Drafting: where to buy booster boxes?

[Elfrago]

Hi guys.
I'm looking for an online store where to buy some booster boxes to draft with my fiends. I'm mostly interested in t2 expansions.
Initially I thought on buying them from ebay. Living in Italy, thanks to the euro-dollar change, I would obtain them for a fair price. The problem are the custom fees :rolleyes:.
Has someone living in europe ever ordered a few boxes from the US? How much did it cost in the end?
Or, do you know an EUROPEAN online store where I can buy them for a good price? This way I won't have to pay the custom fees.
Thx

[Lego]

For what it's worth, it's illegal for American stores to sell and then ship you boxes to Italy. Doesn't mean they won't, it's just illegal.

[Mr Wiggl3s]

How is that illegal?

They're for individual sale...

[Atwa]

Most stores won't do that.

I have tried it with Starcitygames and Trollandtoad before, and both wouldn't ship to europe, you are not the only one who has had thoughts about very cheap boosterboxes :)

I think it has to do with selling sealed product to a country cheaper than the authorised distribitors can. Boxes aren't the same cost as in the US for nothing, when simply replacing the dollar symbol by a euro symbol.

European distribitors buy their stock for a fixed price in euro's, which won't change even if the dollar get's worth more or less.

Wizards simply doesn't allow it to protect the licened resellers. However, you can simply order 36 boosters from sites based in the US, without any problems :) You can always beg at the local gamestore for empty boxes if you collect them, like I did for a while.

[Getsickanddie]

How is that illegal?

They're for individual sale...

I'm curious to know what law selling boxes to Italians breaks as well.

Edit: It might have something to do with this. (http://pe.usps.gov/text/imm/il_008.htm) Some of those restrictions are puzzling. Toys not wholly made of wood? Ribbons for typewriters? Seriously Italy?

[Lego]

How is that illegal?

They're for individual sale...

It's a customs thing. It involves selling products to Italians that Italian companies sell. I don't know the whole of it, but it is supposed to force Italians to buy from Italian retailers. All I know is that it's illegal for an American retailer to send Magic boxes to Italy.

[emidln]

I believe that it has to do with contractual obligations imposed by Wizards on their distributors that the distributors tend to impose on the websites (if the website isn't large enough to be a distributor itself). Wizards lets company A be a distributor in the North American market, but not in the EU market or Japanese market. It wouldn't be illegal, but it would get their cash cow stolen from them if Wizards found out.

I also don't buy booster boxes. I play in standard and limited events and acquire lots of packs that way. FNMs are great for stocking yourself with draft product for the rest of the week.

[Lego]

I believe that it has to do with contractual obligations imposed by Wizards on their distributors that the distributors tend to impose on the websites (if the website isn't large enough to be a distributor itself). Wizards lets company A be a distributor in the North American market, but not in the EU market or Japanese market. It wouldn't be illegal, but it would get their cash cow stolen from them if Wizards found out.

This sounds correct, but I'm also pretty sure there's Italian law prohibiting it. Someone who ran a card store in Italy explained it to me once when I asked hi why no one would ship to Italy.

[Atwa]

This sounds correct, but I'm also pretty sure there's Italian law prohibiting it. Someone who ran a card store in Italy explained it to me once when I asked hi why no one would ship to Italy.

Emidln is propably right. It is purely to protect the official importers, which have to buy the boxes for a fixed importprice in euro's, instead of different prices because of fluctuations of the dollar.

This goes for the whole of europe (and I think it works the same with asia and southern america). Why would I spend E108 in a store (or E90 in a webstore) if I can import them myself for E50 from sites like Starcitygames? The official dealers would be broke instantly.

I know dutch players have been asking questions about these price differences to the Dutch importer (PS Games) before, and the awnser was that those were the prices Wizards had set for them, there was nothing they could do about it.

The reason most people won't ship to Italy (or Spain or Brazil for that matter), is simply because of their postal service, which totally sucks.

Still, if you want to buy boxes from sites in the US, simply order 36 boosters from the same set. US retailers can legally export boosters, so there should be no problem with that. You'll pay a little more than a box would cost, but it's still way cheaper than buying a box in Europe would cost.

[cdr]

Personally, the reason that I won't ship to Italy is that there are so many Italian buyers that will scam you, even aside from the terrible postal service.

[Mayk0l]

Lol.. Gogo overgeneralization!

[The Rack]

Lol.. Gogo overgeneralization!

It's very overgeneralizing however if you ripped off from 3 people, all who are from italy. Well I wouldn't do business through Italy either.

[cdr]

I'm certainly not the only one. I've shipped hundreds of items internationally, and Italy is far and away the worst place to ship to. Nothing against italians in general, but there's a ton of italians on eBay and elsewhere looking to rip off the unwary.

[FoolofaTook]

I could be wrong on this but I believe the restriction on shipping cards overseas is a WotC restriction and not an international trade issue in either America or the affected country overseas.

Simply put, I believe that WoTC wants to protect local distributors and merchants in all of the countries that they ship too. This gives them some control of the distribution network and allows them to guarantee themselves markets wherever they want to sell their product.

If WoTC allowed American distributors and merchants to ship product overseas then they'd lose price control in markets outside America fairly quickly. There's little or no danger that they'll lose control of the American Magic The Gathering market, however they could easily lose control of Italy or Korea or any number of other markets if they allowed American distributors to resell product in those markets.

[mercenarybdu]

Just do your evil things and see what happens.

[Elfrago]

Thx to everyone who answered.
Yup, the Italian postal service sucks... once I ordered some Thorn of Amethyst from the us in September... I got them in January.
I'll have a look at the "order booster's" thing. In the meanwhile, do you know some European online store?

[Nihil Credo]

This sounds correct, but I'm also pretty sure there's Italian law prohibiting it. Someone who ran a card store in Italy explained it to me once when I asked hi why no one would ship to Italy.
I believe that's just because the Italian postal service blows donkey cock.

I find it strange that there could be laws regulating import specifically to Italy: the European common market would make that pretty stupid. Land the goods at Nice or Zagreb, cross the non-existent border, done. Of course, stupid laws are nothing new.

[Atwa]

Thx to everyone who answered.
Yup, the Italian postal service sucks... once I ordered some Thorn of Amethyst from the us in September... I got them in January.
I'll have a look at the "order booster's" thing. In the meanwhile, do you know some European online store?

Those aren't worth buying from. European sites normally take the price in dollars, add 5 or 10% and replace the dollar sign with a euro sign.

Buying from the US is normally worth it, even if you have to wait a little longer for the cards to arive. If you place an order above $15, you've normally saved yourself some money already.

[Skeggi]

Do you know some European online store?

I recommend www.manamaze.com

www.cardexchange.com is good too.

[Mayk0l]

I use cardexchange a lot. But their prices went up about two years ago, now they're usually just 2 cents cheaper than www.nedermagic.nl
They used to be great! At least they're still very fast :)
Everytime I ordered on day one, I had the cards on day two.

[Lego]

I believe that's just because the Italian postal service blows donkey cock.

I find it strange that there could be laws regulating import specifically to Italy: the European common market would make that pretty stupid. Land the goods at Nice or Zagreb, cross the non-existent border, done. Of course, stupid laws are nothing new.

I could be totally wrong :) He was explaining it back when my Italian was terrible.

Whatever the reason, the point is that you'll be hard pressed to find an American store who will ship to Italy. Then you'll have to wait a year and a half for it to get to you :)

[MTG Guru]

Random question: Can you get English boosters in Germany? Do they cater to multiple ethnic languages?