Everybody’s Shuffling
We play a lot of board games that have a plethora of cards. A couple of our favorites are:
- Bunny Kingdom – which has 182 cards. And, if you add in cards from the “Bunny Kingdom in the Sky” expansion, then you are up to 232 cards!
- Wingspan – which has 170 Bird cards. The Wingspan European Expansion adds in another 81 bird cards. How about shuffling 251 cards before you start each game of Wingspan? Ugh!
You can toss in plenty of other games into the fray, like: Race for the Galaxy, Dominion, Marvel Legendary, Killer Bunnies, Cards Against Humanity, Sheriff of Nottingham, etc.
We were getting sick of shuffling piles and piles of cards together, so we decided to give an Automatic Shuffler a whirl! You can find several 2-to-6 deck battery-operated Automatic Shufflers on Amazon for under $20.
This particular Shuffler has over 4,000 reviews on Amazon, and averages a 3 star rating (out of 5). The reviews are all over the place: 36% of the reviewer give it 5 stars; while another 32% of the reviewers give it 1 star. Who do you believe?
The “Trademark” brand Shuffler’s Key Features according to the Manufacturer are:
- Battery Operated – Requires 4 “C” Batteries
- 6-Deck Capacity – Holds up to six decks of cards (Max 3 decks per side)
- One Button Operation – A lever at the bottom
- Gear Technology – The gears on each side evenly propel the cards into the tray
- Card Collection Tray
Our Results & Final Thoughts
This is a perfectly fine Card Shuffler. You split your cards in half, put half the cards on each side, push the lever down, and the Automatic Shuffler shuffles away. And the cards shuffle fairly well – about what you would expect for a budget shuffler. Probably much better than an average person could shuffle by hand. The card Collection Tray in the middle is spring loaded, and will go down as more cards are piled on. We are impressed. The cards do not look any worse for wear (probably not any worse than riffle shuffling them by hand).
We did a search of all 4,000+ reviews on Amazon, and only one person noted card “damage” in their review. So, we don’t really think this machine will damage your cards.
There are some caveats though.
The card collection tray cover is made of lightweight plastic, and the cover doesn’t really stay in place when shuffling 4+ decks of cards.
Also, the cards seem to shuffle better if we put some kind of weight on top of them of each side.
The Shuffler is somewhat loud, but not annoyingly loud.
Our Tips on this Shuffler:
- Use a weight on top of the cards to help gravity-feed your cards better – like a few poker chips or something handy at the gaming table. We put two extra “C” batteries on the top of the cards and now consider this a 6-Battery Automatic Shuffler. 😛
- You might want to hold the plastic cover to the Card Collection in place while operating. One way to do this is to place one hand completely over the top-middle of the Shuffler and hold the tray in place with your thumb. Then use your other hand to press down the operating lever until the Shuffler is finished.
- Make sure your batteries have a good charge. This shuffler works best with fresh batteries.
- The Shuffler can do some uneven shuffles. So, you will want to divide your cards in half, and shuffle them several times before playing a game.
Overall, we’re very happy with this purchase, and give this Trademark Shuffler a thumbs up. This product does a fine job of shuffling, especially at the price. If you are sick of shuffling hundreds of cards by hand, you might want to give this shuffler a try yourself.