Does anyone have input on which TCGPlayer vendors have the nicest condition NM cards? I’ve ordered from many different vendors and I’ve found some vendors to be highly consistent and some to be extremely loose graders. I have a list of vendors that I’ve ordered from and the proportion of each’s cards that I’ve ordered that I found to be NM enough for my sets. But there are still tons vendors that I haven’t ordered from and my sample sizes for most vendors are too small to conclude much. I’d be interested in others’ thoughts. I’m generally willing to pay quite a bit more if I know I’m getting actually NM cards (meaning PSA 8/9 equivalent, but not with the intention to grade them).
Also curious about others’ thoughts on the condition standards Troll and Toad and CoolStuffInc. I’ve ordered quite a bit from both and have my thoughts on each, but I would be interested in hearing others’ experiences.
EDIT: Also would interesting to know if anyone has any vendors they avoid for buying NM cards.
Depends on the set. The same seller might give me a perfect card for near mint in modern. But wotc a near mint has a decent amount of whitening or at least a few. So 7ish range. For older cards I usually buy light played because light played ends up being so close to the same as near mint. But newer stuff I order near mint because it’s usually perfect pack fresh. If I get time I’ll check my order history and find some of the better sellers. The one big downside is they generally have no pictures so your buying it blind
Awesome, I’d definitely be interested in knowing which sellers have sent you the nicest cards. I’ve only ever ordered NM cards because I’ve been worried that I’ll have less leeway to dispute if the card does have a significant condition issue. LP seems to mean something different to everybody. I’ve seen some that consider cards with creases/dents LP and I’ve seen some who consider anything less than PSA 9/10 quality LP. So I’ve been weary of ordering LP, but I might give it a shot with certain vendors.
Most people with thousands of sales are reputable sellers and what most do is sell a condition down from what it actually is. Example. So light played tends to usually be more like near mint clean front a little back whitening. Moderate played tends to be like light played usually close to the same described condition. But I have received a few moderated as damaged. (Crease or previous bend. Usually it’s straighted back out but it’s obvious when looking at it. In this case I don’t like to return because price might increase over the delay or availability so I usually recieve a partial refund for a crease which has only happened when gambling on a few sellers with only a few hundred or less sales. I could do a full return without a problem tho. But keep in mind sellers might block you if you piss them off too bad. But the tcgplayer staff is easy to deal with if any problems occur. If any tcgplayer staff sees this please add pictures with listings soon , also tcgdirect would be a great idea if it worked properly with Pokemon. These small changes would increase their business so people arnt buying blind.
superspecialawesome is on eBay and tcgplayer and sold me a almost perfect I can’t notice anything maybe 9 or 10 1st edition holo Umbreon ungraded. Buis Card Place is good. Really I havnt had any problems with big sellers except Overdose Gaming. They are a big seller but messed up my order 3 times in a row. Also be prepared some sellers send unlimited cards as first edition or once a non Holo 1st edition instead of holo. Or a few times complete wrong card Edit last thing and most importantly it depends how picky you are. If you’re expecting perfect cards to get 9’s and 10’s having the picture is critical but even in that case it’s easier to buy it graded. You can get lucky but don’t go on there doing a million returns when a card has some back whitening. These cards are ungraded and 20 years old if it was perfect any big seller would grade it usually. So pick your poison but overall I love the site but unless you send me a scratched up card or bent/creased then were good. I’m a easier buyer
They do allow vendors to upload pictures, but few do (and the few that do often just take photos of the front). If more sellers who grade accurately/conservatively took time to take photos of their cards, they would undoubtedly see an increase in sales. I do wish there was some Pokemon equivalent of Cardsphere (basically a site where you set your own buylist prices and people send you cards at those prices), since people often send photos of cards before sending on there. TCGPlayer is definitely not an optimal medium for purchasing older Pokemon cards because of the condition sensitivity.
Interesting! I’m currently 6/6 with NM cards being acceptable from SuperSpecialAwesome, though their prices are often a bit higher. Buis Card Place I’m currently 20/26 with NM cards being acceptable from. A few NM cards I’ve ordered from them had very small creases, which were likely just honestly missed (and were on cheap cards so I didn’t bother disputing). Never ordered from Overdose Gaming, but I’ll make sure to avoid them. I’ve only disputed condition on one occasion, where 2 of the ~5 cards I ordered had literally holes in them. I’m mostly working on EX-era sets, so individual cards are generally cheap enough that I won’t bother disputing, though.
I’m mostly looking for the equivalent of PSA 8/9 quality cards, though closer to 9 than 8. I’ve cracked some 8s (even with 4xxxx certification numbers) that I don’t consider NM (usually because of surface wear, which is tough to see through the case). Just today I cracked a PSA 8 TMTA Entei ex that is definitely closer to LP than NM, IMO. I’m probably better off just cracking 9s than buying raw cards, but I have received quite a few cards from TCGPlayer that I’m confident would be PSA 9/10. Even being able to see pictures prior to buying doesn’t always help since it’s so easy to disguise wear with lighting conditions/angle, which is why I don’t really find eBay much better than TCGPlayer.
I have had bad luck buying raw from STFgaming. Large seller on ebay. “NM” on a large order of aquapolis reverse holos varied from psa 5 range to 7/8 range, never better. Prices are cheap, pictures don’t really show flaws and the cards are more reflective of the cheap prices than the pictures.
Interesting; I’ve also had mixed luck with him. I’ve bought a bunch of $3-5 reverse holos from him and some were decent, but others had pretty significant surface wear.
Also, if your eBay username is the same as your username here, you just bought my Scyther lol.
also tcgdirect would be a great idea if it worked properly with Pokemon. These small changes would increase their business so people arnt buying blind.