs and a couple Royales. Didn't even open them until seeing your post about the print glitches. Seems the Circle Techs that I got were printed in 2002 and don't have any problems. I did notice that the Circle Tech sets that were printed in 2002 were a bit thicker than the Royales that were printed in 1998 (deck stacked against another deck). Other than that, there didn't seem to be any problems with them other than the fact that you can get fantastic bargains on the sets that have two decks of the same color.
Sorry to hear of your misfortune, but thanks a lot for posting the link.
| Iron Butt wrote: | Well I got mine yesterday (Happy Valentine's Day babe! Look what I got myself! LOL), a double deck of the circle backs. They came in less than a week which is as good as it gets.
HOWEVER, freakin' BOTH of the Tds are marked, print glitches on the backs. So I guess I'll be reviewing their customer service as well... grrrrrr.
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Posted Fri Feb 25, 2005 8:14 pm GMT by TheNuts
Gotta dumb noob question here....
I've ordered 2 sets of each of the Circle Techs and the Royale Double Blue. My question is, the Circle Techs came in the brown box that the "California Casino Club" cards come in. I know that I've read somewhere before that the California Clubs are not plastic (i think it was vinyl??). The Royale Blue came in the usual black Kem hard case and IMO have a different feel to them......
Anyway any insight on this? Is there really a difference between the two different packaging?
Posted Sat Feb 26, 2005 2:59 am GMT by R Deckard
| TheNuts wrote: | Gotta dumb noob question here....
I've ordered 2 sets of each of the Circle Techs and the Royale Double Blue. My question is, the Circle Techs came in the brown box that the "California Casino Club" cards come in. I know that I've read somewhere before that the California Clubs are not plastic (i think it was vinyl??). The Royale Blue came in the usual black Kem hard case and IMO have a different feel to them......
Anyway any insight on this? Is there really a difference between the two different packaging? |
I also have several decks of Circle Techs in the brown cardboard box. They are for sure not vinyl though, since I also have other (plastic case) KEMs and a sample of a California vinyl (PVC, PolyVinyl Chloride, same thing) card and can tell the difference. Circle Techs are cellulose acetate. The reason your Royales feel different is probably because of the KEM quality variation that has been so prevalent in the last batches of KEM before they shut down. I recently bought a double deck of Florence that has one good deck, but the other is totally different--the cards are noticeably thinner (the decks aren't even the same height when stacked!) and the backs are smeared. I also bought a set of Royale Double Blue and they were even worse--rough unfinished texture, corners not rounded-off, card "dust" everywhere inside the plastic wrap. I had to return them.
My take on the box issue is that the decks sold for casino use are packaged in the cardboard box, and the decks for home use are in the plastic case. Reason being that the casinos don't really care about, use, or want to pay for the plastic case whereas the home user does.
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