How do you control yourself? (limit your collection!)

Ok, so I really don't want to be a collector. I don't want to have a hundred decks vie-ing for my attention. I'm on a budget.

(Thoreau: Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say let your affairs be as one, two, three and to a hundred or a thousand… We are happy in proportion to the things we can do without.)

But..... OMG there are SO many FANTASTIC decks that I want!!! Historicals I want to study, the Thoth, then don't even get me started on the gorgeous pagan decks. I just decided not to trade for a Well Worn Path set because its something else for me to learn... however much I want it.

SO - - do you have 'guidelines' for what you collect? Do you limit yourself in some way, or do you just collect on a whim?

cheers
Euri

I don't consider myself to have a collection, although the deck "selection" is growing around here lately. Now I limit myself to decks in the RWS style with art work I really like and that I connect with on a subconscious level so that I know I can read with them.

When I first started learning, though, I just bought willy nilly, whatever deck looked like it appealed to me. I didn't pay any attention to whether it was Thoth related or even just related to nothing in particular. That didn't work out very well for me and I finally learned that the Rider Waite style was best for me and that decks that followed the style of it would always work for me, so then I learned how to carefully research decks before making a choice.

You like Thoreau too, huh? I have a feeling that, if he'd been into tarot, he'd have had just one deck. I'm not quite that stringent with myself, though.

I'm having some nice surprises lately. I had thought that I'd gotten all the decks I was going to have a month or so ago. But then I found three or four more that "needed" to belong to me, so my "selection" has grown. I'm at the limit that my little storage container will hold now, with one left out to work with, so I guess I'm going to have to either decide to get a bigger storage container or else stop finding new decks I like. Somehow, I have the feeling that getting a bigger storage container will win out.

Oh, I came back to add that I've learned another lesson about decks, too. I've learned that if there's one I really, really like and would like to learn later on, it pays to get it now rather than waiting because two or three times decks that I really wanted have gone out of print and the price has skyrocketed. In your case, the Thoth isn't likely to go out of print because it's so widely used, but I've seen it happen that certain editions of it do seem to go out of print now and then, if that makes a difference.

To summarise, though, my personal rule is that I only have decks that I know I'm going to be using at some time or another. I don't collect just for the sake of collecting.

Yeah, how DO you limit yourself?

Hi, Euri!
You asked the very question that used to have me tied up in knots all the time. Over and over, I'd say to myself, "Okay, THAT'S the last one--THAT'S just what I've been looking for." But guess what? My collection just kept growing and growing and my money just kept going and going.... I found all kinds of decks that I loved, but it was never enough to satisfy the need at my core. I just kept looking....
Well, 3 days ago, after 16 years of buying decks, I FINALLY FOUND IT!! For REAL!!! I finally found a deck that I could FEEL and not just SEE. When I unwrapped it and looked through it for the first time, my heart swelled within me and started beating faster. No tarot deck had ever done that to me before. I almost had tears in my eyes. And for the first time, I knew that I could do what all the tarot meditation excercises tell you to do--to imagine yourself actually going INTO the card and speaking with the people in the scene. And being VERY glad to meet them! Now, I KNOW I don't have to buy tarot decks anymore, unless I want one for the art alone. So, I guess MY answer to your question is, when you finally find the RIGHT deck--one that speaks to your soul of souls--you won't have to control yourself anymore. There will be no need, because you will have found what you're looking for at last.
Sorry for being so long-winded and bright blessings,
apainteddevil

Yes, I adore Thoreau! He'd have had a well-worn Marseilles, tucked tidily in its box on a shelf, alongside his copies of Paradise Lost and The Iliad.

Oh now there's a thought. A Walden deck. on recycled card.

That's good advice about buying now-rather-than-later. Maybe I should go for that Well Worn Path.

I've been looking on Ebay - there's a nice old Thoth deck ('as is' so risky card-count-wise) with a book (Gray's, I think) and a kinda kitchy but cool box. It would be too expensive to Oz though. I'd like to pick up a dusty old copy of it.

