Playing Card Clubs

Q In the early 1950s I paid 25 cents each for small boxes of playing cards that have only been printed on the picture side. They are blank on the other. I traded them with other girls. I still have many of the cards. I just took them to a licensed appraiser and he had never seen any before. I need the value. Can you help?

A You and I are smarter than the appraiser. Trading cards were a popular pastime in the forties and fifties just as sports cards are today. I remember getting the jokers from all the decks of cards used by my mother’s bridge game to trade with other girls. Since there is little to no interest in this activity today there is almost no one to buy. There are several playing card clubs that meet, have a printed publication and collect old playing cards, some going back 100 years. Members might be interested. It depends on what the printed side looks like.