Never Buy a Bad Diamond Painting Again: 7 Things You Need To Know
They're everywhere! How to spot rip-off diamond painting companies and only buy from trusted retailers in Australia.
Are you sick of buying poor quality diamond paintings that are a waste of money? Don't let your hard earned dollars go in the trash!
Diamond painting kits are fun to make and make an amazing hobby for artistic expression and stress relief. All diamond paintings come from China, but NOT all diamond paintings are made the same! Mass manufacturers take advantage of the booming demand for diamond paintings by flooding the market with poor quality products that are made from stolen art. Pro tip: These may undercut prices from reputable sellers, but are totally not worth your money!
We've compiled a list of 7 things you need to look out for when purchasing your diamond art. Look for these common clues to help you avoid buying bad diamond paintings!
Do the customer reviews look real?
(1) Check Feedback - Reviews are a golden goose for many shops that sell online. Legitimate customer reviews inform other customers about great shopping experiences and warn them away from poor ones. Look at the reviews for the product or store you're looking at, especially the critical (1-3 star) items. What do they say? If a shop has mostly 5 star reviews, do they look like they were written by real customers?
One of the more reliable ways to see if reviews have been "faked" or not is to read a couple and see if they all look "same-y" or generic. These could be variations of "Looks great, will purchase again!" or the like. Some will have awful grammar or spelling as a result of being translated from another language. Real customers will also often take pictures of their completed works and leave longer reviews.
Does the title look like it was written by a person?
(2) Weird Titles and Descriptions - If you've ever ordered anything from a big marketplace like Amazon or Ebay, you might notice the titles of their products are LONG. So you'll see something like "Diamond Painting DIY 5D Art for Home Relaxation Amazing Hobby Gift Birthday" etc etc... The reason this is done is to trick the Google robots into promoting their products over others. It's lazy and heartless; evidence they don't care about putting effort into their own marketing - so why should they care about their products?
Further, the descriptions will be FULL of weird English and grammar mistakes. Sellers from China do not have native English speakers to write stuff for them so the product descriptions will definitely read like a complete mess and could give you a headache! And of course, if you see any Chinese letters anyway, that's also a dead giveaway.
Is there a clear way to contact customer support?
(3) No Contact Info Or Phone # - Is there a physical business address, legitimate email and phone number on the site? Many times if you see either 0 contact info or some "made up" email address, be on alert! If you order from this store don't expect quick or even any customer service when things go pear shaped.
When purchasing from your own country, the business should at least have a local address, Australian website and phone number to call.
is the art officially licensed?
(4) Check for licenses - stores that sell poor quality products are only looking to turn a quick buck and WON'T bother investing in proper licensing for their art. While diamond painting has seen a decent boom in recent years, the market is flooded with illegally acquired art to make the designs!
Shops that have legally licensed art will always display the name of the artist on the product listing. Or at a minimum, they will give some kind of nod to the original illustrators on one of their store pages. Chinese diamond painting suppliers steal pictures and paintings from the internet and then use those stolen images on their own stores. They do this because copyright law is very lax in China and getting caught isn't even worth a slap on the wrist. They'll simply take their listing down and pop up somewhere else under a different name.
What's the reason for the price difference?
(5) Poor Quality - What's poor quality? Usually poor quality has something to do with either the canvas, tools or the colour scheme. This is the reason why many generic diamond paintings you find in big online marketplaces can sell for so cheap. You get what you pay for!
One of the biggest cost-cutting measures by far is not hand charting the designs. Proper design of a diamond painting canvas to make it look colourful, attractive and faithful to the original requires dozens of hours of work from a professional designer. The majority of cheap diamond paintings skip this process altogether and simply throw a picture into a "mosaic maker" to create pictures in mass quantities.Here's a case study: Mary receives her diamond painting package in the mail after a month of waiting for the goods to arrive directly from China. She opens it to find that the canvas has been poorly protected and full of creases! Figuring she may as well still give it a try, once she's put in the hours, another problem arises... the picture is blurry and looks nothing like the original design she fell in love with. The diamond drills are also popping off the canvas and making a mess everywhere. What a completely frustrating experience!
Haven't I seen this design before?
(6) Popular designs - Do you have a sense of deja vu when looking through a catalogue? Most sellers from China LOVE copying art that's popular or has good feedback! They don't care about originality at all because if people like it then they're going to copy it and get it in front of as many people as possible!
As long as they can get away with it due to loose copyright laws, they have nothing to lose. Artwork that is licensed have enlisted services to constantly hunt down "fakes" or unlicensed selling of artworks. So if you see a popular design that's being peddled by way too many merchants, red flag alert!
Trust in an active community
(7) Social media presence - Building and maintaining a profile on popular social media sites like Facebook and Instagram take work. BUT it's an important and irreplaceable part of what makes good businesses great. Consistent posts on social media is a definite thumbs up for companies that care about retaining loyal customers.
Check the brand name of the product you're looking to buy. Can you find them on Google, Facebook or Instagram? If not, there's a high chance this shop is only in it to for the $$$. Would you trust such a company with your hard earned cash? Another thing to check is if the company has an "About Us" page. Did they care enough to write a bio about their business and its founders? Some careless stores may have thrown something up with bad grammar, incomplete sentences and broken English. Not unlike our earlier point about titles and descriptions! These guys are literally a "dime a dozen" and you shouldn't have high expectations when buying from them :))
My advice? Instead of spending hours searching for the best deals on big online marketplaces like Amazon, Ebay, Ali Express and Wish, save time by going with reputable suppliers that have a social media presence and great reviews. If they're an Australian business, what a bonus! You can shop in your own currency and (hopefully) get the goods ship domestically so you're not waiting months. Just remember: You get what you pay for! If they are selling diamond paintings for dirt cheap prices, then that's all they're worth. You cannot expect to receive hand-charted, licensed artwork made with premium materials for $5-$10! Even if they have good feedback, you may still be in for a nasty surprise... so why take that risk? I hope this article has been helpful for you in your diamond painting journey. Buying more for your stash is part of the wholesome experience and should always be a pleasant one.