So...is one defined by their collection?

Serious question. I have some OOP (out of publication) decks but guess what? I never use them and I don't really love them. I own them because they are OOP but I am not getting any joy from them...causing me to think, and redefine.

We've been talking about OOP decks here rather a lot lately...

So my question is, how do you define a true collector of tarot? Does it really depend on how many OOP decks they have? Does that *REALLY* matter? Why does a person collect, anyways? Is it for the amount of decks they can own, for the amount of *out of publication decks* (OOP) they can have, or for the sheer joy of having tarot decks they love? And use? What truly constitutes a serious collection?

I am curious, and would love to hear how you feel about your collections! How did you get them? Why did you get them? Does OOP really define your collection? How do you really feel about collecting? What are your definitions of a successful collection...?

Do tell!

Whether a deck is called "out of print" is totally irrelevant to me. With contemporary decks, people say "out of print" when what they really mean is "hard to find."

I bought some decks for more than I felt they were worth because they were hard to find. I don't want to do that again.

The practice of producing 500 or 1000 decks and calling it a "limited edition" is a marketing decision rather than an artistic one. Rightly or wrongly, I resent it--I feel it's manipulating people's naivete.

This is very different than truly old decks that are no longer being produced.

Padma said:

Serious question. I have some OOP (out of publication) decks but guess what? I never use them and I don't really love them. I own them because they are OOP but I am not getting any joy from them... <<snippage>>

... Why does a person collect, anyways? ...

Click to expand...

Debra said:

Whether a deck is called "out of print" is totally irrelevant to me. ... I bought some decks for more than I felt they were worth because they were hard to find. ... The practice of producing 500 or 1000 decks and calling it a "limited edition" is a marketing decision ... <<snippage>>
This is very different than truly old decks that are no longer being produced.

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AHA! I have been wondering what OOP meant!

First off, I have to say that I have been shocked to see the proliferation of tarot decks and how many people have huge collections. I felt insanely daring and extravagant when I expanded from 2 decks (RWS & Thoth) to the 4 decks I now own.

IMO there is some merit to the "serious" collector who is buying antique or TRULY rare decks (as opposed to the "limited edition" marketing ploy) This is along the lines of an antiquities collector ... and could be financially lucrative I suppose.

Meanwhile, the idea of having 50 decks seems sad to me. You could never USE all 50 decks ... so here are all these poor, lonely cards just sitting in their boxes!

OTOH people get art books for their coffee tables ... so I suppose having the decks on your coffee table as art might be a good use for them. I think it would be fun to look through artsy tarot decks as opposed to crappy magazines in, for example, a doctors waiting room };>

That being said ... this raises the whole notion of "collecting". My relationship with Tarot cards is so practical ... I don't see the point.

Mostly I think "collecting" more than you can use of anything is silly. Yet *I* collect "yazma" scarves. As a folk dancer ... I actually USE them ... but I know I have more than I need just b/c they are pretty and each one is unique and I love them. Still, I do manage to USE all my yazma scarves even if I have more than I NEED.

I feel the same about Tarot. 4 decks feels like all I could actually USE ... and although I understand having more than one NEEDS ... I don't want to have more than I can USE.

NatKat said:

4 decks feels like all I could actually USE ... and although I understand having more than one NEEDS ... I don't want to have more than I can USE.

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Oh, there are plenty of collectors who never ever read tarot cards. It's the design, the art, that attracts us.

I do read cards and I do use a few of my decks, but usually fall back on the first one I got. I've had it over 40 years. It's become kind of sticky, even after I wiped down each card.

There's some collections that I covet and appreciate, and others that I really, truly do not understand--including some collections by members here who I love dearly.

Debra said:

... <<snippy snip>>
I do read cards and I do use a few of my decks, but usually fall back on the first one I got. I've had it over 40 years. It's become kind of sticky, even after I wiped down each card.

....

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LOL this is a digression from the OP ... but when I read professionally my deck would get like this pretty fast ... so I would burn it and buy a new one. All that stuff in the Tarot books about bonding with your new deck just went right out the window ... I came to love a new deck fresh from the celophane wrap! I have probably been thru 6-7 RWS decks in my life. Buy a new one ... burn the old one };>

Oh, dear, the idea of only having 4 decks to look at really seems sad to me Ah!

If you pick up decks long enough, some will go out of print and might sell at a premium. Then maybe they will come back into print and be mostly worthless again. I had the Hermetic and got rid of that but can't say I miss it any.

It is very difficult to be a collector of true antique decks and then where would I put them??

Most of us can't buy everything or use everything but I bought what seemed interesting to me. Now - everybody has a deck. I am not kidding. At least the woman who made the Tapestry Tarot worked at it and tried. I am not so sure about some of these ones.

