Note: I originally published this piece on Reddit in September 2014. Wanted to move it here for easy of access and safekeeping.
Few days ago I wrote A Casestudy in Buylisting in an attempt to make the argument that buylisting is a comparable or in some cases superior option to selling cards in eBay or TCG for many financiers.
On of the response was from /u/i_take_reddit_breaks who asked, “Can you go into a little about what stores you buylist to? Right now I’m only familiar with ChannelFireball, Starcity, and Card Kingdom.”
Over the past five years I’ve sent over 500 buylist orders to many different vendors, and using this experience today I will be talking about the different buylists I use, how much I expect to receive from each buylist once they finish grading an order, the types of cards I sell to specific buylists, as well as the quirks of individual buylists.
The Basics
First, there are several sites out that that search multiple buylists at the same time ranging from www.quietspeculation.com (subscription required), www.mtgprice.com (free) and www.bidwicket.com (also free). These sites are your friends, and can make your buylisting experience much easier, however none of these sites all the buylists I use, so I generally end up using a combination of these sites and individual vendors websites.
Second, the condition of cards is very important in buylisting, but how specific vendors determine condition is often subjective. Some vendors grade easier then others in general, others grade tougher on high-end cards then low end (or visa-versa), some lump SP and NM together, and yet others require near perfection to get full buylist price for you cards. What this means that in choosing which buylist to send a card to, there is more to consider then just the price listed on the buylist. For me this means using a vendor-specific grading multipliers, which varies from as low as 0.60 to as high as 0.90. These numbers have been averaged over the hundreds of buylist orders I have sent, so they are generally accurate within a couple percentage points
The grading multiplier is the process I use to estimate the post-value of cards before they are shipped or graded. I keep track of all my buylist orders on a spreadsheet laid out as follows:
Column A: Vendor Name
Column B: Order Date/#
Column C: Quoted (pre-grading) price
Column D: Expected Post-Grading Price(C1M=EP)
Column E: Running total of all outstanding orders.
*Column 1 times grading multiplier equals expected (post-grading) price
The grading multiplier assumes a “typical” collection condition wise. In my experience buying collections from Craigslist, most collections range from NM to HP. The multipliers works well for medium to large collections of mid-to-low value cards, but it should not be used for buylists consisting of only a few high end cards (i.e. if I’m selling $500 of cards consisting entirely of Revised duals, I don’t use the multiplier – I grade each card individually to compute my expected post-grading price).
A quick example if I send a $100 dollar order to a vendor with a grading multiplier of 0.90, my expected total would be $90 (100*0.9). If I send that same order to a vendor with a multiplier of 0.625, I would expect payment of $62.50. If you are only selling NM cards from your personal collection, the grading multiplier is probably not very necessary for you, but if you are flipping collections or varying condition, the grading multiplier is extremely important. For instance, you have a pile of cards you can sell to vendor X (who has a 0.9 grading multiplier) for $500 and vendor Y (with a 0.75 grading multiplier) for $550. You are actually better off selling the cards to vendor X for $50 less, when you consider the actual amount you expect to receive post grading is $37.50 higher then you would expect from vendor Y. Anyway, enough of my rambling, on to the buylists.
Card Kingdom:
http://www.cardkingdom.com/purchasing/mtg_singles
CK is at or near the top of my buylist order. Not only do they typically purchase more cards then anyone else, they also offer a 30 percent store credit bonus – the highest in the industry. In my experience, CK usually pays the best, or close to it for high end cards ($20 through dual lands) and very low-end cards (sometimes offering a nickle to a dime for specific bulk-level commons).
Another great thing about CK is that the are often purchase the highest number of any specific cards (seriously, yesterday CK was in the market for 1,404 Monastery Swiftspears). This is especially important if you “go deep” on a cheap bulk level spec which rises in value, because minimizing your shipping costs is a simply way to help maximize your value.
CK has solid customer service, however, unlike some buylists, once you ship your cards they belong to CK (some other buylists, as you will see, contact the seller after grading and offer to return the order either for free or for a s/h fee, which reduces risk to sellers). However, CK is among the most consistent graders, and although they do not have a published grading chart (like SCG, for example) they seem to grade cards in a manner similar to myself and most players I know – if you think it looks SP, CK is probably going to grade it SP, if you think it look NM, they are probably going to grade it NM, etc.
Of note is the fact that CK will not buy any (non-promo/dual deck) foils, and will not by any signed cards, even with a condition deduction. It doesn’t matter if its a signed Revised dual or signed Storm Crow, don’t even try it – they will send it back.
The grading multiplier I use for CK is 0.78, and almost every order (out of the 100+ in the past 5 years) has come in between 0.80 and 0.76.
