Are spares necessary?

Nice thread by the looks of it.. I don't have time to read it now. Must mark and read later...

I love it when these old threads get bumped!

I recently went to a local shop, to buy a spare copy of the Thoth, since it seems the printing I like is going OOP and its replacement is quite inferior. Its my main deck, and the only one that would be sorely missed were I to be unable to get a copy, and an inferior copy would always irritate me.

When I got to the shop they had two copies... So I got them both I have my trimmed working copy, a spare in the cupboard, and a spare in the cupboard at my mum's place.

Is it extraordinarily compulsive to store your spare copy at another location?

similia said:

Is it extraordinarily compulsive to store your spare copy at another location?

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I'm glad I bumped this thread up.....I'm feeling better already

Seriously though.....it's quite a good idea!

sapienza said:

I'm glad I bumped this thread up.....I'm feeling better already

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Glad I could help

I think spares are necessary for different circumstances.

In my case, I have a few spares for some of my favorite decks. I have one spare for the Gothic Tarot. The deck is published independently by the author so I was worried it'd go OOP quickly and I did not take any chance with it and got a spare, and I asked along the way an autograph. Also, the Gothic is black and the scratches show up a lot so it looks used much faster, having a second one is a really good idea. My other spare is the Liber T Tarot of Stars Eternal who was supposed to go OOP a while ago and having a second Liber T also allowed me to trim the first one I got. The other deck that has spares is my favorite oracle Good Witch Bad Witch. That one has three spares, and I'd love to get a fourth one considering the first one got retired a while ago and I'm using the second one right now. I luckily found the third one in sale cheap at 4-5$ so I jumped on it.

I have to admit I have dispersed myself a lot with my tarot decks during all these years, I've never really used a tarot deck at a point it would need replacement, but I've faithfully used though my Good Witch Bad Witch non stop for years, no wonder I have to retire the first deck I got. The only tarot deck I've used for 2 years non stop is the Liber T and I'm glad I got a second copy.

similia said:

I recently went to a local shop, to buy a spare copy of the Thoth, since it seems the printing I like is going OOP and its replacement is quite inferior.

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Out of curiosity, which version is going OOP?

WolfyJames said:

Out of curiosity, which version is going OOP?

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If I understand this correctly...... all of them. They're out of print until there's a new publishing deal worked out - or something like that.

I tried my local stores and all of them were sold out. I was lucky enough to get a large thoth from photokat here on AT.

faunabay said:

If I understand this correctly...... all of them. They're out of print until there's a new publishing deal worked out - or something like that.

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There are a couple of threads with some details.

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=111072
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=35108

If anyone wants a copy pop me a PM. There are a couple stores near me that still have stock. 1 large green boxed USG, 1 medium blue box AGM, and one small blue box AGM. It will work out expensive cause decks are massively overpriced in Australia, but if you want to buy the deck and pay the postage I'm happy to help.

i always have spares if i love the deck.

i need spares, i have a "paranoid-feeling" if someday my current deck will be "blah blah", so i NEED spares for them lol......

Are spares necessary?

Is a spare wheel necessary?

Are an extra set of keys necessary?

We always need spares of everything. As you just never know what may happen.

Galatea said:

I would like to know how many spares people here usually keep for their favorite decks? And are they necessary?

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I only have one deck that I own multiple copies of, or rather WE own multiple copies. We is the reason -- my husband and I first got interested in Tarot together, and our second deck was the Thoth. It's still one of my favorites, and it's now the only one he uses. He has one, I have one, and we have a spare deck that has provided emergency back up for lost or damaged cards. We have one other, well-worn one that was our first Thoth and is now a bit scuffed and worn. Maybe I should say it's in retirement. Then we have yet another large one that is too big for me to shuffle but is great for study purposes. So I guess that's five Thoth decks in the house -- though one is now incomplete -- a hangar queen as they say in the aviation world (an airplane that stays in the hangar and is cannibalized for parts to keep other airplanes flying).

Other than that, my decks are singles, and I'm not stressing over that, even with the ones that are out of print.

If I were to buy another deck in multiples it would likely be one that a) I absolutely loved and knew that I'd want to use that deck daily for the rest of my life and b) it was a deck that was likely to go out of print. Then I'd likely buy as many as I could reasonably afford and reasonably live long enough to wear out. (I'm 52 now.)

Outside that scenario, I'd rather expend my limited Tarot budget on more variety in decks than too many copies of one.

Galatea said:

I notice that eventhough I still have two copies, I can find myself considering getting another copy wherever I see that it is available. Which is totally senseless, since I already have two copies. I certainly would tell anybody that you never need more than one deck, one copy of one deck, but still I am obviously greedy enough myself to have two and look for more. I am really embarrassed!

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I think it's natural to feel this way about something you love. I have multiple copies of a few books, just because I loved them so much at the time I read them (and reread and reread them), even though I haven't cracked them open in recent years. Something that has been a friend, changed your life, given you loads of pleasure -- yeah, that can make a person want to hoard a little. So go easy on yourself about it.