To do a test, some friends purchased $50 worth of cards from MTGFanatic. Cards arrived fine and on time in conditions described, now we put in a joint $1000 order and are past the date it should have been delivered?

How can you prevent getting burnt when you're only option is from an online store?

If you go to allmagiccards.com you can get a wide variety of stores with feedback from deals they've done. Personaly i have bought from mtgchicago, empiregamesonline.net, and not from amc mtgmintcard. All 3 went smooth and cards were sent quickly and in conditions described. I would recommend any of those 3.

Then again, I own the website so you can call me biased if you want.

Aside from my own site, the best experiences I've had with competitors, customer service, and delivery time have been card kingdom, troll and toad, and SCG. The others are hit and miss as you'll order a NM playset of one card and receive each card in a different condition.

To give you an idea, here's some experiences from some of my competitors.

card kingdom (3-5 day shipping, overall best conditions received except foil promos can be off quite a bit)

troll and toad (shipping generally takes a little longer but it's cheap. I ordered a playset of field marshal last week from them and only 2 were NM, but they sent me two new ones and said not to worry about the 2 played ones they sent.

SCG (i bought a bunch of cards from them awhile ago that weren't nearly in the condition they should have been. They simply said to forget about it and issued me a $15 gift card)

MTGfanatic (generally the most strict in grading along with my site but as stated above, they can take a long time to process buy orders and ship as well.)

channelfireball (despite them having an almost banworthy feedback rating from negs on ebay and a myriad of complaints on all the forums about them.. I've honestly never had a bad experience in the many dozens of times I've ordered from them.)

MTGFanatic will take a month to send you a check if you choose to be paid that way when sending in a buylist.

SCG
T&T
Cool Stuff Inc.
Smedlock
ABU Games

Had problems with:

In Nov 2009, I ordered 8 pieces of Dream Hall when it was still a $2 card.

The package never reached me. Instead, it was returned to Troll and Toad in Mar 2010. By that time, Dream Hall had increased to $10.

Problems with:
AdventuresON

I've dealt once with StrikeZoneOnline on the night Grim Monolith was banned. They actually honored my purchase of four Grim Monoliths at $10 each. This was the only time I've ever tried to buy something that was about to spike up in cost, which most retailers don't seem to honor. So they get special props here.

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Originally posted by Louisboy:
wtf... just sold some stuff to MTGfanatic.com.. they short me and say cards were sent back apparently. I haven't received any cards in a month and they say they can't do anything about.. nor will they send the difference. I got $10 on them not even sending out.. cause I doubt an envelope would have got lost.

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quote:

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Originally posted by dwiz:
They did that to me, too. The return envelope had tracking, so it looks like they may not have sent. They also will take an "EX" condition card that you sent in as "NM" and reduce whatever the sell price was to .01 (a penny) and not tell you until you see it on the invoice.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Louisboy:
wtf... just sold some stuff to MTGfanatic.com.. they short me and say cards were sent back apparently. I haven't received any cards in a month and they say they can't do anything about.. nor will they send the difference. I got $10 on them not even sending out.. cause I doubt an envelope would have got lost.

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There was a period when I have quite an amount of newer cards to unload to shops. I noticed MTGfanatic has better prices. But I also heard about their gross tricks and decided not to sell to them.

Guys, you are 20+ years old, not naive 3 year old kid. If someone is offering you $2 for a card that 10 other shops are only offering $1, you better consider a bit more. I believe MTGfanatic uses some tricks (mentioned by a few other members in this thread earlier on) to help "lower the average" of their buying prices.

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Originally posted by MTDetermine:
There was a period when I have quite an amount of newer cards to unload to shops. I noticed MTGfanatic has better prices. But I also heard about their gross tricks and decided not to sell to them.

Guys, you are 20+ years old, not naive 3 year old kid. If someone is offering you $2 for a card that 10 other shops are only offering $1, you better consider a bit more. I believe MTGfanatic uses some tricks (mentioned by a few other members in this thread earlier on) to help "lower the average" of their buying prices.

Say I am a dirty buyer. If you send me $20 of cards, I only accept $10 and then claims that the other $10 of cards are lost in the mail, then my actual cost is only 50% of my supposedly high buy prices =p

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My only issue with most shops is their limiting in quantity(anycraze and cardhaus). If I can't ship 50+ it's usually not worth the touble of sorting and paying postage but that's just me.

So, even though I payed for fast shipping, and wasn't fast at all, the cards I got were in better condition than what I thought so I guess it kinda balances out.

People I will buy from (that ship my order):

Starcitygames
Empiregamesonline.net
AdventuresOn
Strikezone
Shuffle and Cut

People who limit my order or refuse shipment:

Most Small AMC stores
ABU
Coolstuff
Channelfireball
Cardhaus
MTGFanatic

In terms of the people who limit my order - I don't find that deplorable (in most cases), though I think they should mention that before you place your order. For example, Coolstuff has let me know that they will limit me to 8 max on any item (before I order I know this). However, I do hate whenever some companies (ship 50ish% of my orders) then reject them whenever "they would lose".

Our philosophy is that we "fulfill" all orders, though I have rejected some in the past from the websites who reject my orders (fairness principle).

T&T :

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I order through Trollandtoad. It's good if you're not afraid by Exellent cards sometimes.

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MTGFanatic : multiple hundreds / thousands $ orders, everything went more than great (never sold to, though) / AND MORE THAN ANYTHING, their grading is perfect (talking about alpha sea, alpha lotus and alpha jet here)

StrikeZone : great everytime, might have some concerns about strict grading but overall : great

MagicArsenal : never had troubles with them, multiple xxx$ orders, went smooth

ABU : 100% orders AND part trade (buylist)/cash orders, both went VERY great with nice communication on the trade/buy thing. I was a bit reluctant at first for this kind of deals, but no regrets at all.