what online vendors do you buy from?

[normalbrains]

where do you buy magic cards online? id like to check out some new sites.

i have had great experiences with smedlock.com in the past, especially since shipping is free.

ive also used many vendors on findmagiccards.com to great effect. especially shuffleandcut.com (i think they have a decent selection of P3K at a reasonable price if youre tryng to complete a set).

who do you use?

[Gryfalia]

Keep buying from Smedlock, because I love selling to him..;-)

I don't actually buy singles online, cept some random ones on Ebay, but I do buy boxes from Edgeman, DA Cardworld, Potomac Distribution...

Gryfalia

[l0qii]

Potomac is great for boxes/cases. Very reliable. Good selection of foreign stuff. But their prices on new sets have inched higher than a lot of the random competition. That's the price of peace of mind I guess. I still do business with them.

[normalbrains]

how do i get access to distributers? do i need a vendor's license? do i have to buy a lot of stuff? i need to cut out the middle man.

[sylvanstu]

I just got off the phone with my buddy who used to own his own store and he said it is usually distibuters policy that you have a store front because most of thier buisness is with store owners and they don't want to cut off the hand that feeds them.

[flatmatt]

I don't buy online much any more.  When I do it's usually through eBay, but I used to compare prices on http://www.findmagiccards.com and http://www.starcitygames.com (Just because I read their aticles) to see where I'd get the cheaper price.  I don't think that I've ever bought from a particular vendor more than twice.

[Gryfalia]

how do i get access to distributers? do i need a vendor's license? do i have to buy a lot of stuff? i need to cut out the middle man.

To get access to a true distributor as a 'wholesaler', yes, you need a tax ID.  Some of them used to be flexible if you purchased a lot, but they have clamped down.  Many places are distributors, but also sell to the general public, but to get access to the lower prices as a reseller you, again, need a tax ID.

If you are only going to buy 10 boxes or so a year, it soo isn't worth the trouble to save a small amount per box.

Gryfalia

[buster8001]

abugames.com
collectmart.com
and trollandtoad.com and some reliable sources. trollandtoad has a nice section of rarities and promos.
good luck

[l0qii]

collectmart.com

This guy is great for non-popular singles from all sets. I've been doing business back and forth with him the whole 9 years he's been around.

[gzeiger]

I can't believe nobody has mentioned cardhaus.com yet. Their selection of most stuff is comparable even to Troll and Toad (although the focus on misprints isn't quite there), they have very reasonable prices on vintage stuff, and they have for many years been the most professional and honest major dealers I have found.

Smedlock is also excellent, although I never knew about the website (only bought from Ebay).

[Celebrindor]

I also like cardhaus, though I find that their site could be a bit better.

[RMayor]

coolstuffinc.com    is a past contributor to this site.


The owner is also a good friend of mine.

[Muldoon]

I've bought from collectmart, cardhaus, trollandtoad, theblacklotus and kardkastle (all .com if i remember correctly).
So far TNT is the only one I ever had any hassle with...

[mintcollector]

Now I do comparison shopping online based form findmagiccards.com.  Since I typically only need random scrub stuff to fill a last couple holes in a set or looking for deals on cards I need for a new deck I am putting together this is what has worked best for me.  In the past I used CollectMart, ABU, Hastur Hobbies, Cardhaus, Ulrich and Helvas, Funky Fruit Stand (warning a $100+ order got lost in the mail from these guys and I got left holding the bag so to speak and will never use them again), Kard Kastle, and Million Point Fireball.  I used to use Tap4Black before Len Osbourne merged with Cardhaus.  I had personal dealings with Paul Pantera,  owner of CollectMart as I wrote software to move over his accounting data records into his new site.  Gabriel Wilson, owner of ABU used to be on cloudpalace.com, a shopping cart host of many smaller stores.  When cloudpalace went under and many stores were left to fend for themselves, I helped Gabriel go independant and set up his new site.  I offered him up many graphics and advice.  I also got him to buy a copy of the shopping cart software from cloudpalace.  Gabriel even came out and crashed at my place when he came out for a PT event in Chicago a few years back.  The guys from cardhuas came to Wizards World Chicago years back when Euro lands were just hitting the market and going to top dollar on eBay.  I had been buying Euro land packs from a small time dealer I found in England for $15 each and flipping them on eBay for $50-$60 each.  I let these guys in on the secret and what did they do?  Screwed me over and bought out the whole set and left me high and dry without any hook up.  My fault of course, but then again I had learned some dealers were trustworthy and interested in better customer service.  I will still deal with Cardhaus, but I will go through Len Osbourne only.  The rest of the guys there can kiss my a$$.  The guys at Million Point Fireball were really great.  They found a boatload of mint power 9 I needed back in 98 in addition to a lot fo other cards I was looking for.  The only problem then was I just got back out of college for the second time and was just getting back into the working world full time.  Money was not abundant back then.  So what was I to do?  Well the guys were great about holding all my cards on layaway and I made payments on the lot for the next 6 months.  I was able to get 2 Beta Moxen, Beta Lotus, Beta Walk and Beta Ancestral this way.  All other groups I dealt with were purely online-only and do not have stories attached to them.  No overly positive ar negative things to say about them.  I got what I ordered without problems, so I will leave it at that.  These were the dealers I primarily dealt with that helped me finish my sets.  There are countless individuals and other sites I scoured the net on that helped me out, but the above mentioned were my primary contacts, or contacts I had any sort of problem with ever.

[l0qii]

I forgot about hastur (www.hasturhobbies.com). I did a lot of business with him in the old days too without a problem. Difficult guy to trade with though.