Locations
Site Layout / Customer Service - With so many options out there today, site layout and customer service are critical to any webpage's success. I think it says something about your business, in today's world, that you've put thought into your store's digital floorplan. While you might value Price and Selection more than the site's layout, or even it's customer service, it's the little things that build customer loyalty and help certain stores stand out from the rest. From package tracking to helpful email updates, professionals know that customer service can make or break a buying experience.
Selection - Either you've got it or you don't. Nothing is more frustrating than having to purchase cards from two or even three different sites because one didn't have all of the goods you needed for your latest brew. Promos and foils aside, you should expect that your chosen site can, at the very least, provide you with tournament staples and sealed product. I won't hold it against the site if it can't come up with some random foil planeswalker I happen to want today. Some of these sites sell more than just MTG so keep that in mind when looking for singles! Some will have binders, sleeves etc. and some won't. Whether or not that matters to you is a personal preference.
Shipping - Of the five criteria, shipping is probably the least relevant. So much depends on where you live and how much you paid for the shipping that it would be unfair to judge these sites based on a day or two difference in ship times. Needless to say, it is important that you get a decent deal on the shipping price when you're sending these little flecks of cardboard to yourself. I also want to take a look at the packaging methods which help determine the effort and care these sites put into their shipping. I chose the default shipping from each store (which was usually USPS aka "a stamp or two") and all of them safely arrived within a week. I'll discuss these in more detail below.
Card Condition Upon Arrival -I'm not a huge "condition-nazi" when it comes to Magic cards. I've met a few hardcore collectors who could pick out a flaw in my Foil Elspeth from across the room and that just isn't me. The cards I ordered were all labeled as Mint/Near Mint, which is fairly arbitrary to you and me. I mean, how many foil planeswalkers do you own that couldn't be described as "NEAR Mint" ? That having been said, I did expect that these premium mythics would arrive in very good condition. Some of these cards looked so good that we thought they appeared fake at first! Others came in at the bottom end of the term "Near Mint". Read on to find out who shipped what!
Price - This category speaks for itself. No one can spin this one positively if the numbers don't add up. Price is one of the deciding factors most people use when looking to buy cards online. I took five, semi-random, yet metagame-relevant cards and determined their prices at each of the sites. No foils, no promos, just some utility stuff (and a bonus sealed product!) that you might pick up on any Wednesday afternoon, in your pajamas. There might not be a whole lot of variance between the individual card prices but keep in mind, when you're buying a deck's worth of singles at a time, that extra 50 cents per card really starts to add up!
Overall - Let me just clarify this right here and now. This is neither a "hit piece" nor a "fluff piece" on one store or another. I have worked with representatives from some of these places in the past and have now used all of them to procure Magic cards. But here's the deal... *Spoiler Alert!* All of these sites succeeded in their ultimate goal of "sending me the Magic cards that I bought". They all have decent people working for them and this isn't meant to be a personal slight on their livelihood, merely a documentation of "what happened" when I ordered a foil planeswalker from their site. In the end, I genuinely hope that the conclusion of this article is that "the state of the MTG economy is strong". And you should too. I'm not a huge fan of trying to quantify something into numbers that isn't meant to be so you might have to actually read this article to enjoy it! So, in the order in which I received the cards, here is the scoop on five of world's foremost providers of Magic the Gathering cards!
Site Layout / Customer Service - There is something to be said for simplicity. Card Kingdom's layout is for the minimalist in all of us, who just want to buy some Magic Cards. No Pokemon, no D&D, just Magic the Gathering products as far as the eye can see. This site is actually one of my local stops so I've had the chance to meet with the guys behind the scenes in person! They're a great place to sell cards to (if you don't mind taking 1/2 price for your cards-which is typical) and I've corresponded via email with them several times. The layout does the job and, with what look to be recent upgrades to the visual elements, on the right track in terms of a modern layout.
Selection - Card Kingdom is one of those few sites that are big enough to really have everything, all the time. Very rarely have I found myself wishing CK had something that it didn't. They had all of the cards I checked for in the price list and had the second most broad selection after Star City.
Prices:
Day of Judgement - 9.95
Bloodbraid Elf - 3.95
Worldwake Fat Pack - 34.95
Venser, Shaper Sevant - 4.50
Channel (Unlimited) - 1.20
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Total: 54.55 (Third highest of the 5)
Shipping - This one was a bit unfair. Card Kingdom is located about five miles from my house and got the card here in a mere 3 days. Speedy shipping as far as I can tell but again, it might be different in other states. Shipping prices were decent as well.
