What's the most disappointing deck you ever bought?

[Guest Night Shade]

Hi, everyone

 

What's the most disappointing deck that you ever bought?  Mine is Tarot of the Old path.  The majors are pretty, but the Minors are "meh"; I was disappointed in their lack of background imagery.

[HOLMES]

the faery wicca tarot..

 

I loved the images I saw on atf,, I ordered it,, and when I got it, I didnt' understand anything of it.. we looked at each other like we were natural enemies right off the bat.

(if there was a book that told me about it perhaps I would understand it better )..

 

plus the matter of extra cards which at the time I didnt' like..

[ilweran]

Gendron. Did nothing for me at all and I got rid of it.

[Penthasilia]

Tarot of the Sidhe.

 

What made it the most disappointing was that I LOVE the artwork, and really wanted to be able to use it. But the card stock was so horrible I ended up having to give it away as I could not force myself to shuffle it.

 

Even bought it a second time to see if I could do it after trimming, powdering and beating the heck out of it to try and soften it- but nope.

 

I still cry a little over that one.

[Page of Ghosts]

Two decks I got early in my tarot journey were really disappointing:

 

- Llewellyn Classic Tarot. Not really my kind of artstyle, the colours are too bright and I think the people in this deck suffer from same-face syndrome. Usually I see same-face as a common complaint with manga and anime art styles, so it was really weird to see it in this deck. It doesn't really give me anything, it's just a really bland deck that doesn't excite me at all.

 

- Lupatelli Fairy Tarot by Lo Scarabeo. The Majors are fun and have some of my favourite depictions of certain cards (Death and The Hierophant are so good!) but the minors are, I believe, Victorian era or early 1900's art that has no copyright anymore and in a completely different art style. It's so weird how the two clash and despite my love for the Majors I could never work it out with this deck :(

[Jewel]

For me it was the Victoria Regina.  I live in Texas so guns and rifles are not something I am squeamish about, but for some reason all the guns just turned me off and I could not even bring myself to give the deck a chance.  Still no regrets, even though I know it has become quite collectible I am glad I got rid of it.

[Morsoth]

• Alchemy 1977 England Tarot (Fournier, 2011)

• Royo Dark Tarot - Luis Royo (Lo Scarabeo, 2012)

 

Both have cards with more-or-less random pieces of art by artists, art that weren't specifically designed for Tarot uses. They have some great art, and that,s the reason why I bought them in the first place, but some day I might just trim both decks, remove all titles and numbers, and keep them as simple prints of art instead of true Tarot cards.

[Saturn Celeste]

Beautiful Creatures

http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/beautiful-creatures-tarot/

 

And the Ceccoli Tarot

http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/ceccoli-tarot/

 

I bought them to have an assortment of decks to appeal to all people.  Sadly using these decks did not appeal to me BUT I do use these decks and so far the people I have read for love their reading so it's not like I'm going to box them up and put them away.  They were purchased to appeal to a certain type and they sure do!  A friend of mine calls them 'doll' decks.  But I've always thought the images were really cute and I like dolls.  Reading with them was disappointing for me.  But you know what is interesting is even though I don't like reading with these decks, when I do I read them I always try my hardest so perhaps my extra effort in reading them made my readings better than normal?  Oh the psychology of it all!  ::)

[Grandma]

Zerner Farber.  The cards are (allegedly) fabric tapestries.  Couldn't prove it by me, though.  The reputed exquisite detail is completely unrecognizable.  They are pretty cards, but I didn't pay through the nose for pretty - I paid for tapestry.

[Grandma]

Oh the psychology of it all!  ::)

 

This is perhaps the best all-purpose metaphor ever!  May I quote you on numerous future random occasions?

[Saturn Celeste]

Oh the psychology of it all!  ::)

 

This is perhaps the best all-purpose metaphor ever!  May I quote you on numerous future random occasions?

X-D  Of course Grandma!  ^-^

[DevonCarter]

I think I was most disappointed in Tarot Illuminati. I still have it, but it just doesn't gel with me. Also the Wooden Tarot - so beautiful, but it's pips and with the suits renamed I thought I'd never figure it out. I traded that one for a doll head that incidentally looks much like the Beautiful Creatures Tarot! My friend got a great deck she wanted, I got a doll head I wanted, and we were both happy.

[Libra 58]

Thoth! I can't see what the pictures is about and I'm not intuitiv at all! :(

[odd_soul]

The Sun and Moon Tarot http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/sun-moon/

 

It looked super cute but I was instantly disappointed when I got it and looked through it. I ended up really not liking it at all and will eventually get rid of it.

