Spotting Fake Tarot/Oracle Decks

A friend of mine recently fell victim to a fake deck; bought online from a perfectly reputable looking seller with pictures of the real thing, and a price tag to match! She passed it on to me to try to put it to some kind of good; by using it to highlight some of the signs of a Fake Deck. First, a little caveat that although some of these can be spotted on online listings people with ill intent will do as happened to my friend and advertise with a listing featuring the real thing. Always go to an online vendor you trust, or shop in person to help minimise some of these risks.

The best indicator is a blurry ISBN and barcode, as well as blurry text. This one also has no publisher logo, although some try to (poorly) copy that as well!
Most obvious with this particular deck is the size, sometimes they will be advertised as pocket editions of decks that have never had an official pocket release.
Wonky or ill fitting images, does the box art seem offset, blurred, or generally not right?
You probably won’t be able to look through the deck to see the paper stock, but weight can be an indicator. Is it lighter than expected?
QR codes, especially one pointing to a guide, indicating there is no guide book in the box. Occasionally a deck will be released without a guide, but this is rare.
Price, not always a good indicator, but a lower than expected price is a good warning sign.
Does it feel dead or alive? Even before I explained what it was my husband picked up this deck and said it felt odd, dead, empty. I stock a lot of decks, mass market publications and indies and all of them feel alive, their personalities as tangible atmosphere around them. If you are able to feel your decks, and pick one up and get nothing it might be that this deck is just not meant for you, but it could be that its magic has been lost through ill intent as someone set out to steal the work of others.

These are some of the warning signs to look out for, and I hope you find these useful. There will always be exceptions to the rule; I stock several independent decks that have QR codes on the box, and there have been a lot of recent rereleases of popular decks as pocket editions. If in doubt do a quick bit of research to check if what you’re looking at matches what you see on the artist’s or publisher’s website.

The decks featured in this post are a real copy from Red Feather and a fake accidentally purchased as described above. Fake decks hurt artists, authors, and users alike. The difference in quality, especially when handled is obvious. Be careful and try not to feed this machine.