Fairy - old and new and decline of quality

Here's a good example for the dwindling of TB's quality . My tiny fairy is about 7 years old, today I bought one for my niece for Xmas (plus Lucky Knot).

I was surprised to see that all 3 in the shop looked like this and my LD told me, she sent back about 1/3rd of the last silverbead delivery because the stamps were either not legible or not even there...
She also returned one goldbead a customer ordered as it weighed more than 1 gram less than the item description says !

New fairy left, old one right:
Look at the lack of detail on the new fairy's arm and ear and the illegible stamp!


And on the back, the 925S stamp misses completely and the lines in the wings are not that pronounced:


So this is definitely no fake, but I think if they are all like this, how can you distinguish between fakes and original TB?
My niece won't notice as she is new to TB and has no comparison, but I somehow feel sad that obviously the quality has gone down even with the old designs. Lucky Knot looks quite okay, but she also had a 'brew of the moor' which was much lighter than the one I have and the finish looked shiny grey, like the new mistletoe bead !

thats just not acceptable but what can we do? well it looks to me the mold is gone.. poor definition etc etc I could almost class it as a fake.. and thats sad.

wow, you can see a real difference between those 2....Thanks for pointing it out, now I will look more secure when I am going to buy a bead.

wow!

Definitely time for a new mold!
Poor fairy....it's such a cutie!

I might have the exact twin of your new fairy ....
definitely no fake, bought at one of my ld's, no stamp to be seen... I was late and in a hurry..that is now a very good lesson you tought us to be attentive, but maybe we have to get used to poor quality...and higher prices...

The same old story...... and this is why I even prefer to choose my silvers in person.
Some of the silvers look very poorly. Remember the less detailed Decorative Bird , many Autumn Splendors missing the filigre and even the stamp too. Often you can tell the old production beads from the new store stock.
Although I've seen some very well done beads lately. Is TB getting better again ? (or the shop picking the best ones for me )

The weight is another story and something to ask TB headquater about one day.

Catsworld wrote:... I was late and in a hurry..that is now a very good lesson you tought us to be attentive...

That's true, but even if we are attentive, we obviously sometimes have no other choice ! My LD is picky and has been accused by the distributor that she 'always has something to nag about', but even she couldn't get anything better, she just ordered them in as I wanted one and she was out of stock...
And Xmas is coming closer and I don't have the time to rummage through several shops to see if any might have an old one left ...

Personally, I would forward those pictures to Trollbeads HQ. I think there is a finite time that a mold can be used before it begins to lose detail. Not that I am any kind of expert or anything close. They are falling down in the QC department. I sure hate to China bash, but I have been there, there is not much attention to detail in anything new. Even the new flashy hotels, you can tell there is no quality in build, all surface shine but they are not well made. I just hope the factory people are well paid and well treated. I would hate for someone to be "punished" because of a complaint I made, but this is the responsibility of Troll too.
Prices keep going up, quality going down, we will all just end up trading and selling our beads here, we probably have plenty between us!

That is really disappointing for Trollbeads. I won't settle for poor quality regardless of the price. I've ordered some silver beads that were lacking in detail and returned them. That was a lesson to me to only shop at my favorite LD.
It would have been so frustrating though with a time shortage and it's a Christmas gift. I would have kept the bead as well in that situation.

My fairy is like your new bead too, no stamp at all and thin when seen from the sides , never noticed before
I once (last year) ordered 3 monkeys online and sent it back as there was hardly any detail or features to be seen, the worse silver I've ever seen.

TrollBlossom wrote:... That was a lesson to me to only shop at my favorite LD.

I am shopping at my favourite and trustworthy LD, but what can we do if even they don't get better quality ?

This is very sad. Perhaps this is the reason they don't prosecute people who sell fakes...they can't tell the difference in fakes and the beads they are producing now...Does anyone know where the molds are kept and poured? And maybe we are wrong about the so called "fakes" sellers, maybe they are really TBs, just ones like MMP got. This is truly food for thought and something to consider. I'd love to see what their reply is for this one.

I had to take a look at my fairy, which was purchased in the early to mid-2000s. It's at least 6 or seven years old.

It looks EXACTLY like the new one shown. No hallmark at all, little definition on the arm and looks sort of thin. The thinness may be from constant wear? There was a time when I had just enough beads for one bracelet so it was never changed. And that lasted for a few years until my recent bead fever.

I'm going to take the bead and loupe it again in the sunlight today. Interesting!

kitsunegrl wrote:I had to take a look at my fairy, which was purchased in the early to mid-2000s. It's at least 6 or seven years old.

It looks EXACTLY like the new one shown. No hallmark at all, little definition on the arm and looks sort of thin. The thinness may be from constant wear? There was a time when I had just enough beads for one bracelet so it was never changed. And that lasted for a few years until my recent bead fever.

I'm going to take the bead and loupe it again in the sunlight today. Interesting!

Interesting! I wonder if the "new" one was actually one from old stock. Recently i've also noticed the lack of detail on some of the silvers. I saw a Zanzibar that had faint detail, like it had been polished off, as well as an Angel Feathers that did not have the fine detail on the feathers. It does make me wonder if they have changed factories.

I just checked out my Fairy - purchased Spring 2010 and he has all the stamps and detail of your older beads. Yipee.

But this thread shows how important it is for us to really check out our beads.

It is dissapointing to hear these things....

Is there someone,like BT Mods or Admin who can address Trollbeads about this ?
Maybe someone with a bit of influence can get an answer from the HIGH UP PEOPLE....
as a mail from a concerned customer might not have the effect for them to reply ??
Would love to hear what they have to say about things like this....

I do thing that people are far to quick to say that a bead is a fake, just because it dose not look like the one they have,and has no stamp, no to beads are the same and if the mould is used a lot to save money then you will get a lot difference in quality. Its sad that people may be accused of selling fakes when they may well be genuine Trollbeads . I have always thought that there are less fakes out there than people think !!

niceday wrote:I do thing that people are far to quick to say that a bead is a fake, just because it dose not look like the one they have,and has no stamp, no to beads are the same and if the mould is used a lot to save money then you will get a lot difference in quality. Its sad that people may be accused of selling fakes when they may well be genuine Trollbeads . I have always thought that there are less fakes out there than people think !!

I think there are more fakes out there than people think. But when you see the difference in these authentic beads it´s almost impossible to spot a fake.
Like Trolldog mentioned, maybe even TB HQ is not longer able to tell the fakes from the originals

If I had bought that new Fairy from MMP on ebay I would sure think it was a fake !

well it looks like no one can really say that a bead is a genuine fake

The fairy has had problems since I started collecting, mines wings aren't perfect, but I have seen a lot where one wing has hardly any detail at all

:-( that's very disappointing to see and I will be very careful when choosing my silvers in future to make sure I am happy with them and not assume they are all the same.

I would also send the images to TB HQ to raise the issue with them.

snowy wrote:
If I had bought that new Fairy from MMP on ebay I would sure think it was a fake !

See, I'd be accused of selling fakes ! No seriously, no offence, as a buyer on eBay I'd question the originality too !

I will say keep the receipt. It is much to hard to tell now. This bead proves it. My fairy is ansient and I just look under a loop and saw a face on the back of it I never saw before!
It has a face and little hands peeps over the wings. Did any one else see this? Am I just not look hard when I buy my beads?

We discussed that face on Fairy's back not too long ago, somewhere. I can't remember if it was here or another forum. I didn't see it on mine, either, until that discussion.