Finding used decks, sigh.

It's not so much that sellers are 'dumb' as much as the buyers who pay those prices are 'dumber.'

Face it - you go to a tag (garage, yard, etc.) sale and YOU want to find the missing Picasso masterpiece for 50 cents next to the dumpster. You expect the seller is trying to clear their junk and wants to sell it cheap to get rid of it. What you find is someone who not only wants the full retail that they paid, but wants 10% more, too! When I go to an 'Antique Mart' I expect high prices, but not at a sale spread on blankets on someone's front lawn. Nobody wants to 'give' their stuff away, but they don't have to 'price gouge' either.

I do look for tarot decks at flea markets. All I ever find if the Rider! I don't need another copy of that! I did find a Connolly deck at a tag sale for $1 - and I bought it.

tarotbear said:

It's not so much that sellers are 'dumb' as much as the buyers who pay those prices are 'dumber.'

Face it - you go to a tag (garage, yard, etc.) sale and YOU want to find the missing Picasso masterpiece for 50 cents next to the dumpster. You expect the seller is trying to clear their junk and wants to sell it cheap to get rid of it. What you find is someone who not only wants the full retail that they paid, but wants 10% more, too! When I go to an 'Antique Mart' I expect high prices, but not at a sale spread on blankets on someone's front lawn. Nobody wants to 'give' their stuff away, but they don't have to 'price gouge' either.

I do look for tarot decks at flea markets. All I ever find if the Rider! I don't need another copy of that! I did find a Connolly deck at a tag sale for $1 - and I bought it.

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Yes I agree. Among my many perversions I like watching those antique shows, there are some wonderful things there. Masterpieces can still be found, but even there people usually equate old/sentimental value with objective monetary value, until they are set straight by the experts. It is very annoying to see common decks being sold for inflated prices just because they have sat in an attic.

On the other hand, new decks are also usually outrageously priced. I know the cardstock is usually better quality, and are classified as "art," but in my opinion, new decks shouldn't cost a lot more than a normal deck of cards. Small self published ones maybe, but here an RWS could cost as much as $30. "Special" decks can cost exponentially more. For example, why is a new, US Games Thoth a lot more expensive than a new US Games RWS?

One new age shop I used to frequent had some cool finds, mostly because his store has been there for 30 years, is packed floor to ceiling and he has several storage units. The problem is, he doesn't sell much because everything is priced at retail or higher. Once this friend of his told him about the Internet and OOP deck prices, his prices have skyrocketed to ridiculous prices. He doesn't own a computer and refuses to "waste his time" selling on the Internet. I suspect she is looking at Amazon third party seller prices (or maybe EBay.) Then to top it off, he won't sell you any decks until he has her double checked the price which means coming back in a few days.

Last time I went in there my husband didn't check the price of a fairy coloring book. It was 3.95 retail and he had crossed it out so it was 8.00. Biggest waste of my money. Pulled a similar thing on a book, told us it was half price, so I looked at the retail price of $15 and figured it was half of that, nope it was $15 because he wanted $30 for it. Could have bought it for a few bucks used on Amazon, the coloring book for a few pennies.

I picked up the first edition of the Tea Cup Cards and he had crossed out the retail price and marked it up twice, to $80. He came up to me and pulled it out of my hands and told me he couldn't sell it for that because it is worth more. I didn't bother telling him that the second edition is out for $20 and is, from what the reviews say, even better.

closrapexa said:

Yes I agree. Among my many perversions I like watching those antique shows, there are some wonderful things there.

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OT - but - there was one of those filmed near here and a lovely little old lady (she was little and old and very much a lady !) showed up with a few bits of crockery.

It went like this:
What a lovely plate. This would fetch a perhaps £20 at auction. Of course, if you had the full set...
I have 15 more at home.

Beautiful teapot - maybe £100 - now if you had the set..
I have the jug and sugar basin, and the bowl with the silver strainer.

Fantastic tureen - I believe they come in a number of sizes.
Yes they do; I have 12 of them, from gravy size to big enough for a large turkey...

And so it went on.

In the end she turned out to have OVER HALF A MILLION POUNDS WORTH of crockery. Yes of course I use it, she said happily. That's what it's for.

Then there was the person who had the guys come to her home to view a painting that was 10 feet high and 27 feet wide and was sort of riveted to the wall. After they valued it at some HUGE sum, and she said no she wasn't selling it, they said they hoped it was insured.

