What do you desire in deck creation?

We at The Game Crafter have been long-time supporters of the Tarot community. We've had some bumps along the road, but we do our best to smooth those out as they come up. I'd like to get some feedback directly from you about how we could serve you better. I'll start with some basic questions, but please chime in with anything at all.

Can we improve our online deck editing tools? In what way? What's missing?

Do we need more training videos? In what subjects? What isn't clear?

Are there sizes of cards we should support, but don't? Tuck boxes?

Are there sales tools you wish we had, but don't offer?

Should we have a special section of the site devoted to selling tarot?

Thank you in advance for any feedback you can provide.

I like that you've reached out. Thanks.

Several members here have gotten their decks done by you, so you should get feedback.

By far the biggest issue has been the shipping costs/box size. It HAS to be reasonable, especially for oversees. Orders for decks come in from Canada, Australia, UK and Europe for decks, these are major places that ordered mine. Especially Australia. If it's going to cost more than the deck in shipping, it really makes a difference.

The other thing talked about is the framing issue with the cuts, if there's a border around the images then the cuts need to be accurate, not off to one side or the other - but this may already have already been fixed, I'm remembering some of the first posts where this had been a big problem for some.

Thank you for your response. I'll address each of your concerns.

HudsonGray said:

By far the biggest issue has been the shipping costs/box size. It HAS to be reasonable, especially for oversees. Orders for decks come in from Canada, Australia, UK and Europe for decks, these are major places that ordered mine. Especially Australia. If it's going to cost more than the deck in shipping, it really makes a difference.

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We've implemented a new shipping system (http://news.thegamecrafter.com/post/34117269541) to address exactly this concern and it has been quite well received. It isn't really going to help the shipping cost on games that come in large boxes, but it definitely helps out on shipping decks of cards. For example, a deck of Tarot cards used to cost more than $15 to ship to Canada, and now you can do it for $6.

Unfortunately, Australia and New Zealand are expensive to ship to regardless of size. However, we also just released something that may help with that a bit: bulk pricing (http://news.thegamecrafter.com/post/35561758838). Designers from harder to reach areas can buy in bulk and then sell locally. With bulk pricing they can get as much as 40% off the cost of their decks. In addition, buying in bulk means that the price of shipping gets distributed over many decks.

We continue to look at other shipping options, but short of starting our own shipping company, or opening up print shops on every continent, there's only so much we can do.

HudsonGray said:

The other thing talked about is the framing issue with the cuts, if there's a border around the images then the cuts need to be accurate, not off to one side or the other - but this may already have already been fixed, I'm remembering some of the first posts where this had been a big problem for some.

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We're constantly working on this issue. In truth, all printers are constantly working on this issue. Here's a post we did recently showing that one of the largest game publishers in the world has exactly the same issue: http://news.thegamecrafter.com/post/35827624208

We're always striving to achieve better results with this, and we've made vast improvements in this area in the past 9 months. That said, a good deck design goes a long way toward alleviating this problem. Here's a video that shows how to deal with it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bT59XmvJ_s

For tarot decks, the default should NOT include a game box. Quite a few people have said "oops, never noticed that". This MIGHT help with the postage thing.

But also - please look into the flat rate postal boxes !

The quality of what you put out has only once been an issue for me (and I never bothered to do anything about it as by a freak of nature someone else had bought me a perfect copy of the same deck, which arrived almost at the same time as the dodgy but not TOO bad one !) You offer a good publishing service, IMHO.
EVERYTHING that has had me steaming has been to do with those ***** game boxes and the dreadful effect they have on postage costs.

Maybe also offer the option to decline the big box, when you order - so even if someone has chosen it (particularly if they did it by accident) a buyer can say no thanks to it.

Also - a greater variety of bag sizes would be good. Your boxes aren't great - and that's fine; some of the big names have - in some ways - far worse ones (Llewellyn, I do mean you...) - but more bag options would often mean there was no need for a box at all.

Thank you for your reply gregory. I will attempt to address your concerns.

gregory said:

For tarot decks, the default should NOT include a game box. Quite a few people have said "oops, never noticed that". This MIGHT help with the postage thing.

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That's a good idea. When we launched the site we included the box as a helper to our users because we only had one box size. But now we offer lots of boxes, so maybe it would be best to remove it by default.

gregory said:

But also - please look into the flat rate postal boxes !

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We do use Flat Rate shipping boxes. See my post above about the new shipping system.

gregory said:

The quality of what you put out has only once been an issue for me (and I never bothered to do anything about it as by a freak of nature someone else had bought me a perfect copy of the same deck, which arrived almost at the same time as the dodgy but not TOO bad one !) You offer a good publishing service, IMHO.

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I'm sorry you got a dodgy deck. We do free replacements when we make a mistake. Just post a picture of the problem in our Shop Support Forum, and one of our customer service people will help you out.

gregory said:

EVERYTHING that has had me steaming has been to do with those ***** game boxes and the dreadful effect they have on postage costs.

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Perhaps your idea above about not defaultly including the box would help with this.

gregory said:

Maybe also offer the option to decline the big box, when you order - so even if someone has chosen it (particularly if they did it by accident) a buyer can say no thanks to it.

