Is it in the cards?

December 1, 2007 10:39 AM

I'd like to buy a deck of tarot cards from these folks, but I've never bought anything online before. Is there any reason to think doing this is a bad idea? What do I need to know?
posted by Slam I Am to shopping (7 comments total)

They accept PayPal, so set up a PayPal account, and use that. If you pay via PayPal, it works like this:

You give PayPal your credit/debit card details. You pay PayPal for the purchase and PayPal passes the money on to the merchant. The merchant never gets your card information. If there's a dispute, contact PayPal for a chargeback.

The site looks legitimate. The address is a real place.
posted by essexjan at 10:44 AM on December 1, 2007

When you make an online purchase from a new vendor, Google the name to see what people say about it. If the vendor is large enough, they will often be rated on large sites like resellerratings.com. Otherwise, you can add strategic words to your Google query of the vendor name (e.g. "reliable," "scam," "sucks," "bait-and-switch") to see if people have praised or complained about the vendor.

When making payment, the merchant should offer you the opportunity to do so using a well-established payment service like Paypal, or through their own secure checkout. If it is the latter case, make an extra effort to check if the vendor is trustworthy, and make sure the payment page is secure (usually indicated by a lock icon in the status bar of your browser) before you enter any personal information.
posted by Krrrlson at 10:52 AM on December 1, 2007

Paypal is a very useful service, as essexjan has described. I shop extensively on line and have never had any problems. One recommendation I would make, is to reserve a credit card exclusively for online purchases.
posted by Neiltupper at 11:04 AM on December 1, 2007

The other alternative if you are feeling a bit leery is to see if your credit card provider offers one-time use credit card numbers - it would only be valid for one transaction, and won't be linked to your normal card number. If you decide to not use PayPal, go with a credit card rather than a debit card - credit cards you can dispute charges on. The FTC has some good general tips for online shopping here.

But the site you linked certainly looks legit, and their address is real. I also found nothing searching for their name/url and the buzzwords like "complaint" "fraud" and "hoax" on Google. I think you should be fine. I have been buying things online for a long time, and as long as you do some research first and try to monitor your credit cards diligently, you should be OK. I have one credit card that I only use for online purchases - that way it's a lot easier to keep track of charges and to make sure I don't have any issues with shady charges.
posted by gemmy at 11:05 AM on December 1, 2007

There is an old superstition that says you should not buy tarot cards for your own use; they should be given to you instead.
posted by ikkyu2 at 11:10 AM on December 1, 2007

I only read with the ones that have been gifted to me, as that was the rule the woman who taught me to read. (I've gifted a set to everyone I've taught to read cards, however and have a number of decks on hand as gifts and curiosities.)

I do about 90% of my shopping online and have been doing so since 98? 99? I look for PayPal, Verisign, I'm cautious with my info and I google the retailer (and sometimes do a whois). My only incidents involve being eScrewed on eBay.

I've never had a problem. Just use PayPal and use one of your "secondary" cards -- not your everyday credit card -- just in case there's a problem.
posted by Gucky at 1:58 PM on December 1, 2007

How do you have a metafilter account without having ever bought anything online? Someone buy it for you, perhaps? =P
posted by Quarter Pincher at 9:36 PM on December 2, 2007