Article: How to spot a fake deck and why it matters

[katrinka]

2 minutes ago, Raggydoll said:

“Your one stop for everything fake, just not as cheap as on Wish” 

 

[cirom]

34 minutes ago, katrinka said:

Yes. And wouldn't you lose artistic control as well, at least to some degree? I seem to recall Karen Mahony mentioning that. Your licensed decks look fine, but if they'd made a mess of them you'd be trying to fight a behemoth. 

 

 

Yes, and the silky bags...it's a wonderful presentation. Mass produced decks can't compete with that.

 

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I complain about many aspects of contractual relationships, but I have to say I haven’t had too many differences or conflicts regarding artistic control with either of the two publishers i deal with. Maybe it’s because they know what a pain in the ass i can be. Occasional disagreements about the choice of image for the box cover, and typeface, but they don’t interfere with the core imagery.

As for all the extras such as bags, reading cloths, they are part of the overall branding and are also an in house excercise. They are sewn by my wife and sister in law, not farmed out to a factory and also signed. So a number of personalized touches that hopefully may put off interest from the pirates compared to the lower hanging fruit of licensed mass produced decks. However this along with my lower print quantities all contribuits to items that are more expensive than alternative options out there. That undoubtably cost me sales. But to use your reference once again of branding, it’s also a conscious decision on my part to position myself in that way. And pay whatever consequences come with that.

Edited March 5 by cirom
Grammar

[ilweran]

28 minutes ago, katrinka said:

This is different from the third party sellers on amazon. Third party sellers simply purchase goods cheap and sell them at a profit. There's a very good chance that the merchandise is damaged, defective, used, stolen, or pirated

I avoid then anyway for things like tarot decks unless I know who they are - Book Depository say, I know are ok.

 

Second hand is becoming a minefield though, I managed to get an official Wild Unknown for a good price on eBay, but I did a lot of checks on what else the seller sold etc. I don't think I'd bother doing that again for an in print deck, though I have a pile of decks to sell so I hope everyone doesn't think like that. Generally, I'm trying to buy less though!

[katrinka]

7 hours ago, cirom said:

I complain about many aspects of contractual relationships, but I have to say I haven’t had too many differences or conflicts regarding artistic control with either of the two publishers i deal with. Maybe it’s because they know what a pain in the ass i can be. Occasional disagreements about the choice of image for the box cover, and typeface, but they don’t interfere with the core imagery.

 

That's good. 
Typeface for a LWB isn't much of an issue as long as it's readable. Typeface on a card title is, though. Remember those font RWS decks? 
Anyway, we all benefitted from whatever cantankerous tendencies you tapped into, so thanks.
 

7 hours ago, cirom said:

As for all the extras such as bags, reading cloths, they are part of the overall branding and are also an in house excercise. They are sewn by my wife and sister in law, not farmed out to a factory and also signed. So a number of personalized touches that hopefully may put off interest from the pirates compared to the lower hanging fruit of licensed mass produced decks. However this along with my lower print quantities all contribuits to items that are more expensive than alternative options out there.

 

Yes, but they can appreciate in value. I'm not starting a decks-as-investments discussion, that's been done and yes, it's unpredictable. But I've never seen any of them going for less than the original asking price. Sometimes they go for substantially more.
 

7 hours ago, cirom said:

That undoubtably cost me sales. But to use your reference once again of branding, it’s also a conscious decision on my part to position myself in that way. And pay whatever consequences come with that.

 

And retain your ethics, integrity and credibility. You can't put a price on that.

[katrinka]

This is interesting, it's from the UK amazon. 
I was unable to find an equivalent statement on the US site. So the UK changes may be due to legal issues?

 

 

[Raggydoll]

8 hours ago, katrinka said:

This is interesting, it's from the UK amazon. 
I was unable to find an equivalent statement on the US site. So the UK changes may be due to legal issues?

 

 

That IS interesting indeed.

[AJ-ish/Sharyn]

23 hours ago, ilweran said:

I avoid then anyway for things like tarot decks unless I know who they are - Book Depository say, I know are ok.

