Buying singles?

[Versus]

I know you can't ask this on WOTC, if that's the same here than I apologize and you can just delete this.

Lets pretend I hate a certain auction site and go from there. I know of a few places. The best quality of service has to be ABU Games, but they are pricey. T&T are less expensive, but they never have full stock of what I need. Finally Cardshark is least expensive per single, but once you buy one Nantuku shade from seller A and one from seller B and so on, THEN pay shipping to ALL four sellers, it gets rediculous.

Any suggestions?

[Machinus]

I don't get why people don't use eBay. Is it because of payment methods? Don't like bidding? What?

[Slay]

Well, if you want a certain card soon, ebay is terrible. With that in mind, if you don't want a certain card soon, think of a price you'd be willing to pay for some card, ebay it, and bid on all the cards available for that price. I've picked up a bunch of trops for cheap($17) that way.
-Slay

[Versus]

I don't get why people don't use eBay. Is it because of payment methods? Don't like bidding? What?

Slay hit it on the head, impatience for the bid war for one. Also, anything with BIN is going to be from the same online stores for the same prices anyway. If not, any given individual seller probably won't have multiples of 4. So then you got one coming from Michigan, one from Nevada, it just seems tedious to me. I'd like to scoop them all up in one shot, ya know?

If it's gotta be that way then it's gotta be that way. I was just curious if there was fair online store I was missing?

[URABAHN]

Slay hit it on the head, impatience for the bid war for one. Also, anything with BIN is going to be from the same online stores for the same prices anyway. If not, any given individual seller probably won't have multiples of 4. So then you got one coming from Michigan, one from Nevada, it just seems tedious to me. I'd like to scoop them all up in one shot, ya know?

If it's gotta be that way then it's gotta be that way. I was just curious if there was fair online store I was missing?

OMG, y'all seriously can't wait 7 days for an auction to end? No wonder SCG and other sites can charge so much.

[Bryant Cook]

I'm an ebayaholic... I get all my pimped goodies from thurrrrrr.

[Versus]

OMG, y'all seriously can't wait 7 days for an auction to end? No wonder SCG and other sites can charge so much.

MUST HAVE IT NOW!! LOL. I just don't like ebay as whole really. I'll buy anything from anywhere before I go there. I also pay full price for books at brick and mortor stores rather than buy on Amazon cause I'm crazy out of mind and reckless!

Just so happens that I found a store in the area (just moved here) today that has binders stacked of every expansion and below ebay prices. No tax or shipping as well.

[from Cairo]

Ebay and Amazon sellers sections rule, thats the only way that I buy any cards or media/books.

[KillemallCFH]

EBay is awesome. Yeah, it has downsides, and yes, it can be hard to find exactly what you are looking for, but you can get by far the best deals there. $58 for a playset of FoWs? Only on eBay. $75 for 5 Trops? Yup, eBay (it was actually $75 for 4, which is still a good deal, but the seller messed up and gave us an extra one as an apology). Of course not everything goes well on eBay: the Temple Garden my brother never recieved; the Shivan Reef that looked like it went through the wash. Overall, however, I love eBay.

However, if for some reason you don't want to use eBay, Magic Online Trader's League (MOTL) has good deals. It is not a store; you are buying from people selling their cards (kinda like eBay). I've gotten some decent deals from there and also if you don't have money people put up have/want lists so trading is an option.

[Happy Gilmore]

Well, if you want a certain card soon, ebay is terrible. With that in mind, if you don't want a certain card soon, think of a price you'd be willing to pay for some card, ebay it, and bid on all the cards available for that price. I've picked up a bunch of trops for cheap($17) that way.
-Slay

Thats not true, I ordered a set of Alurens on sat. and got them on wed. Thats damn quick if you ask me. Especially for $2 shiping.

[Lone Signal]

I've used www.coolstuffinc.com but their prices have been on the rise recently.

At most stores though, the rares tend to be pretty pricey. I use ebays for high-tier cards and use store sites to get uncommons/commons. Uncommons/commons are sometimes hard to find on auction sites, plus getting them in small amounts tend to be rough on shipping.

[The Rack]

Cardkingdom.com is exceptional if you ask me, it is the only place I buy cards when I need them at the moment and theyt beat out eBay sometimes too. They are great for me.

[frogboy]

For the record, The Source is not affiliated with any of these sites, we bear no responsibility for fraud, insert applicable disclaimers here, etc, etc.

[Bane of the Living]

How is MOTL? Ive never really spent time looking into it since I figure the chances of getting ripped are high and most people just want rarest stuff anyways..?