I've been focussing on learning the RWS thus far, and now getting into the history and Marseilles style decks, adding the first one to my collection with a current trade. But I wandered into a Thoth discussion and it was SO interesting - I could just lose myself forever exploring that symbolism.

apainteddevil,

you can't tell me a story like that without sharing the name of the deck! Was it the Llewellyn? (had to peek at your profile). Of course, I know it will be different for me, likely.

I'm not entirely sure that there will be 'just one' for me. I'm not like that about anything. (well, except my husband.) I am interested in EVERYTHING. Often I wish I could just stick my head inside the computer and just connect all my synapses directly to the internet.

But I guess its possible, there might be an artist working away on The One as we speak.....

Euri

heh heh I have a red face

Sorry, Euri, I realized while I was taking a break that I totally misunderstood your post. You aren't looking for "the one", you just want to know how to stop buying all the totally cool decks that keep jumping out at us! And you're right, it's the Llewellyn.
So, since they probably won't stop creating decks, I really don't know, cause although I will no longer be looking for one for divination/meditation/self-exploration, I KNOW I'll see some beautiful deck before too long and think, Oooo....I GOTTA have that one....just to look at once in a while....
If you find a way to control yourself, (besides going broke, that is) please let me know, cause I LOVE tarot decks and they will always fascinate the hell out of me, and I won't be able to stop checking out the new releases, and oh, help! I can see it all now...a MOUNTAIN of tarot decks as my memorial with my embalmed body taking a "Hermit" pose on the top!
But, at least, that Hermit will be holding the Llewellyn in hand, and be smiling...
Cheers! (and good luck) a paintedD

My first couple of tarot-buying binges brought me close to 30 decks. And for some reason thirty has become a magic number for me - I try to keep my collection or selection (I like the distinction Lyric makes ) to 30 or under. It's a number that seems manageable as regards storage and usability.
I used to work as a librarian, and I think my training there helps - to keep a (book) collection vibrant you have to let go/weed out as well as add to it. I think that applies to cards too.
I find my taste has changed a lot too; when I started getting into tarot I used to pounce on beautiful 'art' decks, but lately I find the more 'naive' style of deck, like Glastonbury or Shining Tribe attracts me, and speaks more clearly to me in readings.
So there you have it. I do buy, but I try to buy carefully, not just on the basis of what pleases the eye, but what might actually yield some insights. And as I buy, I try also to let go, release... hmm, think I feel a good clearout coming on.

euripides said:

That's good advice about buying now-rather-than-later.

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Yeah like that is going to make you buy less
I always try to leave decks on my wish list for at least a few months before I buy. It is amazing how many decks seem appealing at first and look much less desirable when you have looked at it for some time.
True they could go out of print - but decks from big publishing houses don't disappear straight after being put on the market. I check my deck sources regularly to see what is still available.

If you seriously want to stop buying - GET AWAY FROM THIS FORUM NOW
(but it is probably too late for you already)

I am not that good at giving advice in this area anyway - I already have way way more decks than you hope to ever have. I just look at the posts of people who buy a lot more than me and feel good about myself

I do that "leave it on the list a while and see" thing as well.
It's amazing how your feelings about a deck can change in just a few weeks or even days. Decks I thought I just had to have are now in the probably not ever section. (like Rohrig, Quest, Secret forest)
Others I looked at and thought I'd never own, like the Goddess which is now on its way to me.
My list is getting a lot shorter though and I think I'll settle for something just above 20.

Bean Feasa said:

My first couple of tarot-buying binges brought me close to 30 decks. And for some reason thirty has become a magic number for me - I try to keep my collection or selection (I like the distinction Lyric makes ) to 30 or under. It's a number that seems manageable as regards storage and usability.

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Sounds very reasonable. I agree totally. So I've still got some five more decks to go. Oracles don't count, do they?

I always wanted and still want decks I can read with and find useable. But there are a few decks I keep as a collectors item or for study. Somewow the number thirty is indeed magic. This will be a reminder for me to take it slow or give some babies a new home.
Blessings