StoryBook Ceramics : We Hate Fakes Too http://blog.storybookceramics.com/ The latest news in the fight against fake pottery. en-us Nucleus CMS v3.64 © Weblog http://backend.userland.com/rss http://blog.storybookceramics.com//nucleus/nucleus2.gif StoryBook Ceramics : We Hate Fakes Too http://blog.storybookceramics.com/ Looking to purchase a McCoy Mammy Cookie Jar? http://blog.storybookceramics.com/index.php?itemid=19
We have watched as the percentage of fake ceramics to genuine ceramics, especially in the cookie jar category, has grown ever higher month after month. Legitimate sellers frustrated at having to compete with fraudulent sellers to sell their collectibles continue to leave eBay in droves. Now it appears this exodus has caused the fake/genuine ratio in some categories to hit critical mass.

Only six months ago, there were, on average, about 100 listings returned on any given day for the search “McCoy Mammy cookie jar”. Now the search results return about half that number, a 50% reduction with a devastating side effect.

Today, June 4, 2007, there are 42 items listed at the eBay auction site under the keyword search for “McCoy Mammy cookie jar”. Of these forty-two jars, an unbelievable forty-one of them are fakes!

Here is a screen shot of the listings, in case anyone would like to review or double check our judgment of the jars. I think the pictures speak for themselves.

http://blog.storybookceramics.com/gallery/details.php?image_id=52

]]> General http://blog.storybookceramics.com/index.php?itemid=19 Mon, 4 Jun 2007 17:35:08 -0400 Question: What do McCoy, Shawnee, and Weller Pottery have in common? http://blog.storybookceramics.com/index.php?itemid=18 Rhyne and Son Importer and Wholesaler in Ringgold, GA.

Confused? So were we.

Around the end of 2005, a new wave of fake vintage cookie jars hit eBay with a vengeance. The first to appear was a figural Mammy cookie jar, marked “McCoy” on the underside.

Following in quick succession was the appearance of a McCoy style Mammy cookie jar with checkered apron, a Smiley Pig and Winnie Pig cookie jar, in both regular and bank head motifs, a Jo-Jo the Clown cookie jar, a Lucky Elephant cookie jar, a Weller Mammy cookie jar, and finally a couple of more generic, vintage, Japanese-made, style basket-handled Black Americana cookie jars. These new jars were substantially unlike any known to have been created by Roger Jensen, or any of his related eBay-centric counterfeiting friends.

The first of these jars to appear presented somewhat of a mystery. This Mammy cookie jar appeared to be of the exact same design and manufacturing technique as an existing product, imported by ACK in their Casa Vero line. That line, consisting of a Mammy and Chef cookie jar and many related kitchenware products, was marked “Casa Vero” “Made in China” on the underside and was widely available on eBay at bargain basement prices.

Suddenly, this same Mammy cookie jar appeared in the eBay fake sellers channel, newly branded underneath as “McCoy”. The jar was unchanged in color or design, except for the vintage style McCoy logo now impressed into the underside. Touted by one fake seller as the “McCoy Fat Mammy” cookie jar, sales skyrocketed. Sellers offering the jar spread quickly.

As similarly marked fake cookie jars, described above, appeared; several noteworthy, shared, characteristics about these items became clear to us, from a technical point of view.

· They were all painted with cold paint. This paint had a decidedly matte finish, was semi-durable (it couldn’t take going through a dishwasher, experiments showed), and seemed to be brushable as well as sprayable.
· Each jar had been subtly resculpted. The changes were relatively minor, when compared to the original jars, but there was definitely an attempt to modify the design enough to protect the creator in a courtroom.
· The jars were marked with a professional stamp. None of the Jensen molds had anything more than a hand scratched “signature” in the bottom, of varying “believability”. Some “marks” actually had misspellings. These new jars had a standardized version of the McCoy and Shawnee markings. The markings too were somewhat changed from the original marks, but were so close as to surely be aimed towards fooling the masses.

A recent search of the US trademark office has revealed critical information in understanding the appearance of these “next generation” fakes. Rhyne and Sons has applied for and has been temporarily granted, trademarks for McCoy, Shawnee, and Weller logos to be used on pottery. These logos, pictured clearly in the trademark applications, are the logos appearing on the new fakes cookie jars on eBay.

