In doing research on building my business and the best way to market myself I kept running into those cheap Tarot reading offers on Etsy. You know the ones. $1 any question, $10 for a 6-month reading. How readers can make a living at those rates defies logic. What exactly does the client get for that price? I decided to find out, so here it is: the truth revealed about Etsy’s cheap Tarot readers.

I signed up for readings from 4 different vendors. One was a $10 “6-month reading”. Two were same-day answers, one for $1.75 and one for $4.09 for a three-card reading. The final vendor let me choose the number of cards, for a sliding scale of price and a promise of “same hour reading”. I chose 2 cards for $1.

The 6-month reading didn’t require a question, but for the others, I used “How can I best build my business?” as my question.  I put that question in the “note to seller” box on the checkout page for the 6-month reading in hopes the reading will be more work-related.

How Cheap Tarot Readers Operate

Cheap Tarot readers cannot live off the income from these low-price readings. If I wanted to make a conservative $3K a month as a Tarot consultant, that would mean 3,000 to 600 readings a month! So either they are doing it as a loss-leader, get you in as a client and keep you coming back with ever more “deals”, or they aren’t really a professional reader. Tarot is just something they do on the side.  Either way, they aren’t a serious Tarot professional

Etsy’s Cheap Readers

The $4.09 reading came in first, at around 6pm or 8 hours after my order. She had advertised the reading would arrive on the same day, and it did.  It was also a really decent reading. She didn’t try to upsell me, the reading was a decent 4 paragraphs, and actually fairly accurate. This reading was good value!  In looking at her site, she owns a shop and does her readings while working at her shop, so Tarot reading is not her main focus. I can’t see how readings like this help her business.

The next Tarot reading to come in cost $1.75 and promised same-day response as well, which was achieved. It arrived 10 hours after the order.  It too was a 3 card reading, but was just one paragraph. She may have been getting intuitive messages from the cards, but my interpretation was completely different and her reading feels like generic information rather than personal to just me. I actually quite like the cards in this reading, but I see a completely different reading, with nothing about money or family at all! However, intuition is personal, and she MAY have seen something different in her cards.

I placed my order at 9:45 am on November 6th and received it November 7th at 6:34am. The one dollar “1-hour” reading came in, with a disclaimer that the 1-hour didn’t apply because of some notice on her site. Gentle readers, there was no notice that I saw.  It could have been on her home page, but I went directly to a purchase page and nada! (I have the screenshots). The reading did not include what cards were drawn and was extremely generic. There was nothing tangible to hold on to, and she even told me not to worry!

The Verdict

I received three very different readings, all fairly positive, two definitely off track, and one that shows some promise.  If I were looking for a Tarot consultant that I might consider a relationship with, it might be the first one, but I’d want to see the result from a “real” reading first.  The other two I wouldn’t consider at all.

Truthfully, I got about what I expected. I don’t claim to be unbiased here. While  I’m still waiting on the 6-month spread, and I’ll report on that when it arrives, I’m putting this experiment to rest. Buy a cheap reading, you’ll get what you paid for. Very little solid action points, some vague back-slapping,  and not one offer to clarify. I also realize that I didn’t see any disclaimers or privacy policies on the pages I visited.

Getting a reader from Etsy also felt a bit like having an annual medical physical from some dude set up in a strip mall.  Sure he’s cheap, but it isn’t a long-term solution for ongoing health care. Find yourself a professional Tarot consultant. Find someone you can work with over time. Tarot will give you serious results if you are serious about using it.