Share Your Collection!

[EMarieHasADHD]

5 minutes ago, Tom said:

@EmarieWithADHD Thanks for the compliment.  I don't know why but the Medieval Scapini has always given me the creeps.  I removed in from my collection long ago.  I have bad vibes from it; I'm glad it works for you.

How funny. Well, we all resonate with different things! I can kind of see how it could give you the creeps, though. Many of the images are pretty weird and Death certainly is one of the creepiest Death cards I have seen. 

[Tom]

@EmarieWithADHD yes.  Everyone sees everything differently.  I have the Deviant Moon Tarot and although it is eerie that doesn't bother me--but I know it sets other people on edge.

[Misterei]

Today I had to break down my display and shift my whole card collection in preparation for workmen coming to install a heater in my bedroom. I was happy to discover that nearly the whole collection fits on one shelf -- although I would never keep them jammed-up like this.

 

I was pleasantly surprised they weren't dusty. With constant coastal winds, this house always gets dusty. Yet the Tarots get used enough that they don't collect dust.

 

Home repairs are stressful. I will be without a kitchen 1-3 days. But shifting the Tarots was relaxing. I enjoyed touching even the decks I don't use often.

 

Edited October 20, 2024 by Misterei

[EMarieHasADHD]

7 hours ago, Misterei said:

Today I had to break down my display and shift my whole card collection in preparation for workmen coming to install a heater in my bedroom. I was happy to discover that nearly the whole collection fits on one shelf -- although I would never keep them jammed-up like this.

 

I was pleasantly surprised they weren't dusty. With constant coastal winds, this house always gets dusty. Yet the Tarots get used enough that they don't collect dust.

 

Home repairs are stressful. I will be without a kitchen 1-3 days. But shifting the Tarots was relaxing. I enjoyed touching even the decks I don't use often.

 

I LOVE that built-in. Thanks for showing your collection 🙂 

[Misterei]

15 hours ago, EmarieWithADHD said:

I LOVE that built-in. Thanks for showing your collection 🙂 

Thanks. I researched 1920s cabinet design for California Mediterranean style and designed it to appear original for this 1926 house. Then it was custom made in a cabinet shop and installed. Then I painted it. Lotta work but totally rewarding.

 

I used to keep my collection there until it got too large. Now it lives in a display on 3 shelves in my bedroom -- where it will return as soon as the workmen finish.

[Rodney]

On 2/5/2024 at 6:18 PM, Rodney said:

Now I'm noodling over how I can rearrange things to get more shelf space back here because many shelves are two deep and a couple are even three deep with decks! Fortunately, I've learned how to use PivotTables, so have an inventory of everything that should be on each shelf even if I can't actually see it... Taking pics now doesn't make sense since things will definitely move around once I get more shelf space in here. Hopefully within the next couple of months.

Well, THAT took almost a year!

 

People, including the friend with the SUV who took me to IKEA to purchase 3 full-width and 3 half-width 6-shelf Billy bookcases (in a mixture of black and white) didn't believe I was going to be able to fit anything else in this room! Oh ye of little faith! I have 3D jigsaw puzzle skills that I will happily put up against anyone else's skills!

 

Net increase of 4 bookcases and 25 shelves. I'm not sure what the posting size/length limit is, so I'm going to break this into multiple posts.

 

Bookcase #1

Not sure why, but I've always started the count at this position. Shelves 1 and 2 are all variations of PCS's art. Shelf 3 is a combo of Ciro's self-published decks, Insight Edition decks and misc. Shelf 4 is overflow of Schiffer decks and misc. Shelf 5 is all Schiffer. Shelf 6 is TdM. Shelf 7 is misc.

 

21 Section Media Center

This was intended for CDs/DVDs/BlueRays, but it works perfectly for tarot decks! Across and down, we have

• #1: AGMueller, Erotic, Tarot Egipcios/Egipcios Kier
• #2: Thoth, Thoth, Thoth-inspired
• #3: Amerigo Folchi/Etteilla, Pip, Pip
• #4: Majors-only, Majors-only, misc
• #5: Llewellyn, Llewellyn, misc
• #6: misc, 78 Tarot Kickstarter decks, misc
• #7: USG all three sections

Bookcases 3-5 (WBW), CD racks, 2B Processed

I had to pull everything off #3 to move it 9 inches after having moved #5 and putting #4 in place! 🤬 #3 and #5 have the extra shelf to make them 7 shelves.

