STILL TRADING!

Although we have not added any new stock to our website since 2011, all the items listed and displayed here are still available for purchase. Most of them are offered at 2011 prices! To place an order, please contact us via our contact page with a list of what you would like to purchase. We will then confirm availability and propose various options for payment. If you have specific “wants” for items not shown, please submit a list. You never know – we may still have an example of the very pack you are looking for!

www.playingcardsales.com
The online playing cards store of R. Somerville (Playing Cards)

Terms and Conditions

General

All prices quoted are in British pounds sterling (£) - see currency page for more details.
All prices quoted exclude postage and packing charges. These will be added as explained on our postage and packing information page (see under help above).
These terms and conditions do not affect our customers' statutory rights.



How can I pay for my order?

Payment can be made via PayPal. For customers in the UK or with UK bank accounts, payment by bank transfer (BACS) is preferred.

Complaints Procedure

If you wish to contact us concerning any problems you have experienced with any aspect of our service or using our website then use any of the contact methods (mail, FAX, Telephone or e-mail) shown on our our contacts page (return to the homepage and look in the menu on the left hand side to find this).

Complaints will be acknowledged as soon as possible and dealt with as a matter of priority. (We are a small organisation, and if Mr Somerville and/or the web manager is away from the office on business or otherwise, e-mails and other messages may not get immediate attention. Notice of absence of more than a couple of days will usually be posted on our homepage.)

If you have any questions/comments about our terms & conditions, you should contact us.

R. Somerville (Playing Cards), 12 Place du Palais des Evêques, F-31420 ALAN, France

Click here to start at the beginning of our catalogue.

This page last updated: 31st July, 2023





Many of our customers may not be aware that the stock range we currently offer has been built up over more than 25 years. More importantly, much of that stock range is not offered by other dealers and much of it is irreplaceable. In other words we often carry the last stock available anywhere of particular items.

This is increasingly the case with many of the standard regional packs, mainly as a result of numerous acquisitions and takeovers which have occurred in the industry in recent years. For example, whereas only a few years ago there were as many as five major independent producers in Germany, today there is only one, namely Nürnberger-Spielkarten-Verlag GmbH. Carta Mundi of Belgium has acquired all the others (A.S.S, Berliner Spielkarten, F.X. Schmid & Spielkartenfabrik Altenburg). Inevitably, this has led to a radical rationalisation of what was previously a great diversity of patterns offered. Some patterns have disappeared entirely, e.g. Prussian, and others are in danger of going the same way, notably the Saxon pattern.

The manufacturers are dictating what they want you, the customer, to buy and are not interested in offering a choice any more. Thus for the game of Skat, for instance, in future you will only be able to buy a North German (or Berliner) pattern pack if you play with French suits or a New Altenburg pattern pack if you play with German suits. For Tarock or Schafkopf both Bavarian and Franconian pattern packs are still on offer but perhaps the Franconian pattern will be the next to be eliminated. For Gaigel and Binokel there is just the Württemberg pattern.

All in all, the diverse range we are currently able to offer can only diminish as time goes on. You have been warned!
Standard Regional Pattern packs can be found in the catalogue section called "Regional", and beware if searching by country of publication as there are many publishers who produce packs for regions other than their own!