World Wide Tarot Decks Library/Museum

NOT to mine, there isn't

Le Fanu said:

*penny dropping* you must be Drak??
Oh don't put it off-line, we love it

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Oh, dont take your site down--it's one of my favorite sites! If it wasnt for your site (and sites like yours), the only deck I would own would be the Universal Waite. And I couldnt connect with that deck. So I guess, if it wasnt for sites like yours, I would have probably given up on tarot long ago.

ETA: Unless of course the artists have a problem with it then I guess maybe you should to avoid potential problems.

cirom said:

Bernice said:

But if I can't see pics/scans of a deck I'm interested in, I won't buy it.

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That is of course your choice. As it is the choice of the publisher to accept potential lost sales to people who think like you, if they feel its better than the risk of revealing their whole deck.

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We forget, too, that we have been buying Tarot decks for centuries, and even for many, many decades since shrink-wrap and sealed boxes were invented, and have really only been buying off the net since around 1992 or so. In all those prior decades, the only way we had to judge whether we preferred the Marseilles or the RW or the Morgan-Greer, was to look at the one card printed on the front of the box and if we were lucky, the second card printed on the back of the box, and make our judgement solely on those two images.

I for one bought decks in the seventies and eighties wholly based on the images printed on the boxes, and I still don't regret any of those purchases. At the risk of sounding like a reactionary old cow, I feel that the habit of places like TG of giving us a whole SIX images to base our decision on is real luxury, and that whining that you don't have the whole seventy-eight smacks of a little child in a lolly shop wailing "But I won't want only five! I want ALL OF THEM, mummy!"

If you are going to miss out on buying a terrific deck that you would have loved immensely and learnt heaps from for the rest of your life merely because you don't get given all 78 images to look at before buying ... well ... your loss.

gregory said:

There will be disclaimers to sign. And body searches afterwards.....

Hm..... *wanders off to consider charges.....*

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Break and enter ... theft ... vandalism (for any wear and tear) ... looting ... smash and grab ... I can think of a few.

(hides "I am a looter" tee-shirt>

nisaba makes a very good point indeed. Up until very recently, I also preferred to see the whole deck before making a decision to buy or not. However, I have had a change of heart and I am no longer so strict with myself. (I recently ordered a couple of decks having seen just a few cards from each deck). I still prefer to see the whole deck if it is available to view (I expect most of us do), but it is no longer the deciding factor for me. I quite like the surprise of viewing the cards for the first time when they arrive in the post.

You make a very good point there Nisaba, I must say I have often questioned where this need to see every image of a deck before taking the plunge came from.
I can understand the benefit of seeing a few cards to confirm consistency of theme and style, and certainly to confirm how the minors are treated. And even the curiosity to see among them, with luck, how your favorite or make or break card has been done. But "I need to see them all or else I won't buy it" seems a bit extreme and to be quite frank an indulgence thats only been available over recent years anyway. So what was the criteria for buying in the past, before all this was possible? Seeing a deck in the flesh that someone else already had I guess, although even then someone presumably had to be the guinea pig and buy it first. They couldn't all go to Gregory's house surely?

Yes, and prior to the advent of net-selling, when I was already a collector, I had bought purely on packaging, as few if any retailers are keen to open up one of every deck they stock which they then can't sell except at a loss.

As I said, seeing six on-line images is a richness of generosity towards the buyer - you then don't have to be mean-spirited back towards the seller.

cirom said:

So what was the criteria for buying in the past, before all this was possible?

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The criteria was helped by the fact that there were far fewer decks to choose from than there are now. I remember when the tarot market was that list on the back of 1970s US Games decks (remember? Balbi, ijjSwiss, RWS, Royal Fez Moroccan, Pointner.. 25 at most). Speaking as a non-reactionary old cow (lol), I have to say that different from nisaba, I bought decks based on the picture on the front (or if you were really lucky it was in Kaplan Vol 1)and bought loads of cr*p. Quite a few times I took off the shrink-wrap and my heart sank. But - hey! - fast forward 30 years and those decks are well-loved cornerstones of the collection.

Insisting on seeing the whole deck? Try a little experiment; buy a deck after seeing just a couple of cards, control yourself, don't seek out further scans. When your deck arrives/when you get home, I promise, it will be much more magical....

(I tried this once; I can't say I have the self-control to make a habit of it...)

Le Fanu said:

Insisting on seeing the whole deck? Try a little experiment; buy a deck after seeing just a couple of cards, control yourself, don't seek out further scans. When your deck arrives/when you get home, I promise, it will be much more magical....

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Ah yes... the anticipation for Christmas morning analogy.

I suppose there will always be disappointments of course, but doesn't some of the anticipation and magic of waiting and finally opening a new deck get diminished if you already know exactly what you are getting?

I have never looked for all the cards on the net before buying. I guess it's more laziness on my part. LOL...Although, I do like to see more than one card.

I like it to be a bit of a surprise. Just like with my most recent purchase Legacy of the Divine for its surprises. It wouldn't have been the same if I had seen all the cards before hand.

JMHO