So a short while back I started buying online because no local shops carried booster boxes. More recently, I wanted to see what the hype was about with Japanese cards so I set out to find sites that carried those as well. In the last month or so, I’ve ordered from about 4 sites and I thought it could be useful to others who might be looking to buy online if I shared my experiences.
Some baseline: all the sites accept PayPal and ship to the US (even if they aren’t IN the US in one case). This is good for those who don’t trust their card info floating out there. It wasn’t something I sought out, but was happy to find each site accepted it.
I’m going to grade the sites based on their selection, pricing and the “order experience”. This last one encompasses a few things, including: how efficient was the order process from beginning to end? Was my order processed by a system, or manually? Can I simply log into an account or visit a link to check my order status? How soon was my order shipped? How was communications with the shop (if needed)?
Lastly, I know there are many other shops out there that range from the amazons to the trollandtoads to the professor-oaks and pokemon4evers. If you have experiences with other shops (or just want to throw in your 2¢ on any of the below), please feel free to add on. Perhaps this can become a bigger resource over time :thumb:
---------- Post added 09/27/2012 at 11:15 AM ----------
Collector’s Cache
I placed an order with them on the evening of Friday September 21st for 3 each of Bold Flare and Freeze Bolt boosters and a Plasma Gale booster box. I paid via PayPal. It would appear their ordering system isn’t automatic so my order was updated the following morning (a Saturday, so that’s a plus) to reflect that my payment had been received.
I got a shipment email from Fedex Monday evening (9/24) and received the order this morning (9/27), so less than a week from order to receipt. Not bad. Their prices were pretty standard and shipping was a reasonable $10.74, which isn’t bad, but other sites do faster for slightly cheaper.
To me, their site is a bit of a mess. They have a very large collection of English and Japanese pokemon cards (and other merchandise such as plushes and figures) but it’s all a bit cumbersome to wade through. You create an account on checkout, but there’s no way to view order status unless you go to a certain page which asks you for your order number and zip code. Ironically, that page says “Registered users should login and visit the 'My Account' tab for details on their order(s).” -- except, there’s no My Account tab that I can find once logged in. *shrug*
Overall, a middle-of-the-road experience. I’d likely only go back if they had something I REALLY wanted.
Pros:
Selection:
okeball: okeball: okeball: okeball: okeball:
Pricing:okeball: okeball: okeball: okeball:
Order Experience:okeball: okeball: okeball:
---------- Post added 09/27/2012 at 11:17 AM ----------
Dave & Adam’s Card World
The first site I’ve ordered from, and so far, the best. They process orders instantly and ship the same day if the item is in stock. You get a shipment email with tracking numbers. This to me suggests, if not a larger operation, a well organized one.
Their prices are pretty decent, and they seem to allow preorders fairly early on (I’ve preordered some Dragon Vault packs and a Boundaries Crossed box). Keep in mind that if you order a “pre sell” with items that are in stock, your entire order won’t ship until the pre sell is in stock, so plan accordingly.
They don’t carry japanese products or plushes (only English TCG cards), but they’ve got a pretty decent selection and you get free gifts for orders over certain thresholds (my wife was happy getting nostalgic with the free Neopets booster and binder we got with one order, and I got some WoW cards for a buddy with another order).
They ship via UPS and to my location, the shipping by ground is only 2 days (they’re from upstate NY) and they have free shipping on Thursdays if your order is $99 or greater. You can also find coupons for their site online. Their customer reps also answer emails fairly quickly and handle issues very professionally. You can log into their site to check your previous orders at any time.
Pros:
Selection:okeball: okeball:okeball:okeball:
Pricing:okeball:okeball:okeball:okeball:okeball:
Order Experience:okeball:okeball:okeball:okeball:okeball:
---------- Post added 09/27/2012 at 11:19 AM ----------
PokeOrder
So far, I’m not too hot on this one. I placed an order on 9/17 for 3 each of the Cold Flare and Freeze Bolt boosters. I also ordered a pack of Dragon Selection and a tin I had been looking for to complete my collection.
The next day I received a partial refund via PayPal. No explanation with it, so I click my yahoo orders link from the confirmation email (never a fan of the yahoo stores system btw) and notice the tin is gone. OK. So I sent an email asking that we cancel the whole order since that’s the main item I wanted. I would select something else to comprise the order since the japanese packs weren’t top priority for me. 4 and a half hours later I get a tracking number and told the order went out today. I’m not sure if they missed my email or what the case was, but alright, so I’ll get what I get. I email back and it’s explained to me they’re a small mom and pop shop and do the best they can. Understandable.
2 days later the package arrives in the mail (USPS shipping). Pretty quick -- they’re from Michigan. I decide to give them another shot and place another order. I notice they are the only site preselling the Keldeo box, so I place a separate order for that and then another order of japanese packs (at this point, I’m getting kinda into collecting the japanese cards). This order was placed on Thursday 9/20. I didn’t get a shipping confirmation until Tuesday 9/25. Not great.
I finally get my new Ultra Pro binder from amazon specifically for my Japenese cards and I decide to open up the dragon selection pack. It has the right artwork on the pack, but the cards inside are BW5, not Dragon Selection. I make sure I’m not crazy by watching some youtube videos of folks opening the dragon selection packs. Definitely not dragon selection.
