This is the DE-ENABLE thread concerning buying and reading of tarot.

[midrena]

18 hours ago, Rupicapra said:

From looking at the Botan-deck @midrena, the Majors frustrate me a bit: about half of the cards are close-ups of beautiful women which tell me... nothing I'm afraid.

 

Yes, I agree @Rupicapra! This was one of my hesitations with the deck even before I posted here. There are some tarot decks that are beloved by a ton of people that I don't/can't get into because they look (to me) like Tarot of Models, or Instagram Influencers Tarot ... it's much worse when it's photographs (instead of artwork) too. There's a deck where I like the font/text treatment, and some of the cards are really striking, but overall I just don't see myself connecting with a deck that features fashion models in fashion poses on almost every card (the Muse Tarot). Not that there's anything wrong with models, being a model, being pretty, etc. etc. (I always feel like I have to write these disclaimers because I've seen people -- not here -- get really angry when someone else doesn't vibe with their favorite deck/creator).

 

10 hours ago, katrinka said:

 

This one isn't. It's got flowers spilling out of the windows, there's no razor wire or any indication that it's being used to keep people imprisoned. Maybe that's the point: the people have been released and it's been abandoned. But then shouldn't it look rotting and rickety? 

It really does look like what Decan called it: a gentle hut for children. Kind of like a treehouse.

 

Yeah I agree with you and @Decan, that structure looks like a safe place to me. Like those places where fire wardens or forest marshals (I can't remember the name of their positions off the top of my head) go to look out over the forest and make sure that everything's okay, that there's no fire somewhere. They stay in those types of places for a while.

 

And yes @katrinka, totally right about how art needs to communicate. If the three of us see a place that looks stable/safe/peaceful overall, but then the text says "but actually, this is something related to this horrific thing that happened" ... there's a huge disconnect.

 

---

 

I can't thank you all enough for de-enabling me on this!

 

😄 

 

 

Edited October 24, 2021 by midrena

[Wyrdkiss]

On 10/1/2021 at 7:00 AM, Raggydoll said:

The pagan otherworlds failed me too. I just couldn’t get excited about using it and the mega slippery cardstock bugged me so much. I sold mine a couple of years ago and have never regretted it. 

 

I sold my Otherworlds as well @Raggydoll, absolutely no regrets aside from a few cards that would of looked cool framed on the wall. The guidebook's mentality really turned me off.

[katrinka]

1 hour ago, Wyrdkiss said:

absolutely no regrets aside from a few cards that would of looked cool framed on the wall

 

This raises an important point: having a few great images does NOT translate to "OMG you should do a deck!"

A really well-executed image that people like can be enjoyed in a lot of ways: as art prints of various sizes, as cloth wall hangings, t-shirts, throws, blankets, sweatshirts, tote bags, stickers...it goes on and on. Put it on Zazzle and Redbubble. Have some stuff made up and put it on etsy. Everything doesn't have to be a whole deck. If all a person can come up with is a fantastic Moon card and a bunch of mediocre cards to go with it, I'd rather have that Moon on the wall than tucked away in a box anyway.

[Raggydoll]

7 hours ago, katrinka said:

 

This raises an important point: having a few great images does NOT translate to "OMG you should do a deck!"

A really well-executed image that people like can be enjoyed in a lot of ways: as art prints of various sizes, as cloth wall hangings, t-shirts, throws, blankets, sweatshirts, tote bags, stickers...it goes on and on. Put it on Zazzle and Redbubble. Have some stuff made up and put it on etsy. Everything doesn't have to be a whole deck. If all a person can come up with is a fantastic Moon card and a bunch of mediocre cards to go with it, I'd rather have that Moon on the wall than tucked away in a box anyway.

I very much agree 

[Decan]

I remember when there were (many) critics on AT regarding the Pagan's guidebook, they said the one who wrote it was an artist and actually didn't pull cards. So this explains that probably!

[Wyrdkiss]

On 7/20/2019 at 9:44 AM, HeavenlyWren said:

I need de enabling - Someone talk me out of wanting the every day enchantment tarot 😒...

 

Good luck to you all...

@HeavenlyWren I appreciate the concept behind the Every Day Enchantment quite a bit. I feel the execution is subpar, however.

 

The figures appear awkwardly drawn to me, there is something about the features and angles that just don't work. The lovers card ... jeeesh I just imagine the dog watching as the two older people begin to eat one another's faces.

Strength for example, when viewed on a YouTube video -- the girl in the wheel chair looks as if she is about to fall over to the side in my experience.

 

There are other awkward aspects of the artwork.  I like the approach of the Chariot --- a young person on a skateboard doing their thing, with a line of workers

just trudging along behind him or her.  With that said, the coloration is so bad the skateboarder looks naked to me.

