I'm not in the habit of clearing decks for any reason. By the way, short of being infused with tobacco smoke, how does a deck get to smell bad? Through being stored in a damp basement or attic? The cat peed on it?
I once bought a used deck that smelled very strongly of some heavy perfume. It smelled of perfume and also skin.. I kont know how to put it, it did not smell like it had been sprayed with perfume just out of the bottle, rather, it smelled like if someone wearing a lot of heavy, heady perfume over not very clean clothes and skin, had kept the deck stuck in her bra all day, day after day.
It was like the smell has seeped inside the cardstock, it was so present. I really wonder how the deck had gotten such a strong smell, on each and every card, a mix of human smell and heavy perfume, but it was there, and it had something a little repulsing about it. Also the deck was pretty used, with frayed borders and all, and it was like the cardstock had been rendered more porous with time and overuse.
I had bought the deck not knowing it was used, because the listing just said "opened and browsed through once, did not gel with it so I am passing it along" so I was expecting a new deck that had just been opened. I inquired with the person I had bought it from, and she confirmed that she had bought it second hand, and put it back to sell almost immediately because she did not like it (no wonder she did not like it !)
I really wish she had described better the situation in her listing, but then, the terms of the listing were not very clear, and I should probably have inquired before buying.... I did not make a fuss because it was super cheap and free shipping.
I tried everything to get rid of the smell, for several months. I also tried to cleanse very thouroughly the deck because it did not feel right, with that unwanted sticky smell. I gave the deck "salt bathes" several times, letting it sit in salt for weeks, I tryed using baking soda, clay, pure talcum, to get rid of the smell, I let the deck air for month, I let it sit, spread card by card, under the sun, thinking it would take the smell away. I really tried everything. Normaly baking soda can rid bad smell, but it did not work at all, even after several months. After a while I started to really strongly dislike the deck. I felt that I did not like the energy of the deck, on addition to disliking the smell. This deck creeped me out. Eventually I destroyed it.
I suppose other smells that a deck can take would be insence smell, tobacco smell, food smell (in kitchen where you use a lot of deep fry greese the smell can really stick everywhere including papers and fabrics), or if the deck is kept in a damp place it can smell of mold maybe.... As you say, if kept in basement or attick, like some books kept in basement of attics can get a strong smell too.
I would not mind if a deck smelled good (when I bought the Connected and Free oracle, it was brand new and smelled slightly of insence, I got the impression that the artist kept her stock of decks near insence, and it was a nice scent. It did not last though.)
But some smell are just not nice, or either they feel like something unwanted is sticking to the deck.... not cool at all.
Having had some bad experiences on both eBay and Amazon Marketplace with other items, I don't buy used decks, and if I did I would like to know something about the former owner. There are people here I wouldn't mind receiving a used deck from, although I'm not presently in the market for one.
I wonder what sort of bad experiences you had ? Would you mind sharing ?
I agree with you that if you know something about the former owner it is different.... I would love to hear about what happened when you bought decks on ebay or Amazon, if you are willing to share.
Thanks !