Logiatrix said:
Or, how about 'ancient'? Lots of tarot titles seem to involve 'ancient', but I've purchased from a few sellers who really take that literally!
Debra said:I really appreciate Elven trying to pin all this down.
As a practical matter, unfortunately it's only art and antique dealers who are likely to use the proper terminology for "old" stuff.
People say "antique" all the time, meaning "made before I was born."
And "vintage" seems to be a totally vague word. I think it was orginally adopted, like the car salesman's "pre-owned," as a highbrow-sounding synonym for "used." "Used" evokes someone else's feet in the thrift shop shoes, someone else driving the car into the ground before you buy it, some else's fingerprints on the cards. A lot of people believe that NEW and UNUSED is better. Social snobbery, in my opinion, just my opinion and I'm sticking with it
But "vintage"! Now THERE'S a word! Like a fine wine, a vintage object, perhaps not a real antique but gosh, so classy-sounding!
Professional art and antique dealers, they are legally bound not to misrepresent their items, and terminology is important to them for that reason. Your average E-bay Ed or Edna--what do they care.
Shade said:Very interesting topic. "Classic" is such a fluid term. I have a "classic" Mythic but I only bought it about 6 years ago
I think that with current fashion trends people like to use "vintage" liberally to describe something that just looks like it came from another era. My Morgan Greer has a "vintage" feel with it's funky color scheme but was recently printed.
If I were to auction things on ebay I would choose language with my intended buyer in mind and not the merchandise. If I wanted to sell a very rare and valuable deck, I would use language that would make sense to the true tarot collectors. It's a signal that "ok this guy knows what he has and I can trust him." Very specific, non-emotive terminology that tells the buyer what it is and when it's from to justify how much I am asking.
If I were trying to sell a deck that anyone could order from Amazon.com I would most definitely employ emotive language and try to depict the experience of reading tarot rather than the publishing history of the deck in question.
So a $500 rare deck's description will be all about the year of printing and the condition of the cards themselves. A 2008 fairy deck would be a "Mystical tarot deck, perfect for psychic intuition and opening the doorway to the future"
just so there's more reference words to use.
