Inky, dink a bottle of ink.

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 16 Mar 2004, and now archived in the Forum Library.

lark	16 Mar 2004
I'm very upset. I have lived in a dream world of belief that if one of my decks ever needed replacing... I would find the new decks quality to be as good as or better than the old one. Not true..... At least as far as US Games decks go. I recently have been collecting decks to keep packed in my Spirit Fair bag. Some of my most popular decks are Universal. Radiant, Hanson Roberts, Morgn Greer. and Robin Wood. I always take those 5 and a few others for variety to the fair. I wanted a deck for my personal use and a deck I could keep packed for the fair. So now I finally have duplicates of these decks that I've bought in various places over the last months. I decided to keep the new ones for my personal use and the old ones for the fair. As I was transfering the new Hanson Roberts into the old decks bag I had both old and new face down on the desk. The color on the back of the new Hanson Roberts was noticable different then the old HR. I turned both decks around and went through each card. The new Hanson Roberts colors were much more faded and less vibrant than my old deck. Maybe it was just that deck. I looked at the Universal Waite...same thing. Color faded and less intense. The Morgan Greer was ok for color, but the lamination on the cards was inferior to my old deck. Robin Wood was good. (Llewellyn) And I didn't see any difference in the Radiant Rider. (same year of printing) I think a sharp word with product control at US Games is in order. Has anyone else noticed this or had a similar disappointment?

Astraea	16 Mar 2004
Lark, what a bummer! I haven't experienced those particular issues, but have bought many, many US Games and Llewellyn decks with blurry cards. It is such a disappointment when something like that happens.

Jewel-ry	16 Mar 2004
Hi Lark, I havn't experienced this but I have to say it doesn't surprise me. The tarot business is a booming one and it doesn't take much for them to realise they need to make more profit! This usually means quality suffers. How disappointing! I definately think you should make that 'sharp word' count. J :)

Thea Lynx	16 Mar 2004
Hi Lark, I don't really have any "duplicate" decks, but I have noticed many differences in quality. My some cards in my New Century deck peeled in the first shuffle, same think for my Morgan Greer. I have just started working with my Shapeshifer and already snagged a corner on one card! I have planned to get some duplicates as I never want to be without the means to work with a particular deck as it wants to be worked with, but now I am wondering if I should. I have only been collecting for two years, so I do not have the benefit of knowing decks from years ago that may have been created with much more care. It's a little sad to have to face the fact that some publishers will indeed look at this from strictly a dollar revenue standpoint and not concern themselves with quality. I think I'm going to be a little more particular when I order decks. My local supplier is very knowledgeable, so I will get the benefit of their expertise. Thea Lynx

Marion	16 Mar 2004
My newer Robin Wood has significantly faded colours compared to the original. I was surprised and none too pleased.

Nevada	16 Mar 2004
Lark, This is so disappointing, and what you've described reminds me a lot of the problem with the icky green Thoth -- which was more washed out in color than greenish. So much so that it was difficult to make out the detail in the cards even if you didn't mind a greenish cast. (I have the icky green. :( ) Apparently US Games has a huge quality control problem. One has to wonder whether they'll ever really get this fixed, and now I'm a little worried about the new decks I just ordered, because I believe at least two of them were published by US Games. I suppose the only thing we can do when this happens is send them back and write letters. Nevada

yve	16 Mar 2004
I think all that have had problems should start a letter writing campaign....I don't have duplicate decks, so I don't have the experience you all do, but I think contacting them and making them aware and finding out why such discrepancies exist might be useful, especially if many such concerns start rolling in....

Cerulean	16 Mar 2004
I found for $8.00 an old U.S. Games 1971 deck when they were in New York, Park Avenue. The colors are more brilliant and subtle than any other yellow box original Rider version, save the Giant. I found for $35.00 an old U.S. Games 1974 limited edition run of their Visconti Sforza and it has the same booklet as the original. The cards are so much more brilliant and bright, they rival the near $100 version of the 1974 limited edition run in the leatherette bookcase and the Italian booklet. U.S. Games and the Longobardica Museum collaborated on this in the 1970s... But the Ukiyoe always seems consistently dark and brilliant, at least the few versions that I had bought in the 1990s. So it's not just me buying old copies for collection and thinking these were unused...the colors are more brilliant in early editions... Mari

LadyMedusa	16 Mar 2004
Lark, I had this issue with a Llewellyn's Legend Arthurian set. I had my original copy for about 6 years. When I replaced it, I was fortunate to find a first edition. As soon as I looked at the cards I could see the difference. The first edition has a real depth to the colors, the newer one lacks. One can immediantly feel the difference in the cardstock as well. It is just normal bussiness practice to find the most economical supplier for a product to maximize profit. Sales$ - Cost$ =Profit$ Businesses also knows that without the sale, the formula becomes No sales$ - Cost$ = Loss$ LadyMedusa

Lee	17 Mar 2004
I don't mean to make excuses for the publishers, but it could also be that printing costs are rising, and they may be having to take these measures in order to stay profitable at all. -- Lee

lark	17 Mar 2004
Thank you for all your stories. I understand their need to make a profit but when that is done at the risk of customer satisfaction, nobody profits. I'll be writing an email today. I'll let you know if I hear back. This all reminded me of a sponge story. Once upon a time.... A very big company invented the worlds best sponge. It was just the right size, it had just the right texture of scrubbie on one side. And just the right spongieness on the other side. It was the prettiest color of blue. And it lasted forever. It was on the market for less than a year and then disappeared. I asked a man I knew who worked at the big company in product development "What happened to the worlds best sponge!" He said, "Oh, they were made to well we had to pull them. We need our sponges to fall apart between 4 to 6 weeks after people buy them so they'll have to buy more."

The Inky, dink a bottle of ink. thread was originally posted on 16 Mar 2004 in the Tarot Decks board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Tarot Decks, or read more archived threads.