Recommend a card shuffler?

[jschild]

Can anyone recommend a card shuffler? My son cannot shuffle well yet himself and with Munchkin+expansions, Dominion, and soon Ascension, I think it might be prudent to get like a 4-6 deck shuffler.

I don't want anything that might tear up the cards (some minor scuffing is acceptable) so I was wondering if anyone has had any first hand experience with any and if they could recommend/not recommend any specific models.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

[Jim]

Years ago I had one of those small battery powered ones that you can find in Wal-Mart or Walgreens. It did an OK job, but it jammed a lot more than it should have. It also wasn't the gentlest handler of the cards.

Unfortunately I have no other experience with mechanical shufflers.

[jschild]

Yeah, I figured I should go above the cheap "Wal-Mart" level, but don't want to spend more than 20 if possible if there is a good brand online.

[Jim]

I've read some of the reviews on Amazon for the manual card shufflers, and most of them aren't very positive. One model had 3 or 4 stars (out of 5) but still had poor reviews.

[xraine69]

The best way I have found to shuffle large decks or for kids, is to deal the cards into multiple piles and then combining them back together.

[WOOKIE]

Find the right card sleeves.

[jschild]

Card sleeves still won't let a 7 yo shuffle

Still haven't seen a reasonalby affordable one that didn't have scary reviews about cards getting mangled (that's fine for regular playing cards but leave my Dominion alone!)

[Jim]

Originally Posted by jschild

Card sleeves still won't let a 7 yo shuffle

They will let a 7 yo split the deck into two halves and then "mash" them together for a different kind of shuffle.

[jschild]

Originally Posted by Jim

They will let a 7 yo split the deck into two halves and then "mash" them together for a different kind of shuffle.

True, but I'm trying to reduce the time it takes :P

[Grim]

Several years ago I had a similar quest and failed. The only ones I could find were flimsy, battery-powered only, and held at most 4 decks total. I vaguely recall reading somewhere that only the casinos could get good ones, and that was for a reason. It all sounded very X-Files to me.

Fast forward. A quick peek at amazon tells me there may be a viable option now (?).

Card shuffler category:

http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=13291451

Sort by price, high to low. The first one is $500 and looks to only do 1 deck. The ProShuffle at spot 2/3 in the list looks interesting but is $140 (or $200 if you prefer). It's plug-in - amazing! It goes up to 6 decks. Yay! But, there are no reviews.

Interestingly, the specs on the ProShuffle say "This is the only casino quality batch shuffler available to consumers without a gaming license." So, natually I wonder how come this is the "only" one?

Anyway, good luck with your search.

[jschild]

Yeah...wow.....140 bucks.....

Opens Wallet....growling at the moths fluttering out of it.

Yeah...I don't see that happening just to make Ascension and Dominion play faster.

[Grim]

Ditto!