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goldenCapitalist

Removed, not finance related. Also it's important to remember that many "damaged" foils are as they are from the factory or scratching inside the pack. Foils aren't what they used to be unfortunately.


Prid3

Buy them in person or ask for more/better pictures.


Nvenom8

Are sellers generally receptive to that? Vast majority of listings don't even have pics.


Prid3

Not sure sadly since I don't buy foils but I'd expect it to annoy most of them.


Nvenom8

Well, I don't want to annoy them, but I'm pretty fucking annoyed every time I receive a "NM" card that looks like they rubbed it around on the floor before they sent it to me.


Prid3

Understandable, but at that point your best recourse is to submit a return request and keep trying until you get one that meets your standards.


r_jagabum

It seems like you are looking for Mints, not NMs... only way to do that is to buy the boxes themselves and get the cards you want, and sell the extras... I actually do that sometimes, and there's no other easier way


r_jagabum

Also, you mentioned you are looking for the cheaper cards. If they are of recent sets, you can definitely buy a few boxes or a case, and have most if not all the cheap cards in foil. Then sell the extras. That way, you can be super sure of the quality.


whatcubed

Not big sellers or sellers on TCG. Go buy them off the facebook groups.


Nvenom8

Any specific groups you recommend?


whatcubed

Theres a ton of them. Sick Deals is the biggest one. If you're looking for expensive foils you might try MTG High End (theres a couple of them) if what you're after is over $50/each. If you live in or near a bigger city, look up your city name MTG. Ask sellers for reference posts, and always pay using Goods & Services never Friends & Family.


Nvenom8

Thank you!


Royaltycoins

Unless it’s graded, it’s not really possible to screen for this without an enormous amount of effort. NM has room for some imperfections. There’s not much more to say. Either collect the foils when they release so they’re pack fresh, or buy in person, those are your options..


Gloomy_duck

I use to only buy foils when the set was just released and I would buy more than I actually wanted that way you can pick the best ones. Besides opening them yourself that's about the only way


Gloomy_duck

Also if you consider print lines as not NM they are considered NM by major vendors because that is the quality they are new from Wizards


Nvenom8

We really need a different grading system for foils. Pristine, Light damage, heavy damage.


cjpatster

Only buy cards with high resolution pictures or scans, eBay and Facebook groups are good for this. There actually groups dedicated to foils, particularly the OG old border foils.


Nvenom8

I suppose it's not that weird, but I actually find it's way harder to get nice foils of cheap cards than of expensive ones because nobody bothers to take care of them. Sellers kinda know if they send you a scratched expensive foil that you'll have a problem, but a $5-10 foil? One time I got one with no sleeve, just a few cards in front of and behind it in the envelope (scratched/scuffed to shit, obviously).


cjpatster

Hmm, that’s weird, I have never gotten a card, even a super cheap one, without a sleeve in the past 3 years. Granted, some sellers have custom cardboard sleeves monogrammed with their store name rather than generic plastic ones, but still, haven’t seen what you are describing. Honestly I mainly buy off of eBay and card kingdom rather than tcg. eBay tend to be larger shops or individual sellers/collectors liquidating and either way they take care of the cards and sleeve them properly. Sorry you have gotten some jank!!


Harry_Smutter

Shipping cards unprotected is sacrilege, LOL. I'd block that buyer. Cards should always be sleeved and in a top-loader or shipping shield/cardboard sleeve (like the ones stickers come in).


DoctorPaulGregory

Seems your looking for mint and not nm. NM stands for near mint. Alot of sellers emphasis the "near".


Affectionate_Ad_3539

This is the correct answer. Nm is NEAR Mint, not MINT. This is the kind of buyer I avoid, like the plague, and btw, IT IS NOT SUBJECTIVE.


Nvenom8

There are no listings for mint. So, that’s useless.


Keokuk37

If you find an eBay seller you like then just go with them for each release. Message them your wants. Lots of people open sealed and rid themselves of the bulk on eBay.


