Replica Iraqi Playing Cards

Newt's Playing Cards
The U.S. Government only distributed 200 original decks of the "Iraqi Most Wanted" playing cards to military personnel. Very few folks have these prized decks as thousands scramble to get a piece of history. Still hundreds more try to scam folks in online auctions and websites for what they are calling "authentic" or "authorized" decks. To set the record straight, "Defense officials said they have no plans for any additional printing runs or any "authorized" release of the card decks for public sale." (Read More) From what we understand, THERE IS NOT AN "AUTHORIZED" or "OFFICIAL" deck! Don't let any manufacturer fool you in to believing so. The U.S. Military even says..."Central Command notes that "The cards are not available for sale or distribution." The Defense Department has no official affiliation with the Internet auction or other websites that reportedly have some version of these cards available for purchase." Read more... Newt's Iraqi Most Wanted are made by Carta Mundi and are one of the first "Made In The USA" decks to roll off the presses in response to the demand. Our decks are made from the government files that were used to print the original 200, but our decks ARE NOT original. They are a replica!!! We starting selling our cards Sunday, April 13 at 1:30 PM. By the end of the day we had sold more decks than we could believe. At this time our ship date is pushed out as demand grows and folks want to get a deck of these historic cards. We have attempted to keep them as close to the authentic ones as possible, but we have made some changes (like the government used trademark jokers from Hoyle which we are not licensed to do). You will notice some photos stretched, and others with blurry pictures. This is not because the printing was off, it is because it was the best picture the government had! We would assume that some of the photos come from spies, informants, etc. For the back we chose to stay with the desert camouflage that is on the original electronic file. As an added feature we will continue to search out various brands and twist of the Iraqi Most Wanted cards to offer you a wider selection along with our own twist. So what makes our cards different? Our cards are printed on top quality, poker size cards (not bridge size)! These ARE NOT junk cards that are printed on a piece of paper or some low quality playing card material. They are REAL, coated playing cards with rounded edges. Our decks include an exclusive "Iraqi Most Wanted" playing card (as the 3rd joker) that looks like the old time western "Most Wanted" posters. They would make a great conversation piece at your next poker or euchre game! They are a replica from the electronic files that were used to print the original 200. Our orders are now current, but we have a limited supply of our deck left. Our deck is a limited edition of 25,000 decks. If you select hot rush, we will ship them to you as soon as we get them in again. THERE IS A HUGE DEMAND FOR THESE CARDS! Please be patient with our server and shipping department. This item is considered a special order item and cannot be cancelled. If you order other items with this deck they will all ship at once.
Here is General Brooks Holding the cards.	From what we understand, if you want the original cards that Brig. Gen. Vince Books showed you will need to find the PDF file and print it out on your printer. If you grab a picture of the General where he is holding up the deck of cards, the cards are square. They are not rounded like normal playing cards. When he fanned through the cards they were more like paper than playing card material. And the backs seemed to be blank! My guess is that he was using a mock-up deck to show folks. What the government seems to have done was distribute this via electronic file. We have heard more rumors that some of the decks our troops have obtained have an American flag on it. Again, this is just what we know. So to say authentic, no one is sure what is, or if there is an authentic deck. One gentleman from CNN told us that the States Department says it is very unlikely that anyone in the U.S. has the same cards distributed to our military.
Be careful if anyone tells you they have "authentic" decks of these cards! Read more...
