faked by a counterfeit deck

Recently I bought a Tarot of Prague 1st edition deck on ebay and discovered, to my chagrin, that I'd been faked by a counterfeit deck. The matter has been resolved, but I still feel foolish.

Counterfeits are theft, pure and simple. Theft of intellectual property, theft of monetary reward, theft of reputation and good will. And in the end we all lose because the good people whose work we love, stop producing.

I want to thank Karen at MRP for her quick response to my queries and confirmation that what I bought was a fake. I did my due diligence before placing my bid, but nowhere did I find the vital information that would have made me cry "foul" and have the item withdrawn before the sale. (The missing clue was this: 1st edition Tarot of Prague decks do NOT come in tuck boxes.)

What can we do to stem counterfeiters? What would YOU do?
------------

Rhinemaiden, I am sorry this happened to you. I have the Tarot of Prague 1st Edition, and you are right it comes in a 'book-like' box, not a tuck box.

Once I bought a vintage french deck from a seller on eBay. Three months passed and the item never arrived, so I complained to them. They asked me to wait for more a couple of days and I, who was a fool back then, waited. When I tried to complain again, the time to leave a review or fill an official complaint to eBay had expired, and I never got my deck.

It took me so long to complain because I am aware international shipping can delay. Still, I was a fool to trust that seller.

Thank goodness, it only happened once. All my other eBay negotiations were perfect. But it shows how far some people go just to get money from others unfairly.

Rhinemaiden said:

What can we do to stem counterfeiters? What would YOU do?

Click to expand...

Honestly, for this to stop we'd have to change the human nature itself. LOL!

Joking aside, I think that the best way to avoid this is asking here on AT all details you can about a deck before buying it on eBay. How's the box, the cards, the size, the ISBN, the year, any details that can help you to know whether a deck is authentic or not. Arm yourself with information. If in doubt, send the link to a trusted fellow tarot collector and ask their opinion.

And if the product is specially expensive, require real pictures of the things you are buying. It's only fair. If the seller refuses adamantly to provide pictures for an expensive item, something is wrong.

Hey,

So you missed the signs. Do not beat yourself up! How did they ultimately figure out it was fake?

Pandora MoonRaven said:

Hey,

So you missed the signs. Do not beat yourself up! How did they ultimately figure out it was fake?

Click to expand...

Because a 1st Edition Tarot of Prague doesn't come in a tuck box - Rhinemaiden explained in her opening post .

Pandora MoonRaven said:

Hey,

So you missed the signs. Do not beat yourself up! How did they ultimately figure out it was fake?

Click to expand...

Hi Pandora... I guessed it might be a fake when I opened the package and examined the deck, I went online to get MORE information, snapped some pix of what I had received and sent them to Karen at MRP for more info. It was Karen who confirmed my suspicions. FAKE. COUNTERFEIT. I own several bona fide MRP decks and what I received just didn't match up to the MRP quality.

Marina said:

I think that the best way to avoid this is asking here on AT all details you can about a deck before buying it on eBay. How's the box, the cards, the size, the ISBN, the year, any details that can help you to know whether a deck is authentic or not. Arm yourself with information. If in doubt, send the link to a trusted fellow tarot collector and ask their opinion.

And if the product is specially expensive, require real pictures of the things you are buying. It's only fair. If the seller refuses adamantly to provide pictures for an expensive item, something is wrong.

Click to expand...

Words to the wise, Marina! We learn through experience and sharing our experiences. But in the quest of a treasure, how many of us have been blinded by our expectations?

I never got a fake deck, but I did get a deck with a fake autograph. I didn't buy the deck for that reason, in fact, it wasn't even sold with the autograph as a selling point...but possibly the seller had been intending to sell it that way in the past. When I got the deck (Animal Wise) it came with a book, and in the front page of the book in very feminine handwriting was a message and "autograph" from Ted Andrews. I thought it looked strange, and wondered why the seller never mentioned it. Then, when I looked at my ebay receipt, in the same exact handwriting as the autograph, the seller wrote a little note to me, thanking me for my purchase. Strange.

This is a huge worry, though. Especially since I sometimes buy on ebay. Not sure what can be done, but I don't buy from anyone who will not accept returns.

Did you report this to eBay & PayPal? They will both suspend the seller's accounts from what I understand.
So sorry this experience happened.

No fake deck, just no deck at all.
Ordered the Wormweird Tarot from their FB page. Told it was sent and I've been waiting almost 3 months. Emails are getting ignored now

Really cheesed off

Cheshire said:

No fake deck, just no deck at all.
Ordered the Wormweird Tarot from their FB page. Told it was sent and I've been waiting almost 3 months. Emails are getting ignored now

Really cheesed off

Click to expand...

Cheshire... what action can you take to get your money back??? Were you given a tracking number when it was shipped?

can you post on the facebook page to let other prospective buyers know what happened to you?