Marseille Deck for $6.98 (Maybe)

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 27 Jan 2005, and now archived in the Forum Library.

rachelcat	27 Jan 2005
I shop so you don't have to! bn.com is at it again. In their "After Holiday Sale" there is an item called "Parker's Prediction Pack." It looks like (I ordered it but haven't seen it in the flesh yet) a set with a book, a Marseille deck, i ching coins, and runes, for $6.98. I had to get it for the kitsch value, since the publication date is October 1999, and it says it's "the perfect gift for anyone eager to know what secrets the new millennium holds"! Fun, huh? But I thought also if anyone missed the Llewellyn $5 sale, you can pick up a Marseille deck for just a little bit more. Elemental Tarot by Caroline Smith and John Astrop, first edition, 1988, is still there for $5.99. I got mine, and it is all good except one card has a bit of a crease (it looks like from printing). But for 6 bucks, who can complain? Now back to shopping!

Fulgour	27 Jan 2005
Parker's Prediction Pack by Julia Parker & Derek Parker thanks, rachelcat! I just spoke with Barnes&Noble on the phone, and they said (which their web site also shows) that there are 3 ISBN's for this item, though they all seem to be exactly identical: ISBN: 064157715X $6.98 :) ISBN: 0830077022 $7.99 ISBN: 0789446111 $29.95 :( FROM THE PUBLISHER: The perfect gift for anyone eager to know what secrets the new millennium holds, Parkers' Prediction Pack is fascinating entertainment as well as a source of profound wisdom -- and no esoteric knowledge is necessary! Best-selling authors Julia and Derek Parker introduce three classic methods of prediction, complete with the tools for using them: reading the Tarot, casting Runes, and consulting the I Ching. Not sure which method works best for you? Use the enclosed Chooser Wheel to select the appropriate system for your personality. Presented in a handsome silvered box to commemorate the millennium, Parkers' Prediction Pack includes a full-color 80-page booklet, plus a high-quality Tarot deck, Rune symbols, and I Ching coins. http://barnesandnoble.com/

Fulgour	27 Jan 2005
Homepage: Derek and Julia Parker Prediction Pack http://www.parkeriters.com/prediction.htm Introduction http://www.parkeriters.com/main.htm

rachelcat	03 Feb 2005
I got the Parker's Prediction Pack. It is so fun! Well, the runes are photos of runes painted in red on stones and then you punch them out of the sturdy cardboard. Cute, but not stones! For Fulgour and other Marseilleniacs, the deck has two title cards and this is what they say: First card: Spanish Tarot Espanol, Based on a classic Tarot from 1736, Fournier Museum, Vitoria, Spain Second card: Tarot of 78 cards, composed on 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana, Published and manufactured by Heraclio Fournier, Vitoria, Spain As I'm learning here on AT, you can't have too many Marseille decks!

Fulgour	03 Feb 2005
Barnes&Noble called to say the one I ordered came in, and even though I already have The Spanish Tarot :( I'm going to get it anyway! Julia Parker is a favourite aurhor of mine on Astrology - she helped me a lot back when I absolutely, positively was not going to study a-s-t-r-o-l-o-g-y ever! It could be Synchronicity! :)

Annabelle	03 Feb 2005
My copy of Parker's Prediction Pack arrived in the mail a few days ago, and overall I'm happy with it (although I didn't expect the runes would be cardboard!). The Spanish Tarot deck it comes with is nice...it's only my second Marseilles-style deck--I also bought the Ancient Tarot of Marseilles recently from the Llewellyn $5 sale. But I find the Spanish tarot to be much easier on the eyes, and the accompanying book has some pretty helpful explanations for interpreting the cards (reading plain pips cards is something I'm new at). All in all I'm glad I bought it. A very good deal for only $6.98. Incidentally, I also picked up the 1st ed. copy of the Elemental Tarot set that bn.com had on sale, and I'm really enjoying that as well.

Astraea	10 Feb 2005
Hi, all -- for those who haven't seen it yet, this is just a note to further describe the deck which accompanies the Prediction Pack. I looked at a sample copy at a bookstore recently. The deck seems to be a version of the Spanish Tarot (as others have noted, above), with some differences. The Prediction Pack deck titles are all in English (the Spanish Tarot's are in Spanish and English), the titles of Court Cards are those of the RWS tradition (Page, Knight, King, Queen); the Court Cards in the Coin suit (Oros, in the Spanish Tarot) have been renamed Pentacles. The 2 of Coins/Pentacles, which traditionally provides publishing information in Marseilles decks, is blank here. The Spanish Tarot includes RWS Trump titles, and those have been retained in the Prediction Pack deck. Areas which appear as shades of blue in the Spanish Tarot appear purplish in the particular Prediction Pack deck which I saw. The title card of the Prediction Pack deck does say that it is based on the deck in the Fournier Museum. The copyright page of the book which accompanies the Prediction Pack gives credit to the deck as being from Fournier, but without the title Spanish Tarot or actual copyright details. So I surmise that this deck was specially printed for the Prediction Pack. The deck does not come in a separate box, but sits in a well within the larger package.

Fulgour	10 Feb 2005
"Good eye" Astraea ~ now, of all decks, why this one? 1.) Original Spanish Version 2.) Spanish-English Version 3.) English Only Version .........next?

Astraea	10 Feb 2005
Yes, Fulgour, I also wondered why this particular version was included with the Prediction Pack. I know next to nothing about how deck publishing works, yet it would seem to me that creating a version of the Spanish Tarot specifically for the Prediction Pack would have ended up costing more than packaging the Spanish Tarot, per se. Maybe not. Of all the variants you mention, I am only familiar with the bilingual edition of the Spanish Tarot, and the version which appears in the Prediction Pack -- of those two, I like the bilingual tarot with its coin designations.

The Marseille Deck for $6.98 (Maybe) thread was originally posted on 27 Jan 2005 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.