Card Condition Upon Arrival - If you've never held your very own Foil Elspeth, Knight-Errant, I highly recommend it. Both Leaf and I took part in the opening and we both thought the card was almost TOO mint! The corners were perfect and it looked like it hadn't ever been touched by human hands. You know my feelings on giving numerical ratings but I'd roughly give Card Kingdom an A+++10!! in terms of condition!
Pros
+ Clean, simple and user friendly site
+ Awesome selection
+ Included a free pack of Worldwake with my order!
Cons
- Prices on singles are among the highest (though still within reason)
Site Layout / Customer Service - The look and feel of this site are where this place really shines. Channel-Fireball is a great name for a Magic store, you've got some of the top names in Magic writing on the front page and to top it off, their checkout system is top notch! It was all Ajax, which means that you don't have to wait for pages to load, they just fill in, appear and disappear right before your eyes. It was all very intuitive. I did get a few too many emails from them as my order shipped. It may have been a glitch but I received no less than four emails, all identical, telling me "my order shipped". A bit of overkill! :)
Selection - On the one hand, they do have 301 copies of Jace Beleren. But unfortunately, a lot of the random cards I went looking for were out of stock, so it is hard to really say how Channel-Fireball's card room really works. They're fairly new to the game so it is possible that they simply bought out another store's inventory that was loaded up on certain things. They are, of course, just starting to build their inventory and don't have the luxury of a 10 year history like some of these other places do. Overall, not impressed with the selection just yet.
Prices:
Day of Judgement - 7.99
Bloodbraid Elf - 4.48
Worldwake Fat Pack - 39.99
Veneser, Shaper Sevant - 2.94
Channel (Unlimited) - Out of Stock - Call it $1 for totaling purposes
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Total: 55.40 (Second highest of the 5)
Shipping - Cards actually ended up shipping to my billing address instead of my alternate shipping address. Could have been user error but a quick glance back at my PayPal invoice proves otherwise. Not a huge deal but worth noting. The cards did get here in 3 days, which was fairly impressive even for a west coast operation! I again just used the USPS.
Card Condition Upon Arrival - Sarkhan arrived safely inside of a hardtop case wrapped in plastic. Gem-Mint condition as far as I'm concerned. It almost rivals the Elspeth Foil in terms of condition!
Pros
+ Futuristic Ajax powered checkout/register system!
+ Amazing Potential to be a more modern SCG
+ 3rd best MTG articles on the net :)
Cons
- Smallish, lopsided Selection
- Included an expired Coupon for $5 off my next purchase. Thanks guys!
- Maybe I'll use that $5 to get MSRP on my WWK Fat Pack back!
Site Layout / Customer Service - Coolstuff also suffers from the old school feel syndrome that a lot of these established sites have. Why change something that works, I guess? I'm a big fan of the customer rewards program they have going. With so many choices out there, why not choose one with a rewards program for loyal customers? It's a tempting sell for any fervent singles buyer. I'm sure I'll have spent $5000 on Magic cards in a couple of years and with that comes a whopping %15 off singles, forever!
Selection - It's hard to say what their stock is really like when they wont tell you more information than "20+" but from what I can see, they're very well stocked. I had trouble finding the foil planeswalkers I was looking for but I won't hold that against them (it's an odd request, I know). Price usually speaks for itself but I have to point out that CSI was the most expensive choice for singles on four out of five of the cards I randomly looked up so take that for whatever it's worth to you. To be fair, though, if you are part of the customer rewards program, take advantage of their latest sale or you're just looking for sealed product, CSI does have competitive prices. The sealed product prices in particular have impressed me. No matter which way you slice the category of "price" one store will come out on top and one will come out on bottom.
Prices:
Day of Judgement - 10.99
Bloodbraid Elf - 5.49
Worldwake Fat Pack - 34.99
Venser, Shaper Sevant - 4.99
Channel (Unlimited) - 0.99
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Total: 57.45 (Highest of the 5)
Shipping - My Foiled Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker arrived promptly and well-packaged. Shipping was only 99 cents for a 3 day ship time! Probably the best cost to ship-time ratio out of the five (if not, then tied). I appreciate only being charged a dollar to ship something that should cost a dollar to ship.
Card Condition Upon Arrival - The card was as advertised- Near Mint. I wouldn't classify this card as "untouched by human hands" but it will definitely work for me. No complaints here! I've ordered from these guys in the past as well and haven't had any problems with condition.
Pros
+ Always first with the super-cheap preorders! Under MSRP, BABY!
+ Great Selection/Prices on special box sets!
+ Awesome selection of non-MTG "Cool Stuff"
Cons
- Cluttered layout with a bit of an outdated feel.