One last tip about CK. While most buylists require you to type the full name of a card exactly (which is a pain in the ass for a card like Will-O’-The-Wisp) the CK buylist allows for abbreviations. For example, are you trying to get out from under that Sorin, Solemn Visitor while its high? All you need to do is inter “so s v” in the search bar, and up pops Sorin. While this might not seem like a big deal, when you are entering 100’s of cards, every bit of typing you can cut out saves you time and makes you money. They also have a running buylist cart on the same screen as the search bar, which makes it faster and easier to correct any mistakes (for instance, typos in quantity) which combine to make CK the most efficient site to use.
In sum. I always check CK for high end and low end cards, although they are sometimes weak in their pricing of $1-3 dollar casual rares. Their consistent and logical grading makes it easy to calculate post grading values, they pay fast, and offer the highest store credit bonus. One of my favorites.
Troll and Toad:
https://www.trollandtoad.com/buylist/#/
T&T used to be among my most used buylists, simply because they paid the most for bulk (which they still do in some categories – you can’t beat $0.60 for bulk mythics or $1.05 for foil mythics if you are trying to move a stack of Time Reversals or DD Phyrexian Negators). However, in recent months prices on most bulk categories have dropped significantly, putting T&T below the market rate on things like bulk c/u and bulk rares.
This does not mean that T&T is useless, because while they don’t often pay the most for cards they are, in my experience, the best buylist to sell played cards. While I’m not sure if it is intentional or accidental, about half of my orders to T&T fetch full buylist price, even with some cards are in played condition. When there are grading deductions, I still generally end up with 80 percent of buylist price for the order.
This inconsistency in grading makes it a bit difficulty to compute the grading multiplier, which I have at 0.90, but in reality, about half the time I get 100 percent of buylist value, and the other half I get 80. So although 0.90 evens out in the long run, it is not always correct for any specific order. However, a 25 percent credit bonus helps to make up for this inconsistency, if that is what you are looking for.
T&T also gets points for contacting the seller with any post-grading deductions and offering to return the order, at their cost, if the seller so desires (seriously, one time I had a large flat rate break open during shipping – it arrived at T&T in a garbage bag – and they repackaged and shipped it back to me on their dime). They also respond quickly to emails, so they get an A++ for customer service in my book.
Finally, the T&T buylist page was recently redone, and the upgrades are amazing. A few months ago T&T was among the hardest buylists to use, consisting of a massive word-like document of all the cards they were buying (which is especially a pain for selling cards like Dark Ritual with many editions, or foils). However, their new site is world class, easy to use, and way more efficient. While CK is still my favorite buylist to use in terms of functionality, T&T is now a close second.
In sum, always check T&T for played cards due to their high grading multiplier, and keep an eye on their bulk rates, because at times they are far and above everyone else.
Star City Games:
http://www.starcitygames.com/
(need free account to access buylist)
SCG seems to pay less for most cards simply because they can (just like they can charge more). However, if they really want a card, they are apt to outpace the rest of the buylist market. They still offer $0.10 for bulk rares (which used to be standard) and also pay $7.00 for bulk basic lands, which tops the market.
One of the quirks of SCG is that they want you to grade your own cards. If you do, they will generally stick to your grading and pay you the quoted price (there is a massive chart on their buylist page showing you how to deduce yourself for various conditions, along with a visual of how they grade cards). If you just mark everything as NM and make them grade your cards, they are generally less kind and pile on more deductions, so it is worth it to take the time and actually try to grade your own stuff – especially considering how inefficient their buylist process is anyways.
Because of this self-grading, I don’t use a multiplier for SCG, I just grade-as-I-go, and if I honestly grade my cards by their standard, I usually get the full price. They offer what is becoming the standard 25 percent store credit bonus, so be sure to check that out if you are looking to trade cards for cards.
A moment ago I said that the SCG buylisting process was inefficient, so now time for a little rant. Seriously, SCG – you are the biggest vendor in the magic world, and you have by far the most inefficient, archaic buylisting process. It is literally a document, where you not only have to ctrl-f to search for cards, but then you have to type out your own buylist (sell: Griselbrand – NM -Avacyn Restored – x2 @$8.00 = $16.00) and email it to buyer@starcitygames.com . If you have played cards, you need to ctrl-F the card, then scroll to the chart at the top of the page, figure out the deduction for condition, and then type it out. SCG is by far the slowest, most inefficient site to buylist on, which sometimes leads to me not even checking their prices, simply because it takes too long.
Finally, SCG customer service is (unsurprisingly) world class. They will email with any deductions and offer to return the order if you are unhappy. They pay fast and are friendly. Basically, the cream of the crop in dealing with customers.
