I have been playing MTG for almost 2 years now, and when I buy cards online I have always used StarCityGames.
I'm planning to buy a pretty big shipment of cards, about $200 worth, and as everyone knows the average prices of Magic cards have increased significantly in the past year. I'm looking to save a few bucks, so my question is, is StarCityGames actually that good of a site to buy cards online?
Are there other cheaper options that is also reliable?
I used to buy from Ebay also, you do save a buck here or there if you can find really good deals or snipe for deals, but when you add up all the total shipping costs of each individual orders from different sellers, you really aren't saving much if at all.
I have been playing MTG for almost 2 years now, and when I buy cards online I have always used StarCityGames.
I'm planning to buy a pretty big shipment of cards, about $200 worth, and as everyone knows the average prices of Magic cards have increased significantly in the past year. I'm looking to save a few bucks, so my question is, is StarCityGames actually that good of a site to buy cards online?
Are there other cheaper options that is also reliable?
In terms of prices, SCG's are pretty bad (their customer service is nice, though). I'd look at the retailers that are selling the cards you like for the lowest prices on TCGPlayer and pick one of them. Then once I'm on their site, I'd look for the Wizards Online Retailer logo. As long as that's there, you're almost positively good to go. I've had great times buying from all sorts sites, and their customer service has been nothing short of excellent.
I'm planning to buy a pretty big shipment of cards, about $200 worth, and as everyone knows the average prices of Magic cards have increased significantly in the past year. I'm looking to save a few bucks, so my question is, is StarCityGames actually that good of a site to buy cards online?
Are there other cheaper options that is also reliable?
USD$200 is not considered a big amount for sales.
"Is StarCityGames actually that good of a site to buy cards online?" Yes "Are there other cheaper options that is also reliable?" Yes
As for SCG's better customer service, i have not experience any service to worth those extra bucks.
I have since been using Card Kingdom for its free international delivery for orders worth above USD$200
@Karradur: Completely false. SCG isn't making you pay $350 for underground sea at gunpoint. You can choose not to buy from them. They cannot monopolize the card market either and to imply that is simply ludicrous as they don't have that much power.
On SCG, yes they are on the expensive side. What I fail to see mentioned are the sites that are more expensive than SCG (yes, they exist.) When you buy from SCG you are virtually guaranteed your order every time as well as great customer service and grading each time (they grade their cards incredibly well in my experience and I've seen them undergrade before in that I've had friends purchase 'moderately played' dual lands from them that look like they are slightly played.)
StarCityGames sells cards at a premium, but from what I hear you pay for convenience, selection (especially if you want harder to find foils or whatever), and customer service. I personally can't ever be mad at them even if I don't personally buy cards from there, though, because their Open series is excellent.
On the off chance that you live in Canada, I highly recommend facetofacegames.com. Excellent service, fast shipping, great selection, and decent prices.
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These are the three sites I use to find what I need for a good price(outside of ebay). I go with Channel Fireball when I have large orders usually. They all will pretty much always have better prices than Star City and the customer service is just as good. Also Card Kingdom shipping is scary fast. Honestly I would never buy English cards from Star City because there pricing is unreasonably high to me. The only thing they do good is the huge selection of foreign language foils and promos.
If you care about conditions, SCG is the best site to use. NM really means NM. Their SP for the most part would be graded as NM or close to it on many other sites. Granted they're more expensive, but it is what it is. Whenever I order from them I get my shipment within 3 days. Other sites vary greatly.
If you're "looking to save a few bucks" starcity is pretty much the exact opposite, but you can be guaranteed you will get the cards you wanted, and in the condition specified. That's not to say you won't get the same service from the other big stores, since you will. SCG is not unique in how they treat their customers.
Starcity is pretty much the worst place to go online if you are looking for a good deal on your cards. They charge the highest rates for cards, and you'll get hit with a sizeable S&H charge even on larger orders (and I think it scales to the cost/number of cards instead of being flat rate), and if you live in VA like I do, you pay taxes on it. Pretty much the only time they will have anywhere close to a good deal on things is during a sale when looking for obscure and hard to find cards like older EDH Foils or P3K where you might see 0-3 listings on eBay or TCGPlayer at any given time.
eBay is generally my preferred place to look if I value the best deal over expediency. You will absolutely find the best possible deal on eBay, it may just take some time for the card to show up at the price you want it at.
tcgplayer is generally where I go for buying many lower-valued cards, because you can get good prices quickly and if you're buying enough you can generally get free shipping or at least combine enough cards onto a single $.99 shipping charge that it's worthwhile.
I've had a small number of issues with either eBay or TCG, and any time I have the seller has either immediately rectified the situation with a refund or the service/PayPal instituted a refund on my behalf.
