best way to use Abe books?

UrbanBramble

If this should go in a different part of the forum feel free to move it, I was guessing.

What is the best way to search Abe books for decks? Im having a really hard time with it, for example if I put in rider tarot it will bring up like 18 listings for the pictorial key to the tarot or some other tarot related book instead of bringing up the deck specifically. Any tips? Do I need to look by ISBN and if so is there an easy way to identify a decks ISBN online? And what about decks published before ISBN existed?

I would appreciate any help, thanks!

Sorry about the bad grammar, Im typing from my tablet.
 

rwcarter

I usually type in ISBN if I'm looking for a specific deck (US Games Rider Waite) vs style of deck (RWS). If I don't know the ISBN, I'll look the deck up on Amazon and copy/paste it into Abe. I only use the keyword field when I'm looking for broad categories - tarot, cartomancy, knitting, etc. I think author and title will get you more specific results than keyword would.
 

UrbanBramble

Thank you!
 

gregory

OR try the artist, if you know what you are looking for. Colman Smith does quite well... Then you can "narrow" by adding "cards"...
 

UrbanBramble

Ok I will try that out. Usually I am looking for a specific deck when Im searching so it seems like the way to go. In my experience ebay is best searched by going out early general because when people don't know what they have they really price stuff low... Abe looks to be the opposite.
 

gregory

abe stands for "advanced bookseller exchange". As such - they are booksellers and they tend to know what they are doing !
 

UrbanBramble

Aah. That explains it.
 

RichardG

Sometimes you can get lucky...

abe stands for "advanced bookseller exchange". As such - they are booksellers and they tend to know what they are doing !

Invariably true, Gregory. But once I got lucky.
I managed to score the original Yeager Tarot Deck (Yes! The nude edition in the gold box!) for $125 from abe. Such a bargain!
Two others were advertised at the time - for $1,937 and $2,100 !!!

I exchanged a few emails with the bookseller to establish that it was the original - and not simply an overpriced USG edition.....and I still get nervous (and surprised) that some-one else didn't snatch it up before my eyes....and embarrassed by the questions I had to ask.
Questions like "Can you confirm that the Fool is clearly not wearing any pants?" :eek:

In terms of sites that are difficult to navigate around, it's ETSY for mine.
Hard to find anything - and just soooooo expensive.....
 

gregory

What I meant was that abe sellers don't tend to post insane prices like you find on amazon and ebay. I LOVE it.