Please note that as you read the selection below, we are in no way putting down, slamming or trying to hurt U.S. Playing Card. We have a very wonderful relationship with the company and sell their full line of cards in our store. We also encourage you to buy the card that they made and make it a part of your collection also. With that being said... Many folks have called us and asked if our cards are the "authentic," "authorized" or "licensed" decks that U.S. Playing Card made and that the ...flag.com company sells. Please note that the only thing that is "authentic," "authorized" or "licensed" about the cards from U.S. Playing Cards is that they are allowed to use the Hoyle Joker that the government used without permission. The cards are "authentic," "authorized" or "licensed" by U.S. Playing Cards, NOT the U.S. Government. Many newspaper articles, radio & TV spots, and websites have been advertising that the cards made by U.S. Playing Cards are "authentic," "authorized" or "licensed" but they fail to say who they are "authentic," "authorized" or "licensed" by. U.S. Playing Card is NOT the ones trying to cloud the issue. I believe that maybe the media has put its own little twist on this (who knows why). It is probably the tons of folks who are marketing the cards too. So you don't believe there is not "authentic," "authorized" or "licensed" decks? Read more... Read more... The truth is once again, we do not have any authentic cards in the US! U.S. Playing Card doesn't and neither do we! They are ALL reproductions. Once again, many of them have their own twist and this is what makes it more fun to get a piece of history! Get each one of the decks and get the full spectrum. As a collector that is what I am going to do! I am striving to find every deck that was printed by a manufacturer and add it to my collection. I don't really want the junk ones someone printed out on their printer, I can do that. But I am searching for all the varieties. We have sold our decks to hundreds of military personnel. Our cards have been sold to folks in the U.K., England, Ireland, Hong Kong, Greece, and more. We even have folks in France that want the cards even though they did not support U.S. efforts! These cards are HOT! We just wish companies would stop making false claims and exaggerations. Our goal is to provide a collectible piece of history at an affordable price. We want to help keep you, the consumer, informed as to what is going on. As we find information, we will post it here. We are not out to 'hurt' any company, not even our competitors. Although we must admit that up until a few weeks ago our competitors were limited to just a couple of other companies. Please, if you have any further questions feel free to call or email us. Thanks, James Esteph President, Newt's Dad, Card Collector and Player
W A R N I N G ! The items below are things to watch out for. Some of them may be SCAMS. A lot of folks just want to take your money and run!!! We are not saying that they will not ship your cards. We are just saying that many of them are making false claims. They are not in it for the long haul, they just saw a chance to make a quick buck and their going to do it at the YOUR expence!
May 9, 2003 - It will be great win eBay gets back to normal! I am used to bidding on cards on a nightly basis to get more playing cards for our future playing card museum. At this time about 75% of the items with "playing cards" in the search term end up being another deck of Iraqi Playing Cards! ............................................................................................................................
April 26, 2003 - The latest fad in the world is to build a one page website (maybe 3 if you're creative) and sell Iraqi Playing Cards. Newt's Playing Cards is more than just a one page website. We have hundreds of playing cards that we sell from around the world. It is what we do everyday. We even sold decks of cards the day before General Brooks announced the cards! I never imagined so many folks would ever want to sell playing cards. Watch out for the one page websites. Get their address and phone number. Find out if they are real business. Shop wisely. Some companies sell other items such as heating and cooling or security systems! It is strange how everyone seems to be interested in a simple deck of playing cards all of a sudden. Money talks?! ............................................................................................................................
April 22, 2003 (Updated May 9, 2003) - The latest scam again is to claim that you have the 'original' cards. One company that advertises on Google claims, "The Centcom Original Playing Cards, Authenticated Iraqi Most Wanted." Once again Read more to find out the truth! Although these folks have an interesting package with a certificate and all, I just wish they would stop stretching the truth. For Pete's sake, these cards sell just fine without trying to pull one over on the general public. NOTE: The folks referred to above have sent us a letter of complaint, dated May 8, 2003, about our comments. They stated, "Instead of taking all your time besmirching your competitors, why don't you concentrate on doing business." I guess what they don't understand is we have "wasted" no time at all! We are trying to warn the consumer of false claims. False claims that the attorney general in any state would not like! Claims like, "Official Iraqi Deck" and then claim that it is a trademark name!! First of all, there is no "official" deck according to the military and how can they trademark something that is not true? They may feel that the truth is a waste of time, but we do not. They try to offset their claims by making statements like, "These are not cheap reproductions. These are from the same factory run as the cards that were sent to the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait 4/18/03, used to identify wanted Iraqi officals [should be officials]." This is our point EXACTLY! This company is selling a REPLICA just like we are. The cards that Liberty sold have the U.S. Embassy's logo on the back. This companies cards DO NOT!! They may be selling Liberty's cards, but that is it. THEY ARE REPLICAS! As for the "...besmirching your competitors,..."