Magic MTG Worn Powerstone Urza's Saga Good

Price considerations when I put up a card:

Condition of the card

Set (black bordered original editions usually have a higher player regard and thus a higher price so I will look for the black bordered editions to compare against)

Shipping charges (if someone charges 2.50, I do not mind being 0.49 higher, or if someone is charging 2.00 for first and 1.00 for the second auction won or something close like that, I tend to ignore those sellers and look for a different one to compare against.  If you want to overpay on shipping then that is great and fine because it is your money. 

I, personally, as a buyer, consider myself unreasonable when it comes to the shipping charges of certain sellers.  I am the type of person who becomes really angry when I am charged 4.00, 8.00 or whatever for a purchase of many cards, only to see maybe 3.00 postage on the envelope.  These sellers tend to dim out and fade away and I do not purchase from them again.  It is okay to buy a 3.00 card that you can get on the internet for 1.00 or  1.50 and maybe pay 2.00 shipping but who wants to pay 10.00 shipping for 10.00 dollars worth of cards?  It has happened to me before.  I have won 30 or 40 auctions from a guy.  The shipping is 2.00 for first, and 1.00 for the second.  And the seller does not give me a break; telling me that the 1.00 is for other expenses too, and that is why they have low card prices.  So I end up paying 40.00 in "shipping and handling." Hey, if you charge me 40.00 for shipping and handling, my cards better be wrapped in gold, with  bullet proof kevlar, and better survive fire and water on route to me!  I understand paying for time as much as the next guy, but really, another 1.00 for about 5 extra seconds of "work" adding one or two more cards is borderline unreasonable.

I charge 2.00 U.S./3.00 International for everything.  That's it.  Buy 2 cards or 20; there are no extra fees, no tricks, no nothing.  If the package ends up costing me more then what you have paid me to ship it (again 2.00 U.S and 3.00 International total for all your cards and no more);  Well when it comes to Magic cards, that almost never happens unless it is an international order but congratulations on being a great customer.  I will just cover the difference and please shop here again, thankyou very much.

 When I set my initial price, if someone charges handling fees or requires insurance I will take that into consideration as well.  I know there are some sellers who will try to squeeze a little extra out of you.  And that is fine, bills need to be paid, and about 10 percent of everything we ever do goes somewhere else before we even see the money.   As a person, my personal philosophy is usually to just take the hit.  Basically, if I lose a dollar here or there, I shrug it off because my purpose is to serve your needs, i.e. not nickel and dime you or lose my hair or fry a brain circuit because store_01 made an extra 2.00 selling same magic card.

I generally ignore international seller prices because of international customs, foreign exchange rates, delivery time and so forth.  Don't get me wrong, I have purchased from out of country spots before and have never, ever, ever (knock on wood) had any problems that I did not put myself into in the first place.  In online lingo: Buying stuff from someone who either has low feedback, does not accept paypal, or both; "for the lose". 

Yes, I will spend the time shopping around and comparing prices so you don't have to.  I have stated this before and it bears repeating.  I am more interested in moving cards, then I am about making top dollar on my inventory.  Once my inventory is gone; that's it.  I am done.  And you will be hard pressed to find someone with such a laid back easy going mentality who has all the qualities you would want in a Magic Store Keeper.

Now for the bad part. 

First, I will not price match after the card is already listed. 

Second, as much as I do want to give back; and provide a service of finding great Magic cards for better then great price.  I am in business to make money.  It may be only a little money because Magic cards cost something to obtain and when the dust settles I end up spending like 100 dollars to make 10.  The way the numbers break down usually go something like this: 15.00 dollar card purchased for 10.00.  Profit is 5.00 right?  Pretty simple.  Well, ten percent needs to be taken away from the 15.00.  This usually accounts for closing costs, listing fees, paypal fees, and it is actually more then ten percent. 

Ten percent of 15.00 is 1.50.  You take that away from the 5.00 you "made".  Unfortunately, if I offer to buy someone's 15 dollar card for 10, they will laugh at me, throw heavy objects in my general direction, or some other generally negative response.  So you end up splitting the difference and paying 13.00 for a 15.00 card.  You take your profit from the 2.00 difference.  Out of that 15.00, ten percent is taken (1.50, so 2.00 - 1.50 = 0.50)The result being that you basically are just spinning your wheels really hard to make less than a single dollar.  So, obviously I am running this store for some other reason then money. 

The answer to why I do this is to move cards that I am not using.  However, the fact that there is something in it for me needs to be clear under the "bad stuff" disclaimer.

I reserve the right to be human!  I make mistakes sometimes.  Sometimes those mistakes are not my fault.  I do a lot of relisting and the ebay system does not keep track of how many of a cards are sold.  So if I list 8 cards, and 4 sell.  The ebay system will relist 8 cards.  I did not do that.  I do not have the 4 extra cards.  I am sorry, for the mistake but I simply do not own the cards you bought.  On top of that, the Ebay turbolister I use sometimes does this without my knowledge! 

So I will relist a card, see that it was originally listed at a quantity of 8.  I sold 4, so I will relist 4 items.  But on top of that, there will be a relist of the original 8 items that I do not know about.  This simply just causes me endless frustration and trouble.  So understand that this can happen to you.  It is a mistake without malice, and quite frankly, without fault.

