The prices of Books on Tarot

Yelell

I have to let go of some tarot books recently. As I researched what should be a fair price, I noticed how even well researched, well written, deeply thought out books are selling for relatively low prices. At least in Amazon some of them are listed for the price of a deck of cards and some even less. I think books are windows to a whole other world waiting to be discovered. I think learning is a virtue. And I advertised my asking prices, I felt a little sad. Not for me, but for those who dedicate their lives, or at least spent a significant amount of their time pouring over the study and research of tarot so the rest of us can grow in it. From what I can see, a reasonable number of us are willing to spend a bit of money on decks or handbooks which accompanied some decks. But come to stand alone highly informative books, the expected prices for what is acceptable for them dropped considerably. Granted that these books aren't as pretty as some decks out there, don't you think it is important for us to better acknowledge the values of these embodiment of transmissions of knowledge, e-books or otherwise, in relation to other things we are willing to spend our money on? Don't you think writers need to earn a living as much as deck designers and tarot readers?


Kind of like how celebrities make millions and teachers earn squat? I think books contain so much research and knowledge, but the cards are the stars - flashy and pretty. Are the books undervalued? I certainly think so, but that's another one of those Life's Not Fair things.
 

The Happy Squirrel

Kind of like how celebrities make millions and teachers earn squat? I think books contain so much research and knowledge, but the cards are the stars - flashy and pretty. Are the books undervalued? I certainly think so, but that's another one of those Life's Not Fair things.


YES!! That is what I mean!
OR. *We* don't value them enough and if not, why not. I think life is indeed unfair. But I can't help sensing that isn't quite it. It is a matter of consciously discussing what is valuable enough and put our money where our mouth is. Or not, if you feel cards and intuition is all there is to it with tarot. And if that is the case, that is interesting, isn't it.

I mean, a deck of OOP pretty cards is OK for $450 but Jean Michel David highly acclaimed and generally agreed as a valuable book on reading the Marseilles is 'no way too expensive' at $50? (Both by 'small' independent publishing houses, and these are just two examples I can think of at the top of my head).

What does that say about the state of affairs in the world of tarot reading? (In the world of card collecting, now that is a whole other thing. But we aren't talking about that world at the moment)
 

Yelell

YES!! That is what I mean!
OR. *We* don't value them enough and if not, why not. I think life is indeed unfair. But I can't help sensing that isn't quite it. It is a matter of consciously discussing what is valuable enough and put our money where our mouth is. Or not, if you feel cards and intuition is all there is to it with tarot. And if that is the case, that is interesting, isn't it.

I mean, a deck of OOP pretty cards is OK for $450 but Jean Michel David highly acclaimed and generally agreed as a valuable book on reading the Marseilles is 'no way too expensive' at $50? (Both by 'small' independent publishing houses, and these are just two examples I can think of at the top of my head).

What does that say about the state of affairs in the world of tarot reading? (In the world of card collecting, now that is a whole other thing. But we aren't talking about that world at the moment)

It's human nature. Spend money on a fancy new sofa or shoes, complain about the car or plumbing repair bill. Which would make you happy to get? Which does you more good? It just feels more exciting to have the shiny new deck - ooo, it's so pretty, I've wanted it for soooo long!!! (And maybe people will envy my rare OOP deck)

I'd guess a lot of people look at $50 for an admittedly valuable book, and think .... But that's $50 I could have spent on a new deck! It's not rational, or based on the overall contribution to tarot. It's about the emotion a deck can bring out that a book likely does not.
 

The Happy Squirrel

It's human nature. Spend money on a fancy new sofa or shoes, complain about the car or plumbing repair bill. Which would make you happy to get? Which does you more good? It just feels more exciting to have the shiny new deck - ooo, it's so pretty, I've wanted it for soooo long!!! (And maybe people will envy my rare OOP deck)

I'd guess a lot of people look at $50 for an admittedly valuable book, and think .... But that's $50 I could have spent on a new deck! It's not rational, or based on the overall contribution to tarot. It's about the emotion a deck can bring out that a book likely does not.

Yeah. I know what you are saying. But interestingly, this is not the case with - say - antique tribal silver jewelry collecting. The books (good, credible, well researched ones) on those are as highly priced as the antiques collectors are collecting. That is just one example in the world of collecting. I did say that that is a different world than one we are talking here, because tarot is a practicing tool, as well as item to collect. So what I am wondering is that should this not make credible texts on tarot even more important, and not less so?
 

Desecrated

Yeah. I know what you are saying. But interestingly, this is not the case with - say - antique tribal silver jewelry collecting. The books (good, credible, well researched ones) on those are as highly priced as the antiques collectors are collecting. That is just one example in the world of collecting. I did say that that is a different world than one we are talking here, because tarot is a practicing tool, as well as item to collect. So what I am wondering is that should this not make credible texts on tarot even more important, and not less so?

Then you have to make the book in itself valuable. Low numbers limited edition, leather-bound, handmade, and so on.

Books are not valued on their content.
You can get a new paperback bible for 3 dollars. But a Gutenberg bible costs about 25-35 million dollars. If you can find one...
 

The Happy Squirrel

Then you have to make the book in itself valuable. Low numbers limited edition, leather-bound, handmade, and so on.



Books are not valued on their content.

You can get a new paperback bible for 3 dollars. But a Gutenberg bible costs about 25-35 million dollars. If you can find one...


Not necessarily. First edition Harry Potter is about $5000. It isn't special physically in any way other than it is a first edition. So in this case it's historical and literary (I.e. Content) context is valuable. Leather bound 200 year old books can be bought for $20. The Gutenberg bible is expensive not because it is leather bound or because it is old. Those are factors, yes. Bu the value mainly lies elsewhere too.
 

Yelell

I bought mine used also. I knew not many would be forever keepers, and I could see even here that books don't sell well.

Same with gardening books and cook books etc.

looking at my desk bookcase, I see I've kept exactly three rws and six thoth. And many many have passed through my hands

If people were not getting rid of their books so easily, there wouldn't be so many cheap used ones to be had. Maybe this is part of it too - the experience that most books have not proved to be essential to keep. Some are the same tired info, some are full of errors, others have blatant inaccuracies or are tainted by the author's unsubstantiated opinions. Not all of them of course, but really there are few books that you hear people say they love and depend on. Hard to get people to pay a premium if they think they'll just read it once and move on.
 

The Happy Squirrel

Some are the same tired info, some are full of errors, others have blatant inaccuracies or are tainted by the author's unsubstantiated opinions. Not all of them of course, but really there are few books that you hear people say they love and depend on.


This is probably closer to hitting the nail on the head than the other possibilities.
 

gregory

Should the value of a book lies in its content?
Yes, IMNVHO. That is the MOST important thing about a book. Sure some books gain "value" through being hard to find and so on (I recently FINALLY managed to pay rather a lot for Gertrude Moakley's book on tarot - limited edition, hard to find etc - but I woudl have been equally happy with a beat-up paperback of it as long as the contents were intact - and if someone brings out a reprint, I will cheerfully buy that and sell my limited ed. copy on to someone who wants the limited side of it. I wanted to read - and have available for ever - what she had to say. That is what I value it for.

Now, cards are harder. A cheap reprint on copy paper just isn't the same. It isn't usable, and it isn't even shuffleable.