Arr! Here be pirates!

I've been building a collection of decks purchased from AliExpress. These are counterfeit decks produced by Chinese printers and sold at rock-bottom prices. Obviously, bootleg tarot decks aren't exactly a great phenomenon - sales take royalties away from deck creators (both artists and authors), and your money is going directly to China instead of to a U.S. publisher.

Of course, pretty much every tarot deck publisher today still manufactures in China, so China is still ultimately getting a cut of what you spend. Not only that, but some modern publishers have become extraordinarily woke (looking at you, U.S. Games), giving even less reason to give them your money.

I generally don't pay for bootleg stuff. I prefer the free route, which is easy when dealing with digital content. It gets difficult when you're talking about physical product, or just stuff that's really hard to find (like map updates for an aging in-car nav system). I've experimented with printing my own mini decks, and it's definitely a fun project, but then I'm limited to decks I already own.

The majority of the decks I've purchased have averaged about $3.50 per deck (including shipping), so it's about as cheap as you'll ever find for a printed product like a tarot deck.

There's another aspect to this subject that has nothing to do with the ethics of piracy.

I've now purchased about a dozen standard decks, along with two full-size decks and three decks packaged in metal tins. The standard decks are uniformly undersized, at 10.5mm x 6.2mm (about 2 3/8“ x 4 1/16”). I have very small hands, and this smaller card size is significantly easier for me to shuffle. I've actually ended up buying bootleg copies of several of my favorite decks, because these decks are so much easier to handle and shuffle. It also has the added benefit of keeping my OG decks in excellent condition.

These standard decks are slightly flimsier than the average Llewellyn deck. The small size of the cards means the printer can get away with using thinner cardstock than if they were printing full-size (2.75“ x 4.75”, or 70x120mm) cards. The biggest disadvantage to the thinner stock is that the cards will hold a curve more readily from riffle (poker) shuffling. That being said, the tuck boxes in which these decks are packaged are very tight, so this helps a bit with keeping the shape of the cards. It also makes it kind of hard to pull the deck out of the box, and there's no thumb notch for making the flap easier to pull open.

Final image quality varies wildly depending on the original source material. So far, I've been quite happy with the decks I've purchased. Unfortunately, these printers aren't particularly concerned with accuracy, so a few decks are rather imperfect. Specifically, decks that use a nonstandard card aspect ratio are altered to fit the standard undersize deck size sold by these Chinese shops. The hush is particularly bad about this, as is the Wildwood Tarotplugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigWildwood Tarot

Deck Notes

Card Gallery deck. Fortunately, the vast majority of decks use the same standard aspect ratio, so this is only occasionally a problem.

The two full-size decks I purchased (Mushroom Hunter's Tarotplugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigMushroom Hunter's Tarot

Deck Notes

Card Gallery and Trifoni Della Lunaplugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigTrifoni Della Luna

Deck Notes

Card Gallery) are printed on the same weight cardstock used with many of my Llewellyn and Lo Scarabeo decks. There's really no noticeable difference at all.

The tarot-in-a-tin decks have all been pretty amazing. I now own tinned, undersized copies of my Cat Tarotplugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigCat Tarot

Deck Notes

Card Gallery, Adventure Time Tarot (unofficial)plugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigAdventure Time Tarot (unofficial)

Deck Notes

Card Gallery, and Everyday Witch Tarotplugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigEveryday Witch Tarot

Deck Notes

Card Gallery decks. The Everyday Witch deck is imperfect - the card back is printed upside-down, and the frame at the bottom of each card displaying the card name is misaligned and cut off at the bottom edge of the card. Even with these imperfections, the overall production quality is excellent. The cardstock is quite heavy, but somehow this doesn't cause problems shuffling, and I haven't accidentally bent or creased any cards while shuffling. These decks are also gilded, with a holographic or glitter print on the card edges, which seems to be pretty well-done and sturdy. Like most gilded card decks of any kind, these decks do need to be carefully separated, card by card, before attempting to shuffle for the first time. The tins themselves are prone to suffering small dents, but that's to be expected from thin, rolled steel. They will also eventually rust, but it generally takes a decade or more for a steel tin container to start suffering serious rust.

I've ended up purchasing several bootleg decks that I probably will never buy from the original publisher, mostly because I wanted to archive the deck and was curious about the imagery. I'm very into surrealist art, but couldn't find full digital archives of either the surrealist and mmoments decks. I'm glad I didn't spend the extra money on the official copy of either, because I will not be using them for reading. I am, however, quite happy to finally get a look at both full decks.

Try to find multiple decks from a single seller or storefront. You'll save a bundle on shipping. Go by total price and estimated delivery date when choosing a seller - the product they're selling is identical to everyone else. If you end up with a bum order (one of my multi-deck orders was incorrectly fulfilled, and I ended up with a copy of the Spiritsong Tarotplugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigSpiritsong Tarot

Deck Notes

Card Gallery I didn't actually order), and you're never able to get an actual refund, it's really not the end of the world, because you're only losing a few dollars.

These sites host PDF copies of many deck books. Some PDFs are incomplete or partially corrupt.

