The Alleyman Phenomena

[Joan Marie]

I do not know how many of you are familiar with the recent phenomena of Alleyman's Tarot.

This is a 137-card deck (!) comprised entirely of cards from other decks, 137 other decks. (!)
It is being printed, remarkably, with even the individual card-backs in tact.

So it really looks like something you might have purchased in an alley.

But that is not even the phenomenal part.

This deck recently finished it's kickstarter as the most funded Tarot deck in Kickstarter history and the most backed (by FAR) with nearly 20,00 backers.

The deck raised $1.4 million dollars on Kickstarter, and since it has been in pre-sales, it is close to reaching $2 million in sales.

The person doing it is really lovely and amazing, and has been very generous with everyone who contributed a card.
I am one of those lucky people, having been asked to contribute my 7 of Wands from Cult of Weimar Tarot.
(I, and many others, actually contributed a card for free because I thought the project looked fun, declining the small token they were offering if the deck was a success, But then when it became so wildly off-the-hook successful, they insisted everyone accept payment. )

The inimitable Valeska Gert as the 7 of Wands, Cult of Weimar Tarot

Because they raised such massive amount of cash, they are able to offer the deck at a very reasonable $35.00 (plus shipping) BUT this is a pre-order price and it is my understanding the deck will not be available after. It is a limited edition, limited to a single print run. (A massive print run, but nonetheless, only one)

This offer ends June 13th so if you'd like in, now's the time.

here is the link to pre-order
https://the-alleymans-tarot.backerkit.c ... rs/322890

The deck creator/organiser is:
Seven Dane Asmund,
the Publishing Goblin
they/them

[Ciderwell]

Congrats JM.

That looks like an advanced deck way too broad for me. Though the booklet might be an interesting read - even to apply a similar system to one's own tarot card collection. Anyhow, well done.

[Joan Marie]

Congrats JM.

That looks like an advanced deck way too broad for me. Though the booklet might be an interesting read - even to apply a similar system to one's own tarot card collection. Anyhow, well done.

I did nothing. I was just lucky enough to have a card included.

My kickstarters have all been nail-biters to very end to meet the very modest goal to just cover the costs of production and shipping. I just can't believe how crazy excited people were for this idea. Seven is brilliant.

[TheLoracular]

I had the Alleyman suggested to me very early on in its Kickstarter by both my partner and a close friend and had passed on it then, but noticed as weeks went on that it had one of the most aggressive Facebook campaigns I'd seen since going back to tarot and Facebook last October. So it kept showing up there in my feed.

Hearing that not only was Cult of Weimar picked but that the author is nice and going out of their way to show support back to people like you made me jump on the pre-order though just now. (pretends I didn't swear no new tarot purchases including pre-orders this month; I swore I was giving up binging on crackers at night and failing that too.)

As I'm meeting more people who have either successfully published tarot through Kickstarter or are planning to run a Kickstarter campaign in the next year, I'm really getting interested in paying attention to ~why~ certain decks like this one are just so outrageously successful, most seem to at least meet their goals and probably at least double them regardless of style so long as the art is aesthetically pleasing to the average person...

but some get no traction. In the case of ones currently up?

The Refine and Play Tarot Deck ~might~ meet its $18,000 goal but is probably going to be a little short. Stylistically, it has no appeal to me. Too derivative. But you can get a deck for $20.

The True Colors deck isn't going to meet its goal $10,000 goal or even come close. The artwork is better than something I could ever draw or color but imo, it falls short of the mark for a commercial vs. personal deck and apparently the tarot community agrees. It is also a RWS clone. It is also $55 which is nearing the ceiling I personally pay for a Kickstarter deck unless it's something REALLY SPECIAL.

Now, Rambling Mike's own RWS clone has artwork comparable to decks on my shelf. I'm so not interested in another RWS deck though unless it brought something really special to the table like the Melanated Classic did for me.

And then there is the Wandering Traveler Tarot - and this boggles me. Stylistically and quality-wise, both in terms of the cards and the layout of the Kickstarter page, this looks really nice and as good or better as other decks that have gotten a lot more backing a lot faster. The author only wants $6500, a deck is only $30, and Kendall/Bohemian Tarot Girl seems to have a foothold in the younger active tarot content community. What I've seen of her, she's really likeable and engaging and popular with the Tiktok folk. But they haven't flooded that Kickstarter for her, just like Rambling Mike's huge Youtube following isn't paying off in support of his deck.


