How many is too many?

[MrsASL_Anime21]

There is no such thing as too much unless your obsessed with just the thought of having another deck that may just sit on a shelf or in your purse for a week.

I have three decks, so far & waiting on my fourth to come in the mail. I really enjoy the art & the comments on art collecting with tarot decks.

I had bought my Tarot of the Magical Forest out of cuteness & no self control but now I'm trying to pace myself & if I can say so it's not easy.

I should mention that I have a 40 deck wish list to one day complete.

 

[Carla]

Too many is when you look around and realise there are too many. Sometimes you yourself won't even know that answer until the time comes. So far I ain't there yet.

 

[firefrost]

Hmm well, my collection peaked at 70 a long time ago. That was far too many for me. I now have a happy little collection of 16!

 

[Narwhallove]

Because in order to be able to read with a deck, I mean, to read with it really well, you have to spend time with it. And if you own a whole lotta decks, that spreads your time thin. You can never give any deck the attention it needs.OTOH, if I could afford it, I'd buy 'em anyway.

Feelin' a twinge of guilt at this. I just ordered five yesterday! and I want to be able to read with all of them.

1. There are some decks that I grew out of (for ex., Revelations, Robin Wood), and don't want to purge just because I won't read with them anymore;
2. some for purely academic purposes, (Thoth or Original Rider-Waite) for reference when I'm reading about these decks;
3. some are plain disappointments (like the Tarot of New Vision) that I'll probably discard save for the few cards I think are truly innovative;
4. some are moments of pure insanity, like the first edition Vertigo Tarot. The Vertigo is not readable and was exorbitantly expensive, and because it was expensive, I never want to touch it! What am I supposed to do, sell it? No way!

And that's how I wound up with over 20 decks, still valorously believing I can read with most of them.

 

[nisaba]

103 decks definitely isn't enough. Take it from One Who Knows <nodding wisely>.

 

[vee]

Feelin' a twinge of guilt at this. I just ordered five yesterday! and I want to be able to read with all of them.

And that's how I wound up with over 20 decks, still valorously believing I can read with most of them.

Don't feel guilty! I'm pretty sure gregory reads with all her billion decks. So you have a lot of decks. You'll just have to devote a lot of time to them. How awful!

 

[Metafizzypop]

Yeah, 20 decks is small potatos. I own about 30 and I read with all of them. I rotate them. I'll spend a few weeks with one deck, then switch to another, then another, etc.

By the way, I also own the Vertigo first edition, and I agree it's hard to read with, but I think it's worth learning. I pull it out periodically like all the others and, little by little, I'm getting it. The book by Rachel Pollack is great (and was stolen almost verbatim by the creators of the Savage Tarot).

 

[VGimlet]

Like everyone has said, personal choice.

I have a lot of decks. Almost 450 different ones, not including my alternate editions of a number of decks.

Reading decks - for me I have about 25 decks I would pick up and read with any time. I have about 5 I use regularly. And then I have some special decks for fun (not all of them included in the 25).

I am using all of them, one by one. I haven't gotten to the point of feeling I have too many yet.

 

[rubyalison]

I just jumped from 3 to 8 decks thanks to some recently received Amazon gift money. I have about 4 more on my wish list still.

I have limited space and want to focus on which decks I would actually use. I could see myself getting up to 20 or so decks over the years. That seems like a good number for me to allow for variety but not being overwhelmed.

Certainly a very personal decision that would vary widely between tarot enthusiasts though.

 

[Wintergreen]

I don't know what's happened to me! Since waking up with the Tarot bug one morning this February, I've accumulated 9 decks, 2 more are in the mail, and I have about 20 on my want list!

It's like a strange and pleasant disease. I've been trying to establish how many are too many... I guess I'll find out when I get to that point.