The Zerner/Farber Tarot: (Tarot Kit Box Set with 78 Cards and Guide Book)

Though it is difficult to see the art, it is still beautiful and a favorite go-to deck in my collection! I appreciate the book of meanings and like the card-stock!!

I love the art and the cards rock quality but I wish the card size was slightly bigger so we could see the beautiful details. But the gilding and the purple backs are gorgeous. Great deck! Now I want to invest in more art by Amy Zerner.

One of my best art decks which ALSO has incredible card stock ina dimunitive size and the guidebook is VERY good. I'm a reader and I've been doing Tarot for years. I will find only maybe 1 in 10 guidebooks helpful and this is one of themEvery single one of these cards is a joy to look at. Feels like a little treasure

I am not being paid at all for this review, though I will say I love Amy and Monte! I have followed their work for decades now, and have NEVER been disappointed. But the way I was SUPER delighted by the size and the GOLD?! I don't know what I was expecting outside of the description, but it was like they over delivered on my expectations and I am so friggin' pleased right now. I have been needing a smaller deck for a while, so when I saw they were publishing one, I jumped on it. I didn't even check the description until later, because that's how much I love Amy's artwork.It shuffles well, it lands well. I can't get over how perfect each card is. Please get this deck!

Love the nostalgic, a bit whimsical collage designs of the cards. The cards are slightly narrowed and smaller than those of standard RWS. But they shuffle well in my opinion. The guide book is adequately informative, and a storage box with magnetic closure is always welcomed. I'd happily use it for self-reflection on relationships.The general quality of the whole package was a bit disappointing though, as seen in the photos.On arrival, the package has shrink plastic wrap allover, so I assumed the set that I received was brand new. However, the cardstock bumper inside the box was found torn when opened, as shown in the photo.The cards have a plastic sleeve for holding them in a pile. After unboxing, some of the cards were found to have creases, as shown in the other photo. There were minor color bleed around the card edges. As the cards had a plastic sleeve protecting them inside the box, I think the creases and color bleeding were from production errors rather than shipping damages.There were duplicated cards from the suite of pentacles. But the overall number of cards was right and made a complete set.I am keeping this purchase only because of the card designs and the guide book. But I have to say the whole set was poorly made indeed. I hope the publisher would improve in future production.

This has easily become one of my favorite tarot decks to use, I use it now for my daily card pulls. Not only is it a very beautiful deck to look at, it feels great in my hands. Amy Zerner's collage art always has a dreamy, ethereal vibe to it & this deck is no exception. The art is a great interpretation of the traditional RWS deck with Amy's twist on it. Monte's words pair exceptionally well with her art, & I love that there are short interpretations, long interpretations, & reversals. The size of the cards are smaller than a traditional deck, so it may not be comfortable to hold or shuffle for some people. For those with small hands like me, it's perfect! Highly recommend this deck for tarot readers of all levels.

This deck is incredibly beautiful, elegant. It is small enough to take with you and has golden gilded edges!! And it comes with a book that explains everything in clear detail. I bought one for myself and one as a gift

Everything in this set is of poor quality. Yes, the cards are slightly thicker than, for instance, “The Instant Tarot Reader” set, and slightly taller…the width is the same. “Instant…” is published by St. Martins Press; this newer version, simply called “The Zerner Farber Tarot, Guidebook and Cards Set” is published by REDfeather Publishing, although the name of the publisher is nowhere to be found on the box, either front, side, or back, or underneath. There is a redfeather symbol in yellow on the side of the box, which looks like a small “fire”, sitting atop of an “infinity” symbol (on its side) as a “log”. Other than that symbol, there is nothing…no publisher’s name. There’s a photo of an ISBN tag on the bottom with the retail (full) price, and “Printed in China” under that. Nothing on the back at all, other than photos and info about what is inside the box. The box is mat paper covered cardboard, with a magnetic closure, but no kind of coating on it to make it heavier and more resistant to wear or banging corners.Inside the box, there’s a 239 page guidebook, with a color print on the left side of the page for each card, keywords directly under the title. On the right side of the page is an upright quick read, which consists of two short paragraphs, and a “secret”, which consists of 3 lines. Then, under this, is a reversed quick read, 2 paragraphs, and a “secret” of 3 lines. There is no other card description given for those who don’t want a “quick read”….a “quick read” is all you get, whether you wanted it to be quick or not! This is the format for all cards: an upper half page for upright meaning and a lower half page (the same page as upright) for reversed, with the color print of the card, along with keywords to the left.There is a contents page with intro, as well as 12 different suggested layouts (each with a sample reading) in the back, along with a brief “about the authors” page (3 paragraphs), and an author’s printed color photo to the left of that.The book is a paperback and has a mat finish.The cards are very light cardboard paper, and are mat and easy to bend and possibly damage. The cards already had a slight bend to them, which I attempted to bend back….they have a dull yellowish gold “guilding” around the outside of the deck. The guilding is very thin and mat: so much so that I wasn’t completely sure the deck was guilded at all and had to look very carefully. The cards are slightly thicker than the previous “Instant Tarot Reader” deck that Zerner and Farber put out earlier by St. Martin’s Press, and, as mentioned, slightly taller. Yes, the backs of these cards are purple, rather than the more magenta color of the St. Martin’s set, but both decks are the same width, which makes these cards rather odd sized, imo. The cards came with a clear plastic band around the center, but like the St. Martin’s set, are only held in place by a cheap piece of raised cardboard with a hole in the center (where you drop in the cards). The cards can slip through the underside, and they definitely do not fit deep enough into the space, so are slightly taller than the cardboard holder, which means they can and do slide around inside the box. The book does sit on top of the cards, but the weight of the book is not enough to keep the cards in place….a really poor and inadequate holder for the cards.All of the materials used for this set are cheap, compared to Llewelyn card sets, which have much higher quality outside boxes and cardstock, and are much nicer and better done. There is also no ribbon inside either the card compartment or the box itself, to allow for easier lifting of the cards or the book.Truly, the overall quality of this boxed set is not good, and nowhere near as good, as the Llewelyn sets, and the price of this boxed set is still $25, which is not inexpensive.I am very disappointed with this set, overall. The color saturation of the cards is not that good either, even as compared to the prints of each card in the book, and definitely not even close to the saturation of the card prints on the outside of the box! The holder for the cards is abysmal and inadequate. There is no excuse for allowing the cards to slide around inside the box/underneath the book. The cards aren’t even made well enough to do so, nor should they ever do so.I don’t know what to do about this set, as there are currently not many options for this particular Zerner/Farber deck or sets: just a deck with a small booklet from 1999 which is ridiculously priced (cheapest at $120), and the “30th Anniversary Set”, which actually says “25th Anniversary Set” on the box from 2017 which has poor quality card stock, huge cards, and is around $25 (the best thing about this set is the velvet bag), and this one.Seriously, I wish Zerner and Farber would make a good quality deck (nice saturated colors) set from a better publisher (like Llewelyn), with a better box and holder for the cards that actually holds them. A satin ribbon and nice velvet bag would also be nice. This deck is such a beautiful deck. It deserves to be made from much better quality materials, have a good quality card holder, and be sold with a nice, color guidebook in a nicer and better protective box. I wish they would stop taking the cheapest available option(s). It really stinks, and it’s annoying as all get out to me, and I’m sure, lots of other people as well, so just “stop it!”, already!