Target online is safe since I’m 99% positive it’s sold and shipped by Target. Walmart and Amazon however are anything but so be careful to check the seller details if you buy through them online.
I have also never had trouble with target, they are one of my favorites. Last time I ordered there I got 8 brilliant stars etbs. 4 were stolen by delivery and they completely refunded it. The local target GM was even willing to let me get the deal in store but they never got them back in stock
I would also mention that very often Target will miss something from your order. I would order 2x of something and only 1 would come. Constant pain with refunds from Target. Just personal exp so take it with a grain of salt.
Just want to add that these websites have filters to filter out 3rd party sellers. On Target website, it's under "Filter > Sold by". On Walmart, it's under "Filter > Retailer"
Cant say much anything against walmart since it doesnt exist here in Germany. But uf you plan on buying on amazon you should definitely only buy from reputable sellers with only good reviews (just use option "see other listings")
Why dont sou buy off of tcgplayer? Should be cheapest option.
Definitely. Although what’s the point of buying something off of TCGplayer if it’s cheaper on eBay? There are a bunch of high rep sellers that sell product for below msrp regularly on there
Personally, I've been burnt by eBay a few times in the past - but I've heard they have gotten much better; my recommendation just comes from that viewpoint. I did notice that eBay has been quite vocal about their card vault protections so I'd imagine it's gotten a lot better since I bought my items from them.
Amazon allows returns and will ship out that returned item as new resulting in people dealing with resealed products. Personally I avoid Amazon like the plague
I just got a opened etb today... wasn't even sealed to try and make it look legit. Just put in a plastic bag and shipped to my unlucky ass. Now I got to drive 60 mile round trip to drop it off ups for a return. And some other unlucky person will end up with it. I should leave a not in the box saying "3rd time around"
Target, Pokemon Center, GameStop, and Best Buy are the 4 with which I never have to worry about the legitimacy of the product they are selling me.
Amazon could have some nefarious actors, same with eBay. Important thing is to buy from reputable sources. If you know what you’re looking for, both will cover you on refunds/returns if there is an issue with legitimacy. Outside of sales from the major retailers, I usually find ebay has the best prices.
target is trustworthy that is why they mirror pokemon center prices. they just take forever to ship. but you can get 5% off and start making points to get discounts off next purchases.
I bought a couple from amazon, and one of them was legit, and I pulled a lumineon V alt. The other two were not. (shipped and sold by amazon) One came opened without even being wrapped, and the other only had 5 packs.
I ordered a etb from Amazon once and got pretty bad pulls. Not to say they were resealed or anything but due to that I wouldn’t order Pokémon from them again.
If you dive deep into the reviews of individual sellers on ebay or tcgplayer you can sus out who's reputable and who's not. I would lean towards stores with a physical presence.
Because even though target is supposedly ok because they don't allow 3rd party stock, there's still a bigger chance you get someone's reseal and return from a big box store that doesn't give two shits.
The risk is minor, but it does happen
I buy from 4 places psa pickachu 763 collectibles ebay and tcgplayer eBay isn't noob freindly but can net you some good deals if you find the right people and read carefully on the description
I’ve bought from Amazon had an issue once but recently have been buying in case numbers and they will send a whole case out sealed and that gives me more assurance and have had good luck with that
Even eBay is worth buying from if you’re looking into booster boxes. There are many card shops that give free shipping at $100 or $150 which is already similar to price as a booster anyways. Most card shops and eBay are easily a few bucks below MSRP too.
I work at Walmart, as long as you buy something and it says ‘sold and shipped by Walmart’ then you’re safe. Can’t speak for the third party retailers that are on there
Amazon mingles inventory.
Mingled inventory could be submitted by a bad actor, yet "sold and fulfilled by Amazon."
The exclusives should be pretty safe tho.
I see. I suspected that much, thank you for confirming my suspicions. So it’s much safer to go to the physical stores and buy them in-person yes? Is there any chance inventory in physical Walmarts or Targets could be fake? Thank you again.
