The Tarot Garden
Frequently-Asked Questions
Essential information for getting
the most out of our website!
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Contents
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Boutique FAQ
Database FAQ
Bonus Program ("Card Credits") FAQ
Search Service FAQ
Mailing List FAQ
Intellectual Property / Copyright Issues
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Boutique FAQ.
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Q:
What is the Tarot Garden Boutique?
A: The Boutique is our listing of
for-sale tarots. We strive to offer the widest and
most interesting variety of tarots available for
purchase anywhere, from popular in-print titles to
extremely rare and valuable collectors' decks.
Q:
Why is the Boutique divided up into sections? What
is the difference between the sections?
A: In order to differentiate between our
selections from a collector's perspective, we have
created five different sections within our
Boutique. The sections, and their general focus,
are as follows:
- Popular. These are typically
in-print (or only recently out-of-print)
selections, usually released and / or
distributed by major publishing houses, in the
$10 - $50 range. We do carry a wide variety of
imported titles in this section which are often
harder-to-find in the United States -- including
selections from France, Italy, Germany, and
Japan. When a particular title in the "Popular"
section is sold out, it most often -- although
not always -- can and will be reordered.
- Independent / Small Press. These are
decks in a wide variety of price ranges that
have either been self-published by the artist,
or by a very small publishing firm with limited
distribution. Many of our Small Press selections
are limited editions. We are proud to offer
these often little-known gems in one great
location for your shopping convenience!
- Gallery. Although we do offer a few
of the harder-to-find in-print titles in this
section, most of our Gallery listings represent
out-of-print or limited edition selections in
the $40 - $150 range. Often, Gallery selections
will have been relatively widely distributed in
some market (not necessarily in in North
America, however) before they went out-of-print.
A large percentage of our Gallery selections
were published outside of North America.
Although we may begin with several copies of a
title when it is first listed in our Boutique,
Gallery selections are less likely to be
re-orderable once our stock is depleted.
- 5-Star Salon. Our exclusive listings
of famous and rare tarots for collectors. Most
come from limited editions, from print runs that
are sometimes as low as 10 copies or fewer. We
occasionally offer one-of-a-kind decks in this
section. Prices range from $100 on up. Often we
only have one or two copies to offer of a 5-Star
selection. These selections are almost never
re-orderable. Our sale copy(ies) are frequently
obtained on the "secondary market," as is often
necessary with rare selections -- meaning that
they have been preowned. Others are obtained
directly from the artists themselves by special
arrangement.
- Gifts / Other. A "miscellaneous"
section listing tarot-related items, such as
books, tarot software, and tarot
accessories.
Q:
What is a "Gift Alert"?
A: When viewing selections in our
Boutique, there is an icon labeled "Gift Alert"
that can be used to send the information on that
selection to another person. If a selection is sold
out, the Gift Alert button will not be available
until the item is restocked.
When you elect to send a Gift Alert, you will be
asked for the name and e-mail of the person you
wish to contact about the deck, as well as your
name (your e-mail may be included, but is
optional). The specified recipient will receive an
e-mail informing them that this is a Tarot Garden
selection that you would like to receive. The item
title, price, shipping, and insurance costs will be
included in the e-mail, and a link for viewing the
item in the Boutique will be provided. The Tarot
Garden's e-mail is listed as the "Reply To" address
in the message, so if the recipient wishes to
purchase the item for you, they need only reply to
the message to receive payment instructions.
The information collected when you send a Gift
Alert is used only for purposes of sending the Gift
Alert, and is not used by the Tarot Garden for
promotional reasons (unless you have already
specifically provided us with permission to do so),
nor is it given to any third parties unless
required by law.
Q:
How Do I Find the Selection I want?
A: If you are looking for a specific
tarot or cartomantic deck, use our online database.
Our database is now directly connected into our new
Boutique format, so once you locate the item you're
looking for, you can see the inventory status of
the selection, and click on the link(s) provided to
view the item in the Boutique or to receive more
information.
