Questions about various decks!

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 18 Mar 2005, and now archived in the Forum Library.

jeseryn	18 Mar 2005
1. Not sure how I feel about the Golden (gorgeous packaging!) not being laminated? Shiny/slick.. whatever the official term is. They're matte. What do you all think? 2. Is the Victoria Regina glossy or matte? 3. Anyone know if the Sakki Sakki will be around for sale in another couple months? I've exceeded my budget on a recent spending blitz and I'd really love a copy of this deck. 4. Are there any up and coming decks/sets heavily anticipated a la Golden/Gilden? 5. What are the top collector decks (for future value) that you all know about? Figure this is a smallish community so we can give each other tips on what would be a good investment! :p 6. Is there a collectors site anywhere that posts what decks are going out of print and when?

WolfyJames	18 Mar 2005
1 - Personaly, I don't like glossy finishes. I don't want to see shine, I want to see what's under the shine, the image. I always use matte finish, you can see better the object (image, etc.) and you can see the textures. I find the Golden lovely as it is. 4 - The Archeon Tarot has been on the Internet as well before it got published, which, I'm sure, must have created some hype. It's a lovely deck. 6 - None that I know of, but it would be an interesting website if it existed.

jeseryn	18 Mar 2005
Wow the Archeon is beautiful. I'm definitely going to be buying that when it comes out. Thanks so much for the tip.

Jeannette	18 Mar 2005
jeseryn wrote: 2. Is the Victoria Regina glossy or matte? It's on the glossy side. Quote: 4. Are there any up and coming decks/sets heavily anticipated a la Golden/Gilden? WolfyJames pegged the Archeon. But there's lots of others. Different venues tend to focus on different segments of the new releases market -- it sort of depends on what chat boards you hang out on or what informational websites you visit. Quote: 5. What are the top collector decks (for future value) that you all know about? Figure this is a smallish community so we can give each other tips on what would be a good investment! Trust me -- this is a question that's nearly impossible to answer. Quote: 6. Is there a collectors site anywhere that posts what decks are going out of print and when? Again, that would be next to impossible. We've tried, but in fact, the publishers often don't like to release that kind of information until a deck is officially out-of-print. Most decks go out of print very, very quietly. But, for what it's worth -- the Victoria Regina is officially OOP now. What's left on the retailer shelves is all there is, folks. After that, it's off to the secondary/collectors' market for anyone seeking it. -- Jeannette The Tarot Garden

Alta	19 Mar 2005
The previous posters pretty well covered things, but of course I have to add my bit. 1. Not sure how I feel about the Golden (gorgeous packaging!) not being laminated? Shiny/slick.. whatever the official term is. They're matte. What do you all think? I prefer the slightly matte finishes to the highly shiny cards. Glastonbury has to have the shiniest thickest finish I have ever seen, and I am not a big fan of that finish. Makes the cards stiff and hard to handle. In my opinion the Golden has a lovely finish to the cards. 2. Is the Victoria Regina glossy or matte? As Jeannette says, on the glossy side. Sort of like playing cards, maybe a bit shinier. It's a nice deck, a little off-beat. 3. Anyone know if the Sakki Sakki will be around for sale in another couple months? I've exceeded my budget on a recent spending blitz and I'd really love a copy of this deck. Only M-Press could answer that. 4. Are there any up and coming decks/sets heavily anticipated a la Golden/Gilded? Just keep reading this Forum! 5. What are the top collector decks (for future value) that you all know about? Figure this is a smallish community so we can give each other tips on what would be a good investment! We would all like to know that. I wonder very much at some decks that used to be ignored and are now hot. 6. Is there a collectors site anywhere that posts what decks are going out of print and when? As Jeannette said. :)

Alta	19 Mar 2005
Jeannette wrote: Most decks go out of print very, very quietly. -- Jeannette The Tarot Garden So, the only way you know is just that they disappear from the catalogues??

Emily	19 Mar 2005
I didn't realise the Victoria Regina would go out of print so quickly. I was going to add my little bit about them being a cream/white colour on the reverse and so get dirty easy and extra care is needed where you read with them and what on - maybe something to bear in mind if its going OOP. I like the lamination of the Golden, its a nice shuffler.

