Hi Khatruman (and anyone else interested in release info),
Sure, let me know if you have any troubles with Amazon. They get their stock through the two biggest US book distributors (in fact, your deck/book HAS to be distributed by the two biggest distributors to get on Amazon proper) - so perhaps they had trouble actually getting hold of those other decks you mentioned? If you *do* have trouble getting your Golden Tarot order, let me know and I can at least try to follow it up.
In the past few days, I've been told by US Games that it's currently with the printers - I think in Belgium? Because of the quality - gilt edges etc - it gets done there, as they're supposed to be the best in the world at that kinda thing. Slows down the process a bit, but should be worth the wait. If all goes well with the printing there, that means it should land back with US Games in 2-3 weeks. How quickly the distribution process happens after that is a mystery to me, since this is the first time I've been through this process.
Remember that if you want to buy a signed copy, you can ask for that through Tarot Garden. Will mean a slightly longer wait of course, as I'm in Australia and have to get the cards to sign and return them. If you want them personally dedicated (eg "to John") then it will mean a bit longer but I'm happy to do that if Jeanette is too. All is negotiable!
In the past week I've seen pics of the final box, book cover etc, and I'm happy as a pig in mud. It looks gorgeous. The version that appeared in US Games Catalog a few months back looked OK, but I didn't really like the reddish brown colour used for the box etc. Now it's a rich, deep blue, and they've changed the cover art to be the Queens (my personal favourites). I was speechless when I got a pic of the full set yesterday, looked a hundred times better than I could have imagined. I emailed US Games to say thank you to their Graphic Designer for doing such an amazing job. I think the box is nicer than the deck now, but hey I'm happy if people just buy it for the box
Also I can confirm that the "booklet" (small format to fit in the box with the cards) is actually 198 pages and contains ALL source referencing for the deck. Yippee! So if you want to do a Golden Tarot Tour of Europe, you'll know where to look for all the paintings that I used to make the deck. There are a couple of thousand elements in the whole deck, though, so that might be quite a long tour!