Please see this gallery page to view the marks for comparison.
http://blog.storybookceramics.com/gallery/categories.php?cat_id=14

Without actually receiving confirmation from Rhyne and Son, we can only speculate as to the exact nature of their relationship with ACKusa. Given that Rhyne and Son is not a ceramics manufacturer, it certainly appears that they have contracted through ACK to have pottery manufactured in Asia with these new markings, then imported into this country, to be distributed wholesale through their company to resellers. The most compelling factor in this theory is the fact that it was an ACK created jar that first appeared on eBay bearing a Rhyne and Son trademarked logo.

These new jars are now available through all of the usual outlets, including Rosso Wholesale and Glass. What this consolidation of vintage style pottery marks will mean to the fake pottery market overall is still unclear. Will Rhyne and Son begin enforcing “their” trademarks against the old time counterfeiters like Roger Jensen? Will it be easier, or harder, to educate the collecting public given the fake ceramics may become increasingly standardized? We’ll take a look in our next article at what the implications of this development might mean to the secondary collectors market, and what we can do as pottery educators to use this new information to help the novices.




]]> General http://blog.storybookceramics.com/index.php?itemid=18 Sun, 3 Jun 2007 22:02:54 -0400 "Inspired By" Pottery at the National Ceramic Museum & Heritage Center http://blog.storybookceramics.com/index.php?itemid=17

National Ceramic Museum Heritage Center
2006 McCoy Inspired Coin Purse Bank Released!





Spring is here and so is the release of the 2006 National Ceramic Museum Commemorative piece. This year we are featuring the "McCoy Inspired Butterfly Coin Purse Bank." Designed by Paul Daniel for the National Ceramic Museum this piece measures 7" wide 5" tall and 2" wide. Each Piece comes in 3 colors and is numbered and stamped with the National Ceramic Museum Logo. However the McCoy Inspired Coin Purse Banks are available only through the Museum so reserve yours today or stop and see them first hand! For more info call or email the museum for pricing and ordering information. 740-697-7021


We hope that this (very cute) bank represents the further development of the process of reclaiming reproduction and 'inspired by" pottery in legitimate ways.

]]> General http://blog.storybookceramics.com/index.php?itemid=17 Thu, 31 May 2007 09:45:17 -0400 All publicity is good publicity.... http://blog.storybookceramics.com/index.php?itemid=16
By talking about an unscrupulous website, we inadvertently publicize it, and even worse, the links WE use to expose the site can ultimately count in that sites favor for search engine placement and exposure, unless we adopt a simple practice to combat it.

Google, MSN, and Yahoo (the big three) crawl blogs and websites regularly, checking and calculating links and factoring those links into the algorithms that will determine which websites you see when you type in a search term or keyword. A search for “Mammy Cookie Jar”, for example, performed today on Google, will return links to eBay, to TIAS, and unfortunately, to Rosso Wholesale and Glass on the first page. Part of the reason Rosso’s website is placed so high in the search results is because of many mentions on the Internet by forums, blogs and websites linking their website to the sale of (fraudulent) “Mammy cookie jars”.

One solution to this is simply to never place a live URL link to a suspect website in any post. However, realistically, this makes education more difficult and hampers the effort to get the word out about counterfeit and mismarked pottery. Fortunately, the search engines offer a better solution, which if adopted widely, could turn the tide on over publicizing fraud sites unintentionally.

When creating a URL, the common convention in html is to type “< a href=”http://www.yoursite.com/”>Your Link Text< /a> to create a link to the website. This link is “counted” by the crawlers to your website.

If you do NOT want a link to be counted, you can construct the same link this way:
“< a href=”http://www.yoursite.com/” rel=”nofollow”>Your Link Text< /a>

(Please note the extra space before the opening "a" and before the closing "a" in the example code to allow the html to display properly in this post)

The “nofollow” attribute tells the search engine to ignore the link. Your users will see the same link, but the search engines will not. This will allow you to talk freely about websites and link to suspect items, without giving the sellers of these items any unintentional “help” in their search engine placement.
]]> General http://blog.storybookceramics.com/index.php?itemid=16 Sun, 27 May 2007 11:47:03 -0400 After a long hiatus, an Ebay update..... http://blog.storybookceramics.com/index.php?itemid=15 I recently read a thread on eBay's "Trust and Safety" Forum Board that disclosed, in my opinion, one of the most important pieces of information regarding fake pottery sellers to come out of eBay in years.

