If you're an uncompromising collector of antique technology, make sure to check out all my listings after you look at this one. I don't think you'll find a better, broader or more balanced assortment of technical antiques anywhere -- hundreds of no-reserve auctions each year, almost all of them featuring eye-popping "gee whiz" gadgetry in exceptional original condition. And don't forget, you can click this link to quickly add and then save me to your favorite seller list and Ebay will automatically send you updates when I put similar new auctions online.
First a bit of backstory, since vintage playing cards aren't exactly my stock-in-trade. Back in the early 1990's I had a company that was developing multimedia titles, under contract, for much larger companies like Sony, Pearson & IBM. Among the titles we were working on was a collaboration with Toronto's McLuhan Center on the life and times of Marshall McLuhan, a brilliant and singular thinker who -- more than 60 years ago -- quite literally forecast the reality and consequences of -- among other things -- the World Wide Web
Like many projects in the early days of multimedia, the title never came to pass, but I did get a very cool deck of playing cards out of the deal. Entitled Distant Early Warning, they were printed in 1969, in a run of (I believe) 1,000, and featured aphorisms on each card, the same ones for which McLuhan had become known in books such as Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. In preparation for the project, I purchased the cards, along with some CD-ROMs the Center was selling at the time, but all I have left are the cards. They were sent to me by the Center's archivist and de facto director.
So that's what you have here. A complete, unused deck, with 52 cards and a joker. Condition is excellent -- almost like new, and with them, you'll get the letter that accompanied them and that demonstrates their origin.