Trim or not?

I do trim decks that have a large distracting border or keywords on the card that I just don't get. I've lost count of how many... Many decks I don't trim though because I like them just as they are. I just got a Margaret Peterson (one that had grey borders) and trimmed three sides, leaving just the name of the card at the bottom. I think they are gorgeous, and I feel like I can "step" into the cards.

I think for some people, it's trimming the cards that's the passion rather than reading. Kind of like a scrap-booking hobby or something.

I've only done it a couple of times and I just don't like it at all. If I can't use a deck because it's too big, then it's a disappointment but I still don't trim.

zephyr_heart said:

I NEVER trim, and will NEVER do so.

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we'll talk again in a year or two...Never is a word that dooms you to break your word~~

I have trimmed one deck. I trimmed it because I felt it need square corners, and the deck as far as collectors value went was very little. Its funky value after trimming and gold paint went through the roof

Under normal circumstances I am very much against trimming.

I love borderless decks so I'm sure I would love trimmed decks. I love looking at images of them here. But I'm not good at cutting and too cheap to invest in a guillotine and corner rounders. I'd trade for one or buy one off someone, though!

zephyr_heart said:

As for me, I NEVER trim, and will NEVER do so.

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That sounds like me about six months ago.

Then there was the sticky over-sized Fifth Tarot which I couldn´t suffle and didn´t like the images anyway. Trimming it was very relieving experience.

Then I got The Diary of a Broken Soul, which I love deeply, but couldn´t use because the size of the cards made suffling literally painful and the slots made me nervous. Trimming it was very difficult and frightening experience, but the result was awesome.

Then it was time to trim my Ancient Egyptian, one of my favorites, whose borders had irritated me every time I used them. Well, I ordered a back-up copy first, but the result was excellent; the cards look so stylish.

So here I go. And I said "never", the dooming word...

I'm a trimmer I was terrified until I actually did the first one, but the results are well worth it, I've not regretted one trimming so far.... (ohh err famous last maybe I shouldn't have said that!) If only they printed more decks borderless. The latest victim is my Bohemian Cats and it's 100% improvement those borders were too big and too busy.

irisa

No, I don't trim, and I would never do it. I don't really like the look of borderless decks. I'm not a fan of huge big borders that take space from the picture either, but a small narrow border that protects the image itself from being too damaged after a decade of shuffling, is just fine with me.

But if somebody wants to trim their own reading deck, who am I to say they can't? Of course you can. You can cut holes in your clothes too if you like, I don't mind. If you're happy that way and it's your style, go for it. It's your deck, be happy with it.

What makes me a little sad is the thought of people artificially aging and "mutilating" (yes) a deck and then decide it's not for them after all... such unnecessary waste of a perfectly good deck that somebody else might have liked in its original un-trimmed shape.

Personally I don't mind previously used decks at all, and I like things that have been worn in gently over a long time – but I know that will eventually happen anyway if I use my cards long enough, so I take care to keep my decks as nice as I can for as long as I can. I only read with five of them regularly anyway, and I might eventually let some of the others go to new homes, so it makes sense for me to keep them as "new" as possible. The next owner can do whatever they like, but I'll let it be their choice.

With all that said, I have a pocket Rider-Waite that I've bent this way and that, dipped in tea, shuffled a million times and scraped off the fugly machine-font titles from with a knife. It looks like the saddest little brown pretzel and the corners are all fuzzy. It's the only deck I've ever deliberately messed up, and I don't regret doing it at all. I couldn't read with it when it was new, the blues and yellows were too bright and if I was ever going to learn the RWS I had to fix that.

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Actually when I think about it, when I say I would never trim, I don't mean never ever.
I might trim ifffffff I would get a used deck where the borders are somehow so badly damaged it annoys me too much to read with it. IF and ONLY IF i meant to use this deck as a reading deck and never part with it again.

So far, it has never happened.

Or, those Lo Scarabeo decks where the image is off-center to the right to accommodate titles in a billion languages on the left side? The asymmetry of the layout is so annoying to my eyes, I would trim the border off in a second – but then the back would be asymmetric, and THAT would be just as annoying. So I'll just never buy one of those decks ever, and not have to deal with it (yes, I'm picky like that, but it does save me money... the card images themselves can be verrrry tempting indeed)

But otherwise, no trimming. I have long fingers that can hold fairly large decks and the only shuffling trouble I ever have is the occasional clumsiness, which happens with decks of any size.

Also, I like to lay out really large cards. It feels... majestic. Or something.

Nope, not a trimmer.

I use the borders as a meditative device: they form the walls, floor and ceiling of a hallway leading into the card, enabling me to enter right into it. In the two or three borderless cards I have (one of them the incomparable Quantum!), the lack of borders makes it harder for me to enter into the card. Not harder to read, just harder when I'm meditating on an image and I want to get right in there.