Troll and Toad

[wotcmon]

@jonandek

I decided to try troll and toad for raw cards again. It’s been years since I ordered from them, I have never purchased Pokemon cards from them, and I was partially inspired by this thread to give them a shot. I have a number of gaps in my EX Ruby & Sapphire reverse holo set, so I went through and ordered the ones I needed from them in “NM”. I ordered about 40 cards in total of about 15 or so unique cards. I bought out the inventory of each card I could to increase the odds of getting a mint copy. So, out of 40 cards… drumroll… only one should grade a PSA 8. It was a reverse Blaziken so I was quite happy about that. The rest are probably in the PSA 6/7 range. The backs of a decent number of the cards are in the 8/9 range. The main issue on most is terrible holo scratches. Maybe it was unfair to try them for reverse holos and they do better on non-holo cards. But it’s a good reminder why I typically buy PSA graded cards and crack them out to get a mint copy.

EDIT: the cards were also shipped without sleeves in a way that they could rub against each other. I’m assuming the holo scratches were there beforehand but that didn’t help.

They are definitely soft on their NM grade when it comes to Pokemon in my experience. Around the 6-7 is to be expected on WOTC era and pre 2006 era cards as the issue is always holo scratches as you mentioned.

My gripe is with their shipping with how they bundle all the card together into 1 toploader without a penny sleeve, and they always tape the top. Many issues could be saved with changing their shipping method, but I guess that takes more time and money on their part…

[pokecollectoramy]

I’ve just purchased about 25 cards mostly non-holos (two holos and one reverse in there). Will report back with photos whenever they decide to ship