 

Many of us have spend countless hours dialogging with eBay about the problem of "career" fake pottery and glass sellers on their website, only to be amazed at the lengths their representatives will go to in ignoring seller violations, pottery experts, and even US law when it comes to the issue of counterfeit vintage pottery. Over the years, getting a definitive statement from eBay regarding their position on fake pottery on their website has proven elusive. They send many mixed messages. On one hand, they decry counterfeits of ANY kind, pledge to do "everything" they can to keep the website free from fraud, and then systematically ignore the fact that their site is the #1 haven for fake pottery sellers in the world at this point. On this forum thread, a pottery collector has run across "Miss Faye" and discovered the world of "fake pottery" for the first time. He is angry at first, pledges to "do something" and over the course of the thread, is disillusioned as the long timers educate him to the reality of eBay. Need help with a reproduction seller In the midst of this depressing, and all too common, thread, a new piece of information suddenly jumped out. To really understand the significance of the information, it's important to understand the source, Jim Griffith. From eBay's website: "Griff," as he is popularly known, has been the foremost education expert on eBay since 1996 when he was invited to join the company as its first customer support representative. For the past three years in his role as both eBay ambassador and instructor, Griff has been traveling around the country leading eBay University seminars and attending community gatherings on how to buy and sell on eBay. Griff has shared his eBay expertise with audiences across the country. In addition to presenting at dozens of eBay University events, he's made more than 100 local and national television and radio appearances. Griff is also the author of the Official eBay Bible and host of eBay Radio. Anything Jim Griffith says can reasonably be assumed to be the position of the top eschalon of eBay. It's almost impossible to fathom that he would express any stance that is out of synch with the top of the eBay totem pole. ericaluv, an eBay member, writes in her posting to the thread of the following email discussion she had with Jim Griffith: (ericaluv)Maybe this information will save anyone who feels that reporting listings like this will get anywhere. I had a the pleasure of emailing back and forth with Jim Griffith to finally get some kind of explanation as to why after my 100's of violaiton reports resulted in absolutely nothing. see below for his answer. Jim Griffith works for ebay and works with the CEO Meg Whitman. me (ericaluv):I sell a lot of the same items and know 110% these items are brand new. So again, you are telling me it is not in violation of ebay's rules to list a fake reproduction as the name of the real one which goes for a lot more money as well as saying the age of the item is unknown even though it is brand new? Jim Griffith: As long as the actual name or brand used is not currently held as intellectual property by being copyright or trademark protected, then yes, it is ok to list the item on eBay. I bolded the entire response for emphasis, because it CANNOT be overstated. According to Jim, if the item is not currently covered under a "live" trademark or copyright, it is "OK" to list a fraudulently marked fake on eBay and not disclose it is a reproduction. That is incredible, but that is what the man said. Going on, ericaluv presses: me (ericaluv):: “... you feel that "no chips or cracks" is not a misleading statement? if looking to purchase a brand new car online wouldn't it strike you as odd if the description stated the car has no dents or scratches?...” Jim Griffith: No I wouldn’t. In fact, I would appreciate the fact that the seller is making the condition of the item clear. So.... If you have EVER spent one second of your time trying to educate eBay about fake pottery and fake pottery sellers, it appears you, like us, have been wasting your time. We have all bemoaned on websites galore that "eBay doesn't care".... and you know what.... "eBay doesn't care". Straight from the horse's mouth.]]> General http://blog.storybookceramics.com/index.php?itemid=15 Sun, 22 Apr 2007 14:11:54 -0400 The Price of Honesty on eBay http://blog.storybookceramics.com/index.php?itemid=14
What was the difference between the two jars?

One seller told the truth.



As pottery lovers, and collectors ourselves, we often encourage sellers we see selling reproduction jars on eBay to amend their ads to tell the truth about the pottery. Although we still don't think selling mismarked counterfeit ceramics is a good idea, at the very, very least, sellers should tell their prospective buyers the nature of the product they are selling. It's morally (and legally) wrong to misrepresent an item as an antique that you know not to be, and we try to take a positive and upbeat approach to inspire the wayward seller to come clean.

This week, we came across a made-in-heaven example of the issues we have all faced as sellers and buyers on eBay. The truth it revealed is troubling.

On 11/26/06, two fake Little Red Riding Hood cookie jars closed on eBay. Each jar was adequately photographed, and each seller had good feedback. The jars were extremely similar in physical appearance, with only a slight difference in the floral decal colors used on the skirts. They were in similar repair, and neither had any obvious chips or breaks. Yet the closing prices varied by nearly $150.00. Let's look at why this happened.

The first seller wrote in her ad, "I cannot attest to whether it is authentic or reproduction but I suspect repro. This doesn't make her bad, just different!!!"