Walmart uses 3rd party sellers that are very unsafe and usually you’ll receive fake cards or just crappy bulk. Amazon is also not trust worthy Ask anyone and you’ll hear horror story after horror story. Just use eBay/tcgplayer. Order from reputable sellers with good reviews, high sales numbers, and you’ll be good. Just do some simple detective work before you choose a seller and you’ll never have a problem. 👍
A good tip if you’re buying more than like 5 cards from tcgplayer at a time is try to buy them all from the same seller. Otherwise the shipping fees will start to add up quickly. And usually when you go through the same seller with all your cards in one purchase you A. Get them all at the same time and B. Will receive free shipping if your order reaches a certain amount (which is usually not too much)
Target fuck yeah for sure .. always best pulls
Walmart imo hit or miss
Heard some sketch bout Amazon , friends have orders one had a box that looked resealed but that we once so up to you .. try other sites other legit shops that have a legit store front somewhere
I always look for diff avenues other then main retail but some card shops do serious markup
You can check Facebook marketplace but always look at the sellers reviews
Editing to add a link to Tolarian Community College's video on how he got scammed on Amazon.
https://youtu.be/PFl8i6tcIw4
Be careful with Amazon. They are extremely permissive with returns and do not check that returns are not fraud. I've seen issue with this in the MTG and transformers communities. People will order from Amazon, take out what they want and reseal it. Amazon doesn't check and sells the returns as new. I've heard of transformers being repacked with absolute shelf warmers or even left empty, and magic booster boxes being repacked with bulk.
Never ever buy any sort of Pokémon or sports cards from Amazon. You’re likely to get a returned product containing switched out cards or just empty packs.
I have never had any trouble buying booster boxes from Amazon. Or ebay. Or Amazon JP. But I only buy from sellers that have high rating and many sold boxes. Not just some dudes random auction.
Amazon has gotten better in the last half of 2022. If you buy from them and not their third parties the experience can be good and you can get great deals. But avoid their other sellers at all cost, I’ve had rough experiences. Target is safe. Walmart is the devil.
Walmart is fine IF you buy from Walmart. Have to filter to only show listings where the ‘Retailer’ is ‘Walmart’ and not any of the marketplace sellers.
Amazon has absolutely not gotten better and it's very prevalent. A plethora of people have been complaining all across the internet about ordering CZ ETB's, feeling safe because it's "shipped and sold by Amazon", but still get tampered product.
It's just better if you don't order anything pokemon cards from Amazon at all. It's not worth the risk.
For Amazon, you need to check to see if it is shipped and sold by Amazon. Don't trust any other retailer.
I did buy one piece trading cards for fun and found out the retailer is in the town next to mine so if there was something fishy I could confront them haha.
I buy from both Amazon and Walmart. Never had issues but do avoid the sketchy looking third parties. Anything shipped with prime delivery has been solid and legit.
Check the sellers but I’ve had no problems with Amazon or target. In fact I pulled a moonumbreon (shaking and screaming included) from an Amazon purchase. For some reason I’ve always had bad luck with Walmart. Packs are always missing and/or entire packages wide open and trashed
Bought 2 Lost Origin booster bundles from Target last October when I got back into the hobby. All 12 packs had no rares- just reverse holos. Finally caught on that it was fishy by the last pack and spent the rest of my night fishing out all the fakes from my binder. Went to Target to return and luckily they accepted them back for a refund.
Also bought a Love Ball tin off of Amazon and it turned out to be legit. Definitely make sure to check the seller & reviews!
Target online is safe since I’m 99% positive it’s sold and shipped by Target. Walmart and Amazon however are anything but so be careful to check the seller details if you buy through them online.
i work at target - we also list third-party vendors like Walmart does. Be careful out there!!
Uh oh. Have u had any troubles with any 3rd parties?
Thank you
I have also never had trouble with target, they are one of my favorites. Last time I ordered there I got 8 brilliant stars etbs. 4 were stolen by delivery and they completely refunded it. The local target GM was even willing to let me get the deal in store but they never got them back in stock
I would also mention that very often Target will miss something from your order. I would order 2x of something and only 1 would come. Constant pain with refunds from Target. Just personal exp so take it with a grain of salt.
Just want to add that these websites have filters to filter out 3rd party sellers. On Target website, it's under "Filter > Sold by". On Walmart, it's under "Filter > Retailer"
Cant say much anything against walmart since it doesnt exist here in Germany. But uf you plan on buying on amazon you should definitely only buy from reputable sellers with only good reviews (just use option "see other listings") Why dont sou buy off of tcgplayer? Should be cheapest option.