In sum, hard to use and often low-paying due to market leader status, I use SCG less then many other buylists simply because it is not time-efficient. If they would upgrade their buylist site, I would at least check their prices along with others, but unless I’ve got a lot of time on my hand, its usually not economical. This said, their killer customer service and the ability to know exactly how much you’re payment will be (due to the grade-it-yourself system) do offer benefits, as does some of their bulk rates.
ABU:
http://abugames.com/buylist.html
ABU runs another world-class buylist, with some benefits that no other vendor offers. For on thing, they run a modified version of the SCG grade-it-yourself system (albeit with a much easier to use site) that only has two grade Near Mint and Played. Prices for both conditions are listed, and you simply click and options. The benefit for the seller is that, with only two grades, a SP card often falls into the NM catergory, so a few slight imperfections are not help against you at all price wise.
Like SCG, I don’t use a grading multiplier for ABU – if you honestly grade as you go, you can expect to get full price in most cases. Be aware, however, the difference between NM prices and played prices is sometimes drastic, so just because ABU is paying most for a NM card, if you can’t honestly grade it as NM, you might want to check elsewhere.
ABU often pays well for several categories of cards: 1. newly release standard cards (and sometime shot standard cards as well). 2. Rarities (ranging from promos to artist proofs) and 3. Foreign Cards. These last two categories, especially foreign cards are especially important, since in many cases ABU is the only site that buylist these cards.
While SCG will purchase foreign cards (usually) for the same price as an English card, ABU actually individually prices a huge number of cards by language, and in many cases the price is higher for foreign cards then for the English version. For example, ABU buys many bulk standard c/u in foreign languages for between 0.03 to 0.07 cents each – which is significantly higher then bulk.
ABU also prices out individual foil basic lands, and is often paying the most, especially for basics with in-demand art, so its worth checking before selling them off in bulk.
ABU also has solid customer service, pays quickly and will inform the customer of any deductions and offer to return the order (although, again, if you grade your own cards, this will rarely if ever come up). Their website is fine, and functional, with my only tip being that if you are looking for bulk you need to type “bulk” in the search bar because I’ve never been able to find a separate bulk category listed among the sets.
In sum, I always check ABU for rarities and foils, and standard cards. They offer the standard 25 percent trade in bonus, and since they are one of the few sites with a large collection of rarities, you can potentially trade your pile of standard rares for a signed artist proof or graded Alpha Demonic Tutor. Fun stuff.
Gaming ETC:
http://searchbuylist.gamingetc.com/Buylist.html
We are not getting to the area of buylists that I regularly use, but mostly for very specific purposes, so I probably won’t write as much about these sites, instead sticking to the important details.
While ETC has competitive pricing in general, there is one weird quirk while puts ETC ahead for one specific category of cards – old bordered bulk rares. For some reason, ETC loves to purchase bulk rares from Revised through Masques, rares that no other buylist even lists, for between $0.15 and $0.35 each. You still need to type the names into the search bar, and they are not purchasing every bulk rares from these sets, but they are always purchasing a large number, and getting $0.25 for that Revised Dingus Egg is far better then bulking it for $0.10.
At the same time, ETC usually does not pay well for commons or uncommons, often offering $0.02 for cards other companies are buying for five or ten times as much (although in my experience, if you have playsets you are almost always better off selling these cards on eBay).
ETC has a grading multiplier of 0.87, and in many cases does not deduct for played cards – instead of offering a reduced price, they ship them back to you free of charge, which is actually nice because you can resell them. With some high end cards they will offer a reduced price, but if you are usually using them to sell the old bulk rares I mentioned earlier, they generally accepts 9 out of 10 cards, and ship back the other 1 out of 10, so the grading multiplier could actually be a little higher, simply because you can still resell the cards they return.
ETC always pays, but they occasionally pay slower by check then other buylist, and they also charge $3 for check payment, so paypal is usually the way to go. They do not offer a store credit bonus that I know of, and as of today, their website buylist is “down for inventory” which I would suspect is temporary, because they are a fairly well established vendor, but I guess you never know.
Anyway, in sum. Always check for old bulk rares, and try to avoid taking the check payment because of the fee.
ChannelFireball:
http://store.channelfireball.com/buylist
I don’t really have much to say about CFB one way or the other. I do use their buylist on occasion, and have found that their grading can be tough-ish, with a multiplier of 0.75. This tough grading is especially true for just above bulk played cards, so CFB is probably not the place to sent your 100 played Mogg Fanatics for $0.05 each.
