"Decks on the back of shelves"

Just a short page about this, as we are getting a lot of emails about whether we have copies of decks that are out of stock. The answer is, probably we do, but we usually can't sell them on individually.

We like to be transparent and upfront. So basically, yes, we always put aside some standard and limited edition decks for ourselves on each print run. This is typically anything from 20-30 decks and these are taken out of the run for limited edition (LE) decks (i.e. if the LE run is 500, we will only make 475 available, and we do try to make that clear on the product listings).

In the past, we never put decks aside and ended up at times with virtually none of our own copies. It could also be frustrating selling everything and then seeing resellers make the profits when we could have done with a bit of that profit ourselves, especially given that our design process can take years and we need to keep the studio running while we are working on new projects. So our policy changed years ago and we started stashing a few for ourselves. Sometimes those are given away to friends and so the stash can gradually diminish. Eventually - and increasingly as the studio changes direction - what's left is best sold on in a whole release (as just happened), as this seems fairest.

We also tend to have quite a few "seconds" in each run. This is because we print in Europe and the printers just send us all the over-runs (they make more income this way, and it's fine by us). By the very nature of cold-stamping and the complexity of printing, there also tend to be seconds, which we sort out of the main batch of decks and put away - any flaws are usually minor but as we are so busy at shipping times these are not looked at in detail, but just put straight into storage.

The studio has limited storage space and things are often securely boxed, sealed and put on high shelves - so we honestly can't respond to the many emails we get every week asking us to see if we have anything "on the back of the shelves". It would also negate the whole point of putting decks away and be a bit unfair if we then sell them on only to people who email (plus the amount of time it would take to do this would not be feasible - and how on earth would we price them!?)

So, with thanks for your understanding, we do plan to do a rolling inventory of what is packed away and from time to time we will be selling it because are leaving tarot design once The Bohemian Cats' Theatre Tarot is finished so it makes sense to do so and not retain too much. There won't be huge amounts. We'll do it in the fairest way we can and when we have the time to make it available and let everyone know.

I hope that's useful to put everyone in the picture. BTW, we also plan to sort the really bad decks at some point (there often are some and these are either disposed of or stored separately). When we have time, we plan to fish out the best cards to add as freebies into our bags. We know people enjoy that.

Questions and comments welcome of course.

You can keep up to date with our news and work on our blog pages:
http://bababarock.com - for general studio updates.

http://bohemiancats.com - for news about our Bohemian Cats projects (including The Bohemian Cats Theatre Tarot.

http://magicbohemia.com - for articles on the myth and magic of Prague and Bohemia, particularly in relation to The Tarot of Prague and The Bohemian Gothic Tarot.