Giving away a deck with 1 card missing. What do you think?

I am giving away a RWS deck to someone as an affectionate surprise gift. I was going to throw it away, because it is missing one card, which is the 8 wands, but I was thinking perhaps this person would like to have the deck just as a token of love, whether they want to learn tarot, or not.

(Actually, I am giving him 3 more decks that annoy the hell out of me, since they are non-RWS, and I have a hard time doing readings with them: The Housewife deck, The Erotic Tarot deck, and The Tarot of Sexual Magic. All of these decks have their original cards, unlike the Rider-Waite deck)

I am torn about giving the away the one card missing Rider-Waite deck just in case he might be interested in learning tarot, and maybe I should buy him a new RWS deck. But another part of me is like...
(1) what if he isn't interested in learning tarot, then I wasted my money buying him a new deck, or
(2) if he is truly interested in tarot, he can buy his own deck, I am just giving him a "starter kit" to learn tarot with ONLY ONE MISSING CARD.

What would you do? Have you given away tarot cards with one, or a few missing cards to anyone?

Also, should I tell him that the deck is missing one card?

I've never given any decks with any missing cards to anyone, so I'm not speaking from personal experience here.

If you really want to give him this gift, then I don't see why you shouldn't. Like you've said, you don't even know if he's going to be interested in learning more about the Tarot or if he's just going to keep it as a token of your friendship. Even if he really ends up being interested, he can use the other decks in the mean time and use the RWS for study purposes (if he needs to check the missing card, he can find pictures of it very easily online and in books). He can always buy his own RWS deck later or you can buy one for him.

I think you should go ahead if that's what you want to do. I wouldn't worry about the missing card, I'd just let him know that a card is missing and how it can make a difference (if you think it might, since I've read some threads here on AT about decks with missing cards in which people have said that they still managed to get the information they needed even with cards missing from a deck), then let him make up his own mind as to whether he wants to use that deck or get a new one, if he even wants to learn more about the Tarot at all.

SirRushing said:

I am giving away a RWS deck to someone as an affectionate surprise gift. I was going to throw it away, because it is missing one card, which is the 8 wands, but I was thinking perhaps this person would like to have the deck just as a token of love, whether they want to learn tarot, or not.

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Look, I wouldn't. If you're giving them other decks as a token of love, then fine, but a broken deck might indicate a broken friendship to him. If he was overly keen on learning Tarot after receiving it, he might also be filled with a heart-stopping disappointment on finding a card was missing, and might believe that the deck is unusable without it.

(1) what if he isn't interested in learning tarot, then I wasted my money buying him a new deck,

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It's never a waste. Not unless you really can't afford it. Even if he sticks it on a shelf and leaves it where until he dies, someone will find it and love it.

(2) if he is truly interested in tarot, he can buy his own deck, I am just giving him a "starter kit" to learn tarot with ONLY ONE MISSING CARD.

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It's not going to be the best starter kit. Now I'm more relaxed, but as a beginner way-back-then, I wouldn't have believed that I could use an incomplete deck.

If you're giving him other decks, why not take some of the more striking cards and frame them as wall-art to go with the other decks as a part of the gift? And save the rest of them Lost and Found singles card thread?

SirRushing said:

I am giving away a RWS deck to someone as an affectionate surprise gift. I was going to throw it away, because it is missing one card, which is the 8 wands, but I was thinking perhaps this person would like to have the deck just as a token of love, whether they want to learn tarot, or not.

(Actually, I am giving him 3 more decks that annoy the hell out of me, since they are non-RWS, and I have a hard time doing readings with them: The Housewife deck, The Erotic Tarot deck, and The Tarot of Sexual Magic. All of these decks have their original cards, unlike the Rider-Waite deck)

I am torn about giving the away the one card missing Rider-Waite deck just in case he might be interested in learning tarot, and maybe I should buy him a new RWS deck. But another part of me is like...
(1) what if he isn't interested in learning tarot, then I wasted my money buying him a new deck, or
(2) if he is truly interested in tarot, he can buy his own deck, I am just giving him a "starter kit" to learn tarot with ONLY ONE MISSING CARD.

What would you do? Have you given away tarot cards with one, or a few missing cards to anyone?

Also, should I tell him that the deck is missing one card?

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I would tell him upfront that the deck is missing one card, yes.

Personally (and I have thought about this a lot before), I am the type of person that would use a tarot deck even with a card (or two! gasp!) missing. Maybe your friend will be too.

