Hello Caspar

If only it were that easy. You see Tarot cards are printed on large sheets with a full set on each sheet. The sheets are then cut into individual cards then packed in their boxes. The manufacturers will not split the sets as people generally only want a certain few Tarot as individual cards (Death, Devil etc). This would mean that they had a surplus of 70 or so Tarot from each deck that they could not sell.

To supply individual Tarot they would need to print sheets of the SAME Tarot and to do this they would have to redesign their production process. This would be VERY expensive.

Compared to the production of regular playing cards the sales of Tarot are very small. The sales of individual Tarot for magicians would be only a small fraction of the Tarot market. For a manufacturer to change to print single Tarot cards they would require an order of thousands of sheets of the same card. At 78 cards per sheet for 5000 sheets that works out at a minimum order of 390,000 of just One Tarot card!

As the single Tarot cards would have to match existing Tarot decks (in most cases) then the single Tarot need to be from the same Tarot as existing stock Tarot. So if a dealer wished to have a range of single Tarot cards for even just the three most popular decks then that would mean ordering 1,170,000 single Tarot cards! I know because I have asked. The 'Bizarre Magic' market is a small niche market remember.

The alternative is buying a large number of Tarot decks and taking out the single Tarot from each deck. This then leaves an incomplete deck. In my case when I split decks to make up effects I am able to use some of the other Tarot to make up other effects, but I am still left with a number of unused and unwanted Tarot cards.

The single Tarot cards that I do have are minor arcana Tarot. Anyone would be very welcome to buy some of those off me. Of course as I said before the single Tarot required are usually the most 'famous' ones from the Major Arcana.

So what would I charge for a single Tarot card if I was able to supply one?. Postage and packaging, for example to the USA would be the same cost as sending a letter by airmail plus the cost of the envelope and printing the invoice. Then I have to add on administration and handling time. So we are looking in the region of about £2-£3 per tarot ($3.5 - $5.5).

I have recently made up some Tarot force decks. To do this I take 22 Tarot decks and split them up and make 22 Major Arcana two way force decks and the rest I make up into Minor Arcana force decks. Well you can guess which force Tarot sells first. There are about 10 most popular force decks and then the rest take a while to sell. I will not see a profit on the decks for a while until I have sold enough to cover the costs.

So, I would just love to be able to sell individual Major Arcana Tarot cards, but as I said at the start 'IF ONLY IT WERE THAT EASY'.

Regards

Black Hart

Ah, the painful reality. Thank you for your help Black Hart and everyone else!

Gives me some food for thought and some things to try.

Thank you for all your help Magi!

I made my own for the trick Gypsy’s Curse. I print the faces on 110 Ivory card stock. The back is printed on regular ivory colored paper. The 2 are stuck together with 3m adhesive spray. To finish them I use 1 coat of shellac spray followed by 2 coats of polyurethane wood varnish spray. When dry I sand them smooth with 600 grit followed by a coat of Teflon car wax and then fanning powder. The finish looks better than real purchased cards because they look old but still handle well. It’s a lot of time-consuming work but worth it. The Gypsy’s Curse requires old looking cards, and the ones you get with the trick look cheesy because of the shiny plastic laminate (and they fell apart too).

Thanks Bloody Jack!

You are indeed an artist! We'll play with that one!

Bloody Jack has provided a plausible recipe for a finish to apply to glued paper to get the "playing card" feel, for which I thank him heartily. I will run along shortly and try it for a non-tarot effect I have been developing where I need a supply of pairs of custom cards.

What I need now is a source of the die to cut the cards from the glued-up sheets... anyone have an idea what it costs to have a custom die made?

Oddly, ifyou get a look at the Leathercrafter magazine, there is a fellow in Arizona who will make up nice sharp clicker dies—you either use a mallet on a urethane cutting surface, or a pneumatic/hydraulic press to cut things out with them, as it is a fairly simple shape, and not too big. I would guess, and it is only a guess, that it should not be but about 5-$ or so, but I have not gotten anything from them for a while, so do check and see.

You might be able to get a local machine shop to bend, weld and sharpen one up for you. Just tell them is it a gasket cutter. They will know what to do. Give them the exact shape /size pattern you need, and tell them if you will be whamming by hand or by die press.

I have just acquired about 100 Egyptian theme decks, and will have some singles from the minor arcana available. These are full sized tarot cards, new and have not been aged—that you will either have to do yourself, or pay for the use the bunch of stuff I have to make things look and smell old.

PM me—prices will be at domestic US $3 + postage a card.

Slap me for typing late last night, I meant to say the clicker die would likely be about 50$, not 5!

Regarding the Gypsy Curse cards...I bought my set from Kevin Kelly, a friend of Don England. One of the best investments I ever made. I don't remember his contact info, sorry.

Rick

I've done the same thing (making my own Gypsy's Curse cards) but slightly differently. I could never keep the glue from making lumps, so I used Avery brand 3x5 self adhesive mailing labels (model 5450 for anyone interested) I'm currently making a new set for R Paul Wilson's "Gypsy Monte" (yes I own the trick, I just don't like the cards provided)

They were too flimsy on their own, so I stuck the labels on the front and back of a manila file folder and then trimmed the folder stock, using the label edges as a guide. I then applied a spray "clear coat" similar to what bloodyjack used, but didn't go so far as to sand or wax the cards. The spray soaked in to the laser printer toner leaving an "engraved" feel to the printing, and the spray also cause the label to become slightly translucent, giving it a nice ivory color thanks to the manila card stock.

If you don't need a full deck, or have to exactly match existing cards, making your own cards is an enjoyable and rewarding pastime.

Funny you should mention Gypsy’s Monty I have never felt more ripped of than with that trick. The premise is stolen from one trick (Gypsy’s curse) The trick itself from another (Color Monty) and I know this was discussed earlier in this post but the cards are cheesy color photo copies of US playing card copyrighted cards. They even still have the copyright on the copies I felt very cheated.