Decks You Wish You Hadn't Bought?

None. I still can't think of a single deck I wish I hadn't bought. Even the ones I pass on are worth it - they become good gifts, and if someone else loves them, that is wonderful.

Just been sorting out my Tarot Cabinet & have realised there are a couple more decks that I really dislike...
"OSHO ZEN" - smug and overbearing & bears no resemblance IMO to Tarot. At one point I had TWO copies as I bought one and was given one as a gift. I sold the one on eBay and still have the gift one only because it was given to me by someone I will probably never see again.
THOTH - Harrummph, I tried so hard to love this deck in 4 or 5 difference packs, sizes and colour variations...I love the artwork, but as a deck I just cannot get on with it. It just sits there all arsey & miserable & won't speak to me at all. I have given up trying & only have the one left now as I have traded away the other 4 copies! It is now just "collection only" & I can't see that ever changing!
GENDRON - Totally hideous, bizarre hues and heads that look glued on. Vile.

There were a couple that I got rid of long ago after just looking thru & knowing straightaway that they were a mistake & not for me. Namely: The USG Native American (Gonzalez) and the drab & dreary Haindl. (yeuuchh)

I own about 30 decks and I don't regret buying any of them. But I think this is because I restrain myself from buying decks on impulse. I check out a few scans, and then wait a while, so I can mull it over, and decide whether or not I really want it. Sometimes a deck looks good on the first viewing, but then when I look at it again, it's not as hot as I remember it. If I had bought the deck right away I wouldn't have been happy.

So funny that I had replied to this thread a year ago.

And I totally have to go check out that turd deck.

I am pretty new to tarot so I only have a few decks, the first one I bought was the Star that never walks around, ( when I bought it years ago I thought it was an Oracle). I dont think I like round shaped cards, hard to shuffle, I do have an interest in Native American spirituality or at least I thought I did. Just something about it.
The first Tarot that I bought when I knew it was a tarot was the Gilded Tarot, today the artwork while still very pretty, just doesn't refect my interest in darker decks. That is just where I am right now.

Ok, I didn't buy it, and it isn't tarot ... but I've got to say ...

I just received the Petit Lenormand from the "I don't love you ..." thread. Oh. My. I so don't love this deck. Actually, I think I hate it. The artwork stinks, there's so much on each card that you can't figure it out, and of all the images on the card, not a single one of them has anything to do with what the card is supposed to be!!! The fishes card has no fish. The ship card has no ship, etc. It's absurd!!!

My apologies to the lovely person who gifted this to me. But she doesn't like it either.

Keep your eyes peeled for it to return to the "I don't love you ..." giveaway thread!!!

GryffinSong said:

Ok, I didn't buy it, and it isn't tarot ... but I've got to say ...
I just received the Petit Lenormand from the "I don't love you ..." thread. Oh. My. I so don't love this deck.
t!

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Thats too bad I know you were looking forward to getting it.

Although I don't have a ton of decks (yet, haha) and wouldn't want to part with any just now, I admit that I'm disappointed with the Cicero Golden Dawn Magical Tarot deck (Llewellyn). Having only started this year learning about the Golden Dawn system and elemental dignities etc., I was really looking forward to this deck as opposed to the Wang Golden Dawn deck (US Games). I liked the color scheme and the fact that the elements & astrological attributions were on the cards. When I actually opened it...

First off, the cards themselves: something about the lamination or gloss, but they kind of "stick" together and don't shuffle well unless you riffle shuffle them, which I prefer not to do.

And the artwork: I should've looked harder and paid more attention to the online scans, because I really, really don't care for the humans in the cards. I found the artwork to be "comic book", and not even good comic book art!

I have the other Golden Dawn deck (Wang version with US Games), and I like the artwork better on that one...but wish it had the color scheme of the other!

Anyways, I still like them both simply for learning purposes, I guess, of the system they represent. Though honestly, for learning purposes, I love the Hermetic and the Thoth. But that's getting off track...

I wonder if anyone agrees with me as I've read through the entire thread and no one's mentioned that deck... I'm not familiar with almost every single deck cited except for the Rider Waite, Thoth, and Haindl...

Nevermind... delete

donvicente said:

.....First off, the cards themselves: something about the lamination or gloss, but they kind of "stick" together and don't shuffle well unless you riffle shuffle them, which I prefer not to do.....

I have the other Golden Dawn deck (Wang version with US Games), and I like the artwork better on that one...but wish it had the color scheme of the other!

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Talcum powder or the fanning powder used by stage magicians will make a sticky deck behave much better. My Albano-Waite deck was like that before I gave it the powder treatment. I really poured on the talcum powder and used it like that, with powder flying all over the place. The deck gradually healed, and now it is okay.

I think the artwork in the Wang deck is rather crude. For example, in the Lovers card, which depicts Perseus' rescue of Andromeda, the sea monster is ridiculous-looking, and Perseus looks as if all of his body below the belt has been amputated. The colors are correct according to Golden Dawn color symbolism, but there is a great deal of latitude in the GD system, so the deck could have been made much more colorful. I wish a real artist would redo the Wang deck by polishing up the drawing and improving the color. As it is, I really don't like that deck at all. I only keep it for its authentic GD symbolism.