Is it normal for a shipment to Europe from California to take 3 weeks to arrive? The last order from CFB took only 10 days. This isn't CFB's fault of course, but I am a bit worried.
It may have gotten held up in customs, such things aren't terribly uncommon. I wouldn't worry too much. I would give it another week and then have CFB look into it to see what might have happened.
I just want to say I had a stellar experience ordering from them. I made an order but due to an error in paypal, the order didn't finalize, so I had to make a new one. However, it seemed to have still gone through in CFB's system, so I got a mail stating they were awaiting payment. I mail them about it to cancel that one, they do, they send out the other...
and from California to the Netherlands only ended up taking 6 days. Great job on them, I'd say.
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My Commander decks:
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
I had buy listed cards to channel fireball. Never again. They listed all my stuff as slightly played to heavily played for cards that were at the very worst sp+. No shuffle creasing, no indents or damage. A couple cards had very tiny amount of border Knicks.
When decided the amount wasn't worth arguing over so I went along and purchased what I wanted. Recieved my "sp full art zendikar foil lands", and a course of them had shuffle creasing. They all had much more borderwear then my so called heavy wear cards.
I suspect this happens a lot. I've had people locally say the same has happened to them. It's unfortunate as well as I was hoping they would be a good source for buying foils.
I think Channel Fireball mapped out random boosters that were on sale for the Spring-a-Thon. Opened 12 packs of BnG and got 3 copies of Fated Conflagration, 2x Ephara and out of 12 boosters in Gatecrash 2 copies of Council of the Absolute. Everything else were junk rares. I normally wouldn't accuse a big store of doing that such practices but the 3 fated conflagration makes me think otherwise.
I think Channel Fireball mapped out random boosters that were on sale for the Spring-a-Thon. Opened 12 packs of BnG and got 3 copies of Fated Conflagration, 2x Ephara and out of 12 boosters in Gatecrash 2 copies of Council of the Absolute. Everything else were junk rares. I normally wouldn't accuse a big store of doing that such practices but the 3 fated conflagration makes me think otherwise.
Doubles of rares within boxes are not uncommon, I've seen that happen plenty of times dealing with opening dozens of cases of each magic set over the years. This is especially common for smaller sets. Getting three of the same rare is a lot less common, but it can happen, and if they were loose packs, its entirely possible that you got some packs from one box and some from another, thusly leading to you getting three of the same rare. I'm not saying they couldn't have been mapped, but I've seen enough odd grouping in sealed boxes let alone lose packs to believe its entirely possible they didn't.
I keep buying from channelfireball. Even if I don't want intend to. They just are more worth it than other stores with various cool things they give you (free shipping is like 5-7$ off your order) and 5% back is another ~5$. They might have slightly more expensive cards than other places, but the combination of free shipping and 5% back (which I figured out 2-3 years after starting to order from them) makes them the cheapest for me (at their level, I could probably get stuff cheaper on ebay, but I can't get all I want or get the customer service).
They have screwed up my orders three times though, in maybe over 50 orders. Once I emntionned it because it was "significant" (over $1 lol) and it was fixed. The other two times I didn't mention anything (I think in total it might have been 40 cents over the two other that were like a year and a half apart) but I'm sure they'd have fixed everything if I had.
I am somewhat unsatisfied with CFB. I placed an order of $176.09 on September 7th, order was shipped within two days. I ordered everything in NM, and I even specified that in the comments when I placed my order, but about 1/3 of the cards come in as EX, similar to the ones in the picture. I am pretty sure if I were to sell you guys cards, those ones wouldn't be graded as NM. I used to order a lot from Trollandtoad (mainly because of their price), but I stopped ordering from them because they did the similar thing to me twice a few years ago.
Here's a picture of some of the cards from the order (click to zoom in to actual size of 3,264px × 2,448px): imgur.com/Fg3mB3j (I need to have 5 posts before being allowed to post a link)
The two cards on the top left are foil Hellkite Tyrants, the cards on the bottom right are a foil Seer's Sundial and a Japanese commander 2013 Avenger of Zendikar.
There are two very obvious damage on the top and left edge of Yavimaya Dryad; While Green Sun may look ok in the picture, the bottom right is actually pretty bad in person (the part that covers wow Cataclysm mousepad). A few other cards (not just the ones in this picture) have pretty obvious damages (like the ones on Yavimaya Dryad). While some of them are just minor damage that I am ok with, some of them are not and those shouldn't be classified as NM (again, if I were to sell you guys cards, I am sure you wouldn't take them as NM).
The reason that I want cards in NM, even for cheap C/U such as Yavimaya Dryad, is because I double sleeve them (for EDH). Most of the cards would be double sleeved for a long time (a few years), and I really don't like to double sleeve a card that's not NM.
