Jokers Galore! Larry Moss' joker collection

Important info about these pages

Please note that these joker pages are not currently being maintained. I have not had time to maintain these pages or my collection. I am not currently trading with anyone until I get caught up. As it is, I owe quite a few jokers to one collector that I hope is being patient with me. The jokers listed as duplicates have mostly been traded away and the colleciton is probably about twice as large as what you see here. I simply have no time or desire to do anything with the collection right now. Please enjoy these pages, but don't ask me to trade with you. Maybe down the road some time, things will be different.



About the scans

The scans here are pretty bad. That's probably not going to change. I slapped them on the scanner quickly. I'm not trying to show off the artwork on these cards. I'd like to, but I get the feeling that wouldn't be looked up on kindly by the US Playing Card Company (and others). I know, copyright violations are still copyright violations, but I'm hoping that by not making a fancy show of the cards, my intentions can remain clear. I'm trying to show off what I have in order to trade with others. If you would like to trade for anything that I have multiples of, let me know (moss@fooledya.com).

Cards were all scanned at the same scale. So, larger cards are from jumbo decks. Smaller cards are from miniature decks. Cards are, for the most part, in excellent condition. I didn't take them out of the books they are in to scan them so the plastic covering on the pages is what looks crinkled in these pictures.

Why do I collect these things

Freshman year of college, during the first few days of school, a number of us were just sitting out in the hall of our dorm. One member of our floor pointed out that it was a common practice for dorm residents to put their names on their doors. We, being an unusual bunch, didn't follow the common approach. It was decided that it would be much more helpful in getting to know everyone else if the doors had some decoration on them that was representative of the folks in the apartment. That way, you would have to get to know people, rather than just getting to know their names, when you went looking for them.

As was normal for me, I had a deck of cards in my hand. (I said this was normal for me, not that I was normal.) On the suggestion of decorating the doors, I quickly grabbed a joker and slapped it on the door. It stuck. Sean pointed out that I wasn't the only person living there and that a joker on the door clearly only stood for me. His answer to that was to go find two more jokers. All three on the door now were different.

The next day, upon arriving back at the room, there was another joker on the door. Someone had seen the three jokers and, not realizing that one stood for each of us, decided that the idea was just to decorate the door with more of them. This idea picked up. Various people started to just stick jokers on the door. I decided I liked the idea and went out in search of them for the rest of the year. Since I started it (by accident) and I was the one interested in cards all along, there was never any question that the collection was mine.

After that first year, I never really went out looking for jokers. I just always kept an eye out in case an unusual one crossed my path. Now that I actually know others collect jokers, I'm hoping to make some interesting trades and build the collection.

The jokers

Given the size of all of these pictures combined, I'm splitting them over a few pages. There is no organization to the madness here or any reason for the breaks to appear in certain places.

page 1
page 2
page 3
page 4
Duplicate jokers in my collection that I want to use for trades

Other playing cards on the 'net

While this may not be the most organized card collection around, others are very nicely done. One particular site has actually gotten me interested in working on my collection again. If you're looking for more information about cards, take a look at Bob Lancaster's Gallery of Unusual Playing Cards. Bob has done a beautiful job of displaying some of his more intersting cards, along with information about them. There you can also find a nice directory of other card collecting sites.
The background and title graphic for this page were created by Ben Scanlon. Visit Ben's Pez Central.

Return to Fooled Ya!