Tarot Deck Pet Peeves

[Tom]

The packaging is something I have issues too and it's not just kick starters.  I feel like I'm performing surgery to get the outer wrapping off, only to find that deck is also shrink rapped.  They aren't gold after all.  They should have pull tabs.  I can always tell at Barnes and Noble when someone's been into a deck or a boxed set.  Over wrapping won't stop that from happening I'm sure.  If they returned then they should be discounted for not being new.

 

Glitter, yuck 🤢

[gregory]

That's not quite what I mean. I mean the people who  make a lovely box - maybe there's shrink wrap at every level - I can back that,. But then that box will be wrapped in hand printed paper, carefully glued into a lovely shape, with pretty stickers. Then there will be ribbons, perhaps with stars attached, and perhaps some tissues fashioned into roses which won't come off unless you tear them away from the tissue they are attached to. Wrappings as art that you have to destroy to get in; that's what upsets me.

[Guest]

On 12/16/2023 at 6:15 PM, gregory said:

Gilded edges. Hate hate hate them. Cards stick together, gilding flakes off, and the edges are then vulnerable.

 

I once bought an aggressively mass-market deck. It was saccharine, even cloying. I guess it's for those rare moments when kind words and reassurances would be needed more than stark, unadulterated truths. 

 

Anyways, after a few years, it became shockingly OOP. Of course I was happy, who wouldn't? 

 

The day came when I felt it was time to commune with it. I opened the box, regarded the cards - and they were STUCK to each other. Never had a problem with any gilt-edged deck except for that one. The physical cards themselves were nothing special, so when I tried to prise them apart, either parts of the front near the edge will stick to the back of the card before it or vice versa, leaving some with scraped-off images and borders. It was harrowing. 

 

It only happened once to me though and I have quite a number of gilt-edged decks, so it might just be a quality control issue.