Or sometimes I list a card that I have 3 of and accidently put 4 on the auction.  Sometimes I simply cannot find a card that I had in my hand yesterday.  I will spend an hour looking for your card.  I will try to find a replacement.  But after that, if I don't have it, all I can do it refund your money, or have you pick something else.  I hate it when it happens, I do as much as I reasonably can to avoid this situation, but once in about every 100 orders or so, this happens.   I only put up cards I own.  When I put up an auction, I am looking so closely at the card that I have wrinkles from squinting so much.  The card is in hand but sometimes the Gremlins just come and take the card away!

Yet another bad thing:

I have other cards, certainly, but what I have up in the store at the time is what I am willing to sell.  I run the store in my spare time.  In the slice of time I dedicate to the store, about 60 percent is mailing cards, and 40 percent is putting cards up.  Quite frankly, I do not have time to search for this or that card.  If it is not up for auction or on my store front; I do not have it.  So don't ask; the answer will be no. =(

Another bad thing you need to know about.  I am very, VERY busy.  I do not have enough time to run in place and I can only do the best I can with the time I have.  So, I am not necessarily forgetful, but I am borderline eccentric; meaning whimsical or quirky, unusual or odd.  I have so many things running through my head and in my life, it's like; gosh, what was I supposed to do again?  Now where DID I put those Dungeons and Dragons sourcebooks.

I do what I say.  I do what I commit to.  Check my feedback, I have over 3000 positive feedback with an over 99.99 percent happiness rating.  I have had less then half a dozen negative feedbacks.  Even most of those are pretty borderline and I will go to my 80 year deathbed arguing some of them.  So the odds of our transaction going bad, very very low.  Odds of our transaction going bad and me not working with you in some way to either refund your money or get you replacement cards or whatever; nonexistent, it just does not happen.

And finally:

I do not want to do business with you unless you agree with these to do these things.

I ask that you consider how important detailed seller ratings are to me, more so then positive feedback.  As a power seller, it will actually hurt me financially if I do not earn top marks in the automated ebay computer rating system.  I strive to give you the very best service I can. 

So, If you are going to leave less then 5 stars on a rating.  Please let me know why.  Maybe we can work something out and I can fix the problem.

  Spend 30 seconds.  Shop around, check my store page to see if I put up an update, or check out my non-Magic card items.  Again, I am not asking that you buy from me again, but come over and visit.  Give me a chance to once again prove my worth as one of your Magic Supplying sources.

And the final bit of the terms is that you let at least 2 but a maximum of 5 people of your caliber to know about me.  Did you get your cards?  Were you happy about condition?  Were my shipping rates fair?  Then pretty please with sugar on top, let a couple people in your circle know about it.  Someday.  not today, not tomorrow, just if the opportunity comes up.  I provide you a service of great cards at great prices and even better shipping rates.  Please give a little back with a few sentences when the opportunity presents itself.  You could be talking about deals on Ebay, or Magic cards in general or how you have such a large great collection and you could mention something like,

"hey, there is this guy on ebay that is pretty good.  I bought from him and did not cheat me."  "rinestone without the "H" underscore cpalace"  You can find him by looking for the lowest price on ebaystores/buy it now"

"he has lots of under a dollar random singles and x4 common playsets, I wish he had more power cards" and so forth.

You don't have to force it.  Just keep a friendly mental note that if it comes up, remember me.  You are probably going to suggest that someone check ebay for something anyway.  If it happens to be Magic the Gathering, you can suggest that this particular someone check ebay, and then check me while they are in the area.

Come back a bit.  You know how I asked you to come back, if only to check me out.  One piece of good, that goes with the "bad."  If during your Magic the Gathering Career, you purchase from me at least 3 times for 20.00 or more, the next time our paths cross; you WILL be a VIP.  That means we have an established relationship, and I will give you free shipping;

FOR LIFE.

As long as your order is 20.00 or more, on the 4th time, the 5th time, and onward.  You shop here, and shipping is on me.  I will prolly notice.  I will prolly know who you are.  But feel free to remind me before or after I send you your total; if the total is wrong, I will fix it, as long as you let me know it is wrong.

If you are an international client, shipping for orders over 20.00 will still be free.  However, if you want insurance for your item, I will still ask for the 10.00 registered mail fee.  Insurance is always optional.

I already have clients that I offer this too.  But it was a secret!  Now, I want to offer the same wowow treatment to all who want to develop that mutually beneficial relationship with me.  My customer care is already excellent, but if you get to here; you get that and you will save even more.

And to help assist you in achieving that magic number of 20.00 in your order:

Sign up for my ebay announcement list. The one biggest gripe I get, is lack of selection; lack of inventory.  I will usually list 40-100 new Magic Card auctions a month.  A big update is 200 cards.  I only have big updates about 4-5 times a year.  Those are the only times I will send you a little love note saying to stop by and see my bright, shiny sparklies that are newly listed in the store.  Other then that, I will generally not contact you, unless you do so first.

 I do not actually get your e-mail, ebay, keeps your privacy; so I could not sell your information even if I wanted to.  By the way, I would not want to sell your information in the first place because your trust is worth the world to me.