Collecting VS. Reading

[greatdane]

Tiger and Manda

I get what both of you are saying, Tiger, for me, I am also one who looks for that ONE deck or just a few that really speak to me. I am working with Mystic Dreamer now as that is my first deck (saw images online and thought I could work with that!), but when I saw the ANNA K, well, that one just really spoke to me and I just....got it...I know everyone here understands about just clicking with a deck you see.

Manda, I don't think there's ANYTHING wrong at all with collecting decks, whether one uses them to read for or just as beautiful art.

When I did the post, I was trying to see who considers themselves more a collector (sometime reader), more a reader (and collects) and where the line kind of is between more collector, more reader. What sparked that thread is reading as much or more about new decks people were getting, than actually talking tarot. ) It's been great reading posts (some really cute and fun) about how some people see themselves as primarily readers, but new decks keep calling! )

 

[Le Fanu]

So, le Fanu. After re-reading Metafizzypop's post and deciding to answer, I remembered your known and stated love of the Thoth deck, and went and sticky-beaked at your collection list. The jaw dropped onto the floor hard enough to wake the cat. As far as I c an tell, some of those Thoths are identical, just in different packaging. It is *really* necessary to have them?

Please explain in less than 3,000 words, Thoth Deck Completionism to me, together with an estimation of whether your sub-collection of Thoths is complete yet. <hides grin>

It don't aim to be entirely complete (i.e still missing Lady Frieda's watercolours) and I know gregory is more a completist Thoth collector than I, but I am very happy with my Thoth collection and feel that all it is really lacking now (thinking realistically, i.e not Sangreal) is the Weiser B Llewellyn/Hong Kong edition. I haven't got the fabbri/Orbis of the Thoth but my next door neighbour has and I'm constantly working out ways to bribe it off her. As for many of my Thoths being identical, not only are they identical, but I have two copies of them. So there.

What I find interesting in this question is always the isue of criteria. A good collection has criteria. Otherwise, like nisaba says, it is merely an accumulation. That's why I prefer the Frick Collection and the Wallace Collection to the Getty Museum. Smaller collections with criteria (whatever that criteria is) are always more interesting to me than a collection that goes for bigness! Weirdly, the bigger my collection gets, the more coherent it feels. Does that make sense? I feel this more and more and it isn't a sensation I had a couple of years ago. It is something I have been feeling more recently.

Also, there is this implicit idea that one is going to predominantly be either a reader or a collector. It is easy to be both if you want. I buy decks, read cards and most of my reading material (I'd say all but it would make me look completely obsessive) is about tarot...

 

[gregory]

Oh but bigness.....

The John Soane's Museum in London, and the Burrell collection in Glasgow - both by people who collected ANYTHING they took a fancy to - and what wonderful collections they are.

 

[SunChariot]

I have 90 or 91 decks. But I don't consider myself as a collector. I use them all to read with, they are all my tools to read with. I guess to me a collector is one who buys (at least some) decks just to collect but does not plan to use them. All of mine get used. If one doesn't work wel for me l I try to trade it.

Babs

 

[greatdane]

Le Fanu

When posting the thread, I didn't want to suggest one had to be one or the other, but I know some TEND to be more into the reading and that's what tarot is for them, others definitely readers, but collect as well, and then others who will never be happy no matter how many decks that have. All well and good, I say. I just find curious how often the talk is more about certain decks or acquiring them, then about tarot, again, it's alllll good! It's just interesting the posts re whether one sees themselves just more into the reading with a limited number of decks or one reads and collects whether or not they use the collected decks at all for reading.

I have to admit, until coming into this forum, I had NO idea how many collectors there were out there and what really stunned me, is how many decks some people have! I think they would be great to collect even if I wasn't interested in tarot. They're beautiful. But then one does have to eat and my cat would complain if I switched her to a less expensive food....

 

[SunChariot]

People actually do collect Tarot decks who are not readers, just for the artwork.

I guess I am a collector then. LOL I certainly fall under the category of someone who will likely never have enough decks.

Babs

 

[Le Fanu]

Oh but bigness.....

The John Soane's Museum in London, and the Burrell collection in Glasgow - both by people who collected ANYTHING they took a fancy to - and what wonderful collections they are.

Oh the John Soanes Museum; I adore that place (do they still do their candlelit evening visits?). But the criteria is "things I like" which is as good a criteria as any. Plus there is a selection process; Classical casts, Egyptology, Fuseli paintings. If anyone looked at my tarot collection, they probably wouldn't detect the criteria but it is there; "decks I love!" (I suppose) And what better criteria? I suppose we all have our criteria, even if it is merely "decks I can afford"

 

[Gerbear]

Back in the sixties, I was a reader with just a few decks. By the eighties, I was a reader/collector, lusting after more and more decks. Now I am a collector, not on the scale of some, but trying.

 

[greatdane]

Since so many of you who responded....

do collect, and in a big way, do you have ANY idea how much it would cost to replace your collection (IF you could, I know many of you have some rare and valuable decks)? Not asking anybody for any kind of dollar amount, just have you thought about and also which deck(s) that you have would be hardest to replace.

 

[Gerbear]

I have about 450 OOP decks, which would be hard to replace. Also, having #1 in a limited edition, makes it hard to replace. There are a few of those. I have my purchase price in a spreadsheet, but actual value is determined by the market at any one time. Then there are those decks which have been gifted, traded for, etc... All told, once one has a few hundred decks, the value becomes quite fuzzy.