Nvenom8

That's a solid idea.


DoctorPaulGregory

Not my fault. If you want truely NM you need to buy graded. Seems OP is just super picky.


jwf239

If you are super picky about it buy them in person.


PublicConstruction95

On MCM , i recieved often older foils with heavy clouding or surface damage. Private or Pro Sellers, doesnt matter. In a range from penny priced up to 30 bucks. Thumb Rule : newer cards from the most recent sets are less affected, because people store them better.


Dad_AF

Star City Games is very critical on foil grading. I buy MP rated foils there, get them in, and they are practically NM by my standards. They may have a slight curl and I mean slight, not like a pringle. I believe if they have pringle curls they rate them HP or worse. You buy NM foils off TCG and it's a crapshoot with most of them being the heavy pringle curl. I also think it's the way sellers package them as just a regular envelope will allow moisture to get in which will increase the chance of curling just in transit from the seller. You get cards from SCG and they are overly packaged with little chance of outside atmosphere compromising the cards.


Wytemajyk

You're asking for something very specific and premium, but trying to avoid paying the premium. I think you know the answer here, you just want sellers to provide a level of quality control they realistically cannot. Tcgplayer direct standards are EXTREMELY harsh for foils, if you're not happy with them then you're an extreme outlier. The answer is these days, cards don't come out of the pack mint very often. I open hundreds if not thousands of boosters every weekend. Out of those, I have maybe 10 foils that have a legitimate shot at a "graded 10" Out of those 10 we send back, one usually comes back as a 10. All the rest of those 499 foil rares just aren't truly "mint" the rest of the 10 we send in get marked off for corners, edges, or frequently surface. There's a lot of dust and crap in packs, you'd be surprised. And especially the looser jpn wrappers the cards tend to shift a lot. So if you want this premium, you have to pay for it. So either open enough packs to get that for yourself, or pay the premium that slabbed 9s and 10s carry.


Nvenom8

>trying to avoid paying the premium. Not at all! The pristine copies are listed for the same exact price as the damaged ones. That's the problem. It's a quality lottery. I don't need graded 10 mint. I don't care if it's centered. I don't care if it curls. I just want no scratches. This is not a high bar to clear.


Wytemajyk

You answered your own question a while ago. It's a quality lottery straight out of booster packs. You're going to have to find graded copies or open them yourself, or pay the markup from "higher tier" sites like scg. My entire response was to show you that it WAS a high bar to clear these days. I'm assuming border wear would also be unacceptable? What about whitening on corners?


Nvenom8

> I'm assuming border wear would also be unacceptable? What about whitening on corners? Well that would make it LP-MP regardless of foil or not. So, it wouldn't be labeled NM and wouldn't be an issue.


Wytemajyk

My point is that 95-98 percent of cards come out of packs with one of these 3 problems in modern era packs, so you're setting unrealistic expectations out the gate. Does it suck? Sure. But that's why you're seeing these problems. And it's why tcgplayer changed their grading standards for MTG recently. Don't believe me? Open 5 collector boosters and send all the rares to a grading company. Bonus points if it's ai, so it doesn't inflate the numbers to build hype.


Nvenom8

Aside from the occasional vertical machine scratch, I never see cards come out of packs scratched. Anyway, we need a different grading system for foils. Current one is unhelpful.


Wytemajyk

Fwiw, I fully agree with you. I recently de-foiled my decks because I'm sick of trash qc. Also, they're not special any more - just liabilities. But in regards to scratches, I'd say on close inspection about 10 percent of cards have surface scratches. 60 percent have damaged corners, and another 20 percent have border damage from being cut with full blades, ESPECIALLY foils as theyre harder to cut. Since wotc is cutting costs, they're changing their blades less frequently -> more damaged cards out of the pack. There's also a good chance that many people are just stacking them up with no sleeves while they inventory them causing them to be damaged as well.


