Buying painted fan decks vs. free colour cards to choose paint colours?

[Clearskies1]

Hiya,

Has anyone bought the painted fan decks from F&B, Little Greene etc. and found them more helpful/ cost effective in the long run than using the free colour cards and sample pots?

I'm struggling to decide on colours from the little paint samples on the free colour cards, and have already spent a small fortune on tester pots of colours that don't turn out how I'd imagined once painted over a larger area (pieces of lining paper).

I'm just wondering if a slightly bigger sample of colour on the fan decks might help me whittle down potential colours before going to the expense of buying tester pots? (The fans are between £15 and £30 each so costly if I buy more than one! But then that's only 3-6 F&B tester pots!)

FWIW I would probably colour match any premium paint colours into cheaper paint so I'm aware there can be colour variation as part of that, and maybe it's a silly idea to buy fan decks from brands I might not buy the actual paint from?

Thoughts welcome! Thanks very much!

I have both the F&B and Little Greene ones and it's definitely reduced the amount of testers I buy. I still buy a couple of testers but it's much less than the 5-6 (or more) that I would previously have bought.

ime testers are more useful as different surfaces reflect light differently.
you can't get the same with a colour fan.

Yeah it's on a representation of the paint

Paint can't be reproduced onto a paper card the same way. Have this convo with customers a lot! And your furniture/flooring/lighting/curtains etc all effect how it looks on the walls

Will look different for everyone