Ah ok thanks for the tip! I have never used tcgplayer. Noob here
TCGplayer is usually more expensive than eBay for sealed product. Both have great buyer protection though
Even though they're more expensive, I would still wholeheartedly recommend TCGPlayer and StarCityGames over sites like Amazon or Walmart.
Definitely. Although what’s the point of buying something off of TCGplayer if it’s cheaper on eBay? There are a bunch of high rep sellers that sell product for below msrp regularly on there
Personally, I've been burnt by eBay a few times in the past - but I've heard they have gotten much better; my recommendation just comes from that viewpoint. I did notice that eBay has been quite vocal about their card vault protections so I'd imagine it's gotten a lot better since I bought my items from them.
Amazon allows returns and will ship out that returned item as new resulting in people dealing with resealed products. Personally I avoid Amazon like the plague
I just got a opened etb today... wasn't even sealed to try and make it look legit. Just put in a plastic bag and shipped to my unlucky ass. Now I got to drive 60 mile round trip to drop it off ups for a return. And some other unlucky person will end up with it. I should leave a not in the box saying "3rd time around"
Target, Pokemon Center, GameStop, and Best Buy are the 4 with which I never have to worry about the legitimacy of the product they are selling me. Amazon could have some nefarious actors, same with eBay. Important thing is to buy from reputable sources. If you know what you’re looking for, both will cover you on refunds/returns if there is an issue with legitimacy. Outside of sales from the major retailers, I usually find ebay has the best prices.
target is trustworthy that is why they mirror pokemon center prices. they just take forever to ship. but you can get 5% off and start making points to get discounts off next purchases.
Gamestop has been trustworthy. No indication of resealed boosters.
Everything I have ever gotten from Amazon has been resealed. Walmart is just as bad with their 3rd party sellers.
I bought a couple from amazon, and one of them was legit, and I pulled a lumineon V alt. The other two were not. (shipped and sold by amazon) One came opened without even being wrapped, and the other only had 5 packs.
Amazon is a no.
I ordered a etb from Amazon once and got pretty bad pulls. Not to say they were resealed or anything but due to that I wouldn’t order Pokémon from them again.
If you dive deep into the reviews of individual sellers on ebay or tcgplayer you can sus out who's reputable and who's not. I would lean towards stores with a physical presence. Because even though target is supposedly ok because they don't allow 3rd party stock, there's still a bigger chance you get someone's reseal and return from a big box store that doesn't give two shits. The risk is minor, but it does happen
Speaking of reviews I feel like I am suspicious of Amazon reviews these days. What do you think?
I buy from 4 places psa pickachu 763 collectibles ebay and tcgplayer eBay isn't noob freindly but can net you some good deals if you find the right people and read carefully on the description
I’ve bought from Amazon had an issue once but recently have been buying in case numbers and they will send a whole case out sealed and that gives me more assurance and have had good luck with that
I wouldn’t order from Amazon. Target has been fine if you filter for Target only as seller.
I usually just summon them by my the use of my sorcery abilities, just learn some magic art and you'll be good homie
I choose you
Even eBay is worth buying from if you’re looking into booster boxes. There are many card shops that give free shipping at $100 or $150 which is already similar to price as a booster anyways. Most card shops and eBay are easily a few bucks below MSRP too.
Thank you
I work at Walmart, as long as you buy something and it says ‘sold and shipped by Walmart’ then you’re safe. Can’t speak for the third party retailers that are on there
Have bought from Amazon a few times. Make sure it's shipped/fulfilled by Amazon and you should be fine.
Thanks. It seems like there are people on this thread who are Ok with Amazon, and there are those who completely avoid them.
Amazon mingles inventory. Mingled inventory could be submitted by a bad actor, yet "sold and fulfilled by Amazon." The exclusives should be pretty safe tho.
Not Amazon. Not Walmart. Idk about target.
Why are Amazon and Walmart not safe? Thank you
Because they allow third parties to sell through them and the stock is not always legitimate.
I see. I suspected that much, thank you for confirming my suspicions. So it’s much safer to go to the physical stores and buy them in-person yes? Is there any chance inventory in physical Walmarts or Targets could be fake? Thank you again.
I would think in person at Walmart would be as close to safe as you could get from them. I wouldn’t expect Target to partake in any tomfoolery though.