3:1 - misc

3:2 - foreign language

3:3 - oversize Kickstarter

3:4 - overflow Lo Scarabeo

3:5 - Lo Scarabeo and overflow Llewellyn

3:6 - Llewellyn

3:7 - books

 

Bookcase 4 is all Kickstarter decks

 

Bookcase 5:

5:1 - misc and Baba Prague

5:2 - decks that I have different versions/editions of

5:3 and 5:4 - misc

5:5 - non-standard decks (generally other than 78 cards or no cards)

5:6 - misc

5:7 - oversized tarot books

 

The CD racks are double-sided and only hold Lo Scarabeo decks

 

The little end table has decks I've yet to process cause I was too busy moving things around and updating my spreadsheets.

[Rodney]

Bookcases 6-8

 

Oracles of various sorts. And that's all I'll say about that since we're in the tarot forum. The four shelf bureau was in the dumpster area. It was slate blue with many scratches showing the white base coat beneath it. I stripped it and painted it a glossy black to better fit into the room.

 

Bookcase 9

This 7-shelf bookcase is in the narrow passageway into the study, so it's difficult to get a pic of the whole thing. The bottom 4 shelves are books on demons/angels/ghosts/spirits and astrology (bottom three shelves). Shelf two has all my books on symbols and symbology for when I'm studying a deck.

 

Bookcases 10 and 11

10:1 - US Games sets (primarily) and bigger decks

10:2 - sets in those cases that rental VHS tapes came in back in the day and tarock

10:3 - misc books

10:4 - Kabbalah/Gnosticism/Golden Dawn books

10:5 - Spread books and workbooks

10:6 - books on card meanings

11:1 - older sets (yup, there's a Greenwood up there)

11:2 - books on Enneagrams; tools to make spreads

11:3 - playing card divination

11:4 - boxes I've made

11:5 and 11:6 - binders I've created for my spreads collection, deck-specific binders, etc.

 

12 Square Unit

I've shown part of this before. The top row is decks in bags (each with a marking tag so I know what's inside without having to open it) with duplicate decks stored behind (USG in cube 1, LoS in cube 2 and misc in cube 3). The remaning cubbies are all books:

• 12S4 - tarot astrology, tarot courts
• 12S5 - relationships, my old journals
• 12S6 - PCS/AEW-related
• 12S7-12S9 - Advanced tarot topics
• 12S10 - tarot magic(k)
• 12S11 - tarot reference
• 12S12 - Crowley-related

Bookcase 13

Companion books to decks. Of note, 12:2 is TdM and Thoth with misc and 12:4 is LoS/Llewellyn.

 

Bookcase 14

All I Ching books and decks.

 

Barring what's in storage in one of the closets (duplicates), what's in the sale case that I'll probably never get around to selling and the broken decks that are used to creat Frankendeckens, that's all folks!

 

And with expenses rising much faster than my income, I'm not envisioning a whole lot of change to this setup in the foreseeable future...

[Raggydoll]

4 hours ago, Rodney said:

Bookcases 6-8

 

Oracles of various sorts. And that's all I'll say about that since we're in the tarot forum. The four shelf bureau was in the dumpster area. It was slate blue with many scratches showing the white base coat beneath it. I stripped it and painted it a glossy black to better fit into the room.

 

Bookcase 9

This 7-shelf bookcase is in the narrow passageway into the study, so it's difficult to get a pic of the whole thing. The bottom 4 shelves are books on demons/angels/ghosts/spirits and astrology (bottom three shelves). Shelf two has all my books on symbols and symbology for when I'm studying a deck.

 

Bookcases 10 and 11

10:1 - US Games sets (primarily) and bigger decks

10:2 - sets in those cases that rental VHS tapes came in back in the day and tarock

10:3 - misc books

10:4 - Kabbalah/Gnosticism/Golden Dawn books

10:5 - Spread books and workbooks

10:6 - books on card meanings

11:1 - older sets (yup, there's a Greenwood up there)

11:2 - books on Enneagrams; tools to make spreads

11:3 - playing card divination

11:4 - boxes I've made

11:5 and 11:6 - binders I've created for my spreads collection, deck-specific binders, etc.

