Quality Cards for Discerning Customers

“At the start, we didn’t make the cards ourselves but worked with partners in the USA, Pakistan, and China,” explains Mr. Levin. “When we got to know our customers’ requirements better, we started thinking about strategically advancing our business.” As the quality of the playing cards was very important to them from the outset, the Levins wanted to have a greater influence on production. As a result, they became manufacturers themselves, initially using the machines of a print shop in the area. The start-up did all the marketing, sales, administration, and shipping from the family garage in the first few years.

Today, Shuffled Ink not only owns the full range of equipment for producing card games, it has also been operating from its own spacious production and office building since summer 2022. Another important change took place in 2017, when the Levins received an email from Jürgen Leber, Sales Manager at Koehler. He had come across the company during an online search and wanted to tell Shuffled Ink about Koehler’s playing card board. “We were interested immediately,” recalls Mr. Levin.

Until then, Shuffled Ink had bought the sheets for printing the cards from China and France. It can be very tricky to maintain a consistently high paper quality for card products. The color, thickness, surface quality, and sheet cutting must be flawless and identical in every batch. The quality of the card left a lot to be desired back then, and a lack of consistency in particular was causing problems for the company. “No matter how much we tried, the result was never perfect,” explains Mr. Levin.

Jürgen Leber sent a sample package to the USA. When Mr. Levin opened it, he felt like a kid at Christmas.“When we shuffled the first decks made from Koehler card, it was a magic moment. At long last, we held in our hands exactly what we had been searching for.” The Levins ordered a few thousand sheets for further tests. “We wanted to be sure the result wasn’t too good to be true,” says Mr. Levin. After the tests, they had a party to celebrate. “I cannot stress enough how much our products have improved thanks to Koehler’s playing card board. Before, we had a pretty average product despite all the effort we put into craftsmanship. Now, some of our customers call it the best product in the world,” explains Mr. Levin proudly.

The business model has changed enormously since the Super Deck days. Today, Shuffled Ink is a specialist in high-grade card printing covering a range of products, including playing cards, tarot cards, and flashcards. “We print our products digitally or on an offset press, depending on the size of the order. A special coating is then applied to the printed sheets. This makes the playing cards more durable, gives them a bit of shine, and makes them easy to shuffle,” explains Mr. Levin.

After that, a machine cuts the sheets and puts the cards into the correct sequence. Lastly, a die cutter rounds off the corners and gives the playing cards their final shape. “Before we used Koehler’s playing card board, it was impossible to cut the edges perfectly symmetrically every time. But we can do that now thanks to Koehler,” explains Mr. Levin. A complete pack of playing cards also includes the packaging, which Shuffled Ink makes too. “We are now using our experience with playing card boxes to launch a new product category,” reveals Mr. Levin. The printing specialist now offers customized packaging, for example gift boxes or packaging for soap, tea, or pharmaceutical products.

Shuffled Ink’s customers are extremely varied, ranging from a bride and groom who wanted to send a customized card game as their wedding invitation, to a company ordering 50,000 decks. One thing all of the customers have in common is that they value top quality. “Generally speaking, we are not the cheapest option. We attract customers who are very discerning when it comes to customer service, printing quality, and the material,” explains Mr. Levin.

His vision is for the company to continue growing: “We will keep developing very strategically in the future. But our goal is not to be good in as many different areas as possible. Our goal is to be outstanding in our specialist area.” Mr. Levin has no doubt that paper from Koehler will remain a key factor in this.