November 13, 2018

Last Sunday I was considering buying an out-of-print Tarot deck on EBay. There was a choice of paying the asked-for price or making a “best offer”.

I contacted the seller to ask if the set was complete and also if the cards smelled musty or just old. The seller didn’t really answer my question, though. He only said, “The set appears to be complete and the cards are in very good condition.” I wasn’t too happy with “appears” and I didn’t feel that “very good condition” necessarily addressed the smell question, but the seller had a good reputation on EBay and I really wanted the cards.

What to do? I made an offer to the seller that was just over half the price he wanted. I was prepared to pay that, but I wasn’t sure what to do if the seller made me a counter-offer.

I decided to ask my Noblet Tarot (reconstructed by Jean-Claude Flornoy), using the “Do and Don’t spread”, with a variation I had learned from card reader and teacher Camelia Elias. The three horizontal cards describe the situation, the card at the top says what you should do, and the one at the bottom, what you should not.

I drew the five cards in the picture above. La Papesse often appears in my readings when I’m about to go buy some Tarot cards; I often get Le Jugement for meetings or communications; and Justice usually talks to me about decisions that are to be made (especially what to give and not give). So far so good, so then what should I do if the seller makes a counter-offer?

The cards couldn’t have been clearer. The bottom card (Temperance) speaks of restructuring things and negotiations. In this case, DON’T negotiate. The top card (Le Fou) was clearly saying, WALK away.

And so what happened? you ask. The seller made a counter-offer, and I declined it. I “walked away” 🙂 I did not regret my decision. After all, I had asked for advice, and the cards gave it.