What the hell for ? she asked - Who's going to be able to get it out of the house before I can call the cops ?

tarotbear said:

Face it - you go to a tag (garage, yard, etc.) sale and YOU want to find the missing Picasso masterpiece for 50 cents next to the dumpster. You expect the seller is trying to clear their junk and wants to sell it cheap to get rid of it. What you find is someone who not only wants the full retail that they paid, but wants 10% more, too! When I go to an 'Antique Mart' I expect high prices, but not at a sale spread on blankets on someone's front lawn. Nobody wants to 'give' their stuff away, but they don't have to 'price gouge' either.

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Nothing personal tarotbear but I found your comments interesting.

What I understand as fair is paying for what an item is worth (not overpriced, but neither $5 for something that I know is really worth $200 either) and I'd rather buy from a person who owned the item but now no longer wants it or needs it; rather than to a middle-man who bought it from someone else for $5 at a 'junk sale' and is now on-selling it for $200 at an antique mart. I understand this is not always possible, but this is why I think there is such a disparity in the way people live. The ordinary person is being underpaid, while the middle-man can charge what they like.

This is one reason why I never pay above retail price for any tarot deck, even if I really want it. If I knew who the seller was and it was their deck that has "genuinely" appreciated in value, which they no longer want, then that might be different .... perhaps. But, in a lot of instances, the seller has never had an attachment to the item and for them it's a business transaction (meaning they have contributed little if any energy in making the item itself or acquiring the item, but stand to gain a large profit on it). Of course this happens not just with tarot decks but with many everyday things of necessity, and is probably why the world is in economic crisis.

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When I read about your story Glass Owl about the Tea Cup Cards, I just laughed. If it were me I would have told the seller the deck was worth what a buyer was prepared to pay for it and I would have told him that the new edition was selling for $20; and that this one being the 1st edition might be worth $30 at the most in the current market .... then I would have walked straight out. No doubt someone with money to burn (a likely middle man maybe) would walk in and buy the deck at $80 without any hesitation, but give it time and soon there won't be many more people left with money to splash around.

Why do you like the used decks?

I've never bought a used deck, so please humour me if the question seems silly.

Aside from looking for antiques, or trying out a deck, are there other reasons for specifically seeking out used decks? Is it to avoid the stiffness of the new cards?

From what people are saying it sounds like there isn't much of a difference in price between the brand new decks, and used decks now, so i'm just wondering.

Anything is worth what someone (let's say "some idiot..." ) will pay for it. Which is why a tarot blue book - like someone hoped to set up once ! - cannot really work. There will always be people who pay some outrageous price on amazon or ebay and then others think they can get that too and sometimes they can because the next buyer saw it go at that price and assumes....

I have at times paid over the odds to help someone out, or because it was the ONLY place to get something I REALLY wanted; I have also struck lucky and bought cheap. I think it evens out in the end - I just avoid people I KNOW are buying cheap and marking up something shocking. Most of the sellers I know like that now lower their prices when they see me coming. This is GOOD.

@ scibility - often to save money; often simply because a deck is OOP and used is the only way to find it.

Glass Owl said:

I picked up the first edition of the Tea Cup Cards and he had crossed out the retail price and marked it up twice, to $80. He came up to me and pulled it out of my hands and told me he couldn't sell it for that because it is worth more. I didn't bother telling him that the second edition is out for $20 and is, from what the reviews say, even better.

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If I had walked up to buy something and the owner not only changed but 'UPPED' the price of the object in my hands in front of me - the first place I would be headed would be the Better Business Bureau, then the Police Department, then tell every single one of my friends what happened and have them tell their friends to avoid the shop like the plague.

Glass Owl said:

I picked up the first edition of the Tea Cup Cards and he had crossed out the retail price and marked it up twice, to $80. He came up to me and pulled it out of my hands and told me he couldn't sell it for that because it is worth more. I didn't bother telling him that the second edition is out for $20 and is, from what the reviews say, even better.

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tarotbear is right. I dont know how it is where you are, but here such practices carry several tens of thousands of dollars in fines, even to a point that even if a big store like a supermarket mislabels an item, they have to give it to you at the marked price. Also he can't decide an item is suddenly "not for sale," either. Merely mentioning such a thing would give you a substantial discount.

Actually in the UK, as far as I know they can simply refuse to sell something to you. And then up the price as soon as you leave. They cannot up the price as you go through the till, but....