* comment. They should look a little closer at our website because we sell our "competitors" cards too. We are a playing card store for card collectors and players and will continue to look for more variations of these Iraqi Playing Cards from our "competitors" so that we can offer them. We are not out to just "hurt" our competitor, we just want our competitors to tell the truth and not be misleading. If anything, we are helping our competitor by selling their product too. I know their deck is good because they are selling the Liberty Playing Cards version. Liberty's *first* version was not the best quality, but the latest version that has come out is very nice! But that does NOT make this deck original, official or authentic!! They are implying that the government has made their deck original, official or authentic by making claims like, "The Official Manufacturer of the Centcom Cards." Check this link out! Their cards are the same cards that were sold to the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait, AFTER the original decks were printed. They ARE NOT part of the original 200 decks that were printed by the US Military and did not go to the same place. The second part of their comment was, "...why don't you concentrate on doing business." Our answer to them is, playing cards are what we do! Playing cards are our business. Cards are not some bandwagon we have jumped on. My question to them is why don't they concentrate on "security and surveillance systems," which I am sure they do a wonderful job with. So I wonder how they are even allowed to use "Centcom" in their name at all! You would think the government would want to protect their name. Another comment in their letter is "We certainly will have our corporate general counsel review what you have posted in the public domain about our company for accuracy and possible recourse." I have been very careful to not mention the above company's *exact* name. They use the "government" name (Centcom) as part of their website address, but they DO NOT and can not hold that name as their own! If you want to find out which company I am talking about you will have to figure it out for yourself. I have left it generic on purpose. The strange thing is how easily the company felt I was stepping on their toes. Do you think it was a guilty conscience? I doubt it. Once again, to sum it up...there is NOT a Government, Pentagon or Centcom official, authentic, authorized or licensed deck in the U.S. market according the the U.S. Government! Read more... ............................................................................................................................
The banner below is an advertisement from ANOTHER company! This is NOT our advertisement. In this advertisement these guys "claim" to have the "official" Pentagon Deck. Be careful if anyone tells you they have "authentic" or "official" decks of these cards! The government DOES NOT have an "official" deck of Iraqi Playing Cards! Read more...
More Questionable Stuff...
April 18, 2003 The cards are plastered all over the search engines! Some claiming authentic, others charging as much as $14.95 - $19.95. Be wise! ............................................................................................................................
April 18, 2003 Some companies claim, "These are the originals! Don't be fooled by cheap knock offs. Be sure you get the real deal!" Come on, aren't we all "knock offs?" Some are cheaper than others, but all Iraqi Playing Cards are knock offs! Once again if you read what the government says, there is no "real deal!" Read more... ............................................................................................................................
April 16, 2003 Some are even claiming that they are "supplying the New Iraq "Most Wanted" Playing Cards and Wall Posters depicting the 55 "Most Wanted" . The bad news for them is on the deck they are selling there is only 52 cards with pictures of the most wanted. Most of the decks DO NOT contain 55 pictures. While a few have added the Information Minister, it still does not add up to 55! ............................................................................................................................
April 16, 2003 Now the cheap import playing cards are going to start to trickle on to U.S. shores. From every make and model. Cheap knock-offs, of what was already a knock-off. Cards that can be shuffled once and then will have to be thrown away. I guess for a collector these will be okay to see what the variety is but if you want to play cards with them I would not get the made in "who knows where." ............................................................................................................................
April 15, 2003 - At one time Newt's shared the internet with a few companies that sold playing cards. Now everyone wants to jump in! But you can bet that as soon as they make there $$, they will be gone!! (Updated May 9, 2003) Actually, the more I think about it. I would be willing to say that once they loose their tale, they will back down. ............................................................................................................................
April 14, 2003 There is a lot of traffic on eBay from folks wanting to capitalize on these cards. Some are true, but most are just out to take your money! Some sell the "Electronic Version" of the deck, while others claim to have the "authentic" ones. Watch out! Read More at CNN Money... Here is one auction at eBay that laid out the scams. Likewise, some auctions were shut down.
Why did we list this page?
As we have stated before, playing cards are what we do! It is what we did before this wave and it is what we will do after this wave. We do not claim to have "authentic Iraqi Most Wanted" playing cards, because to do so would be a lie. We hope and pray that other companies will stop the false claims and tell the truth too. Folks want these cards anyway so there is no sense in lying about them. Please, as you shop, be careful. Myself, I hate to feel like I was scammed or ripped off. So I wanted to do the best I could to warn other folks to be careful. Once again, we encourage you to buy various Iraqi decks. You will get different Jokers, some will have a special Joker like the Wanted Poster that we have made. Others will offer a different back. It's all part of the fun of collecting. Do me a favor though, watch out for the scams (I had to stop using the term 'scam art**t' because some of them were getting offended)! Thanks Again, James Esteph President, Newt's Dad, Card Collector and Player