I belong to a great Facebook Group called Fans of Blackbird Designs. You can find it HERE. Not too long ago, they posted a picture…this one.
Oh…I loved it. I’ve been looking for some smaller season pieces to stitch for my dough bowl. This would be such a great summer piece. This is the caption that went with the photo.
“A number of folks have asked me about this photo which was one of the pieces at the trunk show at the Quilters Station Retreat last weekend. It is called June Berries and is from the book A Fine Collection. THIS IS NOT MY STITCHING! You can see a few more of the projects here: https://www.the-gearys.com/blackbi…/a-fine-collection.html”
I followed the link. Oh my. I really wanted that book. There were 12 season pieces in the book. They would all make great pieces for my dough bowl. I started hunting to learn more. This was the cover of the book…
Oh, my word…Look at me!! I found an out-of-print book and what’s better than that? The book was $11. This is the site I found it at. Oh my word, I was doing the HAPPY DANCE!! I was just thrilled. I would have 12 charts from the book, all perfect for my dough bowl. I knew what I’d be stitching next year. Each month I’d stitch one…Yahoo. Awesome.
I immediately hit the buy button. Checked. Postage would bring the cost to $16.50. I was doing the happy dance.
I ended up poking around the site some more. WOW. They had other Blackbird Design stuff that was out of print. YAHOO. Again, I had been looking for pieces to stitch and put in my dough bowl. They had a set of four Rewards of Merit.
These are small pieces that were once pieces featured when the Blackbird Designs duo taught classes. They are the ones on the bottom left. YEP…I was going to order them too.
That was another $16.50. Yahoo. I had my stitching planned out and my dough bowls would be full. I was so excited.
I was so happy…I couldn’t believe that people were saying it was hard to get out of print charts. That wasn’t hard at all. Then I decided I would poke around the site a little more. I wonder if they had other cross stitch stuff. I started looking around and somehow got back to the original page shown above.
Wait…something doesn’t seem right. If I just bought the Fine Collection book and the Rewards of Merit, why are they still showing up on the site. Um…I didn’t like this.
Then I was sure the seller must have bought out a cross stitch shop that closed. No biggie. Ah, wait. I’ll check my email for confirmation.
Darn. No confirmation email. That’s weird. A half hour has gone by. I should have a confirmation email. UGH. I was sure there was a glitch. Certainly an email would be coming.
I went to bed. I woke the next morning. Still no confirmation email. By now, I was sure I was duped. This was a scam.
I ended up looking on my bank account. YES. The money had been taken out. AHH!! Well that was a $33 mistake. AHH. So frustrating. So frustrating.
I looked up the transaction using the description from my bank. It went to someone with a suspicisous name’s Square account. Hmm.
So giving the benefit of the doubt I waited. I wasn’t hopeful but waited.
I waited for three weeks. I tried messaging them. I heard nothing at all. YEP, I was scammed.
I ended up calling the bank a month after I made the original purchase. They are putting in a dispute on my behalf. I will be refunded the money…but sadly, that doesn’t stop the problem. More people could easily go on a be spammed. I don’t want that. So I am writing this here. I hope anyone who is a cross stitcher and belongs to any cross stitch group shares this blog post so that others won’t be scammed either.
The find of the reasonably priced Blackbird books and charts was too good to be true. I should have known better.
I am putting the link HERE.
The link is only for someone who might want to make sure they too didn’t order from the same scam site. DO NOT PURCHASE FROM THEM.
Yep! Clicked on your HERE to go to the site and got a BIG RED “DANGEROUS WEBPAGE BLOCKED” notice from Norton, my watchdog. Thanks for the heads up. And sorry you got duped. We are all at risk!
I’m sorry. My anti-virus software (Norton) blocked that link as a “dangerous website”…
Thank you for warning us all!
Darn those scammers. I sold all my Blackbird Design quilt and cross stitch books on Ebay. We are decluttering and I just had too many of everything. Even had two of one of the books. Knew I was not going to do an applique quilt that intense so out they went. Hope the sales made a lot of people happy.
