Your collection grows by trading with others. The list on the left were my contacts up to 1994. At this point I stopped collecting due to a personal tragedy. When I resumed collecting (30 years later) in 2024, only a few of these were still collecting.

Joker collecting is still a relatively new collectable. There are no societies or organisations for collectors. No publications or gatherings devoted to it. Collectors tend to develop a wider interest in playing cards and join the 52+ joker club or International Playing Card Society.

Many collectors have been known to collect in isolation for years without ever meeting or contacting other likeminded people. It took me 10 years to reach 80 different jokers. When I met my first ever collector I thought he would be impressed with my collection. But he had 300 hundred . . .and they were all Nintendo's (Japanese) jokers. It is only when you connect with others and start trading/exchanging that both your experience and collection grows.

During the mid to late 70's to the early 90's my collection grew by leaps and bounds, to just under 17,000. Contacts with other collectors reached to 140. At its height jokers were being added by the 100's each week. Very different these days.

English collectors held meetings. A handbook for joker collectors was printed. We attended fairs and collectors meetings in Belgium and Holland. Some of were members of the English Playing Card Society. Others joined the Chicago Playing Card Collectors Inc.