I was so stupid, bought a deck I really wanted scared to use it.

Wendywu

I do the lay out 7 pile thing with new decks when I get them, before sitting and shuffling the cards for as long as it takes to feel comfy in my hands.

I've shuffled with unlaminated decks - I am an overhand shuffler and find that if I shuffle them very loosely so that they just fall into place, and the receiving hand holds the stack as loosely as possible, then the unlaminated decks can be shuffled. After a while it gets to be a smooth action and feels fine.
 

agviz

Didn't know about the 7 card technique; I'll have to try that sometime.

By the way, this thread reminds me of this post by Le Fanu about a very worn deck.
 

nisaba

<reads blog post>

Reminds me of my Balbi deck. I must pull it out again and play with it!
 

Grizabella

There are some decks that are going to be truly valuable but most of the more recently produced ones are never going to be worth scads of money in the future. Sometimes people on Ebay and Amazon inflate prices of out of print decks to ridiculous levels but that doesn't mean they're actually that valuable. Just use the deck and enjoy it. It's not ever going to be tremendously valuable, most likely, and you might as well enjoy it. Buying decks for investment purposes is really pretty silly. You do better to invest in something else. Decks are meant to be used and loved. :) Just go ahead and have fun with it.

As for spread cloths----a dinner napkin, head scarf, or even a small towel will suffice for a spread cloth. Anything you can put down to make sure you're not going to accidentally end up with a coffee spill or oatmeal blob on your cards. It doesn't have to be fancy.
 

Yasmin

Somewhere, there is an entire thread on how to make a new deck look worn.
 

JankaV

Grizabella said:
There are some decks that are going to be truly valuable but most of the more recently produced ones are never going to be worth scads of money in the future. Sometimes people on Ebay and Amazon inflate prices of out of print decks to ridiculous levels but that doesn't mean they're actually that valuable. Just use the deck and enjoy it. It's not ever going to be tremendously valuable, most likely, and you might as well enjoy it. Buying decks for investment purposes is really pretty silly. You do better to invest in something else. Decks are meant to be used and loved. :) Just go ahead and have fun with it.



As for spread cloths----a dinner napkin, head scarf, or even a small towel will suffice for a spread cloth. Anything you can put down to make sure you're not going to accidentally end up with a coffee spill or oatmeal blob on your cards. It doesn't have to be fancy.
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Love this, I'm always looking out for silk scarves bc I read it somewhere and got it in my head I needed that...but a nice napkin will work perfectly and it is just to protect it. I think I'm going to rummage around right now for a napkin as I lost (stupid!) a box for one of my deck/book combos.

Anyhow, I recently bought a deck I haven't used yet because it's paper is thinner than I'm used to. I doubt I'll wait forever, but I also feel it's a deck I'd rather use once I'm VERY comfortable interpreting cards anyway. It's not as intuitive to me but I absolutely love the art so I feel I wanted it more for the beauty.
 
I'm curious, who's Blue Fusion? Tarot Cardstock: What's the best for you?