This past Monday, I received an email stating that T&T is downsizing/reconstructing their business moto. (screenshot below)
I used to manage a shop here in Quebec and given the amount of singles that didn’t move, I would have loved to have a platform like T&T or TCGPlayer to sell singles worth $0.25, however, at the time in 2016, that wasn’t possible. The only platform I’ve been glued to is eBay, but selling singles less than $1, isn’t worth the time, especially in these times. I bought out my shop when they closed back in 2018 and have everything sorted to the T since, as well as have higher end cards.
I jumped through hoops trying to submit an application on TCGPlayer, even recently, in attempt to sell off singles and do very well since I have a vast knowledge of every competitive format and a very good understanding what players would pay for a single given that I’ve vended at major events. Why did this change have to come? I think of EVO Merchant as like a consignee would accept a PSA Graded collection like TCA Gaming for example, I don’t even send mass amounts of singles a month, I have very to little and I sell out (not gloat or get cocky) fairly quickly since I get paid in USD and don’t mind the value gap. It’s been a phenomenal year being an EVO Merchant. Why let me go?
Did anyone get notified? Can you share your experience? I’d love to get back into the program, I honest to god can’t wrap my finger around why this change HAS to come rather than, and again not to throw shade/get cocky, reduce other people’s inventory that’s been sitting since I started, you know? None of this adds up and hopefully someone here could have a discussion with me about getting back in or at least, find a stable solution to continue to use their program, or shed light and I can rest peacefully.
What they could have done is increase the minimum card price to 50 cents, and increase monthly storage fees. Then the people that have junk bulk cards there would naturally leave the EVO program.
Hi,
I got the same Email on Monday.
I started only two month ago and used it as a solution for selling of Cards which were NM by the ‘‘American’’ standard but wouldn’t qualify as NM for my Cardmarket store. On CM a NM card isn’t even allowed to have a single scratch and I don’t want to sell cards which are overgraded. In my experience most people buying on CM aren’t that picky on condition but a few are and I don’t want them to complain and/or have a bad time buying from me.
On my CM store I mainly sell SWSH Ultra Rare and the rarities above that so my inventory sold quickly as well. I had some oddballs for my inventory like Skyridge commons or diamond and pearl holos but even those moved.
It went so great that I was slowly moving my capital to buying inventory for EVO as it was just so much more easy. Now I have several big package at their warehouse which weren’t processed and have to hope that their offer for my cards is reasonable as I don’t want to ship my cards over the pond again.
I heard in a Livestream on YT that they only retained like 15 people and those obviously had way bigger volume then we had. On top of that they raised their fees and upped the minimum price. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong here.
I don’t know the exact reason why they cut their Evo sellers down that much but I assume that a lot of people dumped cheap bulk cards and slow movers to EVO. Bulk isn’t really lucrative and I don’t even know how someone would make money on selling bulk when they have to pay an employee to do the work. Another thing is that I think that sellers did to much undercutting the price. Tnt wanted to sell V cards for 3$ and Vmax for 4$ but both of those were available for 1$ or less from EVO Sellers. So they had to much competition on their own site on those cards.
I wish they’d took a different route in fighting those problems but I can understand their decision. Therefore I think that they won’t go back on that decision for the foreseeable future and if they start accepting new sellers they’ll probably have different guidelines and not everybody will get in.
As for a stable solution… I don’t know. I started again with doing weekly Ebay auctions but that’s not really stable.
Im also getting kicked out, but was only doing about 10k in sales a year through there. I think it just makes sense with the economy the way it is and the service they were providing. As mentioned above, they are raising fees and the listing minimum to the remaining merchants. In all honesty, they were just providing too good of a service for too cheap, for too many people. Sad to see it go for myself, but I understand why they are doing away with smaller sellers.
For the folks that are losing their EVO status - what are you doing with your inventory that is in Kentucky? Are you going to try to lower prices and sell quickly in the next month? Are you recalling all your inventory? Or are you hoping/planning to sell to troll and toad?
I’m keeping most of my prices the same. They stopped processing my shipments a while back so I sold all the hot inventory. All I’ve left now are some collection boxes, a few modern singles and older Magic the Gathering from Visions and Urzas Legacy (on those cards I reduced the price as I hope that they sell over Ebay).
The shipments in their warehouse will probably be sold to them or to another merchant. They promised better rates than buylist so I hope that I get my cost of the cards back. I could let them send them back to me but I don’t want to deal with german customs and explain them the whole deal. Only to get hit with a bill for VAT an duties anyways.
I’ve been very happy with the EVO program having been in it for about 18 months now. Incredible volume they can move for me and very reasonable fees in hindsight and I’ve long worried too good to be true which it was we see now. (Talked about it on YT a bit a year ago then stopped having seen the writing on the wall a la PSA ordeal). Fees already increased on raw fulfillment months back and they are still inundated.