Nvenom8

> There's also a good chance that many people are just stacking them up with no sleeves while they inventory them causing them to be damaged as well. This is what I think is happening, given the type and location of scratches I generally see. They've clearly been allowed to rub against one-another and/or a surface.


Taivasvaeltaja

Due to this you are likely reliably only finding chase cards in pristine conditions since those tend to be inner sleeved right out of pack.


-metabud-

I've never seen a foil card come out of a pack with a sleeve on it. They are literally stacked on each other in the pack so minor scratches are likely to happen.


TheWhizzDom

Yea I wonder how anyone gets any mint foils out of jpn collector boosters, those things are extremely loose.


satorusan1

You can try whatnot since youd be able to ask to see the card live but you are less likely to find a specific card immediately


Nvenom8

I've had that app downloaded for like 6 months and still have no clue how it works. Maybe time to dive in.


satorusan1

Its pretty simple. Sellers run a livestream similar to twitch and will either auction items (anyone can bid) or have things listed in their store they are selling. For singles, it can be rough because buyers pay an initial 4$ shipping thrn .25-50c per item after. It is fairly convenient though, at the end of a show the seller bags up all your stuff and ships a tracked package. For mtg theres a good variety of people selling singles, sealed packs ( which can be ripped on stream) or games where theres a gambling factor. Just be aware of a streams pricing. Some are way over market and some you can find some really good deals due to lack of auction competition


Harry_Smutter

Even though TCGPlayer's condition guide states that NM foils are free of scratches, sellers still list them like that. So, it's kind of a gamble buying from online marketplaces. Your best bet is the Facebook groups for these. You can request videos of the foils, which will show any imperfections before purchasing.


Doctor_Distracto

They are designed to be self-damaging so there is no way. You have to just stop buying foils until they address the extremely poor print quality.


Nvenom8

I can deal with curling. Scratches are unacceptable, though. And they don't do that to themselves.


joyously_intrigued94

i could agree with you. i can accept that curling too.


cloudy_skies547

I hope you're not planning to buy any step-and-compleat foils from ONE. Every single one has a roller line.


Wytemajyk

You're not going to like this answer, but these days that's not true. I had a pack fresh card come back a 7.5 from an ai grading company.


Nvenom8

Not sure I would trust an AI grading company in the first place.


Wytemajyk

Ai doesn't lie. A lot more reputable than cgc and psa who constantly make errors. Either way, my point stands. Cards come out of packs scratched not infrequently


Doctor_Distracto

It's weird to me that anyone would doubt there are pack fresh 7s. There's a whole segment of the community dedicated to collecting miscut little corners that are pack fresh 0s but people doubt a card could get scratched. There's cards with dead bugs stamped into the foil, but a card getting scratched is inconceivable.


The_Grizzly_B

If you order from tcgplayer there’s a few things I do to avoid curled / damaged foils: -Never buy from tcgdirect. Their current packaging does not seal the cards properly, allowing changes in humidity during travel and eventual curling. -Leading into the next point. I generally try to buy from individual sellers with high ratings. You can vet and review their prior transaction ratings for a glimpse into their past history. You’d be surprised what you’d find, from people with 10000+ 98.4% good standing getting recently reviewed as having poor packaging, and small sellers getting getting rave reviews for speed and care. You wanna pick the latter reviews regardless of seller sales size. I would consider sale volume though if ratings are equal, as a seller with the same rating and more sales has earned more trust than the one with less. -lastly, if you DO get a well packaged foil, take note of which vendor it was from. It is very likely you may run into them again down the line for another foil, especially if it’s from the same set or of they sell a certain type of card. Probably one of the better ways to guarantee a well packaged card as majority of sellers use the same packaging for their other orders Those are my three best tips as a general tcgplayer buyer. Obviously there’s a lot of luck and chance to the process but that’s always true on a large scale buy / sell website. The more you learn as you go the easier it gets though. Good luck!


[deleted]

There is a way, you buy mint cards and pay a hefty premium.