 

12 Square Unit

I've shown part of this before. The top row is decks in bags (each with a marking tag so I know what's inside without having to open it) with duplicate decks stored behind (USG in cube 1, LoS in cube 2 and misc in cube 3). The remaning cubbies are all books:

• 12S4 - tarot astrology, tarot courts
• 12S5 - relationships, my old journals
• 12S6 - PCS/AEW-related
• 12S7-12S9 - Advanced tarot topics
• 12S10 - tarot magic(k)
• 12S11 - tarot reference
• 12S12 - Crowley-related

Bookcase 13

Companion books to decks. Of note, 12:2 is TdM and Thoth with misc and 12:4 is LoS/Llewellyn.

 

Bookcase 14

All I Ching books and decks.

 

Barring what's in storage in one of the closets (duplicates), what's in the sale case that I'll probably never get around to selling and the broken decks that are used to creat Frankendeckens, that's all folks!

 

And with expenses rising much faster than my income, I'm not envisioning a whole lot of change to this setup in the foreseeable future...

What a treat to see! Thank you for sharing!!

[JoyousGirl]

7 hours ago, Rodney said:

in the sale case that I'll probably never get around to selling

 

Christmas is coming up.  How about a giveaway  😁

 

 

[Misterei]

@Rodney

OMG that's a crazy huge collection! I wish I could visit you and browse it 😉

[Rodney]

18 minutes ago, Misterei said:

@Rodney

OMG that's a crazy huge collection! I wish I could visit you and browse it 😉

Just pulled totals from my various spreadsheets:

2200 tarot decks

962 tarot books

556 oracles

156 oracle books

105 I Ching books

77 astrology books

41 other divination books

118 general metaphysical books

[gregory]

I need you to organise mine..... It has spread into our bedroom.... +/- 3000 tarot decks, 51 non- tarot decks - includes oracle and LeNormand) and 217 books - I haven't differentiated those. You are WAY ahead on books... the big issue is that my tarot room is small and more to the point, is 6 foot high at the tall end - and 2 foot high at the othe - it's under the roof... I would love the Billy shelves - and more of the Alex drawers I love.

[RunningWild]

I suddenly have some serious tarot envy.  AND organizational envy!  I so need my own space…😂

[Rodney]

@gregory and @RunningWild, have organizational skills and will travel... 😉

[Raggydoll]

1 hour ago, Rodney said:

@gregory and @RunningWild, have organizational skills and will travel... 😉

Just make sure to bring a camera so the rest of us do not miss out! 😁 

 

This actually makes me think of a show I one saw, where a professional organizer was helping out a woman with her messy home. In the midst of the process, they found a stack of tarot and Oracle decks, and the organizer beamed and said “I have a perfect spot for these!” She then went to the entertainment area by to the TV and stacked them next to Yahtzee and DVDs 🤪 I guess that maybe some folks would not mind having their decks with their board games, but I think most people probably wouldn’t like it. So I’d much prefer to watch you handle other peoples decks, I am very confident that you’d come up with a better solution than that 😉

[Rodney]

7 hours ago, Raggydoll said:

Just make sure to bring a camera so the rest of us do not miss out! 😁 

 

This actually makes me think of a show I one saw, where a professional organizer was helping out a woman with her messy home. In the midst of the process, they found a stack of tarot and Oracle decks, and the organizer beamed and said “I have a perfect spot for these!” She then went to the entertainment area by to the TV and stacked them next to Yahtzee and DVDs 🤪 I guess that maybe some folks would not mind having their decks with their board games, but I think most people probably wouldn’t like it. So I’d much prefer to watch you handle other peoples decks, I am very confident that you’d come up with a better solution than that 😉

How utterly bizarre to put tarot and oracles with games. Not having seen that show, I would hope that I would come up with a better storage/display solution...

[Raggydoll]

24 minutes ago, Rodney said:

How utterly bizarre to put tarot and oracles with games. Not having seen that show, I would hope that I would come up with a better storage/display solution...

Yes. The woman also had a collection of incense, crystals, different candles and other witchy paraphernalia. The organizer identified those things as “home decor” 🤣. So yes, you’d do a much better job, any day of the week! 😁

[Morwenna]

Well, I suppose that they could be home decor if one didn't want to advertise but still liked being surrounded by their stuff... 😊

 

I need home organizing too but not for the esoteric things! Those are all corralled, more or less. 

 

But holy moley macaroley, Rodney, I totally admire the way you've arranged your decks and books! And I didn't know you were knocking so closely on Gregory's door with the total count... And actually I'm more in awe of your book collection than that of your decks! 