At least the shipping only took a week (I live in BC, Canada), which is surprisingly fast considering that most of the orders from the states take about 2-2.5 weeks unless they are shipped with Fedex (which CFB doesn't offer).
At least your cards are EX. I've been ordering a lot of foils lately that have come in as played or cloudy as heck, even though I ordered NM. I even asked two of the employees there, "What would you grade this?" Both said it was played. Thankfully, the refund was super easy and quick.
I also specified to check conditions before sending it off to me.. maybe I need to put that in caps or something.
EDIT: Just got my CE power in from CFB. They look good, and in the right conditions.
I can't go to the store in person, so I've opened a dispute on Paypal. Hopefully this will get resolved soon (sending replacement for the damaged cards, which is what Trollandtoad did). I guess in the future I'll have to go through their ebay store just to be safe.
Condition Evalution: Good. They usually offer slightly better what their condition grading would suggest.
Stock: Bad. They are often out of more unusual cards and I think they should take pains to keep their card stock up. Maybe they're really good with keeping standard stuff around. But I dont play standard.
Prices: Good not great. For me, generally they offer the best prices among large vendors.
Condition Evalution: Good. They usually offer slightly better what their condition grading would suggest.
Stock: Bad. They are often out of more unusual cards and I think they should take pains to keep their card stock up. Maybe they're really good with keeping standard stuff around. But I dont play standard.
Prices: Good not great. For me, generally they offer the best prices among large vendors.
Buylist Price: The best I can find.
Overall: CFB is my favorite large vendor for MTG.
For me, their condition evaluation is bad, but both stock and prices for most foil cards are very good (I don't play standard either, I play a lot of EDH). I haven't used their buylist so I don't know about that, but their condition evaluation is really off for my order.
Their conditions used to be amazing. I would be hard pressed to find imperfections on most of their SP cards a year ago. Now, it's very hit or miss.
Their stock is usually very good, only weird EDH foils and stuff can be elusive and hard to find, but most cards I've wish listed have shown up within a month.
Buylist prices are excellent. Many times they'll be paying close to TCG mid in store credit on some cards.
Oftentimes what I will find with a lot of stores is that when buying playsets or close to it, if all they have is a playset left in stock, that often the last card (Especially for older or foil cards) of the playset isn't in the NM condition or otherwise that is stated. I think this is simply a matter of one card getting through the condition process and sometimes realizing too late that one of their supposed to be NM copies isn't. I know a lot of stores that will still send in such situations in hopes that the people just wont mind, but are often willing to accept a return if they don't. Foils especially can be a pain, as people tend to be more critical of foils condition than non-foils (also because there are more things that can be wrong condition wise with foils vs non-foils. I tend to cut stores a bit of slack in some situations, but have returned my fair share of cards for refunds to various stores over the years as well. Inevitably you just have to decide what you are willing to keep vs not and let the store you purchased them from know accordingly so they can fix it for you as most would do.
I opened a Paypal dispute and they have agreed to offer a refund based on the cards I return as well as the shipping cost I pay, so i returned 7 cards (Seer's Sundial (foil), Green Sun's Zenith (FTV 20), Karametra, God of Harvests (foil), Avenger of Zendikar (Japanese commander), Sylvan Primordial (foil), Yavimaya Dryad and Gift of Immortality). They got the cards on September 26th, and now I am waiting for the refund.
I'm actually really dissapointed to say I've spent hundreds at channelfireball and this is the first time I had trouble with them.
I bought a bunch of foil though scours (4 nm, and 14 sp) and some other stuff. The other stuff was fine but the thought scours were in utterly terrible condition. I couldn't spot the 4 nm copies I paid for and to give most of them sp grading is far more liberal that what channelfireball has been in the past for me. Many had major scuff damage and quite a few were nicked. I wouldn't call them sp, more like played with one that I'm pretty sure should be labeled damage.
Its pretty sad, I will not be buying foils from them anymore probably.
I want to give a shout out to CFB for being super easy and pleasant to work with. They are by far my favorite MTG website and I will go out of my way to go through them!
I've found their expensive foils to be really strictly graded. The farther you go down in price, the more relaxed it seems to be.
Maybe that is it, it was the first time buying a cheap foil from them that wasn't from a new set.
I mulled it over and I'm going to email them about it to see if they give refunds. I was considering keeping them anyway but honestly a couple of them look appalling. About 8 were still nm though.
I've emailed CFB a few times regarding card condition and usually they will give you a partial refund, or if it's really expensive or something I think they may have asked me for a photo of the problem. They definitely will refund you full price if you want to return it within a certain time frame.
