Magic Arsenal is another of the more f'ed up stores around too. Bought 3 times. First time they rejected the order and refunded me in store credit, refusing to refund via paypal. Next they rejected another order, because they 'priced' some cards wrongly. Cards were at that price for months (cards like Armageddon by the way). Third they sent me EX/EX+ cards that were trashed. 1 card had whitening everywhere, and the back looked like someone didnt use sleeves to play with it for years. Another card that was EX/EX+ came with 4 creases and heavily damaged, and cant lay flat. Those were older cards. Even their newer stuff came with shuffle creases. I wonder how the hell they even grade their cards.Originally Posted by Reverend Damaged
Jaco has already pointed out the better stores. Coolstuff is fairly good also. More than 40 buy/sell orders with them, only had a slight problem with one and they resolved it fairly quickly. They rejected a card that I sent it once, emailed me about it, and sent me back the card free of charge secured in toploader/bubble envelope etc.
indeed from my experience the best shop online is cardkingdom as they always answer to mail, their cards are in condition stated and they are fair.
CCGhouse is also nice.
While we're shouting out good (and bad) online retailer experiences, I recently ordered Magus of the Moon from ChannelFireball.com. They mistakenly sent Magus of the Moat, so I emailed them and they (after presumably checking their physical inventory versus their electronic records) put the MotMoons in the mail with no further effort needed on my end, they didn't even request I send back the Magus of the Moat (probably because they're not played or desired). Great customer service there.
I have always had positive interactions with StarCityGames. Although they can be a little expensive, their inventory is huge (and always right), they grade properly, and they always ship very promptly. I've bought from them a handful of times, and I've always been pleased. If I have a bunch of stuff to order, it'll sometimes be the same price to order it as one batch from SCG instead of paying a lot of random people shipping on Cardshark.
InfoNinjas
I concur that StarCityGames is a great store, and agree that their strongest selling point is their inventory and not their prices. Particually if you are after DCI foils, foreign cards, or duals they usually have stacks. I've ordered with them 3 or 4 times and never had an issue. Occasionally they take a couple of days to ship, and they have fairly rigorous credit card checks to begin with, but I rate them very highly.
My favourite seller however is CoolStuffInc. They don't have quite as big an inventory as SCG but they are great communicators, always ship immediately, and i really like the rewards system on their site. Having purchased over $2k worth of singles the 12.5% discount makes CoolStuff alot cheaper than many other retailers.
I'll always order from CoolStuff first and anything they can't provide SCG is my backup :)
Last edited by Nizmox; 01-28-2010 at 06:48 PM.
I also go for CoolStuffInc too. 15% discount on singles is really nice!! Never had problems and really fast shipping
I've ordered from coolstuffinc, channelfireball, blackandbluemagic, starcitygames, ccghouse, abugames (and all the other ones they own like card kingdom) and I haven't had problems at all. I would only really shop at these stores.
Star City is the only business that I would trust to be professional enough to honor prices. Heck, most of those other places are barely even "businesses".
“It's possible. But it involves... {checks archives} Nature's Revolt, Opalescence, two Unstable Shapeshifters (one of which started as a Doppelganger), a Tide, an animated land, a creature with Fading, a Silver Wyvern, some way to get a creature into play in response to stuff, some way to get a land into play in response to stuff (a different land from the animated land), and one heck of a Rube Goldberg timing diagram.”
-David DeLaney
SCG is always the first place I'll look when I need singles; Blackborder is my back-up. I've ordered a lot of singles since I got back into MtG in 2004 (after a 7 year break; Mirage -> Mirrodin) and I've never once had a problem (grading, delivery time, communication, etc.).
Somewhat off-topic, but props are props.
SCG is where my friends and I are buying from for singles when we can't find them at local store.
They are always on due time and in the condition that they should be. Never had any problem..
On topic, is there anyone else trying to collect legacy staples even if they don't need them just to make sure to have them before they raise in price ?
Personally, I've been looking for decently priced cards that are staples just in case that I ever need them.
-Team Laval !-
I'm kind of like that, even though it's not necessarily based on fear of price increases, more desire to be able to build decks I want with little or no worry. For example, even though I was living in a place with zero Magic going on, I still picked up a play set of Chrome Mox when they came out because I knew they would be a necessary staple of Magic (like Mox Diamond).
