Re: Times change
I brought a box of cards from England to the US many moons ago and had a similar conversation. I told the guy that I used old, useless cards as note paper (true!), but he wasn't buying it. I could see this was going to take forever, so I offered to shuffle the cards several times, so they'd be completely mixed up and useless. He agreed. Nobody ever said customs agents were all that bright.
I still have that deck, which contains an autographed copy of Bourne's ALGOL 68C version of Conway's "Life" :-)