The House of Tarot Story
Posted by Administrator on 12/25/2011
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We launched House of Tarot in early 2004 with over one hundred different tarot decks, mainly from U.S. Games. What struck us at the time was that most online stores did not organize their products thematically. It was difficult for customers to select a tarot deck alphabetically. Our first innovation was to organize our tarot cards thematically, with such categories as Beginner Tarot Cards, Fantasy Tarot Cards, etc. This innovation has since been copied by others, but we are pleased to have made a positive contribution to the tarot reading community. This breakthrough in organization also helped us grow.
By 2007, we had over four hundred different tarot cards in stock. We continued to innovate by importing until then hard-to-find tarots. We not only carried the mainstream publishers such as Lo Scarabeo and Lewellyn, but also leading European publishers such as Fournier and Dal Negro. And we also made room for small publishers, from Il Meneghelo in Milan to Monolith Graphics in Cleveland. House of Tarot not only became the best known tarot cards store, but also the largest.
At the end of 2008, tragedy struck. One of the owners of the company suffered a serious illness and nearly died. The timing could not have been worse. We operated almost a dozen online stores and we already were stretched to the breaking point during the busy holiday period. We decided to consolidate House of Tarot with one of our online stores for playing cards until the future direction of our company became more clear.
In 2010, we realized that the market had changed. Like so many things in life, what started out as a challenge became an opportunity. We decided to re-launch House of Tarot in 2011 with a focus on the dark and gothic tarot cards that were becoming more popular. Our longtime partnership with Fournier, which itself was signing up leading fantasy illustrators like Anne Stokes, Luis Royo and Victoria Frances, was particularly timely. Soon we were importing the Alchemy of England Tarot and the Favole Tarot directly from the factory in Spain. As they say in the movies, the rest is history. Although others are once again imitating House of Tarot, we continue to be the leading online shop for tarot cards. And our many resellers are helping distribute a new generation of tarot cards to a wider audience. Thank you for following our journey. We hope that you will become a part of it as well.