 

Another is the Prisma Visions (http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/prisma-visions-tarot/), whose art is so beautiful but I just can't read with it. Haven't decided what to do with it yet, if I want to keep it because of its art or let it go.

[sandrang123]

Ghosts and Spirits Tarot. Totally a one-note deck.

[Portia]

The Jungian Tarot. Back in the day when there was no online Tarot shopping, even before Borders and Barnes & Noble. I saw it in a US Games catalog. I was young, maybe seventeen or eighteen. I liked Carl Jung. A deck based around Jung's archetypal psychology? Yes! Sign me up.

 

But oh my...was it awful. Weird, blocky, paper-doll imagery. Uninspired minors. Yuck.

 

 

[DanielJUK]

I've always thought I should get that one day Portia[/member], I am glad of your post now :) The Psycards are Jungian and based on archetypes. They are an oracle and they are excellent! I really recommend them :)

 

I have had two disappointments so far  :'(

 

The Gypsy Palace Tarot   was crowd sourced online and had a lot of discussion with the creator Nora on AT at the time. It was a lovely deck from Nora, an artist from Hungary. When people got the deck, it had the most beautiful art but it's completely unreadable for divination! It's my only deck where I can look at an image and not get any message from it. Everyone who bought it had this and it got a bit negative at the time on threads. Nora offered to make a book explaining her cards and meanings. Someone found out the cards might have been an art project for her exams and she later turned those images into tarot cards, so they were not designed for each card originally. I find it disappointing because the art is so beautiful, I would mount them on my wall but it's unreadable for me for divination. I think only Nora's mind can understand the intention and messages of the cards. Some people really studied them and can read them, I think I remember that dear MoonGypsy[/member] managed to crack the deck but for me it remains beautiful art on unreadable cards.

Tarot Pink   was a deck made by people in the tarot publishing industry to raise money for Cancer charities. They got some of the best artists and writers out there to each make one card, some two! There was a beautiful Ciro Marchetti Magician and cards from Ash Goh and the first ever published card artwork from Benebell Wen. There was 65 big tarot artists and writers who covered all the cards and it seemed such a wonderful idea and the profits go to Breast Cancer Charities. It was crowd sourced and many stretch goals were added including an introduction written by Mary Greer. The deck took ages to come to us and when it came it was disappointing! Decisions were made at the end to save the spiralling costs and to have some money left over for charity and the cards were a mess! You can see the cards on the url on the name, they added a stupid silver border and about the artist ON THE CARD! The artwork which was donated by the artists was ruined by how it was displayed, it was given about 2/3 of the card to show it. So the final editorial decisions ruined it and there was such a negative feeling about it online! How could this have happened? Some involved artists as well as backers were critical! Some artists vowed to make a version 2 deck with the artwork fully borderless as each card and solve all the problems with it but personally I would never back a deck that was a collaborative effort like this for a cause. Just donate to cancer charities, it's less disappointing!

 

I have bought a lot of independent and crowd sourced decks though, to have only two I am disappointed by, shows that I am quite careful or maybe most are pretty good :)

 

[Saturn Celeste]

I've always thought I should get that one day Portia[/member], I am glad of your post now :) The Psycards are Jungian and based on archetypes.

I love the Psycards deck myself.

 

 

[NoellaRoyce]

The It's Not You, It's Me Deck: The Mary El Tarot(http://mary-el.com/. I waited impatiently as she created the cards, keeping tabs (more legwork before Kickstarter!) and was very excited when it was completed. And... I just can't love it. It's undeniably powerful and astoundingly beautiful and it doesn't talk to me at all. I still have it, but it's time to part ways, I think. I've interviewed it multiple times, tried different spreads, and I never enjoy the process.

 

The No, It's Definitely You Deck: Tarot of the Vampyres. http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/vampyres/ So beautiful and dynamic, and some cards are fantastic, but way too many are just purdy vampires being purdy. The reviews are SO good and I did my research beforehand, and I just don't see the depth as spoken of in the (impressive) book or promised by the surface traits in too many of the cards.

[Mi-Shell]

One of the ones I do not get along with is the Healing Tarot :(

Nothing healing about it in there!

I wrote a little  about it on my blog:

https://voicewithinthecards.wordpress.com/2014/01/05/almost-dead-according-to-my-new-deck/

[Lantana]

Forgive the thread necromancy, but I’ve got a few.

 

One of my first ones was the Cosmos Tarot and Oracle. This deck has grown on me and found a place in my collection since, but when I first found it I loved it SO MUCH. I’m one of the few people who actually likes collabrative decks! But when I got it and tried to read with it... woof. The system is just all over the place. At first I thought that maybe constellations don’t lend themselves well to cartomancy decks, but since then plenty of decks have been released that prove otherwise.

