Superior Brand by EPCC

[Decknowledgy]

【Quality Check I: Tuck Box】

Since recently folks have been asking about the printing quality of Expert's Chinese (PRC) plant, I thought I'll just use the most basic Expert decks to do the comparisons: The Superior Classic Backs.

Blue printed in China (PRC), purchased on 4 Sep 2019.
Black printed in Taiwan, purchased on 4 Dec 2018.
Both handled almost daily.

This post is a comparison between the build quality between the Chinese printer and Taiwanese printer, mainly on the tuck box. A disclaimer first, I highly suspect that I got a faulty Blue deck, so some quality issues I'd think it's due to this particular deck. Nonetheless, I will show it as it is. I'll post another comment showing the differences of the card quality next, which is also pretty evident after extensive use.





Starting from the tuck paper, the matte on the Taiwanese Black deck is more muted than the Chinese Blue. One major issue right off the bat obvious that the gluing process for the Chinese Blue deck has not gone through proper quality inspection. Not only is the glue seeping through the seams on both sides, the tuck box is glued crooked. This contributes to the uneven surface of the front and back surface, and the tongue flap cannnot shut properly. On the other hand, the Taiwanese Black deck is lined up perfectly, just like what you'd expect from a normal tuck box.

I've posted the same comparison on my Instagram account, and so far there's 2 people who've said they had the same crooked tucks as I've had, so this is a problem.














Besides checking the ad copy at the bottom for the printed location, a notible difference is that the Chinese printer uses rounded glued sides whereas the Taiwanese uses squared sides that hide the seams. Other than these, the two tucks uses the same material: the unique type of plasticky matte paper that will not tear and is waterproof.

Here's a video comparison for more details:

[Decknowledgy]

【Quality Check II: Cards】
Superior Brand Classic: China vs. Taiwan
Produced by @conjuringarts
Printed by @expertpcc on Classic Finish

Blue printed in China (PRC), purchased on 4 Sep 2019, handled about 1yr. Black printed in Taiwan, purchased on 4 Dec 2018, handled about 2yrs.

First let me talk about my handling habits. The Superior Brand is one of my favorite daily handling series; I keep at least one of them next to me and fan them subconsciously, meaning that I could fan between 200-400 times per day + faro shuffle + dribbles. My hand is dry and does not sweat, so the cards hardly catches sweat stains.

For every two shots, I specifically compare the ink bleeding of the Blue vs Black deck, particularly the edges and the white faces. Although the Black Taiwan-printed deck is handled significantly longer by me and has some signs of yellowing, the edges no matter in spreads or fans are evidently cleaner and whiter than the Blue China-printed deck. Then in the 6th vs 7th shot, just look at the ink stain comparison on the 2,3,4,5 number cards... All of those ink stains of the Blue deck are bleeds from the back of cards, smeared onto the faces due to fanning and faro pressure. In comparison, the Black deck retains its cleanness.



















One bigger issue is the uneven cut of the Blue deck. Once again, I'm not sure whether my Blue Chinese deck is a faulty deck or many decks have this issue, but my 3 of sticks out like a sore thumb from the rest of the deck. As shown in the video (clearer in my story), the edge of the 3 of is wider and could be felt by touch. Thus, I've taken the card out of the deck for daily handling. I'm pretty sure this could be an issue for magicians and poker players (could easily be felt in shuffles) . Check the video in my Instagram post (don't have enough band-width to upload to YouTube):

https://www.instagram.com/p/CGcp01ZMneY/

What I will say is that Expert's Chinese printer still needs improvement to match their previous print quality. Expert should focus on that instead of marketing the Chinese printer as "the best" quality when even the Jerry's reprints feel underwhelming. Hopefully printing quality of the Chinese plants will be improved if Expert has decided to go with China completely; after all, William has said in the 52+Joker UUSI club deck launch session that the Chinese printers "provide the best quality and options we could ever have."

[Harvonsgard]

William has said in the 52+Joker UUSI club deck launch session that the Chinese printers "provide the best quality and options we could ever have."

To his defence, he didn't say "card quality", haha.
In all seriousness though, a more honest, "we aren't there yet but will be next or in two years" would have been refreshing.