WARNING: eBay seller selling fake Ultragaff Deck

Have a good or bad experience? Let us know! This includes problem and fraudulent eBay sellers.
User avatar
Sher
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 1392
Joined: Sun Nov 03, 2013 7:00 am
Collector: Yes
Decks Owned: 100
Location: Guam, United States
Has thanked: 56 times
Been thanked: 81 times

WARNING: eBay seller selling fake Ultragaff Deck

Unread post by Sher »

I saw this on eBay today and just wanted to post a warning to other collectors who may also see the listing and consider buying it. To be clear, I am not accusing the seller of anything. For all I know, the seller could have bought it from someone else and doesn't know it's a fake. After reading a thread on TheDiscourse about eBay scams and fake decks (particularly, Ultragaffs), I've been more careful about decks being sold on eBay. I looked through the pictures and this one is a fake. As you can see from the picture below, the print under Ellusionist says, "Magic Heyond Reliep" instead of "Magic Beyond Belief"

Link to the listing: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bicycle-ULTRAGA ... 2518.l4276" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTA1MlgxNjAw/z/-wIAAOxyi-ZTXBNG/$_57.JPG?rt=nc
User avatar
dazzleguts
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 1499
Joined: Mon Sep 24, 2012 4:32 pm
Collector: Yes
Player: Yes
White Whale: Das Kartenspiel Des Oberdeutsc
Decks Owned: 885
Has thanked: 210 times
Been thanked: 142 times

Re: WARNING: eBay seller selling fake Ultragaff Deck

Unread post by dazzleguts »

Thank you for posting that Sher. I'm going to add to it since I was recently looking at my Ultragaff to make sure it wasn't fake and remembered an older UC posting. The following was posted originally to UnitedCardists.net a few years ago by FrenchFryNecromancer, and was lost with the move:

"Ok, here are the photos and details of how I determined the brick of UltraGaff decks I ordered were counterfeit. Also, I am aware there were different printings of this deck due to some kind of lawyer/copyright concern at USPCC.... but regardless... I have matched up the authentic UltraGaff deck with the same version that the counterfeiters were trying to mimic.
Ultragaff_tearstrip & sharpness_compare.jpg
Ultragaff_tearstrip & sharpness_compare.jpg (46.99 KiB) Viewed 1104 times
Ultragaff_King_compare.jpg
Ultragaff_King_compare.jpg (71.84 KiB) Viewed 1104 times
Ultragaff_sword thru back_compare.jpg
Ultragaff_sword thru back_compare.jpg (84.88 KiB) Viewed 1104 times
Ultragaff_Blue_Red morph_compare.jpg
Ultragaff_Blue_Red morph_compare.jpg (83.71 KiB) Viewed 1104 times
1. The thin strip of plastic that helps to remove the cellophane from a new box. The fake deck has "Bicycle" printed on this strip of plastic, and the authentic deck does not have any words printed on this strip of plastic. (See picture)

2. The fake deck has a black seal sticker, whereas the authentic deck has no seal at all.

3. The empty card box on the counterfeit deck felt very flimsy/flexible/pliable compared to what I am used to feeling.

4. The blue color used for the blue-backed cards was Darker on the counterfeit cards. Whereas the authentic deck's blue color used on back-side of cards accurately matched the color used in normal blue-backed bicycle decks.

5. !!!! On the gaff card with King's swords coming through the back of the card. The shadows look completely terrible on the counterfeit deck versus the authentic version. This applies to both the front and back of this card. (See picture)

6. On the front of the box itself, look closely at the fancy white border edges. The FAKE version has more clearly defined lines.... surprisingly.... whereas the REAL version has a more fuzzy-looking graphics. It appears to be composed of small dots on the REAL version. (See picture)

7. !!!! The blue/red morphing gaff card has a different smear pattern on the back. Compare the left side of the photo how on the FAKE version, the blue smeared part gets much closer to the white border, versus the authetnic version. (See picture)

8. !!!! On this same blue/red morphing card, the REAL version has that "dot art" design, for lack of a better term, on the angel's ribcages and legs. The FAKE version doesn't have this at all. (See picture)

9. The fake deck, when set side-by-side with the real deck is slightly taller/thicker. But this was only by a little bit and the picture I tried to take didn't make this obvious enough so I didn't bother to upload it.

Lastly, I can't comment on the fanning ability for this deck -- both fake and real versions fan terribly. And that is ok, because you wouldn't want to fan a gaff deck anyway.

Ultimate Marked Deck
Now, as far as the "Ultimate Marked Deck" brick I got from this eBay seller. I don't own the original, so I couldn't compare apples to apples. However, I can compare against my experience handling tons of different decks and mostly... having handled lots of normal bicycle decks.... I would expect them to somewhat approximate a normal deck. However, here is what I experienced.

A) They fan quite horribly! I seriously doubt the real version fans so poorly. I mean these fans look hideous.
B) They can't be faro-ed AT ALL. Period. Attempting to do this is a joke. In fact if you look at the edges of the card when light is reflecting off of them they look different somehow. More plasticy and less papery. Hard to describe.
C) Similar to UltraGaffs, the empty boxes felt strangely pliable.
D) When you ribbon spread the cards in your hands, each time you scoot cards over with your fingers, you can hear an unusual sound. It almost sounds like sandpaper being scraped as they sliding by."
Worldwide Time Machine

"Cards from far off lands and bygone days!"
Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 22 guests