Greenwood on Ebay
Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 30 Jul 2004, and now archived in the Forum Library.
| blackroseivy |
30 Jul 2004 |
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Wait - have you checked *Amazon*?! *$600*!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EEK!! :eek:
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| lunakasha |
30 Jul 2004 |
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I am sorry but......$605.00 for a USED set that sells for $32.00 new????
That is the ultimate example of GREED IMO, and it is disgusting.....
But....I guess they have the freedom to do it.....and what do you want to bet that there is *someone* out there willing to pay???
:( Luna
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| Summerdream |
31 Jul 2004 |
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I just checked Amazon and can't find the used $600 copy....could someone of bought it? Gulp......
Summerdream:)
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| Summerdream |
31 Jul 2004 |
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Originally posted by lunakasha
Are you tempted Summer??? })
Hehehehe.....
:) Luna
Not at all, geez I thought the one on Ebay for $255 was ridiculous!
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| blackroseivy |
31 Jul 2004 |
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Is this deck *really* *worth* $255, let *alone* *605*???!!! :P
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| lunakasha |
31 Jul 2004 |
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Originally posted by danubhe
Is this deck *really* *worth* $255, let *alone* *605*???!!! :P
OK.....I LOVE this deck.....and obviously a lot of people do or they would never get away with charging this much for it!!!
BUT.....even if I had tons of money to spend, I doubt I would spend over $200 (let alone $600!!!) on this deck, or any deck.....
unless the deck was VERY special to me!!! I think that, on principle alone, I would have a hard time justifying giving that much money to someone who is clearly motivated by greed.....
we are talking about a $32.00 set here!!!
Now, if someone here, a fellow ATF member, were to offer the Greenwood at a *reasonable* price, say $100, I could justify that a little bit more....but that is just MHO....
I guess it comes down to personal preference and whether or not the person can afford and is willing to spend the money.
:) Luna
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| lunakasha |
31 Jul 2004 |
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UPDATE:
The Greenwood on ebay is still at $255 with 3 hours and 16 minutes remaining.....I wonder what the final bid will be????
Hopefully under $600......;)
:) Luna
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| HudsonGray |
31 Jul 2004 |
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I wish this deck WAS available for $30 but it's been out of print for, what, over a decade now? Good luck finding one tucked into some store's warehouse anymore. That $600 is probably wish fulfillment, nobody would pay that much! Most I've seen on ebay go for about $90-$150.
It would be a GOOD deck for some publisher to do a reprint on, you know? I wonder why nobody's approached the artists? Or why the artists haven't approached a publisher about it.
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| lunakasha |
31 Jul 2004 |
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Originally posted by HudsonGray
I wish this deck WAS available for $30 but it's been out of print for, what, over a decade now? Good luck finding one tucked into some store's warehouse anymore. That $600 is probably wish fulfillment, nobody would pay that much! Most I've seen on ebay go for about $90-$150.
It would be a GOOD deck for some publisher to do a reprint on, you know? I wonder why nobody's approached the artists? Or why the artists haven't approached a publisher about it.
I agree....there is obviously a LOT of interest in this deck if people are willing to pay that much for one!!!
I have often wondered the same thing....
Should we start a petition or something, send them a letter to let them know that they could make a fortune by issuing a reprint???
:) Luna
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| blackroseivy |
31 Jul 2004 |
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I *do* think the deck looks interesting, but *I* could never afford it!! :rolleyes:
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| lunakasha |
31 Jul 2004 |
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Originally posted by danubhe
I *do* think the deck looks interesting, but *I* could never afford it!! :rolleyes:
I could never afford it either, danubhe....I kept searching online, watched it going for $150 or more on ebay....and then one day was fortunate enough to find one in a local store....just sitting there with all the other tarot decks!!! :D
Keep your eyes open whenever you are in a store that sells tarot decks....you never know what you'll find!!!
:) Luna
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| TygrEyes |
31 Jul 2004 |
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Originally posted by HudsonGray
I wish this deck WAS available for $30 but it's been out of print for, what, over a decade now? Good luck finding one tucked into some store's warehouse anymore. That $600 is probably wish fulfillment, nobody would pay that much! Most I've seen on ebay go for about $90-$150.
It would be a GOOD deck for some publisher to do a reprint on, you know? I wonder why nobody's approached the artists? Or why the artists haven't approached a publisher about it.
I e-mailed US Games sometime last year to tell them how popular it is & ask them if they had any plans to reprint. The response I got was something to the effect - we're putting our resources into NEW products. :oP
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| blackroseivy |
31 Jul 2004 |
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Since my only resources are online (believe me when I say it!), I wind up having to pay for anything like that - for example, The Alchemical... I can't have my fantasy of happening into a treasure happen! I live in a redneck rural area with *no car*... (sigh)
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| OakDragon |
31 Jul 2004 |
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Originally posted by TygrEyes
I e-mailed US Games sometime last year to tell them how popular it is & ask them if they had any plans to reprint. The response I got was something to the effect - we're putting our resources into NEW products. :oP
What are they doing still printing the RWS, then?!
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| HudsonGray |
31 Jul 2004 |
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Well then, the other guy might do it--Llewellyn. They're more 'freewheeling' with New Age stuff anyway so a shamanic deck would fit right in.
Or maybe see if the artists want to self publish the second printing or something.
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| lunakasha |
31 Jul 2004 |
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Originally posted by danubhe
Since my only resources are online (believe me when I say it!), I wind up having to pay for anything like that - for example, The Alchemical... I can't have my fantasy of happening into a treasure happen! I live in a redneck rural area with *no car*... (sigh)
LOL....and I thought I was in a rural, isolated area??? ;)
Well, I am but....I do have a car (which keeps me sane, believe me!!!)