Right now, I'm trying to pick up cards I think will be staples in multiple decks for some time to come (e.g. Engineered Explosives, Noble Hierarch, Chalice of the Void, etc.). Actually, I am worried when picking up these cards that the value will tank. That's my biggest fear more than prices going through the roof.
Who says the Internet isn't full of <3?
Well, it appears that people are flocking to eBay for legacy shit, I always try to save money by buying online but .... my local card shop has better prices than eBay when you buy the cards in shitty condition. I would literally overpay by $5.00 to get a playset of whatever I want of cards that are $5-10 each. Its crazy. I just bid $10.48 (free shipping) on a playset of Firestorms and I can buy 4x of them at my local cardshop for $3.00 or possibly a tiny bit less for each one in played condition. I only need 3 but ... it would be nice to have the 4th for a little cheaper. But either way, this is just getting way the fuck out of hand. I should be able to go on eBay and get deals on legacy shit, NOT go to my local card shop and get the deals there. This is honestly just fucking ridiculous. Wizards needs to reprint shit like: Tabernacle, Mox Diamond, Lion's Eye Diamond, etc. to make the format at least possible for people to start out in without spending metric fucktons of money.
"I just shot Marvin in the face!"
"Why the fuck'd you do that??"
I'm a pretty big fan of SCG as well. If I can't find a sick deal from some luck on ebay or cardshark, I usually just buy from them because I know that even though I'm paying a couple more dollars, I'm assured quality customer service and properly graded cards.
Ebay has been pretty fickle lately. I just finished getting a set of City of Traitors (won a bunch of 1x auctions) for about 8-10 each, but a few of the ones that I lost went all the way up to like $18. I was also going for a set of Smokestacks, but now they're at over $30 with three days left.
It's amazing to me how far over the typical MOTL prices people are going - no wonder Tundra prices are rising, when people are bidding over $40 for one of them.
I find it astonishing that I just bought 4 Tundras from 4 different sellers for ~$33 each at the end of December, and now they're going for $37 minimum.
I guess the real question is whether or not these prices are going to see a drop after this year, assuming that legacy isn't as well supported in 2011. Cards for eternal formats have tended to hold whatever price they reach, barring any sort of banning, but if people exit legacy en masse after this year (that is, those who entered it right now), we could see enough cards put back onto the market to see prices level out a bit, perhaps. Or maybe there just aren't enough cards to go around, in which case prices will never drop :/.
If SCG is really the driving force behind the rising prices, then they actually might pull support for legacy in 2011. After a strong year of selling previously unmovable legacy cards, they stop holding these tournaments. Legacy prices fall again, and they'll buy some staples at relatively drastically low prices. (only to then raise support for legacy)
SCG is not making money by the tournaments alone with a 30$ entry fee and only getting ~150 people each time.
another fair shop to add to my list shuffle and cut, i ve ordered the very last 2 Loyal retainers the day they strangely disappeared from every shop, just after someone in this thread even mention that they were out of stocks also there ( checked just in case and wtf 2 left? for 40$). Anyway it wasn't a speculation expense, i actually needed 2 of them for a survival deck and another tool box deck, but i never really was in a hurry as the price was stable, until ... we know what.
So they shipped them right on time and i ve recieved them in pristine condition.
Mox Diamonds are forty-five fucking dollars a pop?!?!?!?!?!
Bless your heart, we must consider Blue/White Tempo's strategy and win percentages in an entirely different deck thread. -4eak
I really think its time to sell my collection.
With prices looking to go through the roof, I might actually make back more than I sunk into it.
I bought Mox D at 18 each, Goyfs at 23, Smokestacks at 4, Wastelands at 8...
I could see selling Smokestacks because that is such a niche card, but the other three cards you mentioned are not worth selling. Wasteland may drop, but it is such an integral part of the format, same with Goyf and Mox Diamond is on the reserve list.
Who says the Internet isn't full of <3?
I tend to just use eBay and auction hawk. Just saw a Factory go for 2.00.
If not I tend to just flit around StarCity, ABU Games, and Troll and Toad looking for a good priced group of items.
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