First of all, I’m a newbie to the hobby and I now know about the reputation of T&T from this community’s discord. I didn’t know much about them when I made my order (almost 2 months ago).
So like any new collector, I started with Base set/Jungle/Fossil. I ordered about 180 cards in total, including 17 holos. I also selected ‘Near Mint’ for all of them. The package arrived after 40 days, which was frustrating enough, but I was just happy for it to arrive.
I’m actually happy with all non-holos. They sent one card in Italian but it’s a very cheap one. The problem is with the holos. Since I haven’t seen any gen 1 Pokemon cards for 20 years, I posted to Discord to see if people think they’re ok.
Out of the 17 holos I ordered, I’m happy with just one. The other 16 are not ‘Near Mint’ and they also come up to about $110.
Troll & Toad’s website says that ‘Near Mint’ can contain scratches. That makes me worried that they can just refuse a return.
Does anybody have experience with returns with T&T? What happens if they don’t agree with my assessment of the cards? If they give me store credit, it’ll be fine, since I need more non-holos, but if they only give me a % of the original value that I paid, I’ll be livid.
I’m not in the US btw, so I have to pay for international postage.
I’ve never had a hassle returning to them. This is a common problem and I came to expect that condition as the norm from them so I stopped ordering from them years ago. I imagine things haven’t changed though, I had excellent customer service from them.
T&T is pretty much a crapshoot so proceed with caution. You may get better. You may get worse.
That said, 17 vintage holos for 6.00 each is cheap anyway (especially with Base Venusaur and the like) so returning with shipping costs etc may not make sense anyway.
@bulgogi, I feel your pain here, but dont worry as I could help with some advice and T&Ts return policy is luckily very good, so heres my two cents:
In the past few months of getting reestablished in collecting, Ive used them a bunch but their conditions are always a huge hit or miss, with the “miss” coming into play heavily in terms of older WOTC sets. Nothing ive ever order NM has typically held up to my standard, and ive had many cards come to me that stated such which had too much whitening, scratches on holos, silvering on boarders, etc. Plain and simple, they havent been too great for me in that aspect so id suggest looking elsewhere for ungraded singles, unless you also play the card game in which typically ive had less issues with their modern card selection.
That being said, the return policy is great (I actually just returned a japanese promo I thought would come in an acceptable condition, but low and behold, it didnt. go figure). They have a number you could call and just give them the order number and theyll send you an email with a sheet to fill out and insert in your package back to them and youll get a full refund, no questions asked, regardless of whatever you assess with the cards. Sadly though with being international youll have to pay that postage, however if you make a case with them against the condition and that you are not in the states, they might be willing to pay postage but i cant guarantee that. For the future, Id say to research other vendors with better reputations or even ebay (which ive had awesome results there) to avoid them as its really common and just not worth it.
The reason for wanting to use T&T was because I wanted to hand pick the cards and have them all shipped as one ordee. I don’t think that’s possible for ebay is it?
@bulgogi, ^ this is probably your best bet and a great option as well. Search through the previous buy threads here (and the rules as well just to know the how to’s) and youll see lots of people have had great results. I havent used here myself yet for purchases (still new as well and i want to learn more before pulling the trigger) but theres an overwhelming amount of positive that will by far outweigh that of T&T. Aside from that, single sellers on ebay that would have each card you want would be next but, as you stated, would probably be difficult to come by.
Thats always the hard part with buying is that not one single seller will have everything you one, but id say its about finding at least one who would have most at the right price or just biting the bullet with various different ones. it is what it is.
Agreed with @dizzle24 and @garyis2000 here. Besides, I also think it adds to the personal value of getting holos from members of the community. I know my cards have stuck out more when I haven’t purchased them whilly nilly. That being said, as others also stated, T&T is a luck of the draw but yeah, I’d be frustrated too if with some of those scratches. I think holos like the Nidoking and Lapras can be forgiven though as from first impression they look pretty scratch-free.
I’ve learned to expect psa 7 quality from the NM listings from them for older cards- and budget accordingly. Meaning, i’m not gonna pay psa 9 or even 8 prices for a “NM” copy from them lol. However, I’ve gotten gem mint wotc stuff from them as well in the past, so it really is down to luck.
Their customer service is really good though in my experience, just message them and they will likely work something out.
A little late but have had no issues returning (had to twice). Reached out to them via email and they responded with the return form and threw it in the mail first class bubble mailer. Got refund quickly
So are you saying that I should only send the really obvious ones back?
Do you happen to know what would happen if I were to send them all back and they deemed some of then to still be NM? Would they still refund it? The problem is that even with some description of NM in their policy, it’s still down to individual perspective.
One of the holos I got, I think is pretty much perfect. There is another one that actually isn’t too bad and I could keep.
My experience with them is quite random as well. Had a good run of some cards for random sets and decided to buy a 1st ed holo one day… Ended up sending it right back because it was definitely at least two grade conditions lower than the advertised NM.
This might end up being a pointless discussion because my package arrived 4 days before before a national holiday. I’ve been a bit busy so I couldn’t go to the post office. I was going to go tomorrow but I actually didn’t realize that was part of the holiday. So I got 4 days instead of 7.
Unless T&T allows me to send it out of the 7 day window I’m screwed.
@bulgogi, I wasn’t suggesting what you should or should not do. That’s up to you if it’s worth the time and effort to do a partial return. I haven’t returned anything to T&T myself, but from what others have said it seems like they won’t hassle you.
I was just providing some reference images for what Near Mint cards actually look like because you said in the OP that you are new and you were worried that T&T’s website said Near Mint cards can contain scratches.
When I first got into the hobby I thought Near Mint cards should look better than they actually do. This was mainly because I used to collect records where the Goldmine standard for NM is much more strict. So I thought that some reference images might help.
All i could say to this is give them a call and give it a shot, as theres nothing to lose in at least trying. Every time ive ever spoke to them they always worked with me and helped me out, so if you plead your case im sure they could help you being that they are a big enough company to hopefully understand the circumstances and cut you some slack.
And also dont think of this as pointless either, just think of it as a healthy learning experience! Youve got great input from other and myself in regard to how they are as a company and their return policy, so its always useful to gain a little extra collecting knowledge, even if things dont work out the way intended =)
Thanks for showing clarity of that scratched 7 psa @surfnsnow,that clefable is pretty deep scratch, you think it will grade 7 when if returned from grading?
I’m not sure - I bought it for my binder so I’m not planning on grading it. I don’t have much experience grading cards in the NM range. That’s one of the reasons I bought a few PSA 7s to crack - so I could see what they look like raw.