These poor condition issues are not confined to mass-market shippers like Amazon but have been experienced with items purchased directly from publishers (and self-publishers) as well. In trying to resolve some of these issues, I have, at times, also been confronted with very poor customer service.
The following are just some the many examples I could cite:
- The last three decks I purchased directly from Deviant Moon arrived with either a dent or deep scratches to the box or a crease mark on one of the cards (obviously caused by the manufacturing process).
- Two decks from Schiffer had glue from the manufacturing process smeared on the inside of the printed decorative lid of the magnetic closure box.
- Le Tarot Noir arrived from France with two creased cards, a page of the book that had been folded and creased, a dented box with a warped lid, and cards cut to radically different sizes.
- The Visconti Modrone (Kickstarter edition) by Lo Scarabeo arrived with the Five of Wands missing from the deck, but had duplicates of the Four of Wands.
- The following photo on the left shows the Hydrogen card that was advertised on the Kickstarter campaign page for the Materia Prima Tarot. This was the card that sold me on supporting the campaign, as it was (in my opinion) the most beautiful card of all the samples shown. The photo on the right is the card that I actually received (the background looks like a chocolate bar that is covered with mold). Many other cards were also changed after I and others had already pledged. These changes were not made as a result of any "Stretch Goal" that was reached but simply because the creators decided to engage in a major redesign of the deck after the Kickstarter campaign was well underway.
- In the following photos, the images on the far left are the ones that were used to promote the Deviant Moon Paradoxical Tarot at both the Deviant Moon website and in their promotional emails. The promotional samples featured below show part of the Nine of Swords and part of the Six of Coins. The images on the far right are the images that I actually received with the finished deck. As it turns out, the promotional images appear to be from the Deviant Moon Paradoxical Art Deck from 2015, which uses a different color scheme than many of the cards in the Paradoxical Tarot. Not only are the colors radically different, but the orientation of the characters on the Six of Coins is different from the advertised sample as well. Even on those cards that are similar in color, the colors used for the Paradoxical Tarot are very dull and washed-out compared to the promotional samples.
Looking back through the promotional emails that I received, as well as the Deviant Moon website, I could not find any disclaimer stating that the promotional images used were from a different deck and did not accurately represent the deck that was being offered for sale. I made my decision to pay the ridiculously high price for this deck based on the promotional images, which turned out to be highly misleading, to say the least.
I have never purchased a pirated deck, but I find myself developing a growing sympathy for those who seek to purchase the least expensive deck they can find without worrying about its source or authenticity.
When deck creators see pirated versions of their decks being sold on eBay for around $10.00 (with free shipping), perhaps they should engage in a little self-reflection to determine whether the frequent poor condition of their decks, or the poor customer service offered by them or their publishers, or the misleading advertising they occasionally engage in might have contributed to the willingness of people to seek out less expensive alternatives.