I've emailed CFB a few times regarding card condition and usually they will give you a partial refund, or if it's really expensive or something I think they may have asked me for a photo of the problem. They definitely will refund you full price if you want to return it within a certain time frame.
I had the photo and returned the cards, but nothing happened after they received the cards for four days (see post #231), so I had to escalate the dispute to Paypal, and a day after that I got my money back.
Currently awaiting a near $1500 order(read: 19 cards) to be shipped. Placed on a Thursday, early afternoon... it is now Monday evening 10 minutes before their store closes. Beginning to suspect they're either really undermanned (Thanksgiving week), mistake in their stock quantities, or some other delay... or they have certain days they ship out.
Dunno what protocol over there is, only been two business days though so whatev, I just have a feeling they weren't completely stocked for the specified order quantities and quality. Guess I'll update as they come.
edit: got an address confirmation from marcus literally 10 mintutes after posting this, all concerns lifted.
I placed an order last Thursday and got an email Friday night that it had been shipped, although the tracking says it didn't get to the post office until Saturday.
You may want to contact them. Who knows, they may just have forgotten to send the shipping notice.
Well, you know a shop is doing a half-decent job when their thread hasn't been bumped in close to a year.
I just wanted to report a moment of awesomeness from my latest dealing with CFB. I do a big buy-up from CFB with my playgroup once every three months, as we can usually push our order over the threshold for free international shipping that way, and it ends up the most cost-effective way of getting a good range of cards to Australia. We've recently had a guy join our playgroup who hadn't played in a loooong time and was getting back into the game. He joined our order this time around, and went for a whole pile of strong, nostalgic cards from his original era, including three SP 5th Ed Shivan Dragons. So the cards arrived yesterday, and lo and behold, one of those Shivans is NM in every way, shape and form... except for the gold signature of one erstwhile R. Garfield.
I went from "What in hell is that" to "Oh, it's signed!" to "Wait, I've seen that signature on other cards before..." to "... No. Way. ..." to Google Image Search to *jaw hits floor*.
One wonders how long they've had it sitting in their warehouse for... it's completely NM apart from the signature. I'm handing it to our newbie tonight. He's going to be chuffed (and I suspect there'll be a few jaws on the floor from the others at the table, too). Not too often we see a Garfield-signed card Down Under. Well done, CFB - exceeding my expectations yet again with style.
I've buylisted to CFB numerous times and their grading is tough but ultimately fair. If your stuff is really NM, you don't need to worry about it. They've graded some of my cards down from what I expected, but it's still the best overall buylist value (and experience; they're really easy) that I know of.
It may have gotten held up in customs, such things aren't terribly uncommon. I wouldn't worry too much. I would give it another week and then have CFB look into it to see what might have happened.
and from California to the Netherlands only ended up taking 6 days. Great job on them, I'd say.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
When decided the amount wasn't worth arguing over so I went along and purchased what I wanted. Recieved my "sp full art zendikar foil lands", and a course of them had shuffle creasing. They all had much more borderwear then my so called heavy wear cards.
I suspect this happens a lot. I've had people locally say the same has happened to them. It's unfortunate as well as I was hoping they would be a good source for buying foils.
Legacy: Goblins:symb::symg: Loam Pox
My Trade Thread
Doubles of rares within boxes are not uncommon, I've seen that happen plenty of times dealing with opening dozens of cases of each magic set over the years. This is especially common for smaller sets. Getting three of the same rare is a lot less common, but it can happen, and if they were loose packs, its entirely possible that you got some packs from one box and some from another, thusly leading to you getting three of the same rare. I'm not saying they couldn't have been mapped, but I've seen enough odd grouping in sealed boxes let alone lose packs to believe its entirely possible they didn't.
They have screwed up my orders three times though, in maybe over 50 orders. Once I emntionned it because it was "significant" (over $1 lol) and it was fixed. The other two times I didn't mention anything (I think in total it might have been 40 cents over the two other that were like a year and a half apart) but I'm sure they'd have fixed everything if I had.
I recommend them.
Here's a picture of some of the cards from the order (click to zoom in to actual size of 3,264px × 2,448px): imgur.com/Fg3mB3j (I need to have 5 posts before being allowed to post a link)
The two cards on the top left are foil Hellkite Tyrants, the cards on the bottom right are a foil Seer's Sundial and a Japanese commander 2013 Avenger of Zendikar.
There are two very obvious damage on the top and left edge of Yavimaya Dryad; While Green Sun may look ok in the picture, the bottom right is actually pretty bad in person (the part that covers wow Cataclysm mousepad). A few other cards (not just the ones in this picture) have pretty obvious damages (like the ones on Yavimaya Dryad). While some of them are just minor damage that I am ok with, some of them are not and those shouldn't be classified as NM (again, if I were to sell you guys cards, I am sure you wouldn't take them as NM).