My Norton didn’t flag and block it. I made an order THEN FINISHED reading your blog. Am I dumb. I immediately called my credit card company stopped the transaction and canceled the card. JO PLEASE REMOVE THAT LINK orat least put it at the end of your blog.
yes please. My computer also did not put up a warning about that site. fortunately my skeptical nature kicked in, but you should put a warning next to the link. thanks
Me too Martha! I could kick myself. I knew it was too good to be true. I blame lack of sleep. Up at 2;40 with dogs and then again at 5:30 when I read the blog and clicked the link before reading the rest. $67 !!!!!
I followed the link and ignored my Norton blocker. I told my husband Norton shouldn’t have blocked it because Jo was put the link up with books she bought. I agree with others. Take down the link or put it at the end of your blog so others don’t get scammed.
Oh, Jo, what a disappointment! I’m so sorry that happened. Maybe eBay has a seller for you.
You are not alone. My husband ordered a Dewalt power tool that was a “too good to be true” price. It has been 1 month since he ordered. I did some digging and found out the name on our credit card is in Australia and is associated with scam websites. We are working with the credit card company.
Tool orbit and tool nut are 2 places I have ordered Dewalt products that were fairly good deals that were not scams. Also just found a website for Dewalt parts reasonably priced called ereplacement parts I just ordered off of that is legitimate. It is sad when companies out there get away with scamming people.
Jo; So sorry about that. I just heard Pam from Just Keep Stitching floss tube tell a similar story EXCEPT, she purchased of copy of something that she thought was an original. So that is another scam going on. Its just a shame there are shady people around waiting to take advantage. Better luck next time.
Jo I got scammed last week fortunately I didn’t have much money so I said I’d get back to them. Then yesterday evening g I got a message supposedly from. Amazzon. This morning my daughter checked it out it was scammers. I put a hold on my debit card yesterday and started over.. if those persons would put as much effort into making a decent nonhurtful living as they do scamming. They would probably end up millionaires instead of jail sentences. When they’re caught.
OH NO!! So sorry Jo! I ordered something for my son–last January– waited and waited–the item was supposed to be shipped , on its way!! Well-it was coming from China. SCAMMED – what was supposed to be some sort of a fun toy–can’t even think what it was called now -a motorized deal would stand on and it would go on snow/mud/grass!?? Something did finally arrive– in a tiny package –what looked like a ring -stainless steel with a “SMILEY” face on it. Like “rubbing it in” ha ha ha—we got your money–see what you got!! l had used my Discover card and we reported it as fraud. I was supposed to get money back–don’t really know if ever did or not–Thankfully it was only 50$ — know how you felt–feel ridiculous, mad and aggravated!! Anne
Yes please, Jo, get rid of the link and just post a screen shot of it. Pretty please put in a warning BEFORE posting links to scams.
https://www.thriftbooks.com/
I have found a lot of books that have been discontinued here. Unfortunately they don’t have the particular one you are searching for, but maybe you can find something else here?
Yikes! My computer didn’t put up a warning, either and it often does. I had a saved watch on eBay for A Fine Collection and waited until the price got to a “reasonable” one before I purchased it. It took a while, but I paid $50, which I thought was reasonable for 12 good charts. Good luck in your search! It seems like they’re starting to reprint some of the OOPs.
I too went to this site with high hopes and what threw me was the shipping for a $25.00 order was $45.00. There was no way to change the postage rate nor was an address listed for the site. Needless to say I was not going to pay $45.00 for items totaling $25.00. I did not complete the order. Terry
Thank you for taking the time to change the link with a warning. It is appreciated.
I shop at resale shops quite often so I took a picture of this book. I will keep my eye open in hopes of finding one for you. Sorry you have to deal with this.
Hi Jo! So sorry that happened to you. I always question everything now because it seems it’s a lot more profitable to scam people than get an honest job. Are you familiar with Kathy Barrick on Etsy? She might have something that you like.
Jo, thank you for removing the link. From reading the comments I wasn’t the only other one duped.