Anyway....I will definitely keep my eyes open for you, and if I do stumble upon another Greenwood, I'll let you know.....
:) Luna
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| Jeannette |
01 Aug 2004 |
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For what it's worth, here's a "semi-insider's" view regarding reprintings in general and the Greenwood in particular:
Publishers are in the business of making money. We all know that's how the game is played -- it's no big secret. So, when a deck like the Greenwood falls OOP, there's a good reason for it from the publisher's perspective. It's not that they were just too lazy to reprint it, or that they want to simply "fill out" their catalogs with "new and different" titles. It's because sales had slowed down to the point where it's a bad risk to invest the money in a reprint. The fact that a certain, vocal segment of the special interest group at whom the product was partly aimed still wants it doesn't necessarily add up to enough financial incentive for a reprint.
If the Greenwood were reprinted today, and hit the shelves at the original $32 retail price, how many folks here would really rush out and buy it? A dozen? A hundred? A thousand? A publisher usually doesn't want to consider a print run unless they can take advantage of economies of scale -- which, I'm told, for your typical massmarket publisher, is usually going to dictate a print run of at least 5,000 - 10,000 copies. Even if 5,000 copies of the Greenwood were printed, and 1,000 people ran right out and bought them, there's the question of how long the other 4,000 would end up sitting on the shelf. I doubt 1,000 copies sold would even make "break even" point for most massmarket tarot decks.
That said, it is true that occasionally, OOP titles sometimes come back into print. One example would be Clive Barrett's Ancient Egyptian Tarot, which was reprinted by Thorson's/Element approximately 2 years after it was originally discontinued (or thereabouts -- I know it was OOP for a noticeable period before the decision to reprint was made). Or, with independently-published decks, such as Julie Cuccia-Watts' Blue Moon Tarot, the artist may decide demand is high enough to make it worth while to scrape together the money for a second printing. But the practice of reprinting an OOP tarot title is still far from common, and most usually happens when the original deck creator either has some fairly good clout (as with Barrett) or total control (as with Cuccia-Watts) when it comes to the reprint process.
It would seem, however, that if demand is going to push something back into print, having people contact publishers with the request might have some positive effect to that end. But if you're going to write a publisher, make sure you have your facts straight. I wouldn't be surprised if, when writing to U.S. Games to ask if they "plan to reprint" the Greenwood, one would receive a bit of a curt response. Perhaps the question wasn't meant to imply this, but U.S. Games was not the publisher of the Greenwood in the first place. It was published by Thorson's, and I know of no other publisher that issued the set at any point before or after Thorson's had it. And while U.S. Games certainly has reprinted some key, pre-1960s historical decks, they've never picked up the republication rights to any deck originally published after 1960 that I know of. And the reason they're still reprinting the RWS deck is because it still sells like crazy. It's never been OOP since USG first started publishing it back in the early 70s.
Llewellyn is also not a good candidate for a Greenwood reprint. To the best of my knowledge, they've never reprinted any other publisher's OOP titles, save one. They will be reissuing of the Tarot of the Dead by Monica Knighton -- but that deck was self-published by the artist, in a relatively low quantity, and never had massmarket distribution in the first place.
As they were the original publisher, and as they are a publisher who does have a track record of occasionally reissuing their OOP tarot titles, I'd choose to contact Thorson's/Element to cast my vote for a reprint of the Greenwood.
In the end, however, it takes one thing to get a deck back into massmarket production and distribution -- convincing a publisher that there's enough money in the proposition to make it worth their while. As well-loved as the Greenwood has become by tarot enthusiasts, I still think that it would be a tough "sell." The Aecletic forums may have well over 1,000 members, but if we were the only audience that publishers could rely on to buy such products, you'd see very, very, very few tarots ever printed. A publisher has to be certain of a more solid probability of massmarket demand before they look at sinking good money into a product reissue...
...Which means that the laws of "supply and demand" kick in when it comes to the finite number of copies made available on the secondary market. But that's fodder for another post...
-- Jeannette
The Tarot Garden
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| baba-prague |
01 Aug 2004 |
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Jeannette, thanks for that very clear and straightforward explanation.
I have to say that I am never quite sure what to say when people say to me that "one day your decks will become as sought after as decks like the Greenwood" LOL - because although I fully appreciate the intended compliment (I really DO appreciate this), in fact, for a deck designer/publisher, this translates as "one day your decks will be out of print" - and of course in most ways we hope that doesn't happen for a long time!
We do try to build collectibility into the first edition - I think we will always try to have a special edition of our decks as well as a "mass market" one, and we think special edition has to be special, not just rare - but that's a whole other thread probably (quite an interesting one so perhaps sometime we should start that discussion).
Anyway, I am very happy to have my Greenwood, but I do understand - and agree with - your explanation of why it may never come back into print, sad and regretable as that is.
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| TygrEyes |
01 Aug 2004 |
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Well, the Greenwood on Ebay did stay at $255 for the winning bid. Congratulations to whoever got it. It's a beautiful deck!
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| Jeannette |
01 Aug 2004 |
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Originally posted by baba-prague
I have to say that I am never quite sure what to say when people say to me that "one day your decks will become as sought after as decks like the Greenwood" LOL - because although I fully appreciate the intended compliment (I really DO appreciate this), in fact, for a deck designer/publisher, this translates as "one day your decks will be out of print" - and of course in most ways we hope that doesn't happen for a long time!
LOL! Thanks for sharing that tidbit. Eloquently put! I'll have to remember that...
-- Jeannette
The Tarot Garden
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The Greenwood on Ebay thread was originally posted on 30 Jul 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.
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