Thankfully I’m sticking with it having gotten the prior email a few weeks back. I actually have told some of my viewers and followers I can make an offer on their inventory if they’d like pending what it is and pending an upcoming chat with TNT on the future of the program (don’t want to buy dead cheap stuff they are changing the program to get rid of)
The change is largely coming due to high sales of items in the sub $1 range namely near the floor price of $0.20. How they ever justified only charging 10 cents to sell a 20 cent item im not sure, but that is a thing of the past with the minimum list price going up higher. Fulfilling my own items in a small storage area I can’t come close to 100/hr which on those singles would only pay $10/hr to them.
I only stopped talking about it and making videos devoted to it. Have been continuously using it and aggressivley scaling with it ever since I first enrolled.
We had the same kind of inventory mentality. Selling modern close to market (which was on their inventory manager page) and somewhat better. My cards sold within 24 hours, not to brag. Now I can see, but still can’t justify this decision to cut my inventory and my enrollment cold turkey in less than 2 weeks.
The NM cards you and I listed, it’s a science. We all know this, but come on. I sent them a cracked PSA 8 Dark Ala 1st and they’re claiming it MP (cracked carefully enough). Those I never even listed to begin with. I’d end it there.
I currently also have a massive order sitting there in warehouse mode since August 9th. I can’t stress how sad it is that I miss the cut. It takes me roughly 4 hours to sort them (no raw fulfillment on my end ever), How does it take them x months? There’s a problem, but I never complained.
I got offered what I currently have for sale. Total as of that hour was roughly $3600 not including sealed and MP/unlisted cards. They offered $775. I politely asked them on Wednesday how they came up with that price. I can get better on Whatnot and that platform is la merde. No reply.
To add on, why then remove those who use the program and actively sell? They get their fees and storage payments in the end. Removing us for the program, just like this (which yes, I know is in their power) wasn’t fair. Let’s be honest, would you rather have someone send you 800 singles that move within the month, or 3200 cards a week that sit for months.
*I’d also like to note to everyone reading, I in no means want to come off as pompous or hateful towards anyone who works there or their position status. I know the economy is tough etc. I’d do anything in my power to continue using the program. It’s just been a quiet week here in my Pokecave. Thanks again everyone for sharing.
Kind of confused about how the system used to work.
Was EVO Merchant a combination of all the small merchants? So you ship stuff to TnT and then who determines the price if there are thousands of sellers under that one merchant?
I’ve only read bad things about them on Reddit/old threads where those who send them bulk (how are they different from merchants?) get lowballed offers and if they declined, were sent back the cards damaged from lack of care in shipping. For buyers, card condition is inconsistent. Also, as someone who lives outside the US, but whose country uses TnT for pricing - it’s such an overpriced site. And if it’s true condition sucks, it’s a wonder why it’s being used when TCGPlayer has cheaper pricing and a more user friendly navigation.
The EVO programm is a fullfilment service like Amazon FBA. As a seller you’d send them your cards and they’d store, list, sell and ship them. The seller would set the price. Every seller would show up individually on the trollandtoad site.
On the screenshot you can see that Tnt is out of stock but there are four listings and those are the EVO sellers.
The threads you read were probably talking about their buylist or something like that. I never used them for that so I can’t really talk about that. But I never sent them cards that wouldn’t qualify as NM under TCGplayer guidelines and even then a few got graded as MP.
I know there are a lot of negative threads about them on reddit where people will obsess about how bad they are but you have to keep in mind how much they actually sell. The got over 2 million views on their site per month and therefore there will be a few buyers which aren’t happy and voice their anger on the internet - which is totally fine.
On TCGplayer you need to visit countless stores to get the singles you want if you buy the cheapest option and if you buy from one of those giant stores like cardnallgaming or coretcg you have to pay a higher price too. It’s just easier to buy from a single store/site.
Right, but I didn’t send bulk. I send things that move. Yes, I have some cards that don’t sell as fast, but with their reasons they gave, storage will creep up, and it has, making those cards basically turning them my profit.
I get that there’s a crash, but I never sent an amount of bulk that would sit there. I’m getting a better understanding, but still can’t wrap around why just remove the seller entirely. I’d be discouraged now to send cards worth $0.25 making it easier for them to sort my 200 card submission given the fees have gone up.
Honestly, if someone like TCA Gaming (I know there’s a massive comparison) can receive massive amounts of emails and graded cards/packs and have time to list his cards etc, why can’t a warehouse do that as well. I’ve done it at my store and have players here move their collections to me through EVO. Should I ask someone to sell the cards for me at this point? Wouldn’t make a difference in their warehouse/workloads.
I’m now under the impression their day to day mandate process was a bunch of teens goofing off and complaining. Highly believe that comes from the bulk.