The reason that I want cards in NM, even for cheap C/U such as Yavimaya Dryad, is because I double sleeve them (for EDH). Most of the cards would be double sleeved for a long time (a few years), and I really don't like to double sleeve a card that's not NM.
At least the shipping only took a week (I live in BC, Canada), which is surprisingly fast considering that most of the orders from the states take about 2-2.5 weeks unless they are shipped with Fedex (which CFB doesn't offer).
I also specified to check conditions before sending it off to me.. maybe I need to put that in caps or something.
EDIT: Just got my CE power in from CFB. They look good, and in the right conditions.
WGURBLands!WGURB
WGUInfectWGU
Legacy Lands Primer
Top 8 SCG Oakland 2014
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Condition Evalution: Good. They usually offer slightly better what their condition grading would suggest.
Stock: Bad. They are often out of more unusual cards and I think they should take pains to keep their card stock up. Maybe they're really good with keeping standard stuff around. But I dont play standard.
Prices: Good not great. For me, generally they offer the best prices among large vendors.
Buylist Price: The best I can find.
Overall: CFB is my favorite large vendor for MTG.
For me, their condition evaluation is bad, but both stock and prices for most foil cards are very good (I don't play standard either, I play a lot of EDH). I haven't used their buylist so I don't know about that, but their condition evaluation is really off for my order.
Their stock is usually very good, only weird EDH foils and stuff can be elusive and hard to find, but most cards I've wish listed have shown up within a month.
Buylist prices are excellent. Many times they'll be paying close to TCG mid in store credit on some cards.
WGURBLands!WGURB
WGUInfectWGU
Legacy Lands Primer
Top 8 SCG Oakland 2014
Helpdesk
My Cube on CubeTutor
I bought a bunch of foil though scours (4 nm, and 14 sp) and some other stuff. The other stuff was fine but the thought scours were in utterly terrible condition. I couldn't spot the 4 nm copies I paid for and to give most of them sp grading is far more liberal that what channelfireball has been in the past for me. Many had major scuff damage and quite a few were nicked. I wouldn't call them sp, more like played with one that I'm pretty sure should be labeled damage.
Its pretty sad, I will not be buying foils from them anymore probably.
WGURBLands!WGURB
WGUInfectWGU
Legacy Lands Primer
Top 8 SCG Oakland 2014
Helpdesk
My Cube on CubeTutor
All your Ice Age Foil Basics are belong to us
If you have any foil 7ED Island #334 I am very interested!
Maybe that is it, it was the first time buying a cheap foil from them that wasn't from a new set.
I mulled it over and I'm going to email them about it to see if they give refunds. I was considering keeping them anyway but honestly a couple of them look appalling. About 8 were still nm though.
I've emailed CFB a few times regarding card condition and usually they will give you a partial refund, or if it's really expensive or something I think they may have asked me for a photo of the problem. They definitely will refund you full price if you want to return it within a certain time frame.
I had the photo and returned the cards, but nothing happened after they received the cards for four days (see post #231), so I had to escalate the dispute to Paypal, and a day after that I got my money back.
Dunno what protocol over there is, only been two business days though so whatev, I just have a feeling they weren't completely stocked for the specified order quantities and quality. Guess I'll update as they come.
edit: got an address confirmation from marcus literally 10 mintutes after posting this, all concerns lifted.
You may want to contact them. Who knows, they may just have forgotten to send the shipping notice.
I just wanted to report a moment of awesomeness from my latest dealing with CFB. I do a big buy-up from CFB with my playgroup once every three months, as we can usually push our order over the threshold for free international shipping that way, and it ends up the most cost-effective way of getting a good range of cards to Australia. We've recently had a guy join our playgroup who hadn't played in a loooong time and was getting back into the game. He joined our order this time around, and went for a whole pile of strong, nostalgic cards from his original era, including three SP 5th Ed Shivan Dragons. So the cards arrived yesterday, and lo and behold, one of those Shivans is NM in every way, shape and form... except for the gold signature of one erstwhile R. Garfield.
I went from "What in hell is that" to "Oh, it's signed!" to "Wait, I've seen that signature on other cards before..." to "... No. Way. ..." to Google Image Search to *jaw hits floor*.
One wonders how long they've had it sitting in their warehouse for... it's completely NM apart from the signature. I'm handing it to our newbie tonight. He's going to be chuffed (and I suspect there'll be a few jaws on the floor from the others at the table, too). Not too often we see a Garfield-signed card Down Under. Well done, CFB - exceeding my expectations yet again with style.
My Stupidly Large Number of Current Decks
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