I've given further consideration to doing a ODW and I might be joining soon.
The exchange above between two of you about choosing a deck that is mass-market and/or easily obtainable made me realize that some of the decks I am fondest of are either hard-to-find, expensive, or self-published and likely to become HTF not too far off. If the decks I feel fondest or and/or have the most experience with are such decks, doesn't that put me in a precarious position?
Yet, on the other hand, all decks except possibly the RWS and the Thoth will one day be out of print, hard to find, and accordingly inflated in price. It's inevitable given the fact that thousands of decks are created to serve a relatively small market of buyers.
But there's another factor to consider and that is that several of the decks that appear on my "refuse to be without" list are ones that I have never and likely will never use to read for other people. It's too much to go into the criteria they have in common, but suffice it to say that none are RWS-heavies or stripped-down decks good for exoteric readings. It's true I have a long history with an RWS-heavy deck that was very good for reading for the public (Robin Wood) but that was back in the 90s and my tastes have changed. Perhaps it's time to spend a lot of time with a deck that is similarly very suited to reading for others.
Of course, I can't pick a totally stripped-down deck with little intellectual "meat"--after all, these days I read for myself much more than for the public and *I* need to find it of interest. (And nothing sends me running more than a stripped-down deck that patterns itself on RWS without adding much of its own to the mix).
I have two "happy mediums" in mind, decks that are already on my Top 10 list and which have intellectual meat/accompanying literature on the one hand without, on the other hand, losing their suitability to read for others, at least in one-on-one readings (I wouldn't use them for fairs and the like). Truly, they have enough "in" them to allow for a very academic in-depth study but I'm sort of inclined towards the vibe here of "getting to know a deck" in a more colloquial fashion.
But before I sign up, I need to consider my commitment-phobe needs. If I feel I need to go beyond the standard reservation of a right to use a different deck for public readings, special occasions, etc. and that I'd still want to use another deck or decks for some other purpose(s), I wonder if I should create a new thread/group, one that is explicitly intended for a rotation of a small number of decks (say, 3).
I will think about it a little more.
If you have opinions, feel free to share them.