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That's something I cannot do, because that would be modifying the author's intended product.

gregory said:

Also - a greater variety of bag sizes would be good. Your boxes aren't great - and that's fine; some of the big names have - in some ways - far worse ones (Llewellyn, I do mean you...) - but more bag options would often mean there was no need for a box at all.

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Unfortunately for reasons I don't wish to go into here, we cannot use bags as packaging. They still need to go inside of a box of some sort.

The Game Crafter said:

I'm sorry you got a dodgy deck. We do free replacements when we make a mistake. Just post a picture of the problem in our Shop Support Forum, and one of our customer service people will help you out.

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No worries - it was ages ago, and as I ended up with two, what the heck I knew I could have made contact; it was my choice not to bother ! It wasn't THAT bad - just slightly misaligned backs.

The Game Crafter said:

Unfortunately for reasons I don't wish to go into here, we cannot use bags as packaging. They still need to go inside of a box of some sort.

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LOADS of people mail out bagged decks in the small standard mailing box - that's what I mean. If there were a wider variety of bags offered - bags like the one the Iowan was in (yes, I know it has a game box because of the board thing) I think more people would choose them rather than a tuck box. As it stands, I have at least one from you (I am sorry, I am literally unable to check which just now as the bottom fell out of my storage drawers, and everything is stacked precariously till it's fixed !!) which came supplied in a bag rather than a tuck box - but the bag is FAR too tight and the deck would have been damaged if I had left in there and taken it in and out very often. On the other hand it would be SWIMMING in the only (as far as I know) other sized bag you offer. I don't mean POSTAL bags ( though I am totally happy with those, and ONCE you sent me a deck in one and the postage was delightfully cheap !) - I mean deck bags !

YES to NO BIG BOX!!!

gregory said:

LOADS of people mail out bagged decks in the small standard mailing box - that's what I mean. If there were a wider variety of bags offered - bags like the one the Iowan was in (yes, I know it has a game box because of the board thing) I think more people would choose them rather than a tuck box. As it stands, I have at least one from you (I am sorry, I am literally unable to check which just now as the bottom fell out of my storage drawers, and everything is stacked precariously till it's fixed !!) which came supplied in a bag rather than a tuck box - but the bag is FAR too tight and the deck would have been damaged if I had left in there and taken it in and out very often. On the other hand it would be SWIMMING in the only (as far as I know) other sized bag you offer. I don't mean POSTAL bags ( though I am totally happy with those, and ONCE you sent me a deck in one and the postage was delightfully cheap !) - I mean deck bags !

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Thanks for addressing these issues, it does help give me confidence.

Totally agree with gregory re: the standard USPS boxes. Recently had a really long convo about box size to NZ, and it made no sense that it was cheaper to order two items separately than together. However during the long (a week or more) conversation I missed out on an item I really wanted as it was removed by the artist. Eventually I ordered my items separately.

I think get rid of that big box in the Tarot Section..it is crazy!! It is so frustrating to be told you cannot send a deck for under 42 dollars to NZ when I have just received one the same size for 12!!!! The box does seem to be the problem, and I am sure if this goes that you will have a lot more customers who are much happier to order knowing the deck price will not be more than doubled by postage!
If users insist on this box then maybe you could explain on that part of the site why it makes no sense for Tarot decks. As gregory said, there is absolutely no problem with bags if you use the small global mailer

And Llewellyn... yes... (in case you are reading..) your boxes are the pits!! These days there is not even a bag to hold the cards... if anything you should have gotten rid of the crazy WTF! white useless box and used a smaller box for the deck/kit.

And yes TGC... I would love a Tarot/Oracle section!

Thanks for listening!

I’d just like to say real quick that I love that you’ve provided this opportunity. I've had a couple ideas for my own decks floating around in my head for like a decade, but the hurdles to getting one printed were too high.
Since learning about you (here in Aeclectic Tarot!) I've started work in earnest. Once I'm done and printed, I'll have actual feedback, but for now, thanks for the inspiration!

Winterchild said:

Thanks for addressing these issues, it does help give me confidence.

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You're quite welcome.

Winterchild said:

And yes TGC... I would love a Tarot/Oracle section!

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I'm sorry to be ignorant. Could you tell me the difference between Tarot and Oracle cards? Or is Oracle not a card thing, but perhaps something else?

Oracle and Tarot

The Game Crafter said:

You're quite welcome.



I'm sorry to be ignorant. Could you tell me the difference between Tarot and Oracle cards? Or is Oracle not a card thing, but perhaps something else?

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No worries... a Tarot deck is traditionally a deck of 78 cards, 22 Majors and 56 Minor Arcana cards. There are many variations within this outline but they do usually conform to these basics... and follw one or other of the Tarot "systems", ie Thoth, Rider Waite or the Tarot de Marseilles. Although there are different ways of reading and interpreting the cards within the systems there are many similarities and they are all Tarot.

An Oracle deck is a divination deck that subscribes to no set pattern, it can be cards, stones, sticks.....whatever, but is often cards. Examples are like the Rider Waite tarot is very definitely Tarot as is the Thoth, Golden Dawn and the Tarot de Marseilles decks. Lenormand's are classed as Oracle decks.

Hope this helps Other may have better explanations!