The Magic Librarities

Hey all,

A few months back I did a cold-call email to a bunch of card stores in Taiwan (via the store search on the WOTC page) to hopefully purchase some Traditional Chinese cards.

One of the card stores that responded was Card Master Games. I have now completed two purchases with them, and the cards were in NM/Mint condition, and they had pretty much all of the Theros/BOTG cards I was looking for to go into my global collections. Based on these two experiences, I now feel confident enough to share their info with you guys. (there was an issue with the first order - received wrong language versions of two cards, but they resolved the issue with TC replacements at no cost in the 2nd order).

Their email is cardmaster.tw@gmail.com. Their website is http://www.cardmaster.tw

Clay

Cheers for that, I walked around Taiwan looking for stores which sold the cards and found a couple that had boosters but only recent ones.

I will give these folks a try as they have some I am after, any idea if they sell sealed products overseas, I know they don't like to in Hong Kong.

Mark;

Not sure if you area aware of it but WotC threatens excommunication of any dealer or distributor that sells sealed product outside of the country it is made for.

Gary

I have had trouble in the past with American sites not wanting to sell me sealed Russian Boosters because of that policy, I can't imagine the Russian Boosters were made for the Russian speaking population of America but you never know.

I have a friend in Taiwan who is a gamer, he has gone off MtG a bit because it took over most of the other games and was too difficult to shake once you were addicted.

mystical_tutor wrote:Mark;

Not sure if you area aware of it but WotC threatens excommunication of any dealer or distributor that sells sealed product outside of the country it is made for.

Gary

Gary, I'm pretty sure that policy is only for product currently produced, and out-of-print product is fair game. Someone will correct me if I am wrong in this.

Clay

Tap4black can speak with much more knowledge and authority than I but my understanding is, as far as 'policy' goes all sealed product is included.

This exercise of control was implemented to try and shut down the 'gray market' that contributed to the loss of so much of the Asian market that the regular distribution chain gave up, specifically in Korea, and the presence of places to play magic dropped like a ton of bricks. I saw this in Korea mostly but also ran into it when I went to the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Places that provided play area constantly fought people buying boosters on the gray market and wanting to take up play space at the store. I mean, in some cased, at the one table in the store(there was only room for one).

Peter told me that they worked hard to impact the problem but just didn't have the technology that they do now. A booster can be traced to the distributor and shop it was sold to.

That is the reason, the policy and the idea behind it. What happens in reality? At my last count, there were like only 10% of the distributors left from those that originally handled Magic around '99. Part of that, my guess, is because they were 'dumping' product where it was not supposed to be.

A single booster doesn't seem like much, but a leak in the faucet can become a lot more and it just isn't worth loosing your source of supply for a few pieces of product.

Gary

Alien_Starfighter_Pilot wrote:

mystical_tutor wrote:Mark;

Not sure if you area aware of it but WotC threatens excommunication of any dealer or distributor that sells sealed product outside of the country it is made for.

Gary

Gary, I'm pretty sure that policy is only for product currently produced, and out-of-print product is fair game. Someone will correct me if I am wrong in this.

Clay

I have even struggled to get OOP product from overseas dealers. They are really scared of losing the license, they tell me they can't do it and then I tell them I have an address in America (Thanks for that by the way :) ) and they have no trouble selling to me. So it is not an ethical struggle they are facing :)

Well, if you are looking for Theros T-Chinese booster packs, I set aside 2 sets. just let me know :)

I just received my first order with this seller, and it went great ! The guy's really nice, condition was perfect and price were really good too. Thanks again Clay !

I am looking for Some T-chinese M12 Grim lavamancers (foil and non-foil) and foil torment ones as well (and an s-chinese of that) for reasonable prices. Can't access those sites from work. Are they available?

Still need help getting T-Chinese M12 Grim Lavamancers - foil and non-foil. Could use another torment foil t-chinese as well. Think it is 狰狞熔岩术士

LandDestroyer wrote:Think it is 狰狞熔岩术士

The one you mention is Simplified Chinese, for Traditional Chinese look for this one:

猙獰熔岩術士

dragsamou wrote:

LandDestroyer wrote:Think it is 狰狞熔岩术士

The one you mention is Simplified Chinese, for Traditional Chinese look for this one:

猙獰熔岩術士

Thanks, I knew mine was the S-Chinese one but for some reason couldn't get that 2nd character. Thanks!