- Most Expensive singles
Site Layout / Customer Service - In the interest of full disclosure we must tell you that T&T has been our main sponsor for some time now. This will in no way affect the outcome of this report. The site's layout reminds me of the old Amazon.com layout, which is a good thing but certainly dates the site. I'm starting to sound like a broken record but it could do with a face-lift as well, particularly the fuzzy mana symbol graphics and rendered images of trolls and toads. The cart and checkout process went fine and my encounters with customer service have all been pleasant.
Selection - T&T seems to have most everything in stock at the moment. My random searches proved fruitful save the Bloodbraid Elf I needed for my price check! I've heard that's a pretty popular card these days- might want to pick some of those up T&T. SCG has 96 in stock if you're interested :) I've used T&T in the past for singles as well as sealed product and generally haven't had a problem finding the cards I need. They're also not just an MTG site. They sell a little bit of everything (much like CSI) so you have to take that into account as well. Both Coolstuff and T&T have an awesome selection of Binders, Sleeves and accessories that a site like CardKingdom simply don't have. The singles prices are actually surprisingly low, as well- the best on all of the individual cards and would have taken the "price crown" if they didn't up the Worldwake Fat Pack's MSRP by five bucks.
Prices:
Day of Judgment - 7.99
Bloodbraid Elf - 3.49 (OOS)
Worldwake Fat Pack - 39.99
Veneser, Shaper Sevant - 2.24
Channel (Unlimited) - 0.59
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Total: $54.30 (Second best of the 5)
Shipping - I'm a big fan of 99 cent shipping. It's a fair price for both sides to ship a few singles via snail mail. My cards arrived one day after CSI so I'd call this one the 2nd best cost to ship-time ratio that I experienced.
Card Condition Upon Arrival - This Ajani Goldmane foil came to me in absolutely pristine condition. Advertised as M/NM, it was surely unmarred by any human hands before mine! You've gotta love it when your collectibles show up like that.
Pros
+ Very competitive (if not the best) prices on singles
+ Great selection considering they sell just about everything!
+ Really cool clearance section (Got Future Sight packs for 1.99 a while back!)
+ Love the comment/rating feature on individual cards! Great for browsing.
Cons
- Logos and graphics in general could use a professional touch-up.
- If Target can sell me a WWK fatpack at MSRP, so can you :)
Site Layout / Customer Service - I have to say, for being quite possibly the biggest non-wizards Magic the Gathering site on the internet Star City sure doesn't look like it. It sort of looks like they took their vBadvanced board from 1998 and just let it ride into the next century. To be fair- a lot of these sites seem to have that problem but hey, it gets the job done. The checkout system was a little bit contrived for my taste as well. At some point I must have missed a checkbox about my shipping/billing address because the order came out wrong. I ended up having to call their customer service to get it shipped to the correct address. Their help was immediate and very friendly though!
Selection - If we're talking MTG singles- it's the best, period. It's not even a contest. Oh, you're looking for a Japanese Foil Nissa Revane? Done. Or maybe just a playset of Day of Judgment? 128 in stock at the moment, is that enough? If I am ever in need of a bizarre Magic card I'll surely come here first. It's also nice to know that I can build an entire deck in my shopping cart without seeing the words "out of stock" which sometimes means "never had it in the first place."
Prices:
Day of Judgement - 8.99
Bloodbraid Elf- 4.49
Worldwake Fat Pack - 34.99
Venser, Shaper Sevant - 2.99
Channel (Unlimited) - 1.49
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Total: 52.98 (Best of the 5)
Shipping - While the price and selection are both amazing, I think SCG could do something about their UPS shipping rates. Now, granted, they're in VA and I'm up in Seattle, but I think $8 worth of shipping should get the cards here a little bit faster than 7 days (5 business days). To be fair I've heard that Seattle takes UPS an extra day to process so it's possible that my own city worked against me in this case. Unfortunately SCG got their cards to me dead last whilst charging me the most.
Card Condition Upon Arrival - The final seven planeswalkers arrived double packed in a small plastic card container. All of the cards were in the proper condition. I did almost go blind from the gorgeous bling, though. Maybe they should have given me some sunglasses with the order!
Pros
+ Best selection of mtg singles on the net.
+ One of the cheaper places for singles prices on the net. (lowest overall in my test!)
+ 2nd best MTG articles on the net :)
Cons
- Unwanted flashbacks of high school when surfing the outdated site template.
- $8 UPS shipping should get it to me in 3-4 days, not 7.
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There you have it, a comprehensive review of five of the most prominent MTG stores on the web. I encourage you to comment with your own experiences with these, and other stores as well! All of these sites proved to be worthy of your money, in my opinion. There is a reason or two to use any one of them over the others. I think I can safely say: The state of the MTG economy is strong. I know I missed a lot of well-established stores out there (MTGMintCard, AbuGames, etc) so be on the look out for more store reviews coming your way in the future.
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