Does it boil down in the end to marketing on something like Facebook? It has to be more.

What do others think?

[Thelder]

Congratulations to Joan Marie and all the other creators who contributed to the wildly successful Alleyman's campaign. Although there was amazing artwork from many amazing artists, I think the bulk of Alleyman's success came down to aggressive marketing and, to a lesser extent, the fact that there was an existing base of followers from the five previous campaigns. Although I am not a fan of collaboration decks personally, I will always be grateful to the Alleyman's campaign for alerting me, just in time, to the existence of the Ariadne's Thread Tarot by Aka Skyweb, who contributed the Hermit card. The same day I spotted that Hermit card on the Alleyman's Kickstarter page, I was lucky enough to locate the very last Ariadne's Thread Tarot that was available. They are now OOP.

As far as the other decks that TheLoracular mentioned, there could be many variables involved. Timing could come into play. For example, it is the end of the school year, at the moment. People are distracted with things like graduation ceremonies, graduation parties, arranging child care for the children home for the summer, planning summer vacations, and so on. If a creator does not have a solid following from a previous Kickstarter campaign, then such social distractions could mean the difference between success and failure.

Even though some of them are driving traffic to their Kickstarter pages through social media, it appears as though the one with previous Kickstarter campaign experience and followers is doing the best. For instance, three of the four examples you gave have no following from a previous Kickstarter campaign to fall back on. The one who does, “Refine and Play Tarot,” is the one closest to succeeding at the moment. Perhaps some people are reluctant to trust a creator's first campaign, regardless of how familiar they are with that person through social media. These are just my initial thoughts. I could be completely wrong.

One recent failure that really surprised me was the Tuatha de Danaan Tarot by Arlene Whiteswan. The artwork was stunning; she should have had somewhat of a following from her previous Kickstarter campaign; and she even posted the project on this forum. It is so sad to see amazing artists like her and others not get the recognition they deserve.

[Joan Marie]

I asked Seven how he did it. I had assumed they had a massive social media reach. But they said no, not at all.

You are correct Thelder that previous Kickstarter success plays a big role. It's one of the things that makes using kickstarter (and paying their fees) worth it. Seven had those previous successes to bolster the campaign.

Seven also told me that using Backerkit played a massive role. This is a new-ish thing that we are seeing more and more. The trick is to use it right and Seven really did. (many people people don't and think it's only good for fulfillment - big mistake) Backerkit did a ton of pre-promotion so that campaign had A LOT of followers before it even launched which gave it a great start, fully funded ($85K !) in 12 hours.

Then there was a massive facebook campaign by Backerkit which everyone was talking about but I never saw any of, which is strange to me. Can't figure out how I was not in the algorithm to see those ads, but I wasn't. BTW- Backerkit takes a hefty fee as well, but Seven said it was totally worth it and credits them for the success.

But this doesn't fully explain the bizarre appeal of this deck.
About 2 weeks into the campaign a facebook group formed (with Seven's approval- but totally independent of Seven) called "The Alley" and within a few days had over 2,000 members- very active. It's a giant fan club. And really interesting to read what they love about the deck. And they all talk about buying extra decks, all the extras that come with it, etc.

I think people are attracted to the irreverence of it- many people are turned off by what they see as snobbery in the Tarot world. Many are just very new to tarot and found this deck to be a fun way to get into it. Not sure where that will lead for them, but I don't want to be a "snob."
It's a big mixed bag. But they are having a lot of fun and constantly talk about the Alley fans as a community unto itself.
It's really grown into something beyond the deck.

To my great embarrassment, one of the reasons I didn't hesitate to be part of the project was that I thought, why not, there was no way it would succeed anyway. I thought, who wants a deck of 137 mismatched cards? Shows what I know!

Made me think of all the publishers (there were many) that turned down Harry Potter because they thought no way would kids read a 700+ page book!

Sometimes it really is the craziest, most far-fetched idea that works.

[Thelder]

Thanks for the insight. I will certainly keep Backerkit in mind if I am ever involved in a Kickstarter campaign.

[Joan Marie]

but some get no traction.

So true.
In the last issue of World of Decks News I had a little message at the top trying to encourage people to look at the "smaller" campaigns and consider them. Sometimes I think people hesitate to back a deck that is lagging, even if they like it.

I would say to people, if you like it, back it. if it doesn't succeed, you aren't out anything. If it does, then you helped.

There are some decks whose success is just a mystery to me, and like you were saying, others whose failure is equally a mystery.