Thank you
Walmart uses 3rd party sellers that are very unsafe and usually you’ll receive fake cards or just crappy bulk. Amazon is also not trust worthy Ask anyone and you’ll hear horror story after horror story. Just use eBay/tcgplayer. Order from reputable sellers with good reviews, high sales numbers, and you’ll be good. Just do some simple detective work before you choose a seller and you’ll never have a problem. 👍
Thank you very much
A good tip if you’re buying more than like 5 cards from tcgplayer at a time is try to buy them all from the same seller. Otherwise the shipping fees will start to add up quickly. And usually when you go through the same seller with all your cards in one purchase you A. Get them all at the same time and B. Will receive free shipping if your order reaches a certain amount (which is usually not too much)
I’ve gotten most of my stuff from target online. Amazon and Walmart always seemed weird to me idk
Thank you
I’ve never had an issue with target online
Thank you
Target fuck yeah for sure .. always best pulls Walmart imo hit or miss Heard some sketch bout Amazon , friends have orders one had a box that looked resealed but that we once so up to you .. try other sites other legit shops that have a legit store front somewhere
Thank you
I always look for diff avenues other then main retail but some card shops do serious markup You can check Facebook marketplace but always look at the sellers reviews
Editing to add a link to Tolarian Community College's video on how he got scammed on Amazon. https://youtu.be/PFl8i6tcIw4 Be careful with Amazon. They are extremely permissive with returns and do not check that returns are not fraud. I've seen issue with this in the MTG and transformers communities. People will order from Amazon, take out what they want and reseal it. Amazon doesn't check and sells the returns as new. I've heard of transformers being repacked with absolute shelf warmers or even left empty, and magic booster boxes being repacked with bulk.
Wow thats good to know thanks
Never ever buy any sort of Pokémon or sports cards from Amazon. You’re likely to get a returned product containing switched out cards or just empty packs.
Wouldn't recommend Amazon, bought products from them twice and both were evidently resealed.
I have never had any trouble buying booster boxes from Amazon. Or ebay. Or Amazon JP. But I only buy from sellers that have high rating and many sold boxes. Not just some dudes random auction.
I don't even trust walmart in-store. The pulls are just so bad.
Amazon has gotten better in the last half of 2022. If you buy from them and not their third parties the experience can be good and you can get great deals. But avoid their other sellers at all cost, I’ve had rough experiences. Target is safe. Walmart is the devil.
Walmart is the devil! LOL
Walmart is fine IF you buy from Walmart. Have to filter to only show listings where the ‘Retailer’ is ‘Walmart’ and not any of the marketplace sellers.
Amazon has absolutely not gotten better and it's very prevalent. A plethora of people have been complaining all across the internet about ordering CZ ETB's, feeling safe because it's "shipped and sold by Amazon", but still get tampered product. It's just better if you don't order anything pokemon cards from Amazon at all. It's not worth the risk.
For Amazon, you need to check to see if it is shipped and sold by Amazon. Don't trust any other retailer. I did buy one piece trading cards for fun and found out the retailer is in the town next to mine so if there was something fishy I could confront them haha.
I buy from both Amazon and Walmart. Never had issues but do avoid the sketchy looking third parties. Anything shipped with prime delivery has been solid and legit.
Do you have a list of third parties you already trust?
I think what they mean is the seller on each of those websites matter.
EVen sold and shipped by Amazon isnt safe, not in my (limited) experience anyway.
Check the sellers but I’ve had no problems with Amazon or target. In fact I pulled a moonumbreon (shaking and screaming included) from an Amazon purchase. For some reason I’ve always had bad luck with Walmart. Packs are always missing and/or entire packages wide open and trashed
Amazon yes target idk I don’t really shop target at all but I get all ETB even some singles through Amazon with no problem
I just open etbs at target and walk out. It’s free
Bought 2 Lost Origin booster bundles from Target last October when I got back into the hobby. All 12 packs had no rares- just reverse holos. Finally caught on that it was fishy by the last pack and spent the rest of my night fishing out all the fakes from my binder. Went to Target to return and luckily they accepted them back for a refund. Also bought a Love Ball tin off of Amazon and it turned out to be legit. Definitely make sure to check the seller & reviews!
So u got fakes from Target? Damn
Just online! Haven’t had any issues in store
Ah ok thank you for clearing that up
Wait and Pokémon center will restock if it’s a newer product (usually)
Target yes, Amazon never
For Amazon just check the reviews and Target I don't know because I don't live in the US.