Gilded Tarot Royale

Yesterday when I posted about Ciro's reply concerning "missing cards", I was hustling to get out the door for work - I feel bad that I didn't think to mention that he already had a plan in place to take of anyone who had this problem. That was clearly a mistake on my part (sorry Ciro !!).

My cards were also stuck together, but it posed no problem and kind of added to the effect of 'these cards, until now, haven't been touched by human hands".

Apologies to all....

Michael

Well my Gilded Royale arrived yesterday. I had to pay a Custom's charge of 20 euros which was very annoying, adding an extra cost to the deck but it was a Trade, so nothing to do with it being a purchase from Ciro's site as I didn't get it from there. Just the whims of Customs...

However, I have to say (and I who was never a Gilded fan) this version is incredibly beautiful. Everything about it is top notch; images, card quality, sharpness of images, colouring, packaging, overall graphic *look* of the cards, just general opulence and bejewelled-ness. Absolutely breathtaking. I haven't been able to stop looking at it and shuffling it and doing the odd draw. The SE Tarot of Dreams was always my favourite Ciro deck until now but this one has overtaken it I think. I never expected to love it this much. It screams to be read with, oozing clever whimsical details.

I like the way you described this deck Le Fanu, and I agree with you absolutely!

Le Fanu,

I'm sorry to hear you had to pay additional customs duties. Does that happen often? When I ship directly I always describe the context as cards and a ''gift". We also indicate a nominal value of $10. Since my decks are self published, I deliberately do not print any prices or bar codes on the packaging. So there is no reference point for any over diligent customs official to question our declared value. I think this seems to work, as I have not heard of other customers having issues, at least not for individual decks. On the very few occasions customs duties were added, it was a for a bulk order of several items.

On another note, I'm very very pleased to read your comments. Not just because they were positive, but because they were from a "non" fan of the original Gilded. Hoping to win over people like yourself was very much a goal I was striving for with this new project as it would represent a relevant before and after comparison.

Hello Ciro,

I stumbled upon your Guilded Royale deck completely accidentally - and not heard of either you, or your other decks at all. After a tarot hiatus of far too many years, I was looking to "get back into it", so to speak, and I wanted something other than my old Rider-Waite... owing to a few highly negative experiences. I wanted/needed a fresh start.

You know how it is with google - one link leads to another, over and over, and the next thing you know, you're onto a totally new path. That's how it was. I was just meandering around and found myself looking at your site and the Royale, which was not yet available, and I just knew. There are no cooincidences. The Royale is exactly what I was looking and hoping for - to such an extent that right after I acquired the first deck, I had to have a second one for purely personal use.

No other deck has had such an impact on me; and as a side note, just yesterday I picked up a copy of the original Guilded at a bookstore, and while it is a beautiful deck, it is, well, just another deck to me.

Make no mistake - you have something really special there... You have the right to be disgustingly proud .

Regards
Michael,

I, too, am not a fan of the original Gilded. I had it then traded it away. But this deck -- wow! It grabed me right out of the box and hasn't let go. I didn't watch the creation of this deck as I was ill and away from AT for a long time. But I came back and ... WOW!! I am SO glad to have gotten this deck! It reads like a dream. Just something about it.

The cards are a bit big but I shuffle hand over hand anyway and it works out fine. Any bigger and it wouldn't, but they are fine. I don't want to damage the cards in any way by poker-shuffling them.

Thank you again for creating this wonderful deck.

I am actually not a fan of your other work - lovely online but didn't work for me in person.
This one is just a delight.

So I guess your mission has been a success!!

*S*

cirom said:

Le Fanu,

I'm sorry to hear you had to pay additional customs duties. Does that happen often? When I ship directly I always describe the context as cards and a ''gift". We also indicate a nominal value of $10. Since my decks are self published, I deliberately do not print any prices or bar codes on the packaging. So there is no reference point for any over diligent customs official to question our declared value. I think this seems to work, as I have not heard of other customers having issues, at least not for individual decks. On the very few occasions customs duties were added, it was a for a bulk order of several items.

On another note, I'm very very pleased to read your comments. Not just because they were positive, but because they were from a "non" fan of the original Gilded. Hoping to win over people like yourself was very much a goal I was striving for with this new project as it would represent a relevant before and after comparison.

Click to expand...

R.e Customs, what is odd is how some things get seized on and others don't. It's entirely random and there is no right & wrong way to go about it. I can't remember what the value of this deck was declared as because I no longer have the packaging. I've also discovered that declaring decks as a "gift" doesn't always work. I get asked to present a "bill" and then when I don't have one (when was the last time you had the receipt for that Xmas gift that granny bought you?) they say "oh dear, you can't have it then." Customs here are kept in business by my tarot orders. I've cut down on non-European things for this exact reason but sometimes the temptation is too much. Funny how decks from some "senders" never, ever get pounced on by customs. Starlightexpress' Lenormand decks and Melissa's decks never get seized. Maybe it's a Lenormand thing. I have high hopes for your Lenormand deck not being seized, Ciro...

However, back to this deck, the Gilded Royale. Why a major publisher wouldn't want to issue this is quite beyond me. It has taken a winning formula and brought it - as it were - into sharper focus. That's the sense you have with this version. A familiar deck made sharper and tweaked up a notch. Superb. It has much more detail than the original but is never cluttered. And I am especially happy because it was one of the first 200 and so has the printed reading cloth.

Le Fanu said:

R.e Customs, what is odd is how some things get seized on and others don't. It's entirely random and there is no right & wrong way to go about it.

Click to expand...

I (in the UK) have had the same problem with things coming in; I googled and phoned up, and they said it was Import Tax on items worth below £80, or £50, I can't remember. They said I must get the seller (in the States) to charge that tax when I purchased, which they couldn't as they didn't often sell outside the USA. But because it was picked up by Customs, I paid not only the tax but also about the same amount extra as a fine for not paying the tax in the first place. Seemed unfair as there was no way I could have paid it! And yes, completely random. That was the third such import I'd bought from the same place, but the first they 'noticed'. It must be a spot-check thing.

It seems you were very unlucky to have to pay both a tax and a fine. I have shipped thousands of items to the UK, and I have never heard of a similar incident. I am not aware of any such tax either. Furthermore as I mentioned earlier, since my items are self published and I deliberately do not print prices or even bar codes on the packaging (which mean that they can't be sold on Amazon and other major retail options) it also means that there is no reference point of the value for any tax or customs duties to be applied to, other than what I state on the paperwork. So I really don't think there is much of an issue on individual orders of my products, nevertheless hopefully your experience was a very unusual and isolated incident.

I have NEVER been hit with a fine; what happens is I will get a postcard in with the mail telling me I need to pay duty before whatever it is can be delivered. Then I phone and pay with a credit card and the parcel shows up. It sounds like someone slipped up.

The gift thing - cirom - in case you ever need to know - it ups the value of a package that you can import without paying duty. The needing a BILL thing - all you need to to is produce a printout of a webpage showing the item with its cost. I've done it in my time - and that also works for things you are claiming for that went AWOL. I THINK your site shows the price ?

That said, UK customs are notorious... They have been known to try and collect duty on things mailed within the EU - one which there IS no duty.