Selling your own Tarot deck is a tall order. Especially if you have never been a sales person. Especially when you are unknown in the field.
It’s a huge mountain to climb and there are many places to slip and fall.
For me it has been an amazing journey, at times I have been scared, elated, amazed, overwhelmed and in tears; but as I sit here today and consider that so many of my decks have gone to all sorts of places, all over the world, I am grateful and I am pretty proud of myself! I have had to learn so much – to be humble and brave, gentle and firm but most importantly to believe in my product and myself.
Selling a tarot deck is hard, because the fundamental basis is the appeal of the 78 cards. Getting 78 traditional tarot cards onto one photo is practically impossible, believe me! And people are just not going to sit for a considerable time clicking on each page of my website to view them individually, so I have to often try to sell my deck with only snippets of the full product.
I have managed to get most of the Major Arcana only on this photo, but I will never get across the feel of them in the hand, or the vibrancy and clarity of each card. Nor show how some of the images are wonderful to use as a focus for meditation, or as interesting pictures for greeting cards or posters, which are real possibilities with some of them.
Here is a close up of The Star to illustrate how clumping them together loses the impact of the card itself……
However, I have sold many decks and I have had wonderful reviews and feedback, which has given me footholds up the mountain, and without which I’d have failed.
Like authors with their books, it is important to find the best way to exhibit and get the reviews – after all, one will only know if a story is good if you read it, or it is recommended by someone who has.
People are much more ready to buy from a trusted source, and especially if reviews are clearly available. I had a lot of success on the marvellous online Etsy shop! With Etsy, all the effort of reaching the audience is done for you by the site, clients are prompted by Etsy to give feedback and the costs are really low compared to many other major selling sources. I only recently closed my shop because I needed to focus on this website and this is ultimately where I want The Tarot House Deck to be sold. I can’t recommend Etsy.com highly enough.
Some of my sales are leads through social network sites, where you can build a following and make some good friends who will spread the word about your product for you, and these networks can really help people get to know that you are a real, down to earth, and, in time, trustworthy person.
I have also been to exhibitions which have been so exciting to do, and I loved the face to face interaction, but they really can cost a lot of money and for me, that wasn’t something I could afford to do more than a couple of times, but I wouldn’t have missed it for the world!
Of course it takes time, so if you are selling anything…… the sooner you start, and get promoting it, the sooner you’ll get the results.
I think it is time for me to acknowledge, and thank, those people that have bought my deck and those dear virtual friends that have helped me to sell my tarot deck – The Tarot House Deck – without you, I would be still be at the foot of the mountain.
Patricia x
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