where to buy accuratly graded cards

[dragonwisdom]

TCGplayer in general is getting sloppy with card grading. Really sloppy. My recent experiences have been terrible. At least 20 percent or more of NM cards
were actually slightly played by their own standards.

What stores are strict with card grading. When a card is listed as mint, it is mint. When a card is listed as NM, it is NM, When a card is slightly played, it is slightly played etc....

mtgfanatic used to be really excellent with card grading and my go to store when I wanted a mint card, but with the change in ownership, I notice that they are now like every other store.

channelfireball and starcity are okay - This is strong praise.

Ebay sellers are hit or miss. Some are great and some are horrible. You have to look at the scan.

But are there any MTG vendors out there who have a strong and consistent reputation for accurate card grading. I need to start making a list of vendors I can trust. So what are your experiences. Who should I buy from. Whom do you trust to sell you mint cards.

Here is what I have noticed from my online searches. When you buylist a card, the stores are stringy with condition picking over every nick and smudge. However, when they sell cards, the standards are loose and almost non-existent.

[Ace/Homebrew]

I trust SCG to sell me accurately graded cards, but I only buy SP because any card I buy is going into a deck to be played with. I've found the only benefit from buying NM is that I get to cause the minor imperfection that knocks 5% off the value of the card. :rolleyes:

[thecrav]

When condition dramatically affects value, buy from trusted vendors (SCG, CFB, etc), users with high res scans/photos, or in person.

I do most of my purchasing person-to-person over social media. Since most of those people aren't looking to maximize their money as hard as a business might, they tend to be pretty honest. I've had people give me a grade, tell me why they think the card is that grade, then tell me some other things that they don't think affects the grade but that I might care about.

For what it's worth, on high end cards, dealers will work with you. A friend was looking to buy a NM Alpha Lotus and every dealer he spoke to was happy to provide higher res scans and photos of cards.

[dragonwisdom]

I trust SCG to sell me accurately graded cards, but I only buy SP because any card I buy is going into a deck to be played with. I've found the only benefit from buying NM is that I get to cause the minor imperfection that knocks 5% off the value of the card. :rolleyes:

ha ha!

They don't have to be high value cards. Sometimes I look for mint common and uncommons and people list them as Mint and they are really NM. The will list NM and they are really lightly played.

[dragonwisdom]

So we have 1 vote for CF and 2 votes for starcity.

They were on my high praise list. Any others?

[Dice_Box]

https://www.abugames.com

That's where I got my Alpha shit from when I Black Bordered my Painter deck.

[JohnGalt]

https://www.abugames.com

That's where I got my Alpha shit from when I Black Bordered my Painter deck.

Depending on what you are thinking about buying it may be worth buying cards already graded by BGS (but don't buy blindly, ask for scans too).

[thecrav]

I do most of my purchasing person-to-person over social media. Since most of those people aren't looking to maximize their money as hard as a business might, they tend to be pretty honest. I've had people give me a grade, tell me why they think the card is that grade, then tell me some other things that they don't think affects the grade but that I might care about.

Someone PM'd me a follow up question which I'll go ahead and answer here.

From my experience, FaceBook is the most commonly used social media for exchange of cards. There's groups for various markets. I personally have been a member of the Miscuts, High End (no single card <$50), Japanese, and "Cheap" (max price = TCG Low - 10%) groups. However, I've only bought or sold on the high end group. I primarily use Twitter.

The pros of buying on social media:
* Little to no fees means significantly reduced pricing. The most I've ever paid on social media was TCG Low on something that was selling out quickly. That included 2 day shipping in a bubble mailer.
* Because everyone is relatively low volume, there tends to be better customer service. Or at least, a single bad experience will hurt a seller significantly more than it hurts a big dealer. I've known people to be blackballed from only one bad transaction.
* Similarly, most deals are made at least somewhat publicly, so you have a bit of backup for any negative claims.

The cons of buying on social media:
* Those fees exist to pay to protect you. With no fees comes no protection, so you have to trust the person you're dealing with. Most FaceBook groups will have a thread for each "vendor" to have people reply to saying, "yea, this guy is legit and won't screw you" or to leave feedback on. The "vendor" can than provide a link to that thread to potential buyers. Twitter "reviews" tend to work similarly. Additionally, many groups or buyers will require a send-first-pay-on-arrival approach for the first few sales.
* Things aren't easy to find: This is two-fold. First, there are many different groups. If you want, say, a Japanese Noble Hierarch, you'll want to search the High End group, the Japanese group, and maybe the Modern group. Things are poorly organized. My search result for a Noble Hierarch may be in the middle of a 1,000 card long list of things that Joe Blow has available for sale. This problem is even worse on Twitter. Your options are to search through known-good sellers tweets (which are often on their personal accounts with unrelated tweets) or to tweet that you're looking for a specific card and hope that someone who has it available sees the tweet.

[Lord_Mcdonalds]

I trust SCG to sell me accurately graded cards, but I only buy SP because any card I buy is going into a deck to be played with. I've found the only benefit from buying NM is that I get to cause the minor imperfection that knocks 5% off the value of the card. :rolleyes:

Can confirm, they are super strict about grading (they pretty much have to) so most of their SP stuff could easily pass as NM from another vendor.

[H]

Can confirm, they are super strict about grading (they pretty much have to) so most of their SP stuff could easily pass as NM from another vendor.

I bought some HP Fulminator Mages when they were on sale and they are really SP at worst.

At the same time, I bought some HP Preeminent Captains and those were indeed HP.

So, with SCG, I think you'll often get better quality than you "bargain" for, but I would think very rarely worse.

[Ace/Homebrew]

I bought some HP Fulminator Mages when they were on sale and they are really SP at worst.

At the same time, I bought some HP Preeminent Captains and those were indeed HP.

So, with SCG, I think you'll often get better quality than you "bargain" for, but I would think very rarely worse.
I'm picking nits, but we're talking about grading... which is pretty much all about nit picking. :tongue:

I haven't seen SCG advertise HP cards on their site. I know they will take them to events to sell in person, but I've only ever seen NM/M, SP, and MP on the website.
I've bought MP Bazaar of Baghdad and Juzam Djinn from them and by my eye they were SP. I also bought a playset of MP Antiquities City of Brass and 3 looked SP to me, while 1 was clearly MP (someone had started to write P at the bottom left of the text box, then erased it).

[H]

I'm picking nits, but we're talking about grading... which is pretty much all about nit picking. :tongue:

I haven't seen SCG advertise HP cards on their site. I know they will take them to events to sell in person, but I've only ever seen NM/M, SP, and MP on the website.
I've bought MP Bazaar of Baghdad and Juzam Djinn from them and by my eye they were SP. I also bought a playset of MP Antiquities City of Brass and 3 looked SP to me, while 1 was clearly MP (someone had started to write P at the bottom left of the text box, then erased it).

Yeah, you are right, I'm dumb, they were MP not HP. I don't know what I was thinking when I typed my post right there. Probably just wasn't.