Q:
What if I don't find the deck I'm looking for in
the Boutique?
A: If you don't find what you're
looking for... don't give up! We may have a copy in
our offline inventory, or
we may be able to special-order it. If all else
fails, try our search
service.
Q:
I found something that I want to buy -- how to I
order and pay for it?
A: At present, orders should be submitted
by e-mail. Due to the slow genesis of our server,
we have not yet been able to enable our online
shopping cart. We hope to have the shopping cart
ready soon, but in the meantime, it is usually
necessary to e-mail us at sales@tarotgarden.com
to reserve the decks you want. We accept payment by
check, money order, cash, wire/bank transfer,
MasterCard, VISA, PayPal, and BillPoint (eBay
Payments). Presently, we are also experimenting
with receiving payments via www.c2it.com. However,
even if you are paying for your purchases using an
online payment service such as PayPal, we recommend
that you send us an e-mail to verify that the
selections you want are in stock before remitting
payment. As much as we try to keep our online
inventory information up-to-date, there are times
when we experience a "rush" on a particular
selection, and our supply is suddenly depleted even
as we are receiving more requests for it.
Clicking the shopping cart icon next to any
Boutique selection currently brings up detailed
instructions for placing orders and remitting
payment.
Q:
Do you ship to locations outside of the United
States?
A: Yes. We ship to any location that can
receive mail through "normal means," but the cost
of the selected shipping method, and any requested
or required insurance, is added to the total cost
of your order. Also, you may have customs fees to
pay when your order arrives in your country.
Q:
Do you accept payments in currencies other than
U.S. dollars?
A: Yes... under limited circumstances. We
will accept checks or money orders in non-U.S.
dollars if you agree to cover the costs involved
with the conversion and deposit of those funds.
Such costs, however, may be quite steep, as we are
located in a part of the U.S. that is not exactly a
"hotbed of international finance." At present, we
are accepting cash payments in Euros without
charging any additional fees, but this policy may
change by necessity in the future.
For best results, we recommend that non-U.S.
buyers pay via credit card or one of the
"internationally-friendly" online payment services,
such as PayPal. You may be able to obtain
International money orders in U.S. dollars for fees
lower than the ones we are presently forced to
charge to cover our conversion and deposit costs.
Q:
What is your "offline inventory?"
A: The offline inventory is our
selection of in-stock titles not currently listed
in our Boutique. The reasons that these titles are
not included in the Boutique varies, but include:
item is preowned/used, the price has not yet been
determined, we only have one or two copies of the
item but it does not meet the listing criteria for
inclusion in our 5-Star
Salon... or we just haven't gotten around to
"officially" listing it yet! The list of offline
inventory items is accessible through the Tarot
Garden database. Items
marked as "offline inventory" are generally
available for immediate sale and shipping.
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Database FAQ
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Q:
What is the Tarot Garden database?
A: The Tarot Garden database is an online
searchable resource for information on tarot decks.
We are still in the process of entering
information, but when the first data entry phase is
complete, we estimate that the database will
include information on over 900 tarots and
cartomantic decks, making it the largest source of
tarot deck information on the Internet. Information
listed in the database includes: deck title,
designer(s) / author(s) / artist(s), country of
publication, publication year, publication status
number of cards, a basic description of the deck,
mention of important references that list the tarot
(such as Kaplan's Encyclopedias or Manteia),
and the Tarot Garden inventory status of the title
(Boutique, offline
inventory, special order, or unavailable). Most
entries include a button that will display a
half-dozen scanned samples from the deck.
Q:
What is the difference between the Database and the
Boutique?
A: In our new, redesigned website and
integrated data system, the difference between the
database and the Boutique is admittedly rather
vague, yet still important. The Boutique,
of course, lists the items we have for sale,
divided up into convenient categories
that should be helpful to collectors. When viewing
an item in the Boutique, you will see a slightly
different set of details, including pricing and
availability information. Other than browsing the
Boutique by the predefined categories, there is no
direct way to search the Boutique for a specific
listing.
