Unboxings and First Impressions

[Raggydoll]

20 minutes ago, akiva said:

Omg @Raggydoll that deck is so adorable! It's sat in my basket and my fingers hovering over the checkout button 🤣

🤣 Well if you think that you’d seriously want to read with this deck, then I’d go for it. I don’t think they have many decks left since these are the spare decks from the Kickstarter. But if it’s FOMO or if you believe it will be a novelty deck, then maybe it’s not worth the money. I had been expecting a rather long delivery time and extra custom charges but it arrived in 14 days and no custom fees at all 🥳 So relieved for that! 
 

If you want to, we can play with this deck in the group later and I can pull some cards for you, so you can get a feel for the deck! That way I can also find out how well it reads for others 😊

 

[akiva]

15 minutes ago, Raggydoll said:

If you want to, we can play with this deck in the group later and I can pull some cards for you, so you can get a feel for the deck! That way I can also find out how well it reads for others 😊

Sounds like a plan! It's time I sunk my teeth into more modern decks, but seeing it in action like that will be very helpful in deciding, thank you! 😁

[Raggydoll]

4 minutes ago, akiva said:

Sounds like a plan! It's time I sunk my teeth into more modern decks, but seeing it in action like that will be very helpful in deciding, thank you! 😁

Good! I actually just did a one card reading on a situation that happened recently and I am very surprised at the answer. I’ll show you.. elsewhere 😊

[DanielJUK]

My Minchiate from the kickstarter arrived over the weekend. The Amparo Aguirre one.  It's so beautiful I love it ❤️ 

BTW top tip - the box is very full of thick cards. Becareful when opening for the first time. I have ruined brand new boxes in the past. Now wiser, I carefully used a blunt dinner knife under the top flap to ease it open 🔪

 

Now I have to learn the system 🙂 🥰

 

I love colourful decks so much 🎨

 

 

 

[Raggydoll]

5 minutes ago, DanielJUK said:

My Minchiate from the kickstarter arrived over the weekend. The Amparo Aguirre one.  It's so beautiful I love it ❤️ 

BTW top tip - the box is very full of thick cards. Becareful when opening for the first time. I have ruined brand new boxes in the past. Now wiser, I carefully used a blunt dinner knife under the top flap to ease it open 🔪

 

Now I have to learn the system 🙂 🥰

 

I love colourful decks so much 🎨

 

 

 

It looks amazing! I love those bright colors! 

[Rose Lalonde]

On 10/7/2024 at 9:12 AM, DanielJUK said:

My Minchiate from the kickstarter arrived over the weekend. The Amparo Aguirre one.  It's so beautiful I love it ❤️

That's beautiful. 🤩

[DanielJUK]

In recent days, my Kickstarter "The Magic Pantry Tarot" by Cedar McCloud arrived.

 

I am really obsessed by it currently, I pledged to it because I really wanted a tarot deck that was different to everything else I owned and this is entirely food themed!

It's vegetarian but has vegan options (see The Fool versions in the pictures below). There is an included spread of a meal (proteins, starches, etc) and one of a set formal table! The guidebook and box have a kitsch chequered table cloth design.

It's carefully created to not be triggering or offensive to anyone.

 

This is the unique deck structure.....

 

Major Arcana - Proteins, drinks, condiments, tools, and others

Cups - Fruit

Swords - Vegetables

Wands - Seasoning (herbs and spices)

Pentacles - Starches

 

This is going to be really fun to read from!

 

[DanielJUK]

I've moved my deck unboxing post here (post above) as I originally posted it in the What is the Postman bringing thread? and it fits better here.

[bookshop]

On 11/25/2022 at 12:54 AM, Raggydoll said:

After buying this deck, I learned some things about Dame Darcy and how she creates art. Her very first deck, the mermaid tarot, ended up being quite controversial. Many forum threads were addressing this topic, but basically, people realized that her artwork was very (VERY) reminiscent of another mermaid tarot deck, plus there were other images that seemed to be copied from glossy magazines. I will direct you to some of the sources if this interests you: https://benebellwen.com/2016/03/25/update-addendum-to-my-dame-darcys-mermaid-tarot-deck-review/  https://www.tarotforum.net/threads/recycled-art-in-dame-darcy-deck.253824/

 

 

Wow, I am so late to this news. I am sort of shook at this! I bought the revised Dame Darcy deck in 2019 (where she changed several of the cards in apparent response to this controversy) and never heard a word about this before now. I'm so surprised that I missed it. I absolutely love and adore this deck, it's been my favorite of all my decks to read with for years. I also hate plagiarism. Argh. I don't know how to feel!!