 

We may not be able to talk you out of this deck, it seems you are quite enamored. If I sat down as a querent and the reader was using The Every Day Enchantment, however,  I would be distracted and immediately turned off. For what it's worth.

 

Edited January 14, 2022 by Wyrdkiss

[Wyrdkiss]

On 12/19/2021 at 3:12 AM, Decan said:

I remember when there were (many) critics on AT regarding the Pagan's guidebook, they said the one who wrote it was an artist and actually didn't pull cards. So this explains that probably!

oh my gosh, so much, yes.  

[katrinka]

1 hour ago, Wyrdkiss said:

@HeavenlyWren I appreciate the concept behind the Every Day Enchantment quite a bit. I feel the execution is subpar, however.

 

The figures appear awkwardly drawn to me, there is something about the features and angles that just don't work. The lovers card ... jeeesh I just imagine the dog watching as the two older people begin to eat one another's faces.

 

I googled it. What in the...?

 

Granny looks like she has her tongue poking out. PLEASE keep it behind closed doors, nobody wants to see that. And keep the dog out of it.
That goes for the younger people behind them, too. That girl has one guy grabbing her crotch and another one running up on her from behind to do god knows what. And what is that green banshee thing trying to do?
 

1 hour ago, Wyrdkiss said:

Strength for example, when viewed on a YouTube video -- the girl in the wheel chair looks as if she is about to fall over to the side in my experience.

 

I don't know. I couldn't find a full image. But it looks to me like she's happy not to be cast into the Inferno with those other people. Her weird dog made it, too.
Those wheels aren't going to last long if she keeps riding around on those big rocks or cow carcasses or whatever those are, though.

 

1 hour ago, Wyrdkiss said:

There are other awkward aspects of the artwork.  I like the approach of the Chariot --- a young person on a skateboard doing their thing, with a line of workers

just trudging along behind him or her.  With that said, the coloration is so bad the skateboarder looks naked to me.

 

He's wearing a thong. It's almost halfway down his thigh, though.

 

[Raggydoll]

On 1/14/2022 at 5:29 AM, katrinka said:

 

I googled it. What in the...?

 

Granny looks like she has her tongue poking out. PLEASE keep it behind closed doors, nobody wants to see that. And keep the dog out of it.
That goes for the younger people behind them, too. That girl has one guy grabbing her crotch and another one running up on her from behind to do god knows what. And what is that green banshee thing trying to do?
 

 

I don't know. I couldn't find a full image. But it looks to me like she's happy not to be cast into the Inferno with those other people. Her weird dog made it, too.
Those wheels aren't going to last long if she keeps riding around on those big rocks or cow carcasses or whatever those are, though.

 

 

He's wearing a thong. It's almost halfway down his thigh, though.

 

What would bother me is the incorrect anatomy, like the others pointed out. If you look at the hands, they all have the same issue in these pictures. She’s drawn the fingers so they start in a straight line and the thumb looks to start at the same height as the little finger. I can also tell that there are issues with how she depicts muscles and body angles.
 

I did find a card where she has done a curved hand in the adult, so maybe it’s not on every card. Though here she has put the thumb higher than the little finger on woman’s the left arm. Also, the anatomy of the child is not working in this one. 

 

In the card below the hands are overworked and looks unrealistic.
 

The coloring of all the cards looks like it took her a really long time to do and I think her style is fun and vibrant. It’s the anatomy that lets the rest of the deck down, in my opinion. 

 

[Decan]

Regarding the 2 of Blades the woman's hands look like those of a 100 years old woman while the character isn't old, it's disturbing.

The cards are overloaded with unnecessary details otherwise.

The 8 of Blades is really disturbing. I already looked this card in the past and I always had the impression that the mother is on the verge to throw her child out the window 🥶

Edited January 14, 2022 by Decan

[katrinka]

It does look like that. And the dog is howling doom, and there's that creepy wingless fairy with long claws.
And Raggy's right about all the hands in this thing. The ones on that lady look like skink feet. Maybe she'll crawl up the glass.

[Decan]

Good point indeed!
The more I look at those cards the more I find them totally inharmonious, both about composition and coloring.
Actually what I'm wondering is if the cards aren't made from collages of drawings. Look at the Chariot card above, it seems the bird and the flowers were added after, there is no real perspective, like if all the elements are on the same level, with disturbing effects here and there.