[Misterei]

On 10/29/2024 at 7:29 AM, Raggydoll said:

Yes. The woman also had a collection of incense, crystals, different candles and other witchy paraphernalia. The organizer identified those things as “home decor” 🤣. So yes, you’d do a much better job, any day of the week! 😁

Sheesh. Didn't she know the Tarots and Oracles go WITH the crystals? She calls herself an organizer? Hrmph!

[Rodney]

18 minutes ago, Morwenna said:

Well, I suppose that they could be home decor if one didn't want to advertise but still liked being surrounded by their stuff... 😊

 

I need home organizing too but not for the esoteric things! Those are all corralled, more or less. 

 

But holy moley macaroley, Rodney, I totally admire the way you've arranged your decks and books! And I didn't know you were knocking so closely on Gregory's door with the total count... And actually I'm more in awe of your book collection than that of your decks! 

💜💜💜 Yeah, given expenses vs income, I doubt that @gregory has anything to worry about from me as far as having more decks than she does! 😉🤣

 

I've seen people exclaim about how they've digitized their libraries so they can now carry the whole thing on their device. Yeah, no! I need a physical book in my hand cause I might have 3-4 different sections held open with fingers and flipping back and forth between them to make connections that the author didn't make.  OR I might have 2 or more books open doing the same thing! Not so easy with electronic books...

[Rodney]

6 minutes ago, Misterei said:

Sheesh. Didn't she know the Tarots and Oracles go WITH the crystals? She calls herself an organizer? Hrmph!

🤣 🤣 🤣 RIGHT?!?!?!?! She obviously didn't know her head from an orifice MUCH lower on her body! 😜🤣

[Morwenna]

Rodney, I'm totally on your side about actual physical books! (I read several at a time myself; hubby could never understand it...) 

 

You guys are making me want to go organize all my decks in their containers! But there's so much garbaggio in the way I can't get at half of them right now... 

[Rodney]

1 hour ago, Morwenna said:

Rodney, I'm totally on your side about actual physical books! (I read several at a time myself; hubby could never understand it...)

Birds of a feather flock together! 💜

 

1 hour ago, Morwenna said:

You guys are making me want to go organize all my decks in their containers! But there's so much garbaggio in the way I can't get at half of them right now... 

ONE thing this process allowed me to do was arrange things alphabetically moreso than group things by size/shape regardless of alphabetical arrangement. (And in some cases size/shape took precedence, but I was usually able to arrange alphabetically too!)

 

AND I'll extend the same offer to you that I've extended to others - have organizational skills, will travel! 😉

[Misterei]

 

12 hours ago, Rodney said:

I've seen people exclaim about how they've digitized their libraries so they can now carry the whole thing on their device. Yeah, no! I need a physical book in my hand cause I might have 3-4 different sections held open with fingers and flipping back and forth between them to make connections that the author didn't make.  OR I might have 2 or more books open doing the same thing! Not so easy with electronic books...

I found I do ok with Kindle books b/c I use the h3ll out of the highlight feature and use different color highlighters for different topics. But cards? I will never switch to digital cards. I never went fot the "they're just cardboard and ink" viewpoint. My physical decks and the act of physically shuffling them is a thing.

10 hours ago, Rodney said:

ONE thing this process allowed me to do was arrange things alphabetically moreso than group things by size/shape regardless of alphabetical arrangement. (And in some cases size/shape took precedence, but I was usually able to arrange alphabetically too!)

My collection is much smaller than you and @gregory but I organize my cards by families. All the Tarocchi together. All the RWS & clones together. All the playing-card hybrids together, and so on. It's interesting that libraries organize fiction by author last name but they organize non-fiction by topic, then author name. Different organizational needs for different circumstances. I have all my astrology books on one shelf and all the tarot books on another. Tarot books w/ the cards and astrology books near my office were I do charts on the large computer.

Edited October 31, 2024 by Misterei

[gregory]

Mine are basically ordered by date of acquisition with the proviso that ones in big boxes are on shelves instead of drawers, and the Japanese/Taiwanese/Chinese decks are all together because it ALWAYS takes me ages to find the one I am looking for ! (also for some reason their boxes tend to be the exact same height !)

 

I cannot STAND reading books on kindles or whatever. When I have no option - as in OOP only available in the university library to which I have access - I bite my lip and suffer, but from choice - never. And storing my cards on a device ? No Way. Though of course it would make the game (see my sig and join us) much easier !