I haven’t really found a specific grouping of cards that CFB pays the most for, although they are sometimes high on mid-price ($4-$10) casual/EDH rares. CFB customer service is great, and they do contact buyers about grading deductions, so no worries that.
Strikezone:
http://shop.strikezoneonline.com/Buy_List.html
I have shipped a few different order to Strikezone over the years, and every time the order has been return to me, minus a card or two for shipping due to condition issues. I would then sell these cards to another site and receive the standard grading multiplier deductions.
This is not to say anything bad about SZ, because they are often the highest paying site for a large percentage of cards. But at this point I would not send SZ order unless the cards are above-and-beyond mint, like literally out-of-a-pack-and-into-a-hard-case mint.
I’m not blaming SZ, I blame myself for not understanding their grading standards, but every time I send an order I end up losing $10 in shipping when it’s returned, so personally its not worth the hassle for me. However, I have heard from other people that if your cards are very-mint, then SZ is great.
In sum, I’m not saying to avoid SZ, but watch your conditions carefully.
MTGFanatic:
http://www.mtgfanatic.com/store/buylist.aspx
In most cases, FAN is paying even more then Strikezone for an even wider range of cards. Trouble is, it often takes 6 months to get paid for an order (although, in all fairness, I have never not been pain eventually).
FAN only offers two categories for buylisted cards: NM and played, and then return, at the sellers expense (generally $5+ dollars) any cards that do not meet their subjective criteria. Worse yet, I have never really figure out how they grade cards, sometimes I get what I see as very mint cards returned, other times cards that I almost don’t even bother sending them (because I’m afraid they will get returned) slip through as NM. All things considered, I multiply my FAN orders by 0.60 (although it is worth understanding that with FAN you either get full buylists price or you get the card sent back. So the grading multiplier really says that I have found about half of the cards in an order get accepted and the other half get sent back).
I have a hard time recommending FAN just because of the long-payment window. If you don’t mind having your money tied up for months to make a few extra bucks, go for it, but just be aware that selling to FAN comes with a high opportunity cost.
In Sum
The above list is the sites I commonly use (or used) to buylist. Currently, I sell to some combination of Card Kingdom, Troll and Toad, and ABU most often. I also sell to ECT, ChannelFireball, and SCG on occasion, especially when I have a collection that happens to consist of things they usually pay well for. I used to use Fanatic and Strikezone, but for the types of cards I generally buylist, I have found that these vendors were not for me (again, this is not to say you should not use them – judge for yourself).
Shipping
You have a few options when shipping to buylist. 1.) Ship with a stamp, which is fine for about 4 cards in a hard shell, although you don’t get tracking, so use this method at your own risk. 2.) Ship 1st class, which is often inefficient unless you happen to be in the perfect weight/size/location sweet-spot. 3.) Ship small flat rate box/envelope. You can fix more cards in the envelope of you wrap them in stacks of 80-100 (although I have an understanding postmaster who lets things like the “don’t change the shape of the envelope” rule slide a bit), but the small box which holds between 350-500 offers more protection. 4.) Ship medium flat rate box, which I count as holding 5,000 cards and never had a buyer disagree.
Basically, options 1 and 2 or only efficient when you are selling between 4 and maybe 100 cards (depending on your location and the location you are shipping to). Once you get past the 100, using option 3 is almost always the more efficient then paying for first class shipping. Between 700 and 1000 (again location dependent) there may be another sweet spot for first class, but then over 1000 your a pretty much locked into option 4.
What this means is you want to avoid shipping the orders that are of inefficient numbers of cards. For example, you can ship 5,000 cards in a medium flat rate for the same cost as shipping 1,500 cards. So if you have an order in the 1,500 card-range, thinking about throwing in some bulk to take advantage of what amount to free shipping for an extra 3,500 cards.
Avoid situations where you are shipping 200 cards to 7 different vendors if possible – you are paying inefficient flat-rate prices (since the small box/envelope is only one-half or one-third full). Sometimes I even hold off until I have another collection to sell (assuming I’m selling stable-priced, non-spikinging cards) to ship together. Most of the buylists give you a week to ship your order, so if you can stick another order in the box in that time frame, you are making both order more efficient, and in the long run saving yourself significant money.
Basically, aware that shipping is a cost of buylisting, and avoid inefficient shipping points whenever possible. It is always better to make $2 less on an order, if it saves you $5 in shipping.
Conclusions:
Just to be clear, if I did not mention a buylists, its not because its bad, or because you should not use it, its simply that I have not used it enough to have anything meaningful to say about it. If you have any questions, or suggestion for another article, be sure to ask. Oh, and sorry about the two part format – I couldn’t figure out a way to say everything I wanted to and still fit in under the reddit character limit.
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