The thing about these new platforms is they were meant to level the playing field, give everyone a chance in the market, and they really do.
But it's the consumers who are still acting like old times and just getting behind the biggest successes, the flashiest presentations, known names, whatever and overlooking the rest.

BTW- I don't mean to say people shouldn't get behind those things, just maybe not to the exclusion of all else.

[Mokona]

I also kept seeing the ad for the Alleyman's Kickstarter campaign on my instagram, probably because I follow a bunch of tarot accounts and sometimes post tarot content. So maybe part of its success was the marketing. It's not the first collaborative deck, although having 137 cards instead of 78 does set it apart.

[Joan Marie]

This is pretty interesting a number of levels. It's an instagram live video recording with Seven, the creator of Alleyman, and a couple of other people.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CPa6Tr1pip9/

Seven speaks first (after the host) and explains a lot about the Alleyman and what was behind it, the concept which came from an idea of theirs about a fictional character that does readings (often very harsh) in the alley for 17 cents a reading using a huge unwieldy deck of mismatched cards.

That Seven actually produced that deck based on this idea, this character from their imagination is really something.

I was aware that the community that formed around the deck started into trading tarot cards on a massive scale (this all happens on the facebook group, The Alley) but it was just this moment that I realised that this is like the old concept of trading cards. I think the last big craze of that was Pokemon? (I'm too old to have been in on that, I just recall it was a thing) When I was a kid my brothers traded baseball cards that they got in bubblegum. Suddenly I recall garbage pail kids, wasn't that a trading thing too?

I have a pretty interesting collection of what they used to call "Cigarette cards" that were popular in the 20s and 30s. These featured movie stars and some just "beautiful girls from around the world" and people pasted them into books as they tried to collect 'em all.

So I'm seeing suddenly how Alleyman's concept and deck are a kind of re-boot of this very old and popular practice of collecting "trading cards"- On the surface it seems to have little to do with capital "T "Tarot, but then again, who am I to say? It really is sort of brilliant and peopel are obviously loving it.

I haven't listened yet to the whole video yet but I wanted to share it. I was happy to see and hear the person behind all this madness. Seems like just how I imagined, very sweet, very humble and very creative and talented.

[Rose Lalonde]

...So I'm seeing suddenly how Alleyman's concept and deck are a kind of re-boot of this very old and popular practice of collecting "trading cards"...

That makes sense, though having started self-collected oracle deck reading threads on aeclectic and another forum, it seemed like much the fun we had was in actively choosing which trading-cards we'd include, suddenly finding a use for obscure cards found in the back of someone's closet, or going after an elusive card that would be a nice addition. It sounds like the fictional Alleyman would've been doing something similar, snapping up cards here and there based on opportunity or preference.

But I do get that art contributed to the Alleyman Tarot was originally on cards of different sizes, thicknesses, back designs, etc. (a problem we didn't have with trading-cards by one company), so a benefit of the already completed deck is that it's been reformatted to create a uniform tarot that shuffles well and isn't unwieldy.

[dodalisque]

So I'm seeing suddenly how Alleyman's concept and deck are a kind of re-boot of this very old and popular practice of collecting "trading cards"- On the surface it seems to have little to do with capital "T "Tarot, but then again, who am I to say? It really is sort of brilliant and peopel are obviously loving it.

I haven't listened yet to the whole video yet but I wanted to share it. I was happy to see and hear the person behind all this madness. Seems like just how I imagined, very sweet, very humble and very creative and talented.

I believe the charming person who put the deck together is transgendered, though I might be wrong about that. Could the loud LGBTQ content in the advertising also be a selling factor for this deck? Group loyalty? Sympathetic vibes among the open-minded tarot community? Perhaps it demonstrates that the growing popularity of tarot is extending its appeal to non-experts. After a certain point, success breeds viral success. The inexplicably gargantuan success of the ridiculous movie "Jaws" once persuaded me to put aside my prejudices and pay good money to check it out. I find this whole thing mystifying. It's not a trend I particularly approve of, especially when I see how hard it is to make and sell original work, but I'm very happy for the deck maker and feel proud to know that Joan Marie is part of it. Argh, I'm conflicted. Not jealous at all, no, no, not at all, absolutely not, deny it completely.

[HRU's Muse]

Crazy amount of money! But to me it's obvious how it got so successful. Think about it: 137 different deck creators, all of whom probably have their own tarot-related content and tarot-interested social media following, were asked to participate and then more than likely shared about it on their social media(s).