In contrast, the database is fully searchable in
a number of ways. Our new "QuickSearch" feature --
displayed near the upper-left-hand corner of almost
every Tarot Garden webpage -- allows you to quickly
access the database and seek information by title,
author, or a combination of both. Our database
predefined searches allow you to easily access
Tarot Garden selections by availability --
Boutique, offline inventory, special order, or
in-stock. This provides you with more information
about which titles are actually available through
the Tarot Garden than is apparent from simply
browsing the Boutique. And our advanced search
feature lets you search our entire database --
including titles that are not currently available
through the Tarot Garden -- in a number of
different ways, including country of publication
and "category / theme."
If you find a deck that you're seeking through
our database, there will be a link from the
database listing to the Boutique listing if the
deck is available through the Tarot Garden
Boutique. You can use this link to call up the
title and review the pricing and availability
information, to send a Gift
Alert, or access our ordering
and payment instructions.
Q:
How do I search the database for decks of
interest?
A: There are three general methods for
searching the Tarot Garden database:
- QuickSearch. This feature is now
available on almost every Tarot Garden webpage.
The QuickSearch feature, found in the upper
left-hand corner of most pages (including this
one), allows you to enter pieces of deck titles,
or designer/author/illustrator names, or both,
in order to carry out a search for a specific
selection. You can use the buttons provided to
specify that all of the words should be included
in the sought-after selections ("Find all these
words"), or that any one of the words you enter
should generate a match ("Find any of these
words").
- Predefined Searches. The predefined
searches are quick-and-easy ways to view our
listing of decks by their Tarot Garden
availability status. The "Boutique"
search lists all items shown in our Boutique,
but without dividing them into sections.
The "Offline Inventory"
search lists all items that are in stock, but
not shown in our Boutique. The "Special Order"
search lists all items that are not in-stock but
are believed to be available by special order.
And the "In Stock" search searches both the
Boutique and Offline Inventory to display all
selections available for immediate purchase and
shipment (note that out-of-stock Boutique
selections are eliminated from the "In Stock"
search). To access the predefined searches,
simply click "Database" on the navigation bar at
the top of any Tarot Garden webpage, and then
select the predefined search you want from the
navigation sub-bar that appears below.
- Advanced Searches. These can be both
more specific and more general than the
QuickSearch. For example, you can more
specifically indicate whether your search terms
should be compared against the deck title or
designer/author/illustrator information. (The
QuickSearch automatically compares your search
terms against both of these items of
information.) Alternatively, you may search by
other criteria of interest, such as the deck's
country of publication or its "category/theme."
To access the advanced search screen, simply
click "Database" on the navigation bar at the
top of any Tarot Garden webpage, and then select
"Advanced Search" from the navigation sub-bar
that appears below.
Q:
How can I link to a specific listing in your
database?
A: We welcome direct links to our
database, as long as they conform to the format
described here. It is possible to isolate our
database listings by title or country of
publication. The general link format is as follows:
http://www.tarotgarden.com/database/dbsearchengine.php?view_title=title+or+keyword
http://www.tarotgarden.com/database/dbsearchengine.php?view_country=country
You can narrow the results returned by the link
by including both criteria by using an ampersand
(&) between the two parameters, as follows:
http://www.tarotgarden.com/database/dbsearchengine.php?view_title=title&view_country=country
For multi-word searches on title, use plus (+)
signs between the words. For example, to link to
the "Tarot of the Cat People," you could use either
of the following URLs:
http://www.tarotgarden.com/database/dbsearchengine.php?view_title=tarot+of+the+cat+people
http://www.tarotgarden.com/database/dbsearchengine.php?view_title=cat+people
Because there are no other tarots in our
database with the words "Cat People" in the title,
the second, shorter link would work as well as the
first. Using only the word "Cat," however, would
bring up a longer list of entries, as there are
several tarots that include "Cat" as a title word.
