You may have found our Complete Guide to Butterfly Playing Cards, where we discuss the main editions of Butterflies released since 2017. Although the series already has five parts, we didn’t mention three decks. Together, we call them the “Seconds”.
Butterfly Playing Cards "Seconds" (Second Edition)
Butterfly Playing Cards Red Workers "Seconds"
Introduction
What are Butterfly “Seconds”? They are Butterfly Playing Cards with minor manufacturing imperfections. We always strive to provide the best product possible. And when something is not up to our standards, we cannot release it, even though only we might notice the differences.
We have three editions of Butterfly “Seconds”. Let’s look at what makes them “Seconds” and why we make them available for so cheap.
Butterfly Playing Cards “Seconds” (Second Edition)
The first “Seconds” decks we received was a run of Second Edition Butterfly Refills. These are the classic Butterflies with a borderless back design and our trademark markings.
The cutting registration for these decks was not set to the necessary degree, resulting in an offset design. This is particularly not desirable with our markings. This issue did not hit every deck of the run. It was quite the opposite. Only about ten to twenty percent of those decks have this imperfection. The rest of them are flawless.
It was not feasible for us to go through every deck to check if they were fine. We decided to put them all aside. Over the years, our team used them as practice decks. Ondrej went through a ton during his shows and lectures. We gave them to our friends. And after all of this, there were still more decks left than we could ever use.
We made them available for the first time a couple of years ago. Our goal with these was to provide magicians with an affordable deck for practice and performing*. After this, we opened a couple more short release windows during which people could stock up on these. Now, they will be available until they are gone.
How will you know you have a Butterfly “Seconds” deck? The deck comes without cellophane over the tuck box (the cards in the box are still wrapped in cellophane). The butterfly on the bottom of the tuck box is crossed out. We do this to ensure nobody tries to resell these as the classic Butterfly cards for their full price.
*This applies to all of the Butterfly “Seconds”.
Butterfly Playing Cards Red Workers “Seconds”
In September 2022, we ran a Kickstarter campaign for a new series of Butterfly Playing Cards with a bordered back design. We called the series the Workers Edition.
We ran into some production hiccups when producing the different editions of Workers. One batch of Red Butterfly Workers ended up with a slight color inaccuracy. This means the color of the back design might differ from one deck to another. This is very subtle, and only a few will notice it.
This was enough for us to mark these as Workers “Seconds.” And what was produced as a worker deck became even more of a worker deck. We put these in bundles of six and twelve, bringing their price to as low as 5 EUR per deck. A fully marked deck with a double-backer and a thirty-minute tutorial. Could that considered a great deal?
The Red Workers “Seconds” received the same treatment as the Second Edition Butterfly “Seconds.” The tuck box is not wrapped in cellophane, and the butterfly on the bottom is crossed out.
Butterfly Holo Edition “Seconds”
Creating a holographic version of Butterflies was one of the most requested things over the last few years. It became even more apparent during our Kickstarter campaign for the Butterfly Workers. So, we listened to the Vox Populi and made Butterfly Playing Cards Holo Edition.
Our goal was to produce a stunning and unique deck of cards. That’s why we used a patterned holographic foil to match the Butterfly design and black background for the cards. We threw matte black gilding as a cherry on top to create a seamless transition from the backs to the faces.
We chose to use a hot foiling process instead of a cold foiling one we used for the Black Series decks printed with Cartamundi. We eventually ran into some manufacturing issues caused by the higher temperature. and the effort to not let the design push through to the other side of the cards. We didn't want to destroy a whole print run of these cards as they are still perfectly usable, so we turned them into Butterfly Holo "Seconds."
The Aces feature the classic Butterfly pips with a flower pattern. The details on them got blurred during the foiling process. The same applies to the back design, court cards, and one of the Jokers, where some details are not as clear and sharp as they should be.
How can you tell these are “Seconds” at first glance? The tuck box features an inverted version of the deck’s back design and does not come with a seal. The Holo “Seconds” also include a blank face (in this case, a black face) and a double-backer, compared to a blank face and a gaffed Joker in the standard version.
The End
This was an overview of the Butterfly “Seconds.” We wanted to provide a behind-the-scenes look at how these came into existence and why we decided to release them.
We hope we have given you a better understanding of the Butterfly “Seconds.” We also hope you’ll enjoy them if you end up purchasing them.
Please get in touch with us if you have any questions about these decks or anything else. We’ll be happy to help.