• tarotcards.top
• tarotguide.top
• mytarot.top
• tarotdeck.top
• Carti Tarot
• Google Drive 01
• Google Drive 02
• Google Drive 03

Here's a list of the decks I've purchased from AliExpress.

1. Adventure Time Tarot (unofficial)plugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigAdventure Time Tarot (unofficial)
   
   Deck Notes
   
   Card Gallery
2. After Tarotplugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigAfter Tarot
   
   Deck Notes
   
   This deck is a new take on the standard Rider-Smith-Waite Tarot, depicting what happens before each standard card's illustrated scene. It's also the sibling of Before Tarot. All three are included here for comparison.
   
   Card Gallery
3. Anima Mundi Tarotplugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigAnima Mundi Tarot
   
   Deck Notes
   
   Card Gallery
4. Bumbleberry Hollows Tarot
5. Cat Tarotplugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigCat Tarot
   
   Deck Notes
   
   Card Gallery
6. Cat's Eye Tarot
7. Cat Tarot (D)
8. Cat Tarot (P)
9. Cats Rule the Earth Tarotplugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigCats Rule the Earth Tarot
   
   Deck Notes
   
   Card Gallery
10. Cattitude Tarot
11. Considerate Cat Tarot
12. Crystal Unicorn Tarot
13. Crystal Visions Tarot
14. Day Dream Tarot
15. Dreaming Cat Tarot
16. Dreaming Way Tarot
17. Dreamkeepers Tarotplugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigDreamkeepers Tarot
    
    Deck Notes
    
    Card Gallery
18. Everyday Witch Tarotplugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigEveryday Witch Tarot
    
    Deck Notes
    
    Card Gallery
19. Fairy Lights Tarot
20. Forest of Enchantment Tarotplugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigForest of Enchantment Tarot
    
    Deck Notes
    
    Card Gallery
21. Green Glyphs Tarot
22. Green Witch Tarotplugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigGreen Witch Tarot
    
    Deck Notes
    
    Card Gallery
23. Harry Potter Tarot
24. Haunted Cat Tarot
25. Heartscape Tarot
26. Hush Tarot
27. John Bauer Tarot
28. Kawaii Tarotplugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigKawaii Tarot
    
    Deck Notes
    
    Card Gallery
29. Kawaii Tarot (L)
30. Kitten Tarot
31. Luna's Cinnamoroll Tarot
32. Marshmallow Marseilles Tarot
33. Midnight Magic Tarotplugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigMidnight Magic Tarot
    
    Deck Notes
    
    Midnight Magic Tarot
34. Mini Mice Tarot
35. Monsoon Tarot
36. Mushroom Hunter's Tarotplugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigMushroom Hunter's Tarot
    
    Deck Notes
    
    Card Gallery
37. Nicoletta Ceccoli Tarotplugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigNicoletta Ceccoli Tarot
    
    Deck Notes
    
    Card Gallery
38. Nishikigoi Tarot
39. Oak, Ash & Thorn Tarot
40. Ostara Tarot
41. Pacific Northwest Tarot
42. Pagan Otherworlds Tarotplugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigPagan Otherworlds Tarot
    
    Deck Notes
    
    Card Gallery
43. Pagan Tarot
44. Plastic Oracle (Mean Girls Tarot)
45. Puppy Tarot
46. Reigning Rouge Tarot
47. Runic Tarotplugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigRunic Tarot
    
    Deck Notes
    
    Card Gallery
48. RWS Wide Angle Tarot
49. Sambucus Tarot
50. Shadowscapes Tarotplugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigShadowscapes Tarot
    
    Deck Notes
    
    Shadowscapes Tarot
51. Somnia Tarot
52. Solar Kingdom Tarot
53. Spacious Tarot
54. Spiritsong Tarotplugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigSpiritsong Tarot
    
    Deck Notes
    
    Card Gallery
55. Stella's Tarot
56. Stray Cat Tarot
57. Surrealist Tarot
58. Tarot de Carlotydes
59. Tarot Familiars
60. Tarot of Forbidden Dreams
61. Tarot of Mystical Moments
62. Tarot of the Old Pathplugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigTarot of the Old Path
    
    Deck Notes
    
    Card Gallery
63. Tarot of the Witch's Garden
64. Tempest Tarot
65. Trifoni Della Lunaplugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigTrifoni Della Luna
    
    Deck Notes
    
    Card Gallery
66. Trifoni Della Luna Full Spectrum
67. Tyldwick Tarot
68. Universal Celtic Tarotplugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigUniversal Celtic Tarot
    
    Deck Notes
    
    Card Gallery
69. Victorian Fairy Tarot
70. White Sage Tarotplugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigWhite Sage Tarot
    
    Deck Notes
    
    Card Gallery
71. Wildwood Tarotplugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigWildwood Tarot
    
    Deck Notes
    
    Card Gallery

Other oracle decks:

1. Affirmations of the Fairy Cats
2. Crystals Oracle
3. Druid Plant Oracle
4. Fairy Tale Lenormand
5. Mildred's Secret Pocket Oracle
6. Mushroom Spirit Oracle
7. Tree Keepers Oracle
8. White Light Oracle
9. Woodland Wardens Oracle
10. Zammer Twins Oracle