Rant - Respect for the item and respect for the buyer

[Metapod_museum]

Rant post - first time writting a thread here!

As some of you may know, I am collecting the Metapod masterset with 100% of official and unofficial published products, including not only TCG, but all kind of products (someday I will publish the preview of my collection!).

Respect for the item and respect for the buyer.

When are we going to stop accepting unprofessional behavior in our hobby as normal? It’s amazing, that just because a card is not a +100€/USD Charizard or Pikachu or Dunsparce, it means that you can sell Played or Light Played cards as if they were Near Mint. If people need to lie in order to sell a card for 2 or 50 cents, we have a problem in the hobby. Add to that the fact that few sellers give a “minimum” of protection to their shipments when the cards have little value, such as including the cards in individual sleeves between two cardboards or a toploader… Then please don’t sell! Is it not worth enough for your time / money? Then cancel the order. Are you a new seller? Then put a lot of effort in order to get good rating in that specific card platform - as well as if you are a regular or professional salesperson.

In the mailday a few days ago (17 mails) 50% of the shipped items arrived with unprotected cards and/or in a condition far from Near Mint. But today, out of 10 mailings, only 3 of them reflected the actual condition of the cards and were well protected. In the last pic, with green boxes the shipments that have arrived well, in orange halfway, and in red badly.

To many of you this will seem silly, (who cares about a 20 cents Metapod card?) but remember that the basis of our hobby is supported by people who do not value the heart and essence of collecting: Respect for the item and respect for the buyer.

Of course, the liability is also on the buyer to request pics of the cards before purchasing. Ultimately, however, the platforms (such as cardmarket) require sellers to comply with certain standards and to label products correctly. If a card costs 20 cents and shipping costs 1,5€, and I have to repeat that purchase because the card I received does not reflect the reality of the purchased condition, I will be paying again for another card and paying more than 10 times the value of the item in shipping costs.

What is your opinion about this?

Thanks to @pfm to encourage me to post this rant.

Thank You for Coming to My TED Talk

[Dyl]

Unless you are a massive store, selling cards on TCGPlayer (U.S. equivalent) for <$0.10 and $1.00 shipping loses money when all is said and done. However, these cards are still valued by players and collectors… so how should they get sold? Unfortunately, cutting corners on packaging/safety is the only way.

Cards should never be labeled incorrectly, but everyone’s definition of NM, LP, MP, HP, DMG vary. I run into this problem regularly, which is why I am so eager to continue supporting a business when I agree with their subjective appraisal of card condition on sites that rarely provide pictures.

[filthynwah]

You’re not wrong in principal, but practically I’m not sure how these places are supposed to make it work. If all they did were $0.10 sales + shipping and materials and spent time validating the condition of each card and packing them well, they would starve to death even if the volume was there to keep them busy.

If I ran one of these stores and had bulk cards for sale, I’d probably have a minimum order amount. It’d still take time to validate condition, but if I could pack up 50 of the cards at once rather than one at a time or there was a single more expensive card tagging along with the order it might be doable.

[fourthstartcg]

Welcome here! I’m excited to see your collection post soon!

Getting messed up cards is always a pain, and I share your annoyance in receiving cards that are clearly not in the described condition. However I think several of your claims go a bit too far, for example that sellers are lying about card condition or that there’s a widespread problem in the hobby when people don’t protect cards worth less than $1 in shipping.

It’s much more likely that the sellers are only quickly glancing over cards, or maybe not even individually examining cards, when they are listing individual bulk commons/uncommons. As others have mentioned, it is not financially viable in any way for sellers to give an in-depth condition analysis for bulk cards and to ship with strong protection. I believe your gripe is much more with a market that does not allow for a financially viable way to sell individual bulk cards, rather than the sellers themselves. I would think that if sellers had to validate exact condition and ship with toploaders/bubble wrap all the time, they would choose to simply not sell individual bulk at all because they would lose money on it. In my opinion, receiving badly-evaluated bulk is simply the cost of doing business when you’re buying cards for 50 cents each.

Perhaps there is a niche here though, and an area to capitalize. I wonder if the collector demand is high enough to make it viable for a store to offer individually validated conditions and guaranteed secure shipment at higher prices. Maybe a minimum order quantity or simply raising the price a lot. Are there enough collectors to make selling guaranteed NM/MT common/uncommon bulk at $2/card a financially viable proposition? My guess is probably not, but maybe sometime in the future.

[gengarbrigade]

I understand your frustration. I used to think TCG Player and Troll and Toad were synonymous with “NM” but really getting “LP” but i’ve been getting screwed on eBay. Sure; I get it’s up to you as the buyer to look at the card on the listing to determine if it’s the condition you want, but man you cant get every single angle, the best lighting, it just doesnt happen all the time. Could I leave a negative review, sure. But does it really solve anything when it’s a few bucks for the card? One way I usually deal with this problem is by saving sellers on eBay that not only post the card, but immediately tell you the condition, or have multiple options of the same cards and list what they think each card condition is. I recommend looking through @thundermoo and @trainerji to see great examples on how I wish every seller listed their cards. It may not solve your issue, but know that you arent alone in the frustration friend.

[seafoamarticuno]

I get it, it’s not ideal when you order near mint cards from tcgplayer and some come back LP or MP. But you have to be realistic. Some of these sellers are selling hundreds or thousands of cards per week, the margins are razor thin on cheap bulk type cards, you’re not going to get true NM 100% of the time, you can’t have that expectation. I’d suggest thinking through which option is best for you, here’s how I usually think it through:

If I’m flexible on condition and just completing a set binder for example, TCGplayer / ebay bulk lots / etc. are fine, knowing that maybe 10-20% of the cards won’t be as nice as you’d hoped. You can re-order them again since they’re so cheap or just accept it.

Next step up from this is ordering singles from ebay. Instead of 10 or 20 cents on TCG player, you might pay an extra $1-2 for some of these cards. But you get a picture of the actual card you’re ordering so can have a little more confidence.

Another option is going to your LGS, yay, support local businesses! Yes, prices might be a bit higher (maybe 50 cent bulk instead of 20 cent bulk). But you get to hold the actual card, and see it in person before buying. If the tcgplayer experience is bothering you, this is probably the best option. There might be more of a hunt to find cards 0not every shop has every card, but you can scout out nearby LGS’s, get an idea who has the best/what types of bulk, build a relationship with the owner or employees, and although you spend a bit more, you’ll get more of what you’re looking for.

And if none of these are good enough, and you require “perfection” for certain cards, just buy slabs and crack them. You can buy PSA 8 or similar.

[seafoamarticuno]

One way I usually deal with this problem is by saving sellers on eBay that not only post the card, but immediately tell you the condition, or have multiple options of the same cards and list what they think each card condition is.

I do similar for TCG player. If I get mostly LP/MP back from a NM bulk order, unless it’s really bad I’m not going to leave negative review on that seller. But I do keep a spreadsheet with notes for all sellers I’ve ever ordered from. So I know which sellers have better/more accurate conditions.

[gengarbrigade]

Exactly! If the buyer listed what they said was the actual condition, regardless of the price, I immediately save them and try it again. It saves me the trouble for next time. Though it may not be a guarantee, I’d take the risk than having to start with someone new, and just keep building from there and once in a while take an L.

[thundermoo]

Thank you brother

When restocking my 151 English inventory i swear the reject pile is larger than the NM stack at times