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most of the mtg whales I know use SCG exclusively. We're talking buying playsets of alpha duals, alpha/beta power, etc all in the best condition possible. $200 is nothing. We're talking more like $20k and up. Their grading is impeccable and the best and most reliable in the industry (really important when you're dropping 5k or more on a single card), great service and they negotiate larger purchases. So depends what you're after. Mickey mouse stuff, just go to your local shop if their prices bother you.
most of the mtg whales I know use SCG exclusively. We're talking buying playsets of alpha duals, alpha/beta power, etc all in the best condition possible. $200 is nothing. We're talking more like $20k and up. Their grading is impeccable and the best and most reliable in the industry (really important when you're dropping 5k or more on a single card), great service and they negotiate larger purchases. So depends what you're after. Mickey mouse stuff, just go to your local shop if their prices bother you.
People drop $20k on playing pieces of paper........?
capefeargames.com is by far the best. There prices are better than SCG, their customer service is amazing, and their shipping is free half the time, plus they ship fast. Also lots of streamers have codes to get 5% off so you can't beat it really.
I've never had an issue with StarCity. In fact the one mistake they made when I ordered 2x NPH Stoneforge Event Decks I received only one and they were so nice about it and sent it via overnight for free. I don't mind their higher prices with service like that. Great store. People forget they are US's biggest (outside of Wizards running tourneys) tourney organizer. So their prices are higher because they need to have the format staples in stock so as such their buy prices are higher. I don't understand why people still don't get that.
Troll and Toad is also good, I've found their customer service better than SCG, but their NM cards are often not as impeccable as SCG NM cards, and their commons are not always as cheap as buying on TCG player.
E-bay is a fine option too, but mostly I spend my money at TCG Player. When buying high numbers of lower value cards (like when I build a new EDH deck and buy 1 each of a bunch of random cards) I really like the optimize feature on TCG player, which factors in the shipping costs and is often better than trying to find everything on e-bay and paying shipping on many individual orders (particularly if you don't want 4 of everything). I have found that sometimes the optimize feature is not perfect either and if you try you can sometimes shave a dollar or so off the total price by looking at each individual card after using optimize. So it all depends on how much time you want to spend trying to find the 'best' deal. The only times I've had problems with TCG player were when someone canceled my order due to inventory errors (once or twice out of 73 orders) and one time someone sent me Chronicles instead of Antiquities, but I got a refund after contacting them, and they said they didn't want the cards back, so I was able to trade those to someone later.
Recently I've made a purchase or two from deckbox.org also which recently launched a market for individual players to sell their cards.
If you buy from Starcity, here's what you can expect:
- Higher prices than most competitors
- Good selection
- Fast shipping
- Great quality and grading on their cards
- A guarantee that you will receive exactly what you bought at the price you bought it (e.g. they won't ever cancel an order even if the price of the card spikes afterward)
- A solid guarantee that if anything goes wrong with the transaction, they will do everything within their power to fix it in a timely fashion
It's up to you to decide whether you think it's worth it. To me, the answer is sometimes yes and sometimes no.
SCG is worth the extra when you want to guarantee your cards are in NM condition. NM from Tcgplayer is basically SP or worse.
This is not a reason not to use TCG Player, or eBay. Firstly, check their feedback and only buy from buyers with a good reputation. Secondly, if you do get such a card in condition not described, you simply send it back and get a refund. Both TCG and eBay will back the buyer in these cases. Even if you want the cards RIGHT NOW because you're playing them in your next FNM, this isn't a problem; for that matter, you could always play them anyway and then return them for ones in the proper condition for your collection.
While I have gotten LP cards advertised as NM before, it's not a major issue.
SCG is where you go when you don't want any hassles and you pay a premium for this. There are many places who sell significantly cheaper, at times these places will have issues but most the time it won't be a problem. If your a player who just wants cards to play, you will probably look elsewhere unless you can't find what your looking for.
80 dollars difference and you get free shipping if you have amazon prime...not sure how that works.
When i buy singles, I shop around. Wizardscupboard and CoolStuffInc tend to be the cheapest, but StarCity, CardKingdom, Ebay, Amazon and TrollandToad can have more availability and can sometimes be cheaper. Of course most of the time you have to factor in shipping costs as well, so it might be a buck cheaper on a site, but might not be worth the savings if you have to add the shipping to it.
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I'm planning to buy a pretty big shipment of cards, about $200 worth, and as everyone knows the average prices of Magic cards have increased significantly in the past year. I'm looking to save a few bucks, so my question is, is StarCityGames actually that good of a site to buy cards online?
Are there other cheaper options that is also reliable?
I personally prefer the lower price. Just don't buy from sellers with less than 50 feedback. Voila!
In terms of prices, SCG's are pretty bad (their customer service is nice, though). I'd look at the retailers that are selling the cards you like for the lowest prices on TCGPlayer and pick one of them. Then once I'm on their site, I'd look for the Wizards Online Retailer logo. As long as that's there, you're almost positively good to go. I've had great times buying from all sorts sites, and their customer service has been nothing short of excellent.
GX Tron XG
UR Phoenix RU
GG Freyalise High Tide GG
UR Parun Counterspells RU
BB Yawgmoth Token Storm BB
WB Pestilence BW
USD$200 is not considered a big amount for sales.
