I was into using regular playing cards for divination as a teen, but didn't buy my first real tarot deck till the early to mid 80's, the Sacred Rose, followed a few years later by the very first Mythic Tarot (I thought my knowledge of the Greek myths would help me learn) I already had a life long interest in the occult, had the ouija board, all that sort of stuff.
At this time, there were a few decks available here and there at bookstores, but this was before there was a Barnes n Noble in every town...so I am talking Walden books, or Encore - the mall bookstores. But on South Street in Philadelphia, there is an awesome store called Garland of Letters. The store has everything, but mostly it is New Age - books, crystals, incense, etc. Back when I picked up the Sacred Rose, they had a fairly decent selection of decks, and they had sample decks, so you could see what you were getting. At a time before the internet, this was great - it would still be great if most stores did it. In fact, didn't Borders in the beginning? I seem to remember that instead of having all the decks on the shelves, they just had empty boxes - you chose your deck and then they got it for you from behind the counter, and the decks that were in those empty boxes were available to look at? At least, I think they did it that way - during that particular time, I wasn't in the market for decks so I am not sure if my memory serves me right.
Anyway, in the 80's, I knew very few other people personally who read tarot. I had a few girlfriends who got into it because of me, but other than that, the only other readers I knew of were the pros. These days, the world and other people in it is so much more available to us...sometimes I think this is good, sometimes not, but back then, the only knowledge I could gather about tarot was what I read in books. Eventually I lost interest in the cards, gave my 1st edition Mythic to Goodwill (!!!) but held onto the Sacred Rose. I pulled out the cards every now and then to read for myself or others, but for about 10 years, didn't bother much. Maybe if I'd had a computer or knew of other people into tarot, I would have stayed connected, but things were different back then.