Decks You Wish You Hadn't Bought?

Darkmage

I'm leaning toward tossing the Kabbalistisches Tarot in here. It's The. Most. Boring. Deck. in existence, swear to God. I paid less than $10 for it, though, and it's worth at least $150 so I think I'll still hang onto it for awhile.

If you're studying Kabbalah it's great for flash cards. I've dipped my toe in that and so that's another reason I'm hanging onto it. But as a reading deck, or even a study deck? HELL NO.
 

pink daliha

Decks I dumped- Titania's Star Tarot- Loved the look of it, Couldn't read with it at all
Tarot of the 78 Doors- Had to get it out of the house, felt like I was haunted.
The Pathfinder's Tarot- Never did get it, and everybody was right, it did repeat all the backgrounds.
LoS Art Nouveau- Pretty and that's it.
 

someones_princess

The book of shadows 2 , Angel Tarot and Dark Fairytale. Urgh.
 

Calcifer

I know others here love it, but the Tarot Illuminati does absolutely nothing for me. It's like a train wreck of cosmetics and paint; and the feel of them is kind of like thin baseball cards out of a pack of gum... Shoulda saved my money...lol

Michael
 

MysticMoonlight

Shadowscapes and the Angel Tarot....just a big ole NOPE! It's weird, they are pretty, the Shadowscapes more so, but it's like I cannot stand owning either one of them! I'm like irritated that I still have them or something...odd yes but the longer I own them, the worse the irritation and I can't help it! I tried to like them, I swear....It's. Just. Not. Going. To. Happen.
 

someones_princess

Book of Shadows 2 I was convinced I would hate it just by the preview in the book that came with BoS 1

I thought I'd try it cos I like the idea of a 'set' but its far too anime and just doesn't work as good as my other decks. It tries to tell a story and pulling out individual cards just doesn't work
 

beginagain

Well, reading through this thread has made for an interesting exercise. It's taken me a couple of days to catch up! In many ways it's enabling, in many ways is dis-enabling. Coming across a couple of my favourite decks has made me wibble a bit. It's all a matter of taste, but I can't help but feel like I need to defend them.

The two decks in my collection that I don't like, the Tarot of the Imagination and the Luis Royo Dark Tarot are in the trading forum now.

The Tarot of the Imagination is distinctly unattractive and can't decide if it wants to be an oil painting or a collage, and bears little resemblance to the actual meaning of the cards. I think an intuitive or much more experienced reader than I would find it easier to read, but for myself, I just dislike it as a deck and loathe using it in readings. I bought it from eBay sight unseen; I was quite new to tarot at the time. These days I do a lot more research on my decks before I buy them.

The Dark Tarot is simply a lot of pre-exisiting art printed on a card. It makes for a pretty deck of playing cards, that's about it. It's an attempt to cash in on Royo's popularity, that's it. I remember being so excited and happy when it arrived, because I'd thought that I would love it; when I opened the package, however, it was a definite disappointment. I genuinely regret buying this one.
 

pumog

The Victorian Romantic. I was totally taken by all the Baba hype and started to study it dilligently. But then I came across the Kings!!!!! The King of cups looking like a sozzled idiot! The King of Pentacles looking depressed, lost and just random! The King of Swords looking just about ready for the padded cell!! And what about the Fool? Where is the carefree leap into the unknown, the rosy tinted spectacles of youth?!! Instead, a clunky, grumpy, old looking clown about to take a prat fall!!

Then the 9 of wands!!!!! OMG the 9 of wands. I confess I'm a gentle soul, and to have a tarot card featuring some poor man looking terrified, about to die a terrible death, is my idea of HELL.


The very word Baba now elicits shudders of horror in me and I doubt I'll ever buy another one again. I have been tempted by the Alice, which looks quite beautifu, but I don't dare.

To anyone who remembers the early Harry Enfield days I say:

"Oy! Victorian Romantic! NOOOOO!!!!!"
 

Garran

The Barbara Walker Tarot

I bought this years ago when her books were best sellers and I thought her deck would be interesting. Before I bought it I did not see all of the cards, just the few images U. S. Games had in their catalog (this was in the days before the internet).

From the first I felt that the deck was very dark. I put it away for a while, took it out, still dark. I tried working with it by doing readings for myself - I never used it to do readings for others.

Simply stated, it just never worked for me and the longer I tried to work with it, the darker it seemed. I have owned over 50 decks. This is the only deck that I felt was too dark to work with.

I ended up donating it to a Pagan charity.