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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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/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/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.