Khatruman	19 Mar 2005
jeseryn wrote: 5. What are the top collector decks (for future value) that you all know about? Figure this is a smallish community so we can give each other tips on what would be a good investment! :p Nobody knows what will become valuable because once people know, they collect them, store them, thus saving several copies and making them less valuable. It's a Catch 22. Big companies have become aware of the collecting for investment enticement and have attempted to "create" value, a la Beanie Babies. Also, in the marketing of most DVDs. Haven't you noticed that every DVD that comes out is a "special edition" or "collector's edition"? Hmmm, I don't think I have ever seen the standard edition. :D

Rusty Neon	19 Mar 2005
Khatruman wrote: Big companies have become aware of the collecting for investment enticement and have attempted to "create" value, a la Beanie Babies. Also, in the marketing of most DVDs. Haven't you noticed that every DVD that comes out is a "special edition" or "collector's edition"? Hmmm, I don't think I have ever seen the standard edition. :D Hopefully this doesn't become widespread with tarot. Imagine if every new movie that went onto the big screen issues a souvenir tarot set? (Happily, this has only happened in rare cases, so far.) This collector's edition / special edition penchant seems to be very strong in the case of coins. The government mints are really in on it. The stuff that the mainstream coin dealers stock are mostly proof coin sets, uncirculated coins with souvenir packing by the government mint. Walking in, one feels like they're in a souvenir shop. It's less so in the case of stamps but even there are there First Day Covers, Annual Stamp Sets, etc., issued by the country's post office. And this isn't even from small countries that make their money from selling coins and stamps (e.g., San Marino, semi-autonomous states, etc.) but also large countries like the U.S., Canada, Britain, etc.

Cerulean	19 Mar 2005
...but it might be the seasonal March Madness for Spring..or the big cards, beautiful art and big book that comes in the kit. Cerulean

Lillie	19 Mar 2005
Yeah, Here in Britain you can buy a commerative five pound coin. It costs five pound. Stupid or what? That's not buying a coin, it's just changing your money for a different denomination! It's like playing the change machine in an arcade. as for Tarot /TV tie ins. I'm waiting for the Trisha Tarot. (only the British will get that joke. Everyone else substitute 'Jerry Springer with pretentions' to get the idea.)

Jeannette	19 Mar 2005
Marion wrote: So, the only way you know is just that they disappear from the catalogues?? Even that isn't necessarily a good indicator. Take AGM, for example. USG is the sole licensed North American distributor for AGM products -- no other company here is allowed to sell their products to the retail network. If USG decides not to order and stock a particular AGM title for a year, it won't appear in their catalog. And yet, that doesn't necessarily mean that the title is OOP. AGM may still print it, and USG may decide to pick it up again on the next annual cycle (or occasionally even before). But surfing over to the AGM website won't clarify the situation any, because they don't update that site often enough, and may show titles as being still available that are, in fact, OOP. Llewellyn works a bit differently. They send out regular mailings to their dealer network, listing the OOP titles. However, by the time one receives that mailing, the title is OOP, not going OOP. So as a dealer, you can't "stock up" at wholesale and give your customers a last-chance "heads up" to get the title from you at retail. I've asked Llewellyn if it would be possible to get a "not OOP, but going OOP" notification, but was informed that they don't make the final decision to reprint or not until after their supply of a given title is exhausted. The major book publishers that publish, but don't specialize in, tarot -- such as St. Martin's -- work through a distributor network, and don't sell directly to small retailers, and don't seem much interested in communicating with them, either. And the distributors, in my experience -- or at least their sales reps -- often have no clue what's going on with publication schedules. Their job is to sell what they have. The list of obstacles goes on, but from the above, you can probably get a sense of why I get so frustrated with the job of trying to keep the publication status of our database listings up-to-date. -- Jeannette The Tarot Garden

jeseryn	19 Mar 2005
Interesting. I have to change my opinion on the Golden finish though. That's what I get for making such a snap judgement without testdriving it much. I love the matte. Like someone said.. it is a good shuffler.

The Questions about various decks! thread was originally posted on 18 Mar 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.