Indie Tarot decks versus mass market decks: what is the difference and why does it matter?
There are so many amazing decks available these days! Some of these are indie decks, some are mass market decks. There’s a difference, and it matters.
Here’s the key difference between INDIE Tarot decks and MASS MARKET Tarot decks
- Mass market decks: an organization with a full set of existing resources, procedures + structures brings that deck idea into reality. They have the upfront capital + resources to pay for manufacturing. So they tell you about the deck shortly before it’s available as part of their marketing plan, and then boom! They’re on shelves!
- Indie decks: an individual person dreams up and does ALLLL the work to bring an idea into a physical, manufactured, and shipped reality. Indie Tarot creators are doing everything themselves and need to raise the upfront capital to pay for the manufacturing before they can send the deck to be manufactured.
So what’s the key difference for YOU, who wants to have the Tarot deck in your possession?
Here’s why the difference matters:
For mass market decks, the decks are often already manufactured by the time you know about them. But for indie decks, the manufacturing can only happen after you’ve provided support to make the deck a possibility!
In other words, by the time you’re aware of a mass market deck (the kind you can get at a bookstore or from another retailer), they’ve already spent a year or two working on it behind the scenes to make it reality. And they’ve already spent money to manufacture it and ship it to distribution centres and retailers.
For indie decks, it’s usually just an individual person or two who has spent months or years creating the art or paying for an artist to create the art with ongoing back-and-forth revisions, plus the creator has had to cost everything out, pay for the art/materials, prepare marketing and promotion, pay for prototypes, source a printer they need to work with, figure out ALL the logistics for crowdfunding vs preorder (both have benefits and drawbacks), and promote the deck. Then, they need to wait until the crowdfunding/preorder period is done so they can pay for the printing of all the decks. They are also remaining in communication with backers/customers throughout, troubleshooting with the printer, continuing promotion, and then doing all the shipping.
Creating an indie deck is an immense undertaking!
I have many mass market decks and indie decks, and love to do multi-deck readings. If you’re curious about the gorgeous indie Tarot decks I’ve created, check out the shop over here!
And you can check out more blog posts about Tarot over here. If your career is more the thing on your mind, check out these blog posts. Love podcasts? I’m always guesting on a new podcast – you can find the growing list of episodes here.
And thank you for your support!!!