 

My less heartbreaking one was the Housewives Tarot. Super cheap, but I was hoping I’d like it because I heard such great things about it. I have a friend who swears on this deck and says it’d be the one she’d rescue from a fire above all others. In the end I just didn’t gel with the 50s nostalgia vibe, and decks like the Delta Enduring and Slutist have taken its place as my mundane and sassy decks respectively.

 

I was also kind of dissapointed by both the Animal Spirit oracle and the Pythia Botanica oracle when I recieved them, but they’re relatively new to me and oracles can take a while for me to warm up to. Don’t want to label them just yet. They’re definitely nice and worth the price, just cold to me.

[gregory]

Tarot Pink   was a deck made by people in the tarot publishing industry to raise money for Cancer charities. They got some of the best artists and writers out there to each make one card, some two! There was a beautiful Ciro Marchetti Magician and cards from Ash Goh and the first ever published card artwork from Benebell Wen. There was 65 big tarot artists and writers who covered all the cards and it seemed such a wonderful idea and the profits go to Breast Cancer Charities. It was crowd sourced and many stretch goals were added including an introduction written by Mary Greer. The deck took ages to come to us and when it came it was disappointing! Decisions were made at the end to save the spiralling costs and to have some money left over for charity and the cards were a mess! You can see the cards on the url on the name, they added a stupid silver border and about the artist ON THE CARD! The artwork which was donated by the artists was ruined by how it was displayed, it was given about 2/3 of the card to show it. So the final editorial decisions ruined it and there was such a negative feeling about it online! How could this have happened? Some involved artists as well as backers were critical! Some artists vowed to make a version 2 deck with the artwork fully borderless as each card and solve all the problems with it but personally I would never back a deck that was a collaborative effort like this for a cause. Just donate to cancer charities, it's less disappointing!

Oh GOD yes. That was appalling. I trimmed mine, and it is a million times better now. It is still available on gamecrafter, without the rubbish.

 

Disappointment hit me big time when I bought a deck from Le Palais du Tarot (something I shall not do again as their postage charges are criminal). It had been listed as a frightfully special handpainted Visconti, and wasn't cheap.

 

When it arrived, it was the gold-foil Lo Scarabeo one (which is lovely, sure), with the title cards missing (so no credit to them) in a black velvet bag with  a printed sheet of details. I took it up with them, but they are a No Refunds outfit, said it hadn't been listed as the deck I had expected (it had too; I do know how to read and there were pictures) and the rest.

 

[River]

The Renaissance tarot (or Secret Tarot now) that was my first one was very dissapointed to me, not because of the artwork but because of the awful and awkward translation of the titles to my language, the borders and the font, and mostly the absence of the book, which I had heard was really good and was one of the reasons I had ordered the deck. Seems like it's not available in my country.

 

I got disappointed from the Wildwood tarot too, even though it's very pretty and rich in symbolism. I wanted to love it but everytime I pick it up I feel that the symbols and the landscape are so foreign to me that I have a hard time relating to them. Also that the images are too literal and realistic to spark my intuition.

[AJ-ish/Sharyn]

Mary-el

felt like I was rummaging around in her brain/medicine cabinet/underwear drawers.

[zurgles]

I haven’t had many decks that disappointed me too in an intense way. But one of my early decks was the New Visions tarot, which I found interesting but got bad vibes from at first. I came around in the end but still ended up trading it. I think my problem was my subconscious was detecting symbols I wasn’t conscious of or understood, and it made me uncomfortable. But after a few months of study and familiarizing myself with it I could appreciate it. Also I didn’t like the slick feel of the oil painting style at first.
 

But I do have one that really disappointed me, and it’s an oracle deck. It was called the Faery Godmother’s oracle. I got it at a witchy shop and the cards have these awful dominant borders that could be charming if it was done a little differently. The art itself was cute, quirky, and charming, sometimes a bit rough (miles better than what I could’ve done though!).
 

I really didn’t like the guidebook. It felt judgemental and assuming and seemed kind of condescending towards the querant. It had some good things to say but I didn’t appreciate the attitude too much. I let the deck go in a “take a deck, leave a deck” trade the same month I bought it. Someone seemed happy to have it, so that’s nice. Idk, maybe it’d be good for a kid. 

I also didn’t like the two random modern cards at the time, though I think I could appreciate the humor now. Here’s some pics of the cards. The screenshots are from Wicked Moonlight’s flip through on youtube. 

 

Edit: Maybe I would have liked it more if I were more into oracle decks? Who knows.

Edited January 6 by zurgles