Conversely, for country searches, the country
name must be entered without spaces. For
titles published in the United States, use "U.S.A."
(with periods, but no spaces) for the country
criteria. For example, to link to a listing of
titles published in New Zealand, the URL would be:
http://www.tarotgarden.com/database/dbsearchengine.php?view_country=newzealand
Note: title and country link terms are
not case senstive.
Q:
I tried linking directly to an entry in your
database, but the link returned more than one
title. Why?
A: There are four reasons why a database
link may return more than one entry:
- The title criteria is too general.
The information provided after the "view_title="
portion of the database URL should include
enough words to isolate the desired selection
from other decks that may include the same word.
For example, simply typing "celtic" after the
"view_title=" parameter would return a rather
long list of databse entries, as there are a
large number of decks and sets that employ the
word "Celtic" in their titles. In such a case,
it would be essential to include more title
words (connected by the + symbol); for example,
"celtic+wisdom" or "celtic+dragon".
- The criteria is embedded inside the title
of another listing. Links using very short
title criteria are particularly prone to this
problem. For example, using only the word "ring"
after the "view_title=" parameter would not only
list the "Fairy Ring" and "Lord of the
Rings" tarots, but also the
"Caring Psychic Family" and
"Gringonneur (redrawn)" tarots. To
correct this problem, the recommended approach,
once again, is to use more title words (e.g.,
"fairy+ring" or "lord+of+the+rings").
- The listings may contact "keywords" that
match your title selection words. In
addition to the title itself, title searches are
carried out on "keywords" that have been
included with each listing. These keywords were
added to increase the possibility of a correct
match when executing a title search. For
example, the criteria "alice" will generate a
match with the "Wonderland Tarot," even though
the word "Alice" is not actually included in the
title of this deck. Because it is often referred
to as the "Alice in Wonderland" tarot, it was
necessary to be able to produce a match should a
searcher use this title as the criteria. The
keywords are not listed anywhere, and are not
available for viewing; if you are generating an
unexpected match, a "hidden keyword" is the most
likely cause. Once again, try making your link
more specific by including more of the title's
actual words. Sometimes even the addition of the
word "tarot" in the appropriate place will fix
the problem. Note that this problem is
particularly prevelent with decks that have both
English- and non-English titles that are
commonly known, because the title translation
(or several translations) may have been included
in the keyword list.
- There are actually two tarots with the
exact same name in the database. Although
rare, this does occasionally happen. The "Art
Nourveau" tarots are one example. In some cases,
we have attempted to make the titles
"isolatable" from one another by including the
primary creator/designer name as a keyword.
Thus, "art+nouveau+myers" could be used to
isolate the Myers "Nouveau" tarot from that of
Castelli. However, this is not yet possible in
all cases; therefore, when we have not included
a designer's name as one of the keywords, you
cannot separate listings bearing the same title
at this time.
Q:
What if I find an error or problem in the
database?
A: Our database is still relatively new,
and as such, there are inevitably problems or
inaccuracies that escape our detection during our
initial reviews of the listings. In such cases, we
welcome our site visitors to write and alert us if
something seems amiss. If you find a factual error
(wrong publication year or country, for example),
omissions (e.g., designer/illustrated/author
information not shown), or problem (broken picture
link, for example), write to us at info@tarotgarden.com
with the details, and we will do our best to make
corrections as soon as possible.
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Bonus Program FAQ
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Q:
What is the Tarot Garden bonus program?
A: The Tarot Garden bonus program will be
our way of saying "thanks for your business!" This
program, currently called "Card Credits," but
likely to change in the near future, is currently
in the beta-test phase. If you would like to become
a beta tester for this program, visit our beta
"Card Credits" page by clicking
here.