[scrumdogg]

MOTL has all the risks of a trade-by-mail site, but you can mitigate them by being careful. Much nicer when you build up the refs to have people send first, but that isn't that hard to do if you conduct a large number of simple trades. And people will trade for or buy most anything if you look hard enough. Still, you aren't going to get original duals for T2 crap rares (except once in a blue moon, and then you better be there first) :cool: My MOTL nick is scrumdogg (surprise, surprise) and I am an easy trade & ref.....although my list is severely outdated....:rolleyes:

[Ebinsugewa]

www.overtheedgegames.com (http://www.overtheedgegames.com) for the win. Send Andy or Judge an email and they'll probably be able to find any single card you would need, including things like Tabernacles and other Legacy-relevant cards that are hard to find.

[Pale Moon FTW]

If you're not going to buy from EBay I guess Findmagiccards.com would be the way to find the cheapest price on cards. It searches through 20+ sites and list the cheapest. Of course you should look at the store's rating before you buy anything.
Otherwise I find StrikeZoneOnline to be the best online store. Prices are generally lower than on StarCityGames and such sites and they almost always have what you need on stock.

[Versus]

Alright, I'm sold on ebay. I just got 4 Cabal Therapy for $6.50 compared to $7 A PIECE they want at any given online retailer.

[Afro]

www.overtheedgegames.com (http://www.overtheedgegames.com) for the win. Send Andy or Judge an email and they'll probably be able to find any single card you would need, including things like Tabernacles and other Legacy-relevant cards that are hard to find.

I have to interject here. Andy is one of the shadiest mother fuckers around. Buys stolen collections all the while knowing its stolen(watched him buy it), doesn't list condition or language on any of his ebay auctions so you WILL get beat to shit cards (seen it happen), and I personaly tried to sell him a MINT alpha Wrath at a past T1 tourney a couple years ago. Trys telling me its "inked" so its in poor condition and can only offer me 40 dollars. I laughed in his face went over to Jeff Anands(I think? Samite Healer guy on TMD) table and ended up trading it at full value because it obviously wasn't inked and I even told him about Andy's comment.

These people are scum of the earth. Stay away at all costs. Sure you might get stuff a bit cheaper but I'd rather get my cards in better than shitty condition and know that I'm not supporting people who buy known stolen collections.

[Cait_Sith]

I personally love www.cardshark.com, but I do visit eBay because they will, at total random, have VERY good deals, plus will have some very random hard to find items. Be careful though, sometimes eBay has VERY BAD deals. Their prices are totally warped.

[Versus]

Now see, HERE'S the example I was waiting to give!

Just two weeks ago after I decided I wanted Smallpox for a deck. I ordered a playset for $6 (shipped) off ebay. A DAY later I saw them at a store for $2.50each. Now I'm pretty friggin impatient. Normally I would have bought them there as well as the ones coming in the mail, but I didn't and I waited. 12 days later, nothing.

No big deal I'm not playing out anywhere important, but I did wanna go to the local shop and get some rounds in on Friday. Had I been going somewhere I would have to drive an hour and a half and pay the $10 (plus gas) to the place I saw them in to begin with. Had I bypassed ebay altogether I would have paid $4 more to just get the damn things and be done with it.

Meanwhile, I got a minty fresh set of Goyf on ebay that arrived in 3 days. Point being, it's just not consistant.

[Anarky87]

I remember picking up like 3-4 playsets of Tarmogoyfs on ebay when they first came out, because no one was buying them really. I mean, auctions would end for like $3-5 at most. That's always fun, especially when people around here were trading them at $3. Needless to say I have a lot of Tarmogoyfs.

I usually use ebay most of the time, because I'm patient. I'll sit on there and watch tons of auctions and pretty much always get a good deal. But I do use some other sites every now and then for the common cards I need, because I can get them at 20 cents or something. But most of the time, ebay all the way.

[Tacosnape]

On Ebay, I just leave neutral feedback for anyone who lives in the same country and can't get me my card in ten days. If they take fourteen, I file my claim immediately, no questions asked, and barring miraculous circumstances, they get negative feedback regardless.

Anytime I order cards from Star City Games, I get the cards in 2 days at the max. Troll and Toad sometimes gets them to me in 1, and never more than 3. Fast ebay shippers get them to me in 2-3. There's no excuse for me not having my cards in a week, and ten days is the absolute max cut as far as I'm concerned.

I'm currently awaiting a set of City of Brass I picked up about nine days ago from someone who lives less than 200 miles from me. This shit's inexcusable and I won't give positive feedback to people who do it. They don't deserve the same level of feedback as good shippers, like me and the people I regularly order from.

[Wallace]

On Ebay, I just leave neutral feedback for anyone who lives in the same country and can't get me my card in ten days. If they take fourteen, I file my claim immediately, no questions asked, and barring miraculous circumstances, they get negative feedback regardless.

