Crimsonspire wrote:I appreciate all the suggestions that i'm getting and will act on them. It's not going to be an overnight thing thats for sure.

Hello and thanks for efforts!  I certainly appreciate you taking the time to post on the forums and wish you all the best in rectifying some of the issues identified here by some of the members.

Stock photos are particularly problematic to collectors interested in condition.  As long as T&T provide a mechanism whereby additional photos can be provided on request particularly for the more expensive items, this seems a reasonable compromise until all listings are fully updated with actual photos.

Good luck.

I have not requested photos from T&T in a few years (RS1 Red Sonja IIRC), but they were sent promptly and were of very high quality.  The policy of providing photos might have been changed in the intervening years as it can be a time consuming process, but if they are willing to do this moving forward, I consider it a positive move on their part.

Crimsonspire wrote:I appreciate all the suggestions that i'm getting and will act on them. It's not going to be an overnight thing thats for sure.

Crimsonspire, can we PM you directly here at the Acaeum if we have a question about a particular item, or would that be too cumbersome?

"Nobleknight seems to get by OK with a lot of stock photos."

My only trouble with an online order in this genre was with NK. Never had any trouble with T&T and have always been happy with my purchases. It's a crapshoot IMO buying online and then hoping that you're getting what you're wanting (for whatever price you payed).

T&T reminds me of another Ebay Seller "Mile High Comics" which seems to have a large amount of inventory and employees. Here is what they write in all listings:

A couple more notes about how we run our business. First, you need to be aware that the cover photo of the item shown in this auction is strictly for references purposes, and is not a scan of the actual item. We sell well over one million back issues a year, and thus have a huge library of past scans that we utilize to illustrate the books that we are selling. Were we to try and scan again every single item that we are listing on eBay each day, we'd simply go broke. While the cover scan we provide gives you only a representation of what your book should look like, below we have listed a very detailed written description of our grading standards for this particular book.

BNagata wrote:T&T reminds me of another Ebay Seller "Mile High Comics" which seems to have a large amount of inventory and employees. Here is what they write in all listings:

I know this sounds incredibly self-serving, but when you can you should really try to deal with smaller, more hands-on stores when buying gaming stuff if things like customer service matters to you. Stores like Mile High and T&T, when dealing with the huge amounts of customers they sell to, cannot afford to have any sort of personal relationship with the customer. To be upset because they aren't sompletely reactive to complaints is to wonder why Wall-Mart doesn't have that "personal touch" anymore.

In other words, to expect anything other than the type of service you are given with merchants like Mile High and T&T is just silly. You are getting exactly what you should expect, no more or less.

Mike B.

Crimsonspire wrote:
I started working in the RPG department 4 months ago at TnT, condition has been an uphill battle since starting due to the volume of product that we have. I'm pretty strict on grading myself and the quality control on current items going in has been much better, we also just recently regraded everything from 1st Edition, next up we are going to regrade OD&D and Basic.

The department has a new head and workers who care about giving our customers exactly what they order. A lot of the graders in the past were lax in their grading and often just didn't care enough to fully check it all the time, but that has changed and we intend to fix their mistakes. I will  say that if you have any problems with what you received contact our customer service. As for the shipping, it's not my department and I have nothing to do with it, but I do know ordering directly from the site is cheaper than the shipping is on Ebay.

Well, I recently wanted to buy an AD&D module in NM condition. To be sure of the item on sale, I asked to T&T before purchasing it. Here is the T&T answer :

"Due to a mistake in inventory we do not actually have a NM print of this item. However, we do have one in good condition and I have provided the links below to scans of the front and back of those items. We are sorry for the inconvenience this may have caused. If you have any more questions please feel free to ask. Thank you and have a nice day".

The answer is kind and polite, I got pictures of good quality but of course not for the condition expected. One thing is clear : T&T makes efforts to send scans when asked but there is still errors in the inventory. What would be happened if I had purchased the mint item that was not available in fact ?
It's a shame for AD&D which normally has been entirely "regraded" as T&T member explained to us in his post.

Personally, I have sometimes been satisfied by T&T but I think that too many errors and approximations subsist.

I agree with many Acaeum members that if there is no real will to change the things, T&T will remain for most collectors not always reliable and attractive. And I do not understand the use of stock photos, T&T has so many employees. The second great reproach I have is the fact that T&T do not offer flat-rate envelope shipping, which is a reliable and excellent shipping method for modules and magazines : fair price and fast. Everyone can use that system in US but not T&T...

Hi,

I think they have a lot of buyers.

They have a big internet presence.

Everything I sold to them has disappeared from the website pretty quickly.

Cheers,
Malc

mbassoc2003 wrote:Are CCGs really worth anything? I think I have a few shoe boxes of MTG sitting around in my back room. I just always though selling cards at 10p each was not woth my time eBaying them. I don't have any Black Lotus's or anything, but I don't imagine most people do.

Some of the cards were rediculous. I remember one that said, "Target player buys user selected drink.", and onother that says, "Rip card into tiny pieces and sprinkle on the playing area." Some cards were downright insane.

The card people used to rip up and sprinkle on the playing area was the Chaos Orb. You had to have the card at least turn over once over the opponent's playing area, and any other cards it touched were discarded (destroyed). So the one guy decided to rip up his Chaos Orb and sprinkle it over all his opponents cards, forcing him to put all his played cards in his discard pile. Having said that, that card today I'm sure is worth at least, if not more than, $50.00 - $75.00.

All the power nine cards go for INSANE prices these days (ever hear of a $1000.00 Lotus before?). And some of the older cards are increasing in value (The first few sets... Arabian Nights, the Artifact set with the Mishra's stuff in them... etc.).

I took a bunch of cards to Gencon last year and made over $800.00 last year, and more than have of that were cards at or under $10.00.

It's just one of those quirks of the game where X new card and Y old card equals a killer combo, then BLAM! instant price increase.

[Late Edit - The Mishra's stuff... the name of the set was Antiquities!!!]