I feel this way because of a couple reasons:

1) There are a number of cards with similar meanings (but not the same meanings, true)...so why not? For example: Strength and Temperance, to me, are both about striking a balance in your approach. Temperance is more about finding the middle of the road, and the imagery is completely different. But Strength can also be about balancing two sides of one's personality or adversity. Both about a balance in approach. This can apply to other card pairs.

2) (The biggest reason...) One of my learning decks was Tarot of the Silicon Dawn. I really love that the creator of the Silicon Dawn, Egypt Urnash, encourages the reader to take out as many cards from the deck as they care to. I like to use all cards in a deck that are at my disposal, but the amount of autonomy that she bestows on the reader here is a nice take on the subjectiveness of tarot. (Some will absolutely disagree with this, I know--but still. I look at certain decks as all in good fun, and if he doesn't know tarot yet, this deck doesn't have to be the be all, end all.)

And if you're giving him other decks, all of this sounds very nice. So I wouldn't fret about it. I personally would be so ecstatic to receive any deck from anyone

8 of Wands is discovering the missing link...ah, the irony

nisaba said:

And save the rest of them Lost and Found singles card thread?

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I was going to suggest heading to the Lost and Found thread and see if someone has the 8 of Wands you are missing. Such a popular deck, your chances are probably pretty good. Then you can give him a complete deck to learn with.

This reminds me of when I was reading with my deck before, and I was just going over it counting all the cards, to realize that the 8/Wands was missing. I think I was reading with it for a few months before I realized it was gone though, but everything still worked fine. I didn't even notice it was gone to be honest. But I mentioned it to someone, and they found the missing card a few weeks later and placed it on top of my deck. That was nice of them.

If you gave it to your friend, and they don't do that much with the cards, they may just pass it to someone else who seems more interested in it than they are.

pluto'sapprentice258 said:

8 of Wands is discovering the missing link...ah, the irony

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Did you contact the publisher?

I have received 1 missing card from 3 of the big publishers over the last decade... They were all VERY happy to help. One deck I did not expect success with because it was OOP. I was very lucky on that one, probably because it just barely went OOP.

Good luck!

SirRushing said:

I am giving away a RWS deck to someone as an affectionate surprise gift. I was going to throw it away, because it is missing one card, which is the 8 wands, but I was thinking perhaps this person would like to have the deck just as a token of love, whether they want to learn tarot, or not.

(Actually, I am giving him 3 more decks that annoy the hell out of me, since they are non-RWS, and I have a hard time doing readings with them: The Housewife deck, The Erotic Tarot deck, and The Tarot of Sexual Magic. All of these decks have their original cards, unlike the Rider-Waite deck)

I am torn about giving the away the one card missing Rider-Waite deck just in case he might be interested in learning tarot, and maybe I should buy him a new RWS deck. But another part of me is like...
(1) what if he isn't interested in learning tarot, then I wasted my money buying him a new deck, or
(2) if he is truly interested in tarot, he can buy his own deck, I am just giving him a "starter kit" to learn tarot with ONLY ONE MISSING CARD.

What would you do? Have you given away tarot cards with one, or a few missing cards to anyone?

Also, should I tell him that the deck is missing one card?

Click to expand...

Imo, and we all have our own opinions, I would not give away a deck missing one card unless the person happened to know it was missing one card and unless they asked me for it anyway.

Giving someone a deck missing one card is like giving them a sweater that you no longer need but that has an obvious rip in it. It's giving them damaged merchandise. Sure we can read with a 77 card deck, but not as well. Just as a sweater with a rip will still keep us warm, but neither is in a good condition as it could be,

Giving someone something damaged, unless they asked for it, it not a sign of love to me. The people I care about deserve the best, so I would personally prefer to get them a new one.

I would never give them an incomplete deck without telling them. They may well decide to learn to read later and figure it out on their own at that time. Then it might look like I was trying to "put one over on them" if you can excuse the expression.

The obvious thing to me seems to be to talk. If you don't want to buy someone a new deck because you are not sure if they actually are planning to learn to read, ask them if they have any plans to. And that it would mean a lot to you to have the honour of getting them their first deck.

There might also be a lot more you could do with the deck missing a card. Like crafts projects or (something I heard of once) including a card in greeting/birthday cards and telling the person what it means to you and how you wish that energy for them. Also in books, they make pretty good bookmarks.

Alternately, you might be able to find a copy of the missing card in the lost and found forum here on AT and then gift it as a complete deck.

Those are my thoughts anyway,

Babs

There is someone on eBay currently selling RWS single cards for $2 each. You could always by a copy of the missing card before you gift it.