Anytime I order cards from Star City Games, I get the cards in 2 days at the max. Troll and Toad sometimes gets them to me in 1, and never more than 3. Fast ebay shippers get them to me in 2-3. There's no excuse for me not having my cards in a week, and ten days is the absolute max cut as far as I'm concerned.

I'm currently awaiting a set of City of Brass I picked up about nine days ago from someone who lives less than 200 miles from me. This shit's inexcusable and I won't give positive feedback to people who do it. They don't deserve the same level of feedback as good shippers, like me and the people I regularly order from.


Tell ya what then don't ever buy anything on Ebay from this guy "misterwile" you want a good laugh read his feedback. I paid for cards on the 16th of Aug. still not here yet. He claims he shiped them on the 28th in an overnight drop off. Yeah right!! Still thought read his feedback it is good for a laugh or two!! :tongue:

[dahcmai]

I'm one of those Ebay power sellers. I tend to ship next day as I check my mail at night. I don't understand why some of them take so long either. I also buy from there so I expect about the same. I totally agree with Taco, if they take that damned long to send, stick it to them. Some of those guys give the rest of us a bad name. You have to give China a break in some cases though, that place seems to have a lock down on the postal system. Everything going in or out takes forever. You have to watch the exorbitant shipping also.

I like scanning every card I sell there so people have no excuse for complaining when they get it because I said it was whatever condition. I try not to make a claim about condition unless it's pack fresh beautiful. I just put up an impressive scan at high res. I'm also pretty good about sending scans of backs or whatever else. What's funny is I sold a Serindib Efreet once for a lot more than I expected just because I listed the condition as beat to hell. lmao Go figure.

The ones that kill me are the ones who charge like $5.00 in shipping to send one card. That just makes me cringe. Especially when they send it in a frigging envelope crimped between two pieces of cardboard. Gawd, buy some frigging top loaders. They work well and never let the card bend. you'd think people would figure that one out if they are selling so much there. Ebay takes a large chunk to be sure, but man, it's not no $5.

I plan on making my own site eventually because you can't sell playsets of uncommons and commons there anymore without getting raped by Paypal and Ebay fees and I go through a lot of stuff. I still don't get why some of those places aren't strictly cheaper than Ebay because of that alone.

I'd post my ID, but not sure if there's some rule about it. It's not hard to find mine though, I think I have the only Amilawthe, Mythical Judicator on there.

[zulander]

I just got an FBB Trop for $65 on ebay. I'm not QQing.

[from Cairo]

Ebay definitely rules when you're not in hurry.

If its an event you're really banking on having a deck ready for I tend to suck it up and shell out the extra cash on an online store - also for bulk commons/uncommons, like cantrip engines or the cheap goblins, or w/e.

I was trying out Cardshark.com for a few buys the past couple weeks and 2/3 people I bought from didn't confirm my orders, so I canceled them after 4ish days. They didn't have bad ratings, but didn't have many referrals either, I figured just buy from the cheapest seller that didn't have a crap rating. Anyways I would be careful if in a hurry using that site, pick one of the high end sellers (who's prices tend to be higher... aka you're not saving much over a store anyway)... I was sort bummed about it, figured people selling on there would check their emails daily or every other day to at least acknowledge or cancel the sale. Waiting 4 days and being at square one, and then having to wait one more day while Cardshark processes the refund, just seems not worth the headache.

[DarkAkuma]

I buy cards on ebay all the time. Most of the time, packageing care and shipping time are fine. But i have had a couple issues i should let people know about i guess.

I live in vegas, and i ordered some cards from a arizona seller. I waited a week for them to get here, checked my email, and they were only just sent that day. A week after i ordered. Got here about 4 days later... It should take 3 days tops for something to get here from arizona. "invest_platinum" was the seller.

And just today i got a card from a seller in WA. This marks the first time i have receaved a card with such poor packageing. Most, if not every seller on ebay uses hard plastic toploaders to ship cards, this was just a standard black ultra pro sleeve wraped in a piece of standard printer paper, inside a standard envelope. Luckly it arived in good shape and it was only a Eladamri's Call. Being its from WA, im hopeing it wasent one of the regulars around here. But i wont be buying from "piratesgoldforme" again.

Other then those 2, i have no complaints. Most sellers get the cards in the mail within the next 2 buisness days, and at the very least ship them inside a standard hard plastic toploader.

EDIT: Just got another card off ebay with just a thin piece of paper and a thin envelope as packageing. Some ebay sellers are realy greedy. They charge several dollars to ship things in a simple envelope with a stamp on it. I always considered the top loader as part of the shipping and handling cost. I wont be buying from gyzar_com again, since he cuts corners.

[Sanguine Voyeur]

The worst packing I've ever experienced was the two cardboard case. However, I ordered the cards at around ten at night and it came the next day.

Don't know how they managed that one.

[dahcmai]

He was stalking you.