Well, I do not have much time to spend here as I would like to do it, cause I m writing on a book about Maria/Marie, but these discussions are so endless, aren t they?
I m shopping at ebay and from time to time I find the items you are mentioning. I think the Cabinet cards are well done, to be true and you must admit it, people do pay much money for them, okay, but I think because they are cheaper than the official ones, the real Cabinet cards or CDVs. What I think is not fair of the seller of the "fake" CDVs etc. is that that the photos are sometimes cut, means there must be OTMA on them and you only have Tatiana and Ana- I think this leads some people to the fact that the photos are new ones or rare, cause they mainly do not know the real look of them.
It s hilarious that some sellers do resell the photos, reproductions they have just bought at those other sellers!
A watermark is no help- it s so easy to erase them even the hidden ones, there is even free software for it on the www.
And please do not mind my words- but where do the photos and pics come from you do put in here? Do you have the original ones? Maybe it s not good even to share those photos here- if you ask someone at the Archives it s illegal, too and many users do copy the photos here, members of the board, put them on the computer and so on...so what goes around comes around- sad, but that s it.
If you upload them here, there is always the fear of someone stealing them- one can use the those files for photos, where you have to log in to share them and are not able to copy them (I can t remember the name).
The mentioned seller tomhet is reliable in many of his items, I just had a look at them and I have bought an antique Cabinet card of him some time ago- so it s just a few photos and I can name some others sellers who have offered photos and (wink) there are members of this forum, right?
So, do not anylonger discuss something you can t change, there is a market for everything as long as there are customers, just laugh about them if they spend their hard earned money on those items- a real collector will not buy them.
Maybe my words are hard and rude, I do not mean it that way.
Imperial Highness
