How have I priced the tarots I have for sale ?
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As I have decided to sell off a substantial part of my tarot collection over the next few years I would like to give some indication as to how I have priced items.

Firstly, I must take into account what I originally paid for the tarot deck. In many cases I bought these at the initial retail price, but in other cases my enthusiasm to acquire a rare item led to me paying much more than the item was worth. In the early and mid 2000s when I was buying many items on Ebay, most sellers used auctions and this, on some occasions, led me to bidding far too high. Many of my fellow collectors will have done the same. After 2010 it seems that most Ebay sellers adopted the Buy-It-Now option and this helped to somewhat reduce price inflation. Also as I was buying items before most sellers had been able to set up Paypal selling accounts, I often had to pay people using expensive Money Tranfers such as Western Union. For example, I could not have built my Russian collection without these extra costs, as at the time almost no one in Russia had Paypal accounts. So I would like to get back what I paid for the item and add a bit of profit on top. I have full records of what I originally paid for items.

Secondly, I have to take into account what the market price for an item is today. I don't want to undersell an item only to find that someone has bought it from me and immediately sold it on at a profit. So I will try and establish a price which is not too far below those copies selling on Ebay or Amazon. Of course, some of these prices are set artificially high and it is unlikely that anyone would ever pay such a price, but my years of experience in buying tarots enables me to recognise these punts at getting a high price for an item. I remember some years ago there was a dealer on Ebay who had such outrageously high prices for easily available items, but few buyers were taken in by this, and the auctions quickly ceased. So I have a general idea of what is a fair price for an item.

Thirdly, I have to take into account the rarity of an item. If only ten copies were ever sold then this does have an impact on the price. But rarity can also apply to mass-produced items where the item is so popular that many collectors really want a copy and are prepared to pay highly for it - an obvious example being the Greenwood. Also in the case of some items which were published in countries without good distribution to the USA or Europe, few copies have emerged into the hands of American or European collectors, so these do fetch a premium price. In a sense I am adding in a factor for the many hours each day I spend looking for obscure items. I remember back in 2005 that it took me about six months to find a copy of the Ixbiliah Tarot which is now relatively easy to find. I finally had to send money to a bookshop in Spain by expensive money transfer. I will not get back my money or the research time on that particular item !

I have tried to set fair prices. I have thought long and hard at finding a price. This does mean it can take a day or more to research and set up a page of say twenty five tarots for sale. In the case of items which I appear to be selling at far too high a price, this may be a reflection of the fact that I paid too much originally and I am prepared to wait some years until the price meets a buyer's budget. I expect it will take five years or more to sell most of the collection. There will, in any case, be plenty of items up for sale at reasonable prices.