How to Spot Turkish White Marble

Turkish MarbleOften sold as Carrara to unsuspecting customers.  We bought this online from one of our competitors.  The glitter effect this is characteristic of Turkish marble.

We are frequently asked “how do we spot Turkish marble?”  It is often marketed as Carrara marble, sold as Carrara marble so how can you tell?  Spotting these tricksters is not easy at first, but if you angle the tile correctly and under a light you get a crystal appearance.  It glitters like a 70s disco globe.  Straight on you cannot see it.  The angle is needed to notice the effect.  This crystal effect is characteristic of marble from Turkey (all marble has some but not to this extent).

We purchased this online it was being called ‘Carrara” but clearly it is not.  Turkish marble is inexpensive the supplier can buy this for half the cost of Italian Carrara.  Dishonest distributors, retailers, wholesalers and even one of our online competitors are attracted by the lure of easy quick profits.

It hurts us because we can barely compete online against “fake Carrara”.  We sell genuine Italian Carrara Bianco 3×6″ Honed for $7.50SF and charge shipping.  We have to charge shipping because with a sales price of $7.50SF we cannot afford to ship Italian marble for free.  If we were selling Turkish marble, calling it Carrara then we could sell at $7.50SF and ship it for free all day.  Heck we could sell it for $5.00SF and ship it for free.  We often receive emails asking if we will “price match”, or offer “free shipping” like online company ‘X’ which of course we have purchased samples from and know it is not Carrara.  Our business is being eroded by fake Carrara it is quite a conundrum with no easy answer.

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