"Is StarCityGames actually that good of a site to buy cards online?" Yes
"Are there other cheaper options that is also reliable?" Yes
As for SCG's better customer service, i have not experience any service to worth those extra bucks.
I have since been using Card Kingdom for its free international delivery for orders worth above USD$200
Your choice!
On SCG, yes they are on the expensive side. What I fail to see mentioned are the sites that are more expensive than SCG (yes, they exist.) When you buy from SCG you are virtually guaranteed your order every time as well as great customer service and grading each time (they grade their cards incredibly well in my experience and I've seen them undergrade before in that I've had friends purchase 'moderately played' dual lands from them that look like they are slightly played.)
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On the off chance that you live in Canada, I highly recommend facetofacegames.com. Excellent service, fast shipping, great selection, and decent prices.
Special thanks to Hakai Studios and SushiOtter for the sig!
Legacy: UR Sneak and Show I UBG Team America I X Metalworker MUD
Modern: UBR Blue Jund I WBX Eldrazi Processors I X Affinity I WRG Nacatl Burn I GR Tron I UBR Grishoalbrand
Channelfireball.com
cardkingdom.com
These are the three sites I use to find what I need for a good price(outside of ebay). I go with Channel Fireball when I have large orders usually. They all will pretty much always have better prices than Star City and the customer service is just as good. Also Card Kingdom shipping is scary fast. Honestly I would never buy English cards from Star City because there pricing is unreasonably high to me. The only thing they do good is the huge selection of foreign language foils and promos.
eBay is generally my preferred place to look if I value the best deal over expediency. You will absolutely find the best possible deal on eBay, it may just take some time for the card to show up at the price you want it at.
tcgplayer is generally where I go for buying many lower-valued cards, because you can get good prices quickly and if you're buying enough you can generally get free shipping or at least combine enough cards onto a single $.99 shipping charge that it's worthwhile.
I've had a small number of issues with either eBay or TCG, and any time I have the seller has either immediately rectified the situation with a refund or the service/PayPal instituted a refund on my behalf.
Currently Playing:
Legacy: Something U/W Controlish
EDH Cube
Hypercube! A New EDH Deck Every Week(ish)!
People drop $20k on playing pieces of paper........?
E-bay is a fine option too, but mostly I spend my money at TCG Player. When buying high numbers of lower value cards (like when I build a new EDH deck and buy 1 each of a bunch of random cards) I really like the optimize feature on TCG player, which factors in the shipping costs and is often better than trying to find everything on e-bay and paying shipping on many individual orders (particularly if you don't want 4 of everything). I have found that sometimes the optimize feature is not perfect either and if you try you can sometimes shave a dollar or so off the total price by looking at each individual card after using optimize. So it all depends on how much time you want to spend trying to find the 'best' deal. The only times I've had problems with TCG player were when someone canceled my order due to inventory errors (once or twice out of 73 orders) and one time someone sent me Chronicles instead of Antiquities, but I got a refund after contacting them, and they said they didn't want the cards back, so I was able to trade those to someone later.
Recently I've made a purchase or two from deckbox.org also which recently launched a market for individual players to sell their cards.
- Higher prices than most competitors
- Good selection
- Fast shipping
- Great quality and grading on their cards
- A guarantee that you will receive exactly what you bought at the price you bought it (e.g. they won't ever cancel an order even if the price of the card spikes afterward)
- A solid guarantee that if anything goes wrong with the transaction, they will do everything within their power to fix it in a timely fashion
It's up to you to decide whether you think it's worth it. To me, the answer is sometimes yes and sometimes no.
people dump millions on paper that you can't even play with. Baseball cards, Comics etc, Jackson Pollock No.5 etc...
I also think Capefeargames is awesome. Good pricing and free shipping. I have to pay sales tax but with their coupon it evens out.
This is not a reason not to use TCG Player, or eBay. Firstly, check their feedback and only buy from buyers with a good reputation. Secondly, if you do get such a card in condition not described, you simply send it back and get a refund. Both TCG and eBay will back the buyer in these cases. Even if you want the cards RIGHT NOW because you're playing them in your next FNM, this isn't a problem; for that matter, you could always play them anyway and then return them for ones in the proper condition for your collection.
While I have gotten LP cards advertised as NM before, it's not a major issue.
It really depends on what your needs are.
here is a listing from their official site
http://sales.starcitygames.com/carddisplay.php?product=514622
here is the same thing on amazon (via starcitygames)
http://www.amazon.com/Magic-Gathering-Commander-2013-Decks/dp/B00FURM3LC/ref=sr_1_7?m=ASXFA38S3UHS1&s=merchant-items&ie=UTF8&qid=1397909142&sr=1-7
80 dollars difference and you get free shipping if you have amazon prime...not sure how that works.
When i buy singles, I shop around. Wizardscupboard and CoolStuffInc tend to be the cheapest, but StarCity, CardKingdom, Ebay, Amazon and TrollandToad can have more availability and can sometimes be cheaper. Of course most of the time you have to factor in shipping costs as well, so it might be a buck cheaper on a site, but might not be worth the savings if you have to add the shipping to it.