[Niobium]

On 10/23/2021 at 2:21 AM, Rupicapra said:

I am often a bit late to the party, I never bought a Bohemian Gothic, only once they were sold out I figured I might quite like one. Yesterday, I got an email in my inbox, Babastudios releasing a few more leftover decks for sale to the public - Yay/1 Or so I thought. Turned out that really, I can't afford/justify the price hike.  They wrote that basically because of the decks are being sold on eBay and else for lots of money, they reflect this on the new pricing. A 3rd edition regular as well as a 2nd edition mini are now for sale (with a slightly scuffed box mind) for GBP 148!!! That is around 203 USD and 175 Euros. Seriously???

I mean, I really don't need that much disabling here, I feel more like ranting. They also announced that they are thinking of reprinting, but because everything is slowed down these days, this might not be until 2023. 

But anyway - I'm pissed off that they upped the price so horrendously. Feel free to rant with me people, it'll make me feel a bit better 🙂 

 

I totally missed all of this back in October and *what* in the *world*, are they serious with this? Raising their prices to match people effectively scalping the decks?? How does that help them at all? Now they've made it easier for resellers to ask for even more, angered their usual patrons, *and* limited the reach of their decks.

 

This has a feeling of not having thought this decision through, at all. I certainly am not paying $200+ for one of their decks, hell the $100 and change for the last two was already my upper limit.

 

To think my favorite deck was an entire $30 in comparison. I paid a whopping $60 for Ironwing.

 

Oy. OY.

 

 

Edited January 14, 2022 by Niobium

[gregory]

2 hours ago, Niobium said:

I totally missed all of this back in October and *what* in the *world*, are they serious with this? Raising their prices to match people effectively scalping the decks?? How does that help them at all? Now they've made it easier for resellers to ask for even more, angered their usual patrons, *and* limited the reach of their decks.

 

This has a feeling of not having thought this decision through, at all. I certainly am not paying $200+ for one of their decks, hell the $100 and change for the last two was already my upper limit.

 

To think my favorite deck was an entire $30 in comparison. I paid a whopping $60 for Ironwing.

 

Oy. OY.

 

Sadly I have been saying this for a long long time. SURE - do the high end classy ones - but please also release MM versions that ordinary people can enjoy. There will ALWAYS be knockoffs, no matter what people do. I almost certainly wont' be able to afford the new BBC - much as I love the ones I have. Price is a whopping de-enabler.

 

As to Everyday Enchantment - it's the faces I can't stand. They look frozen. And not in the way photographic faces are frozen. Just sort of fake.

 

[Niobium]

6 hours ago, gregory said:

 

Sadly I have been saying this for a long long time. SURE - do the high end classy ones - but please also release MM versions that ordinary people can enjoy. There will ALWAYS be knockoffs, no matter what people do. I almost certainly wont' be able to afford the new BBC - much as I love the ones I have. Price is a whopping de-enabler.

 

Exactly. I'll always appreciate how eg. Liminal 11 consistently does super fancy classy versions, and a significantly less expensive version which is just the deck and LWB. It's entirely true that my Mystical Creatures and Fantastic Menagerie decks are exquisite...but they're not $200 exquisite. (A friend and I measure these kinds of things in terms of day to day stuff we could buy for that. $200 is a LOT of iced mochas from the fancy coffee place! Like almost 50 of them!)

 

Major de-enabler, no matter how nice the deck is. 

 

Everyday Enchantment has the same issue Fifth Spirit had for me--the people's mouths with teeth look...weird. It's an odd thing to be concerned with but I couldn't deal with either of them. And just overall the art is very 'early in the artist's career'.

[frankie]

12 hours ago, katrinka said:

But it looks to me like she's happy not to be cast into the Inferno with those other people. Her weird dog made it, too.
Those wheels aren't going to last long if she keeps riding around on those big rocks or cow carcasses or whatever those are, though.

 

Not the dog, too! 😭🤣 I've heard of this deck in passing, but I can never NOT see what everyone has pointed out. Couldn't read with this, unfortunately...

[katrinka]

1 hour ago, Niobium said:

It's entirely true that my Mystical Creatures and Fantastic Menagerie decks are exquisite...but they're not $200 exquisite. (A friend and I measure these kinds of things in terms of day to day stuff we could buy for that.

 

I have the large format Fantastic Menagerie in the wooden box. I just looked up the order, and with the preorder discount, I paid $108. Not cheap, but still about half what people are claiming:

 

Here is the soon to ship Victorian Romantic, regular size, in a wooden box. $85:

 

Rupicabra appears to be talking about some leftover Bohemian Gothic decks. Those are OOP, so the pricing is different. You'll find that one on ebay starting at over $200 and going sky high from there. What Karen was asking is actually fair market value. For a long time, they did offer leftover decks with box issues, etc. for substantially less. If they decided to ask prices similar to what such decks are going for literally everyplace else, I can't really blame them.

