TRW Mission Promo Deck

Front of deck

This is a vintage deck of promotional TRW Mission playing cards printed by Brown & Begelow. They are a standard bridge sized deck with 52 cards plus two jokers. Face cards and pips are standard. TRW Mission was a subsidiary of TRW Inc. The company was founded in 1901 and became defunct in 2002 when it was folded up into Northrop. Tuck case has bad wear damage, but the cards are in very good condition with no missing or damaged cards. Best guess would date these cards between the 1930s and 1960s, but it is impossible to tell. This deck was picked up in a lot from an antique store.

2 decks of Coca Cola Polar Bear playing cards

Front of packaging with cut out showing front of tin design

The polar bear first showed up in Coca Cola advertising in France in 1922 and continued to show up periodically over the next 70 years. The modern polar bear debuted in 1993. This double deck was produced by USPCC in 1998 (blue seal) and Bicycle branded. The two decks are enclosed in a tin with a flip top opening and contains a sporty theme. One deck shows a polar bear cooling off on top of a cooler of Coca Cola, and the other shows a polar bear reaching for a Coke while climbing a mountain. These are standard poker sized decks sealed in original packaging, including two stickers.

Deadwood HBO

Front of deck

This is a deck of playing cards featuring characters from the HBO original show, Deadwood. This is a 52 card deck, with two joker cards. The jokers, jack, queen, king, and ace cards all feature characters from the show. Number cards are standard, but feature only one large pip of the suit in the center, instead of the corresponding number. The deck also contains two cards stating “For promotional use only. Not for resale,” with the HBO logo. The deck is unsealed, and the tuck box has wear damage, but the cards unused, still in numerical order.

The Kraken playing cards was a promo deck that came with the purchase of a bottle of Kraken Black Spiced Rum, but are also being sold on their website. These cards appear to be the third style of card released by Kraken. These were printed in 2016.

The Kraken Playing Cards

Front of deck

The Kraken Black Spiced Rum

Back of deck

Card faces

Card faces

United Airlines 1970s

Ocean to Ocean Service

United Airlines branded playing cards touting “Ocean to Ocean Service.” This deck is from the 1970’s and is unopened with intact the U. S. Playing Card Company sticker. The box is in excellent condition. Very slight wear and only the sticker shows some discoloration. Back in the day, some airlines handed out decks of cards to people on flights. Now you are lucky if they don’t run out of pretzels.