Are they better than normal bikes?
Yes. (The following is cited from fullboatdealer as posted as the old decknique site):
'They should all be close to the same stock (Bicycle Q1) except the Safety.
The Safety's were printed first by them self with a 1 run print and mass produced (Q1?). That's why they are cheaper and were dumped by USPC.
Then the Cupids, Tangent and Thistle were produced for a 6 pack set with a card game book for Sam's Club. The over-run and over print were placed in stock. There were about 100,000 of each printed (Q1 Yes).
The Racer (Racer #1 style) and New Fan back were later produced at the same time in limited quantities marked "first print" for magic accounts only (They had the highest quality control level as most decks for magicians do from USPC. Like Turner's Decks and the Japanese Magicians through MGM.)'