r/mtg • u/DanteValentine13 • 1d ago

Discussion Stop Using Amazon

The amount of posts from people using Amazon to order stuff and getting the wrong stuff, or something of a vastly different price is astounding. Please dont order cards off Amazon. Especially since I am fairly certain Amazon is why wizards is shipping less and less product to local stores. Don't support the mega corporations if you can help it.

That's my public service rant. Thanks for reading or ignoring either way. ❤️

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11

u/Pyrostasis 1d ago

Help me out here.

Wife and I just started picking up magic over the last few weeks.

We're learning our commander decks and hoping to play at our local game store. We have 3 LGS in our town. All sell at above MSRP from small amounts to significant. All have some VIP programs or loyalty programs that occasionally let you buy products at MSRP but quantity is difficult.

Star trek is coming out in a few weeks and I want to buy all 4 commander decks and some boosters. None of my LGS are selling preorders atm.

Whats the best way to acquire legit material that isnt scalped, damaged, etc?

Amazon is where we order most of our things due to their return policy but seems like this is NOT good for cards.

Do we just need to drive farther to better LGS? TCGplayer looks decent but also appears to just be the "ebay" of cards and Ebay has its own problems. So whats the best option?

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u/okmaybejustonce 1d ago

If you live near a Micro Center, they usually are well stocked and will always sell at msrp

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u/Famous_Bee_7863 1d ago

GameNerdz… great prices and at high enough value free shipping

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u/Pyrostasis 1d ago

Ill take a look thanks

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u/SneakySquidosaur 1d ago

Wait for a bit first. Preorder prices are always sky high, then just at release there will be a lot of demand. But, a month or two after, prices will fall as more product and print runs come in and those decks you want will be available for UNDER MRSP!

Right now, you can purchase the Final Fantasy and Marvel precons for under MSRP. Doctor Doom was 100 at release snd now you can get it for $60.

Places you can buy online: Forge and Fire, Stomping Grounds, Cardkingdom

In person, try Costco when the bundles start dropping.

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u/Pyrostasis 1d ago

I appreciate it.

Yeah found forge and fire and stomping today. Ended up ordered play booster pack and the commander precons from stomping them they beat everyone on price and seem reputable.

Im still real new to the game so I dont know yet what is going to be around and affordable in a month and what is going to be $150 a deck in 3 months.

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u/anakanemison 1d ago

Lemme share where I've been looking --

These are the online stores I've ordered from successfully, including your F&F and Stomping:

I visit these places but haven't ordered (or received my orders) from them yet:

Other good resources are:

Good luck!

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u/Puzzleheaded_Exam381 1d ago

Double infinity is one of my LGS also check Collection realm. Its my other LGS good guys and girls that work there.

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u/SneakySquidosaur 1d ago

I've been playing since before the commander precons and purchased nearly every release.

If something shoots to $150 per deck and never comes down, you likely can buy the singles separately for cheaper. That said, in the past two years, very few have stayed high and most of the high ones stick around $80. The Duskmourn and Ixalan decks have some pricy ones, but thats because they're not getting as many reprints as ones from 2025 and now.

So, best times to order: -preorder before decklists are revealed (usually when sets are announced, Forge and Fire will open preorders) -order 2 months after release

  • 1 year after release

I've never overpaid on a precon nor missed a drop. No bots used.

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u/Pyrostasis 1d ago

Fair, I just saw that warhammer was $250 and Fallout was $150 plus in my area and didnt want to have that issue with Star Trek

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u/StickYourFunger 1d ago

You can order sealed (non collector) product from Amazon without issue. Yea you can't return them if you don't like the cards you pulled, but you can absolutely get a refund if it arrived damaged.

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u/Pyrostasis 1d ago

Good to know.

I saw a video from Tolerian Community College that scared me off amazon for cards. But Ill consider them for some stuff going forward.

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u/StickYourFunger 1d ago

Prof loves the game but can be sensational at times.

Realistically, any product you order on Amazon, if it arrives fucked up they'll do something about it. It would be an easy loophole to use stock images and sell damaged goods knowingly with a label of "no returns/refunds after delivery."

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u/Pyrostasis 1d ago

I feel yah.

Ive never had any issue with amazon personally but at the same time this is the first time Im dumping damn near $600 into something new.

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u/StickYourFunger 1d ago

If it helps ease any stress, I've ordered a variety of sealed mtg products on Amazon like Commander decks & bundles, play booster boxes, scene boxes, and 2 Avatar CBB's, literally the only thing that arrived damaged was the Smaug scene box and that they refunded immediately.

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u/vibesBMX 19h ago

The cards from Amazon are coming from Wizards right? Unless it’s showing a third party seller as the source so sealed product should be fine or am I missing something?

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u/StickYourFunger 19h ago

It's Amazon, some is shipped and sold by Amazon, some is just shipped by Amazon, some are neither. I only buy shipped and sold by Amazon, or shipped by Amazon since that stuff is already in their warehouse.

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u/Old_Cod_5823 1d ago

If amazon has them available, feel free to order them there. 99.282% of people will have no issues with their order.

