Why is it that people always talk about quality not being so important for a binder? Do people usually get mediocre quality for the binder then get high quality separately, possibly to be recorded?
Here’s a T&T “near-mint” I received earlier this month:
(and yes, the front is pretty much equally as bad)
Saying I’m disappointed would be an understatement. I’ve emailed T&T about this two weeks ago (when I first received it) and I still haven’t received a response from them. I’m pretty much done with the site at this point. Especially considering I’m an international buyer, I’d really rather not go through the hassle of filling out a return form and shipping back a $5 item.
I’m not sure about other people, but for my binder collection I’m generally less concerned about the back of the card compared to the condition of the front of the card since no one’s looking at the back anyways.
Some guy on youtube, rhymestyles or something along those lines said he bought an Aquapolis crystal Lugia from T&T listed as ‘near mint’ and he got it back from PSA as a GEM MT 10. Now I feel like he’s a T&T sponsor because that ‘near mint’ looks like an ebay NM lol
Its 1000% a hit or miss with them with condition. I wouldnt put it past him that hey, he might have actually got that 10 grade from them, but its purely luck. @burpies, card here reminds me of an Espeon 1st edition NM I got from them back in Novemeber which had similar boarder issues and also a ton of odd white spots all over the card, which is something ive never seen before. In that same order I got each of the Southern Islands english holos NM and they were flawless (minus Togepi which had a few scratches) They took the return easily with no hassle on Espeon, but yeah I wouldnt risk it. Its mainly why I moved over to only buying PSA cards for anything WOTC, and the rest I just find around elsewhere
It is important to note however that T&T has extremely ambiguous card grading standards. Found here www.trollandtoad.com/productConditionGuide
I believe that they do this on purpose to protect themselves from people filing complaints and so that they can rely on lax grading. No one considers Near Mint to be covered in scratches… except T&T. Check out their qualifications for Pokemon NM cards:
Nicks or dings
Light edge wear
Light corner wear
Minor scratches or scuffs
Other minor imperfections
“…Near Mint Holos…may also be slightly warped…”
I’ve had a lot of good experiences with T&T but also some really frustrating ones. It’s the nature of collecting cards that aren’t authenticated and graded by a third party like PSA. I’ve just accepted it as one of the many variables in my collecting equation.
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The only cards I’d buy from TnT are binder cards, IMO it’s just not worth the hassle if I’m looking for grade worthy cards.
For any high value cards they will send me scans of the actual cards. Generally I’m buying a couple thousand dollars worth of cards at a time from them though. Not sure if they would do it for 1 card.
They on occasion have mintier cards if they aren’t too old of a collection.
They do carry some nice PSA slabs before they sell out which are more guaranteed condition and typically “good deal” (if you can look back much later and see prices have risen). They price pretty competitively.