Londa is out of print. I didn't think it would happen but I picked up a second one anyway because I used it. I own two copies of the Stick Figure and the Hello Tarot because I thought I would give one away. That didn't happen but I don't think anyone's really going to pay me a bunch for the sealed one. I am very fond of those decks and they weren't gold-plated or anything at all. Just fun.

Diana

NatKat said:

LOL this is a digression from the OP ... but when I read professionally my deck would get like this pretty fast ... so I would burn it and buy a new one. All that stuff in the Tarot books about bonding with your new deck just went right out the window ... I came to love a new deck fresh from the celophane wrap! I have probably been thru 6-7 RWS decks in my life. Buy a new one ... burn the old one };>

Click to expand...

I remember that - putting them under the moon or sleeping with them under your pillow and all that. Where did that go anyway? Maybe some crystals? I don't think I ever did any of it although I got pretty desperate there. I've always been careful with mine though. Wash your hands!!!

Diana

Padma said:

Serious question. I have some OOP (out of publication) decks but guess what? I never use them and I don't really love them. I own them because they are OOP but I am not getting any joy from them...causing me to think, and redefine.

We've been talking about OOP decks here rather a lot lately...

So my question is, how do you define a true collector of tarot? Does it really depend on how many OOP decks they have? Does that *REALLY* matter? Why does a person collect, anyways? Is it for the amount of decks they can own, for the amount of *out of publication decks* (OOP) they can have, or for the sheer joy of having tarot decks they love? And use? What truly constitutes a serious collection?

I am curious, and would love to hear how you feel about your collections! How did you get them? Why did you get them? Does OOP really define your collection? How do you really feel about collecting? What are your definitions of a successful collection...?

Do tell!

Click to expand...

I am unquestionably "defined by my collection". I am overweight and so is it....

I guess, though, I am a "true collector" - as even if I get a deck I really DON'T like (DV Archangels, I'm looking VERY hard at you, and the Charmed is in the corner of my vision) I will not get rid of it, as you don't get rid of bits of a collection.

How did I get them/come to collect - it started with rage. But after that, well, I had one, it was different from another I saw, which in turn was... then I went to Uni in Toronto and there was this store where there were a lot that looked different again and I wanted to study them at leisure, and before I knew it I was having an argument with my lovely boss. ("you are obsessed." "No I'm not, I don't even have 150 decks". "So what's obsessed ?" "Talk to me again when I hit 500." Um....)

I didn't read for a long long time; in fact I got stick here for having the cheek to own so many decks I didn't use and was told I should gift them to someone who will use them properly... (I was roundly defended, I have to say, by several senior members !) But there are MANY ways to use decks. You could even say that if I only ever used mine to help others here identify something they have just found (this happened yet again just the other day !) hey are being used. But looking at them is using them; taking three or four out to compare symbolism is using them, and so on. Maybe doing that over years was what made me finally make my own. And so on.

I didn't BUY most of them as OOP (or HTF !) nor do I care that they are or what their value is. Some I don't read with, some I just love the art, but I "use" them all, in that I doubt if there is even one that hasn't come out to be looked at or used for reading or research within the last year - and if that sounds awful - we are talking well over 2000 decks, so....

I know I am a true collector BECAUSE - well, just recently I got to thinking that when I kick the bucket, even though one daughter gets the lot to sell, maybe I should get some of that out of the way for her. Maybe this or that that OOP one that cost me so little and is now fetching so much could go.... But I cannot do it - I would FEEL the gap in my collection, as others would feel a missing tooth.

Padma said:

I am curious, and would love to hear how you feel about your collections! How did you get them? Why did you get them? Does OOP really define your collection? How do you really feel about collecting? What are your definitions of a successful collection...?

Do tell!

Click to expand...

*I'm a newbie and only getting into Tarot and decks, I tend to get decks because they appeal to me in an aesthetic way or I feel somehow that they would enhance my understanding of something that I am learning about.

*When it comes to OOP decks I'm not interested unless the price is reasonable.

*I am the kind of person that doesn't feel comfortable with an excess of things in general, so I imagine that my tarot collecting will follow that same logic.

*I guess a successful collection is one that gives you a sense of happiness, excitement or fulfilment of some sort

I may be wrong but I do not think that I have ever paid big bucks for an old HTF deck. Almost every deck in my collection was purchased when it came out, which is not to say that I didn't pay too much for a couple of out-of-the-gate high priced decks. I have been generously gifted one HTF deck and someone else made me a copy of yet another HTF deck. But unless someone waves a genuine antique deck at me for sale, I won't.

To answer Padma's "Why?" question, I honestly enjoy the range of imagery and feel that seeing different expressions of the card meanings visually has, I trust, made me a better reader.