Is Troll and Toad reliable? Can I buy a card that’s advertised as “near mint” from their store on their website and have confidence I’ll receive a card that’s actually in near mint condition? I’ve never bought cards off of Troll and Toad, so I don’t really know what to expect. I’m a little hesitant, especially because there aren’t any pictures of the card you’re gunna get. Also, I know people on ebay have some pretty interesting ideas about what a near mint card looks like, and I’m wondering if this is the case for Troll and Toad as well. What’s your guys’ experience with buying cards from Troll and Toad?
I’ve bought probably over 100,000 cards from T&T at this point, so I can certainly shed some insight here:
It depends on the age of the card and the value of the card. The more valuable the card, the better condition it will be in (on average). The older the card, the worse condition it will be in (on average).
Are the cards NM? It depends on what you define as NM. Would most grade at least a PSA 7? Yes. Would most grade at least a PSA 8? No, but a sizeable portion will. PSA 9/10 quality cards are atypical, but it does happen.
The bottom line is this: 80%+ of T&T “NM” vintage (pre-2007) cards are between PSA 6 and PSA 8 quality. For modern cards, the condition will be significantly better (on average), of course.
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Troll & Toad is more suited to people who need cards for deck building and less for collectors who would prize condition. My experiences have been mixed. I still take a chance on them occasionally and sometimes it pays off. But I am in the habit of purchasing several of the same card, keeping the best one, then returning the rest (or selling them myself).
They’re certainly professional and easy to work with. Their returns are hassle free. I don’t have anything against Troll & Toad, but I don’t think they’re suitable for most collectors.
There is absolutely a divide between newer cards and older cards. But a lot of their inventory comes from collectors selling their excess which means a lot of people over-estimating their condition which all gets mixed together and sold at the same level. If we use PSA as vague reference I’d say most of their cards are 6-7s. This isn’t even taking print quality, especially centering, into account.
Furthermore, I think it’s usually a big risk to buy a card unseen. Troll & Toad won’t provide pictures if they have more than one of it available. Sometimes they will provide a scan of ONE of the cards but will make it clear they can’t guarantee which card you’ll receive. You get what you get and there’s no way to know until it shows up. If you’re spending a lot of money on a card this isn’t really a comfortable position to be in.
They also occasionally confuse inventory, especially for prints which are minor variations of the same card. They will correct this if possible but it’s obviously an inconvenience to have to report the wrong item and it’s disheartening to discover they never had the correct one to begin with.
Troll & Toad is a really safe environment to buy cards. Their prices are usually low. Returns are easy. Customer service is good. But I think you have to be more lax with your condition standards and comfortable receiving cards based on stock art. If you’re a player then it’s no problem. But if you’re a collector I usually prefer an alternate path.
That’s my experience as a pickier collector, anyway.
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Check out their product condition guide:
www.trollandtoad.com/productConditionGuide
Theyre great for cards that you need for your deck, but don’t expect PSA 10 quality for NM cards.
I basically stopped buying from them. Pretty much anything that isn’t ultra modern never meets my standard of NM and I found I had to submit requests for refunds after almost every single order due to cards straight up missing, wrong cards, or damaged cards listed as NM.
I would always just be left with cards in worse condition that I would of liked and had to waste time chasing refunds due to constant errors. Not worth.
I’ve learned the hard way. at this point in the game, you will almost NEVER get a true mint card off troll and toad, or any other site tbh.
There will always be some type of minor flaw preventing it from being gem mint.
The only exception is cheap / common cards that cost 2 dollars or less.
at one point it was different, but with the prices of things lately, if it’s gem mint it’s getting graded instead of sold raw.
OP is not asking about Mint cards. No one goes to troll and toad to buy Mint cards. Yes you can get lucky but it’s not sustainable or worthwhile. This point in “the game” is pretty much consistent with buying from them 5 years ago.
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I’ve bought from them a few times and
NM varried from PSA 7,8,9. (sometimes lower)
LP has varied from a PSA 5 - 8 (sometimes lower)
MP has varied from a PSA 3 - 6
I have don’t have a ton of experience, but this seems to match up with @zorloth,
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