The second seller wrote in her ad, "This is an earlier piece. This antique is in near perfect condition. It was part of an elderly lady's collection for many years." (Ah, the "elderly lady" story. How original)

The second seller goes on to embellish her ad with all kinds of creative nonsense. For clarity, let's parse the entire ad.

"This is a very rare, old, first run Hull Ware Little Red Riding Hood cookie jar."
Really? And you would know this a "first run" jar, how?

The bottom of the cookie jar has a hand-written inscription: "Hull Ware Little Red Riding Hood". There are no machine stamps or numbers or copyright notices on it, which speaks to the fact that this is a very early sample of this style of cookie jar.
Rubbish. Hull, nor Regal, ever hand wrote any inscription on the Red Riding Hood cookie jars, at any time during their history. This statement is complete fantasy.

Others I have seen have numbers and notices. This is an earlier piece.
See Above.

This antique is in near perfect condition. It was part of an elderly lady's collection for many years.
Is this the same elderly lady all the fake sellers on eBay buy from, or are their different ones?

The gold is in excellent condition with the exception of some crazing which can be seen on the collar detail photo.
No, the gold is burnt and purpled from firing it improperly. It's also one of the key ways to determine that Roger Jensen created both this jar, and the other jar. 99% of Jensen fakes carry this defect due to his poor firing habits. It is one of the most easily discernable signs that an item in question came from one of his kilns.

Item is described to the best of our ability and knowledge.
That, dear lady, I doubt very much.

Sadly, the honest seller, who at least tried to describe the item she was selling properly, ended up with a poor sale, while the "creative license" of the deceptive seller landed her a big profit.

This type of comparison illustrates the nearly impossible task collectors face in trying to help clean up the eBay collectibles marketplace. The competition on eBay is ferocious even when the playing field is level. Then, when unscrupulous sellers realize that very often eBay ignores and looks the other way if they write misleading ads and sell fraudulently, it makes the situation far worse. The market environment becomes completely impossible for the "good" sellers who are still trying to do the right thing, and one by one, they simply give up and leave.

eBay's reputation has suffered for years due to the high fraud rate in electronics, jewelry, and designer clothing. Unless something marked changes, and soon, I fear that soon, in the collectible niche, there will be nothing left but scammers trying to outdo each other and unsuspecting victims waiting to learn the hard way that buying collectibles from eBay is a dangerous gamble if you aren't a genuine expert.

We have created a pictorial analysis of the auctions referenced above in our StoryBook Ceramics Image Information Gallery if you'd like more information on these two auctions.
]]> General http://blog.storybookceramics.com/index.php?itemid=14 Wed, 29 Nov 2006 02:21:30 -0500 A Fake Mammy Cookie Jar is Born, Today on eBay.... http://blog.storybookceramics.com/index.php?itemid=13 gallery, so you can see the pros and cons of this new work over the original and older style fakes.

The pros are pretty obvious. It's a better looking jar than Roger Jensen and crowd ever turned out. The painting is better, the colors more pleasing, and the bisque sharpness is great thanks to aggressive resculpting of the original design. The originals are far more beautifully painted and intricate, but this new fake is a far cry better than the Brayton Laguna Mammy fakes released before.

The biggest con is equally obvious. The jar is a mismarked fake, and that makes it a fraud. It's a shame to see a company with better resources and talent go down the Jensen road and take an easy buck through deception rather than try and build their own name and presence.

The other con for these jars is not so obvious. Though the company creating them is investing more time and talent into their cookie jars, they are using VERY cheap cold paint exclusively in the production of the product. The cookie jar is probably not food safe, but truthfully, it doesn't matter. The paint is subject to peeling and scratching even with normal handling, and you should see one that has been run through the dishwasher. Hope that new owner likes stark white cookie jars, because that is what they will be left with if they try it. The jars are simply not durable.... at all.

Like their rescultped Puss-in-Boots, Smiley, and Winnie "Shawnee" jars recently released on eBay, the changes the company has made to the jars to try and avoid copyright issues will actually serve the collectors. It seems many people can just "see" that the jar doesn't look right, even if they can't put their finger on "why" and they don't bid. The Winnie pigs in particular seem to be languishing on eBay. Hopefully, a lack of sales will cause these new generation fakes to simply dry up and go away. As the fakes sellers have told me MANY times, "It's just business."]]> General http://blog.storybookceramics.com/index.php?itemid=13 Thu, 19 Oct 2006 23:41:44 -0400 New Ebay Policy ***Restricted Use of Private Feedback*** http://blog.storybookceramics.com/index.php?itemid=12
After several months of dismal eBay decisions, this announcement is a welcome suprise.October 02, 2006 | 12:07PM PST/PT

Brian Burke
Hi... I'm Brian Burke, Senior Marketplace Policy Manager for Feedback.