 

Book Depository has been owned by Amazon for years. 

[ilweran]

26 minutes ago, AJ-ish/Sharyn said:

Book Depository has been owned by Amazon for years. 

I know  They bought Abebooks as well. Gets harder and harder to avoid them!

[gregory]

BUT bookdepository doesn't use 3rd party sellers, so you aren't at risk from them, and abe doesn't have those sort of mass sales on it. I particularly like abe, as a lot of my fave IRL bookstores deal there.

[ilweran]

I love Abebooks, bought loads from there, but it's annoying when you try and not buy from Amazon all the time and then Amazon buy up the alternatives...

 

Totally off topic, but my mum used to work in customer services for a company who liked to buy up their competition and whenever they'd made another acquisition there'd be annoyed phonecalls from customers complaining that the reason they'd been with the newly acquired company in the first place was that they never wanted anything to do with the purchasing company ever again.

 

I'm not at the point where I never want to buy from Amazon - I have a Kindle, for a start - but I like to spread my money about a bit and not give it all to one oversized, under taxed behemoth.

[gregory]

I try to buy from amazon MARKETPLACE sellers - like betterworldbooks and so on - who give their profits to literacy charities. Yeah = Amazon gets a cut - but it is still a good thing as well.

[ilweran]

34 minutes ago, gregory said:

I try to buy from amazon MARKETPLACE sellers - like betterworldbooks and so on - who give their profits to literacy charities. Yeah = Amazon gets a cut - but it is still a good thing as well.

Yes, I do pick out the reputable sellers, there are plenty of them. Book Depository was just an easy example. If a seller gives to charity they're very welcome to sell to me!

[katrinka]

If you do find yourself buying from amazon, use the address smile.amazon.com rather than www.amazon.com, and a portion of your money will go to the charity of your choice. 
It's only a tiny amount, but it can add up over time and it costs you nothing extra to do this.

[ilweran]

Oh I do. Money goes to Marie Curie as a friend of mine used one of their hospices.

[Guest]

5 hours ago, ilweran said:

I'm not at the point where I never want to buy from Amazon - I have a Kindle, for a start - but I like to spread my money about a bit and not give it all to one oversized, under taxed behemoth.

That is exactly how I feel. I am trying to use them less and less, but they keep spreading. 

 

13 minutes ago, katrinka said:

If you do find yourself buying from amazon, use the address smile.amazon.com rather than www.amazon.com, and a portion of your money will go to the charity of your choice. 
It's only a tiny amount, but it can add up over time and it costs you nothing extra to do this.

Thank you. I’ll set that up. 

[gregory]

1 hour ago, ilweran said:

Oh I do. Money goes to Marie Curie as a friend of mine used one of their hospices.

 

Me too - mine goes to SOS Children's Villages.

[AJ-ish/Sharyn]

my smile.amazon goes to an animal fund. Too bad almost no books count as that is where most of my amazon shopping lies. I'm not much of a stuff person or shopper period. 

[gregory]

Almost everything I buy seems to work fine.

[katrinka]

7 hours ago, AJ-ish/Sharyn said:

my smile.amazon goes to an animal fund.

 

Mine does too. 
https://www.soidog.org/

 

I like that one because they're making actual progress. They've managed to convince some people in the dog and cat meat trade that what they're doing can potentially give them rabies - when people have no compassion, you have to appeal to their sense of self-preservation. And you can see lots of before and after photos of animals they've helped on their site.
 

[ilweran]

13 hours ago, katrinka said:

 

Mine does too. 
https://www.soidog.org/

 

I like that one because they're making actual progress. They've managed to convince some people in the dog and cat meat trade that what they're doing can potentially give them rabies - when people have no compassion, you have to appeal to their sense of self-preservation. And you can see lots of before and after photos of animals they've helped on their site.
 

Oh I wish I hadn't looked. I want to adopt one of their cats, to the point I was looking at how much it would cost.

 

I'd have all their cats if I could.