[Therese]

When I remember correctly what I read, then she copied from a Lo Scarabeo deck and someone from Lo Scarabeo said that they had no issues with being copied by DD. I believe one argument has been that she hasn't a big edition in comparison to Lo Scarabeo. I don't want to claim something wrong and maybe this opinion could have been changed and I didn't read that but that's what I honestly remember. 

[Raggydoll]

20 minutes ago, Therese said:

When I remember correctly what I read, then she copied from a Lo Scarabeo deck and someone from Lo Scarabeo said that they had no issues with being copied by DD. I believe one argument has been that she hasn't a big edition in comparison to Lo Scarabeo. I don't want to claim something wrong and maybe this opinion could have been changed and I didn't read that but that's what I honestly remember. 

Yes, I also remember Lo Scarabeo saying that. I interpreted it as if they didn’t think she was harming their sales with her deck. Aside from that she also copied photos from glossy magazines, and she never gave them credit (and I doubt she had sought permission to copy them). However, it is not the deck buyers fault that the creator did what she did. So I don’t think anyone should feel bad for owning that deck. Me personally, I fell out of love with it and sold it. 

[Therese]

17 hours ago, Raggydoll said:

Yes, I also remember Lo Scarabeo saying that. I interpreted it as if they didn’t think she was harming their sales with her deck. Aside from that she also copied photos from glossy magazines, and she never gave them credit (and I doubt she had sought permission to copy them). However, it is not the deck buyers fault that the creator did what she did. So I don’t think anyone should feel bad for owning that deck. Me personally, I fell out of love with it and sold it. 

Ah, thanks, good to know you remember the same! I'm the same regarding intellectual theft, can't (and don't want to) handle it. Yes, it's not the buyers fault and if they have a bond with their deck, I would (like you) not suggest to feel bad. I would rather see it as their own special bond unaffected by the actions of the creator. That's why I wrote my memory. But I can absolutely relate how you felt and reacted!

[Rose Lalonde]

Today I received the 2023 'Love & Peace’ edition (for the deck's 22nd anniversary) of Roots of Asia Tarot. It’s one of my favorite decks. 

 

 

 

(The gold border on these cards isn't gilding - it just looks like it, slightly darker at the corners.)

 

Comparing with the original deck, there are some differences. Border color, obviously. The newer edition is smaller. The back has no border around the art. The font is simpler. The lwb is very short, without the card descriptions of the original, likely because they self published.

 

 

Card stock is good; it's more matte than the AG Muller (which is also good stock), and slightly thicker. It doesn't feel much thicker when you hold an individual card, but you can see the difference in stack height. 

 

Edited September 5 by Rose Lalonde

[Rose Lalonde]

I'm back with more unboxing since I was given 2 Japanese decks based on Pamela Coleman Smith's art in "The Golden Oracle" and "The Lenormand Deck".  LWB are in Japanese.

 

I trimmed the keywords off the oracle before I thought to take a picture. (Titles were either unnecessary, like 'The Raven of the Key' for a picture of ... a raven with a key. Or misleading, like 'The Ancient Tree of Runes' on a card without runes.) Regardless, I do like it post-trim. It's about 10 cm x 7 1/2 cm now.

 

The Lenormand is easy to quickly identify and is the usual size.

 

I don't know if someone recently drew some of these in a similar style inspired by her, or if this is all from parts of PCS's art?? One of the oracle cards has her signature on it, but most don’t. 

 

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 08:52 AM by Rose Lalonde

[FindYourSovereignty]

Very interesting to see her art on a deck other than RWS. Thank you for sharing these.

[jupiter]

I have an "ugh" today. 😞 The Fairytale Tarot by Giulia F. Massaglia (Lo Scarabeo) arrived. After finding it in my local shop for 58€ and on Amazon (sold by Amazon) for 28€, I had ordered it from Amazon (.de). It was shipped to my address here in Finland.

The box was thrown into the package alongside a bunch of other things I had ordered, and either during shipping or maybe already before it got a bit scuffed up on the edges. It was sealed with two transparent stickers. I opened it and looked straight at the Fool card... which has what I'd have to describe as scuff marks on it. Behind it - the Chariot. Behind that, the 2 of Wands. The deck has been mixed up, and looking at the scuff marks on some cards I'd say it was shuffled.

I then opened the LWB, and guess what... someone underlined keywords for each card with pencil. 😐

The cards are so beautiful, but idk what to do. Returning is a hassle and I already hate myself for even ordering from Amazon, I guess I got what I asked for.

Going to count if there are any cards missing...

edit, no cards missing but quite a few of them have marks from (frequent?) use. I contacted Amazon and they're sending a replacement, but I need to return this one. I feel bad for what I've done to the environment and that I continue support this absolute garbage company. I only order from there when I can't find stuff locally - or when the price is 2x or higher.

Edited 1 hour ago by jupiter
added more text