Edited January 14, 2022 by katrinka

[katrinka]

42 minutes ago, frankie said:

 

Not the dog, too! 😭🤣 I've heard of this deck in passing, but I can never NOT see what everyone has pointed out. Couldn't read with this, unfortunately...

 

The dogs suffer in that deck. The one on the Queen of Cups appears to have short spine syndrome. See how his scapula protrude right behind his head?

[frankie]

9 minutes ago, katrinka said:

 

The dogs suffer in that deck. The one on the Queen of Cups appears to have short spine syndrome. See how his scapula protrude right behind his head?

 

Yes 😭 now I do omg I was too distracted by the peoples' hands and teeth 😑 🤣  and the fairy? I guess that's the enchantment part... Different strokes for different folks...!

[Raggydoll]

17 minutes ago, frankie said:

 

Yes 😭 now I do omg I was too distracted by the peoples' hands and teeth 😑 🤣  and the fairy? I guess that's the enchantment part... Different strokes for different folks...!

This thread really is detrimental. Special rules apply here since we aim to displease 😆 

 

Btw. There is another thread much like this one. Proceed with caution.....  you will likely never be the same, ever again.... 🤣

 

[katrinka]

3 minutes ago, frankie said:

Yes 😭 now I do omg I was too distracted by the peoples' hands and teeth 😑 🤣  and the fairy? I guess that's the enchantment part... Different strokes for different folks...!

 

I think the fairy has done enough "enchanting." Besides the deformity, one of the dog's ears appears to be fusing into his shoulder.

And Fake Bob Marley's dreadlocks are morphing into something vaguely gynecological:

 

It's all kind of psychotic-looking. I think this deck is a shoo-in for the thread Raggy linked.

[frankie]

16 minutes ago, Raggydoll said:

This thread really is detrimental. Special rules apply here since we aim to displease 😆 

😆 It's in the thread title. I was warned! and proceeded anyways 😭😆 Compliments to everyone for doing an exceptional job!

 

18 minutes ago, Raggydoll said:

There is another thread much like this one. Proceed with caution.....  you will likely never be the same, ever again.... 🤣

😵💀 OMG. I'm afraid I may own something in that thread. 🤣 

[Niobium]

50 minutes ago, katrinka said:

Rupicabra appears to be talking about some leftover Bohemian Gothic decks. Those are OOP, so the pricing is different. You'll find that one on ebay starting at over $200 and going sky high from there. What Karen was asking is actually fair market value. For a long time, they did offer leftover decks with box issues, etc. for substantially less. If they decided to ask prices similar to what such decks are going for literally everyplace else, I can't really blame them.

 

I agree, but, they're the publishers--they decide if something is OOP. If they opted to print more, people would buy them (as evidenced by the demand on eBay etc.). Only printing a finite number and then offering copies much later at double the original sell price because that's what they're going for on eBay feels a certain kind of way to me. A bad way. Why should I buy from them if eBay is the exact same price? eBay could be cheaper since it could easily be a domestic seller so I won't need to deal with exchange rates, international shipping...

 

If the rest of the decks won't have this kind of hike in their initial sales, that's at least good news. It's a bad look, though, at least to me. Obviously they can charge what they want, but it's de-enabling for sure. (Sadly it IS enabling for me to spend that money on multiple, other decks. Double-edged sword!)

 

Edited January 14, 2022 by Niobium

[katrinka]

10 minutes ago, Niobium said:

 

I agree, but, they're the publishers--they decide if something is OOP. If they opted to print more, people would buy them (as evidenced by the demand on eBay etc.). Only printing a finite number and then offering copies much later at double the original sell price because that's what they're going for on eBay feels a certain kind of way to me. A bad way. Why should I buy from them if eBay is the exact same price?

 

I'd do it to support the creators rather than some random deck flippers.
 

10 minutes ago, Niobium said:

eBay could be cheaper since it could easily be a domestic seller so I won't need to deal with exchange rates, international shipping...

 

True. I'm in the US, so I don't have to deal with customs. An Post shipping seems to run about $10-$12 - not much more than domestic priority rates. Some of my orders have qualified for free shipping. So it's never been an issue for me, but it can be quite different elsewhere.
 

[frankie]

15 minutes ago, katrinka said:

I think the fairy has done enough "enchanting." Besides the deformity, one of the dog's ears appears to be fusing into his shoulder.

😭🤣 How many artistic injustices can one innocent dog take?!

 

16 minutes ago, katrinka said:

😳💀😆 I'm dying! So who's going to leave a review on Amazon? 🙃 😈 Oh wait. Seems like the dogs in this deck can't catch a break.