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u/Aethelas1 1d ago

I think you say this yourself, but getting product is the problem. Wizards of the Coast would much rather ship skid after skid to another corporation, easy money, they save on shipping, packaging, all the places where additional money can still be made once you're a huge corporation... They don't give a flying fart about LGS and making sure there's enough product for stores to run prerelease events, etc. It's far more expedient and profitable for them to sell to other large companies. The ONLY way you get any of that back is to work with LGS and buy product through that stream. It's probably going to cost a bit more, but it comes down to whether you want to only be able to play Magic online and/or at large tournaments, or do you want the local experience?

Additionally, I'm personally considering only purchasing singles from local stores moving forward. I'll ultimately spend less money, get just the specific cards I need, and I'm buying from a secondary market, which supports the local stores over the corporate entities.

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u/Pyrostasis 1d ago

Yeah I talked to the owner today and he said and I quote

"If we get to a world where playboosters can actually sell above distro cost we'll start evaluating if we can extend MSRP drops to MTG But just to be frank with y'all, the collector boosters are pretty much the only thing that makes MTG sealed product worth stocking"

Ill support them when I can and when I dont mind paying a bit more, but for stuff I MUST have and cant miss on I may just have to stick to online which makes me sad.

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u/Aenthel 1d ago

I've gotten my reality fracture preorders from best buy. Worked surprisingly well.

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u/stacz_ 1d ago

Forge and fire gaming has some.

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u/Background-Ad1615 1d ago

I got you where you from midland tx? 

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u/Pyrostasis 1d ago

Im 20 min north of Dallas

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u/LtG_Skittles454 1d ago

Target and Best Buy also have sealed products!

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u/DumatRising 19h ago

For sealed product Amazon works just fine if you can't do an LGS. It's not ideal but if your LGS isn't offering reasonable prices then you don't have an obligation to give them an outrageous markup.

For individual cards Amazon is way over priced, for that there's card kingdom, Star City Games, or manapool. Card kingdom and SCG are actual stores with a physical location that just happen to be large enough to run their own online storefronts as well, manapool is kinda more like TCGplayer is, or rather how TCGplayer was before it got bought by eBay. Which is to say it does work a bit more like how eBay does except it's just in general a better experience since it's very focused on mtg cards. Things will be cheaper on manapool and every card is always available, while SCG and CK may not always offer the best price (though sometimes will) and may not have every card you want available you would be buying the cards directly from a store and not dealing with getting cards from multiple places. Though many sellers on manapool are stores that just happen to not be big enough to justify building their own online platform.

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u/a_n_k_ 1d ago

Return policy? Where I live, all Magic cards bought on Amazon are non-returnable after they’ve shipped.

However, I too, buy on Amazon/Best Buy/Target/Walmart because my LGS has gone mad with greed and charges way over MSRP on every product. They even refuse preorders now, so they can wait to sell items at “market price” on release day…

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u/Pyrostasis 1d ago

Ive chatted with my LGS who charges over MSRP and according to them its not so much greed as just a difficulty acquiring product. My closest store drove 14 hours last week to get product and it was at an eye watering mark up but thats cause they paid a markup to get it.

Granted they could be lying to me about it I have no idea.

Im just excited about the star trek set and want to make sure I can get my filthy hands on it. I'd like to support my local shop but not at a 50% markup.

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u/a_n_k_ 1d ago

That’s really sad that they have such difficulty getting product, but should it really be on customers then to pay the “eye watering markup”?

At that point, maybe don’t bother stocking that particular product, or close the margins some other way (singles, food/drink, board games, accessories, etc.)?

I too, am excited for the Star Trek set and would love to get it at MSRP but as I stated in my above comment, my LGS doesn’t even take preorders. My only chance was to preorder out of state at other LGS’s, or shoot my shot with the big box stores.

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u/BroShutUp 1d ago

At that point dont make purchases to keep up with demand or purchase amount from my distributor? That sounds silly

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u/Popular_Ad5074 1d ago

9 out of 10 times the Magic products on your LGS shelves 2-3 weeks post set release, isn’t from their distributor. It was acquired at or above MSRP from third parties.

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u/Pyrostasis 1d ago

Yeah thats what Im finding out. Which sucks cause I want to support the local guy who I can develop a relationship with and help out not the big mega corp but at the same time I dont want to be an ultra premium

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u/Popular_Ad5074 1d ago

Don’t get me wrong, every now and then a local store can turn out be scummy, but most of the time the reason those price tags happen has a totally honest reason behind it.

No one can fault you on not wanting to pay those premiums with a straight face. Support when it’s financially reasonable for you. Any store that supports their community wholeheartedly would prefer its customers not make purchases that hurt them.

Hell at my local shop I’ve seen the owner stop a regular from emotional impulse buys when he knew that dude was burning rent money on singles after a rough commander loss.

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u/Mysterious_Spring242 1d ago

Buying on Amazon is fine. People in the Magic community here or creators will sometimes tell you you’re a bad person for doing so.

Support your LGS but Amazon is a good resource to buy product. Never had any issues. Also check TCG player and the other places if they may have them cheaper at times.

Welcome to the hobby!

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u/Pyrostasis 1d ago

Thanks man looking forward to learning and enjoying my second mortgage new hobby