Thoth card quality question

Lillie said:

I have two greenies.
One early, one late.

There is a significant difference between the thickness of the card stock and the lamination.

So I think these things just change over time.

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Thanks, Lillie.

I doubt I will ever own a greenie. Where I am, is deciding between the latest Blue Box one by AG Muller or the latest Green Box one by US Games.

Per many posts I have read here on aeclectic plus what Tarot Garden alludes to, is that the current large blue box AG Muller and the current US Games green box card stock is "barely distinguishable" unless I am mistaken. But the OP and Le Fanu beg to differ, regarding these two specific versions. I would like to know which one has the better card stock.

ETA: By "barely distinguishable" Tarot Garden may have meant the color of the cards, as in less green in later printings. But their wording may also mean card stock. Also by card stock I was going by some posts I had read here on aeclectic. I am not concerned with the color, as that has been sorted; only by the card stock.

WonderGuy, I agree they can be a little slippery.

missy said:

I doubt I will ever own a greenie.

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Personally, I wouldn't be losing any sleep over that! My first Thoth was a Greenie, which of course at the time I didn't realise. I just thought the deck had insipid colouring. After a short time I put it aside and moved on only to return about 8 years later when I saw what a decent Thoth printing looked like. Of course I'd never part with the original, but it's really very ugly comparatively speaking.....in my opinion that is.

sapienza said:

Personally, I wouldn't be losing any sleep over that! My first Thoth was a Greenie, which of course at the time I didn't realise. I just thought the deck had insipid colouring. After a short time I put it aside and moved on only to return about 8 years later when I saw what a decent Thoth printing looked like. Of course I'd never part with the original, but it's really very ugly comparatively speaking.....in my opinion that is.

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My question, like the OP's, is NOT about the greenie.

It is about the current Blue Box AG Muller versus the current Green Box US Games. The details are above.

Card stock opinions on these two versions are appreciated! Thanks!

missy said:

According to this from Tarot Garden, under the Card Borders/Face/Back column, they list some differences, though I don't see a card back image. Per Aeclectic here, "The card back shows a stylised Rosicrucian Cross, and is not reversible (the Thoth deck not being intended to be reversed)." But I don't know if that is the only back. The Cross back is here. Tarot Garden discusses versions of the back with "no border strip on the card backs" versus "Card backs exhibit a thin whitish-gray border strip at the edges." Another site that discusses the card backs is here.

I'm sure someone more familiar with the Thoth than I am will chime in.

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I will ! The early printings (no longer available except used - OTO, Llewellyn and Weiser) have no borders on the backs. Later ones (all the ones discussed in this thread) have a narrow white border. All have the Rosicrucian cross backs and are non-reversible. The new Konigsfurt ones (no large size available and only in German) have a narrow gold border instead.

I have never seen one with any other back.

Card stock - I have never had any issues with AGM prints, but gather all are printed by the same place now, in Belgium. Except of course that USG are not printing at all just now because of copyright issues, so the only ones being produced are by Muller and Konigsfurt. I am very puzzled about this, as Konigsfurt has taken over Muller - but....

ETA some people - maybe in this thread - confuse the green box with the greenie. They are NOT the same, though a very few early green box ones did happen to be greenies.....

missy, I can't speak for the large one, but I used to have a standard blue box and a standard purple box printed for the US market. In my case, "barely distinguishable" would be accurate. There were slight variations in the stock and colors, but if I hadn't held them up side-by-side for comparison I probably wouldn't even have noticed.

There are going to be minor variations between almost any two decks, but in the case of the Thoth, they're all printed by AG Muller and basically the same.

missy said:

My question, like the OP's, is NOT about the greenie.

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Well, so sorry for getting off topic.

My experience has also been that the AGM and US Games editions are barely distinguishable. I was assured in another thread some time ago (I can't remember who it was but do remember thinking it was someone who would have known this kind of info) that they were all printed in the same place. In fact, when I opened my US GAmes box edition there was still an AGM sticker on the plastic wrap around the deck. This was a year or so ago now though. I know others have said they have noticed differences but perhaps that comes down to the fact that each print run will inevitably have slight differences in colour and perhaps card stock as well. Not sure if that helps at all.

sapienza said:

My experience has also been that the AGM and US Games editions are barely distinguishable. I was assured in another thread some time ago (I can't remember who it was but do remember thinking it was someone who would have known this kind of info) that they were all printed in the same place.

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Yep. That Dan guy...

So it was

It could also have been MOI - I point this out frequently.....