Feedback is the cornerstone of trust on the eBay marketplace. A seller's Feedback provides buyers the opportunity to make informed decisions about their bids and purchases. It helps instill buyer confidence, and it helps protect the marketplace against fraud.

We believe that buyers should have access to a seller's complete Feedback record before choosing to trade with that seller. For this reason we are restricting selling activities for members who have private Feedback. This is a global change and will affect all eBay sites. The expected date of this change is October 26, 2006.


What will change

* Members who have private Feedback profiles will no longer be allowed to list items after this change goes into effect. Only members with public Feedback profiles will be permitted to list items.
* Any items listed before the change will not be impacted. However, they may not be re-listed by sellers who keep their Feedback profiles private.
* Members who wish to make their Feedback profiles private can still do so. However, they must cancel any existing listings, and they will not be allowed to create new listings as long as their Feedback is private.

It's easy to make your Feedback profile public – just sign in and click on the "Make my profile public" option.

Why we're making this change
eBay offers the ability for members to make their Feedback private as an option when they have significant concerns about a comment. They can hide their comments in this way until they are able to resolve the issue. (Read about Mutual Feedback Withdrawal).

Buyers should have all the information available about their prospective sellers' past trading histories. This helps them make knowledgeable choices about doing business with that seller. Prohibiting members with private Feedback profiles from listing items will ensure we help maintain a safe and well-lit marketplace.

Whether you're a buyer or a seller, your Feedback Profile is a valuable asset that helps earn the trust of other eBay members. We strongly encourage members to keep their Feedback profiles public so everyone in the marketplace can benefit from the Feedback other eBay Community members have left them.

Sincerely,
Brian Burke]]> General http://blog.storybookceramics.com/index.php?itemid=12 Thu, 5 Oct 2006 20:47:46 -0400 Stretching for Size http://blog.storybookceramics.com/index.php?itemid=11

The result of their efforts can only be classified as a phyrric victory. Yes, the jar is apparently now the full number of inches required to call it “Full Height”, however, the downside is how it was accomplished. Viva, the incredible stretching cookie jar.

As an example, you can see a comparison of two cookie jars in our Gallery section:
http://blog.storybookceramics.com/gallery/categories.php?cat_id=5

The first jar is a genuine Shawnee Winnie Pig cookie jar. The second jar is a fake Winnie pig cookie jar. In order to increase the height of the fake jar, the body of the Winnie has been squeezed, making the jar taller and thinner. A second alteration was done to her hat, tilting the brim upward to give the piece another ¼ to ½ inch in size. The result is a full size, but deformed, Winnie cookie jar. Buyer Beware.]]> General http://blog.storybookceramics.com/index.php?itemid=11 Sat, 16 Sep 2006 19:18:47 -0400 Off topic but Still Important - BookMooch Overview http://blog.storybookceramics.com/index.php?itemid=10
But, I had to share.

When I'm not painting ceramics, I tend to bury myself in books. Anyone who really loves to read knows that books can be expensive.

So...

As a major, verified, book maniac I can easily say that this is the coolest, most useful, website for the book lover I've seen in FOREVER.

If you love to read, please check it out. I can vouch for how easy it is to use, since I uploaded the specs of 10 books I am through with in about 5 minutes. They use Amazon.com's database, so all you need is the ISBN number and "poof" you're done and on to the next one.

The points system is a great idea to keep the materials flowing and keep "hogs" at bay.

All in all.... two big thumbs up! Feed your head.

"BookMooch is a community for exchanging used books.

BookMooch lets you give away books you no longer need in exchange for books you really want.

# Give & receive: Every time you give someone a book, you earn a point and can get any book you want from anyone else at BookMooch. Once you've read a book, you can keep it forever or put it back into BookMooch for someone else, as you wish.

# No cost: there is no cost to join or use this web site: your only cost is mailing your books to others.

# Points for entering books: you receive a tenth-of-a-point for every book you type into our system, and one point each time you give a book away. In order to keep receiving books, you need to give away at least one book for every two you receive."

BookMooch Overview]]> General http://blog.storybookceramics.com/index.php?itemid=10 Tue, 8 Aug 2006 01:02:12 -0400