Decks of cards were bought at the tobacco shop and at the variety store. They were made available at the drug store and grocery store later in the 1950s when the stores expanded and shelf space was created for such items. The tobacco store sold regular decks of cards like Bicycle Brand, but the variety store sold the specialty decks like Old Maid. Another place where cards could be bought was from the Sears Catalog. This was not an ordinary means of buying cards, though. Docent, Lee Shields remarked that people bought cards from the Sears Catalog only around the holidays. He said that people would come across decks of cards and items associated with them, like poker chips, when leafing through the catalog for holiday gift ideas and such. The decks of cards for sale in the Sears Catalog were often a higher quality than regular decks; they were special editions. But, one could order a regular deck.

There was very little advertising of cards. Shields was unable to recall hearing a commerical on the radio or reading an ad in the daily newspaper. Cards were such an everyday part of life there was almost no need to advertise. At the same time, the most popular brands of cards: Bicycle, Bee and Aviator were owned by that United States Playing Card Company