At first I was like huh noticing I did not get asked for a card wah wah trombone...just the usual brain comparing thing we all do. There are so many decks of course too many to choose from, so lots of course are not in there. I don't have a social media presence and would not serve the purpose, if that's how they were selected. I do wonder if the decks were chosen based on that, but who knows, either way it was effective!

If each of those 137 different creators shared about it, it's like having that many people work for you to promote across multiple platforms, so exponential success. That's my theory anyway.

Trying to have mudita for their success but if I'm being honest I have to admit it is a little annoying to see someone raise nearly 1.5 million without doing any of the art! This is of course where my mind goes after spending literally years to create each of my decks and having been hand drawing original tarot art ideas consistently for more than a dozen years! So. Many. Hours.

But I love doing it or I'd stop! all good. Making huge progress on deck number four, guess tarot is an addiction lol. Got myself into an agreement (with myself) to finish a line art inked drawing every ten days, aligning the card creation within the astrological decan or ten-day period it belongs to. It's a fast pace so it is keeping me on track at least. Not sure if I'll ever do a Kickstarter for it again but will see after they are done and then in color (which won't be for at least another year of work.) I don't need that Kickstarter level of stress that's for sure! Which is why I don't have a media presence LOL

It's a cool idea, the Alleyman concept, and an intriguing persona many readers may relate to as an alter-ego. Not sure it appeals to me as a deck but it does as an idea.

[TheLoracular]

I believe the charming person who put the deck together is transgendered, though I might be wrong about that. Could the loud LGBTQ content in the advertising also be a selling factor for this deck?

Seven Dane Asmund is both those things: charming and transgendered but in my 8-month experience as a LGBTQIA+ tarot content creator (and a general LGBTQIA+ advocate and trans ally on Twitter), there is a happily loud community of queer voices emerging into tarot but ~nothing~ about that would explain the Alleyman's success. The queer tarot community loves its queer tarot authors and artists but it's not big enough to make that kind of difference and even with it?

Seven Dane Asmund isn't someone who does the kind of self-promotion that would make a difference. They aren't "queer celebrity" enough as a person to stand out in the "queer community". They are wonderful in personality and talented as all heck, but they aren't a celebrity. Their Twitter following, for example, is about 900-ish people and mine is close to 600 people (I don't self-promote much either lol). Seven promotes their work a lot but not themselves as a person. Hopefully, the success of the Alleyman will help Seven have a bigger platform in general for other things too!

[chowdmouse]

So I thought it would be good to post an update of this topic, as it seems to have taken off with an entire life of its own (and podcast, de rigeur these days ) I am only an occasional participant in the FB group, so my information is not of a devoted fan or insider.

- This has grown to be more of a small cultural phenomena, not just the tarot deck itself, for tarot purposes.
- The story created behind the deck I believe is a big part of it, and I think a huge part of the attraction. The story of the Alleyman, and his deck of cards. A mysterious tarot card reader, seemingly coming and going like a ghost, possibly with some supernatural skills. Always giving exactly the right advice when needed. Also very altruistic overtones.
- The podcast (disclaimer- I have only listened to part of it) really adds so much to the whole. It fleshes out the Alleyman, a mysterious figure, an urban legend if you will. It is quite good (so far), and not necessary to have the deck to enjoy the podcast.
- The Alley (ie the FB group) now has 3.6K members. Most purchased the deck, but a lot missed out. Having the deck is not a requirement to participate in the FB group. The Alleyman legend says the cards in the deck are always changing, hence giving a cultural "push" to not being tied to just the original deck. Almost immediately people that had gotten the deck were adding or subtracting cards, making their copies of the decks their own.
- Going even further, the original mismatched deck seems to have also spurred on a subculture/trend to create one's own deck from scratch. Called magpie decks or frankendecks. A huge portion of the activity on the FB group is swapping and/or selling individual cards.
- I know there have always been casual comments on just about every forum, etc. about having a deck of just one's favorite cards. But always mentioned as kind of an unattainable fantasy, as no one is going to bust up decks to do it. Well, now there is a large enough community to make that somewhat possible. And a lot of people are on the FB group doing it.
- There is also a lot of encouragement & activity around making one's own cards. And swapping or selling them. It definitely reminds me of the older days of making ATCs and swapping.
- It remains to be seen how long this will last. I would not be surprised if it kind of dies down in a little while. But, it has been an entire experience, unlike any other, all centered around a tarot deck. But certainly an experience much bigger than the deck itself.