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Search Service FAQ
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Q:
What is the Tarot Garden search
service?
A: Our search service is the method by
which we attempt to assist our customers in
locating decks of interest to them that are not
already available from the Tarot Garden by other
means. Before using the search service, we
recommend that you search our database
to see if the selection you want is already listed
as being available for immediate purchase or by
special order.
Q:
Are there fees to use the search
service?
A: We do not charge a fee to undertake a
search, and if we locate the item you are seeking,
there is no obligation to buy. The search service
is run on the equivalent of a "contingency basis."
If we are able to locate the title you want,
and you agree to purchase it, the fees for our
service are then added into the final quoted sales
price.
Q:
How likely is it that you'll be able to find the
deck I want?
A: The likelihood of our succeeding in a
search depends, of course, on numerous factors --
most particularly the rarity of the deck. We
already have search service waiting lists for many
of the most popular hard-to-find and rare decks,
meaning that we may have to locate several copies
before we can offer one to you. Also, please note
that in cases where we have numerous long-standing
requests for a deck, or many requests on file that
were received at about the same time (which,
surprisingly, isn't uncommon), we reserve the right
to make the deck available via auction rather than
offering it to a particular individual on the
waiting list.
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Mailing List FAQ
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Q:
What is the Tarot Garden mailing list?
A: When you request that we add your name
to our mailing list, you will receive periodic
Tarot Garden news updates via e-mail. (At present,
our mailing list information is available via
e-mail only.) Mailing list members often receive
information not made available to the general
public via our website, including more detailed
information on Boutique selections, special Tarot
Garden offers, and great information on Tarot
Collecting!
The information that we collect when you sign up
for our mailing list is used only for purposes of
providing you with Tarot Garden e-mailings of
interest. We do not provide your information to any
third parties unless required by law.
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Intellectual Property / Copyright
Issues
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Q:
What is the copyright status of the card images
used on the Tarot Garden website?
A: The card images displayed on our
website are copyrighted to their respective
creators, artists, and publishers. The Tarot Garden
holds no copyright to any of these images, unless
otherwise noted. Subsequently, we cannot grant
usage rights for the images under any
circumstances.
The inclusion of these images on our website is
done under the terms of "fair usage" laws, solely
for informational purposes, and to promote the
creators'/publishers' own products. All card images
were scanned by us, unless otherwise noted. We have
deliberately limited the number of images provided
from each deck, to discourage reproduction of a
deck in toto through illegal means. In cases
where we have received requests from publishers or
artists to remove or otherwise not post images of
their work, we have complied voluntarily and in
full. We do not claim credit for the creation or
ownership of any of the images included in our
database, unless otherwise noted.
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Q:
Under what conditions may others use the
information and images from your website and
database?
A: Under no circumstances is
permission granted to reproduce text or images from
our website without our express written
permission. Please note that while the
copyright for the tarot designs and images belong
to the respective artists, authors, publishers,
etc., the particular scans and descriptions in our
database have been either been made by us, from
copies owned by the Tarot Garden, and in accordance
with copyright law, or have been received from and
approved for inclusion on our website by the
appropriate authorized entities. Thus, the
particular content of our website is considered to
be our Intellectual Property, and is subject to the
copyright laws pertaining thereto. We will
aggressively pursue any violations of our
Intellectual Property rights, as we have
successfully done in the past.
Please note that these restrictions pertain only
to usage of the material in contexts outside of our
own website. It is perfectly acceptable to link
directly to the website pages themselves (i.e., any
Tarot Garden webpage that includes an .html or .php
extension). Direct links to the images (i.e., files
with a .jpg or .gip extension) are not permitted,
as this is considered outside the boundaries of our
website. For information on acceptable methods for
direct-linking to listings in our database, please
refer to the section above entitled How
can I link to a specific listing in your
database?
Please consult copyright laws for additional
information, or email
us if you have any questions about acceptable
use.
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