I email them to ask about it, and state that I know mistakes happen, but just want to make sure the dragon selection that just went out to me is in fact dragon selection and not BW5. No response. To make matters worse, I check the tracking this morning (since last time it was only 2 days to me) and I see that my package has arrived in Portland, OR. Yes, the package went all the way to the West Coast for some reason instead of 2 states East to me. Also sent an email regarding that, we’ll see if I get a response.
As for their site and ordering process, it’s a bit cluttered and cumbersome (slightly worse than Collector’s Cache IMO), and the only way to check order status is to click the link in your confirmation email -- which is fine I guess, except they don’t actually update the order status.
Pros:
Selection:okeball: okeball:okeball:okeball:okeball:
Pricing:okeball:okeball:okeball:okeball:
Order Experience:okeball:okeball:
*update* I ordered 3 Keldeo boxes which I cancelled once I saw the issues I was having with Pokeorder. When I got back from vacation, I had my order sitting on my porch -- 3 Keldeo boxes that I didn't pay for. Sheesh, that's a costly mistake for them. I shot over an email to ask how they wanted to handle that. We'll see how soon they respond.
---------- Post added 09/27/2012 at 11:22 AM ----------
Pokevault
I can’t give a full review of this site yet as I only placed an order on 9/18 and at that time, there was a clear message on the site that the site owner was away and orders wouldn’t begin processing again until 9/29 at the earliest. I appreciate that this was prominently displayed, and I decided to order anyway.
I ordered a Dragon Selection booster and 3 each of Cold Flare and Freeze Bolt. I also ordered the 2010 Zorua and Celebi promo.
The interesting thing to me, is that my order was placed at 7:40 PM EST and at 7:49 I had an order update email. The email basically said my order state was updated to “processing” and I almost dismissed it as automated until I scrolled down a bit and actually saw a note from the owner Brian reiterating that the store was closed until the end of September. Figured it could still have been a canned response with my name inserted by some macro but I responded in the affirmative that I understood and asked a question about the eventual availability of Plasma Gale (BW7). 5 minutes later I had a response.
I say all this to get to the point that, so far, I’m impressed with the organization and communication from this site. Emails while on vacation and (presumably) late night? Pretty good service. It’s a little unfortunate that the operation is small enough that a vacation effectively shuts down the site, but the fact that the communication remains intact during this is a huge positive. Jury is still out on “normal” performance, but so far I’m impressed. Should this order go well, I’ll have to place another to see what normal operating times are like.
*update 10/12/12* I went on vacation and my order arrived while I was gone. It was shipped 9/1 and actually landed in NY on 9/2 somehow... It sat in customs until it showed up at my local post office on 9/9. Just over a week from shipment until delivery -- pretty awesome.
Pros:
Cons:
okeball: okeball:okeball:okeball:okeball:
Pricing:okeball:okeball:okeball:okeball:
Order Experience:okeball:okeball:okeball:okeball:okeball:
Potomac Distribution
While on vacay, I couldn't find Dragon Vault so I figured I'd order from these guys. They had a decent price on a box of 6 of the blisters and luckily they were on my route home and offered in-warehouse pickup.
I ended up finding the DV packs in a Walmart while on the road so didn't need to pick up and they shipped the order to my home. Shipping was $8.95 via Fedex and the order arrived the very next day.
These guys have a LOT of stuff (new, old and non-pokemon too), but they are more for volume ordering. If you want a box or a case, they might be a good spot to hit. Going to see what their prices are like for other things, but so far their prices on the BCR box is the same as D&A Card World, so I'd only win on quicker shipping, but will lose on not getting free shipping.
Overall, looks like a solid company, will need to place another order to see how things go, but I definitely will keep them on my list of places to shop.
Pros:
Selection:okeball: okeball: okeball: okeball:
Pricing:okeball: okeball: okeball: okeball:
Order Experience:okeball: okeball: okeball:okeball:
Some baseline: all the sites accept PayPal and ship to the US (even if they aren’t IN the US in one case). This is good for those who don’t trust their card info floating out there. It wasn’t something I sought out, but was happy to find each site accepted it.
I’m going to grade the sites based on their selection, pricing and the “order experience”. This last one encompasses a few things, including: how efficient was the order process from beginning to end? Was my order processed by a system, or manually? Can I simply log into an account or visit a link to check my order status? How soon was my order shipped? How was communications with the shop (if needed)?
Lastly, I know there are many other shops out there that range from the amazons to the trollandtoads to the professor-oaks and pokemon4evers. If you have experiences with other shops (or just want to throw in your 2¢ on any of the below), please feel free to add on. Perhaps this can become a bigger resource over time :thumb:
---------- Post added 09/27/2012 at 11:15 AM ----------
Collector’s Cache
I placed an order with them on the evening of Friday September 21st for 3 each of Bold Flare and Freeze Bolt boosters and a Plasma Gale booster box. I paid via PayPal. It would appear their ordering system isn’t automatic so my order was updated the following morning (a Saturday, so that’s a plus) to reflect that my payment had been received.
I got a shipment email from Fedex Monday evening (9/24) and received the order this morning (9/27), so less than a week from order to receipt. Not bad. Their prices were pretty standard and shipping was a reasonable $10.74, which isn’t bad, but other sites do faster for slightly cheaper.
To me, their site is a bit of a mess. They have a very large collection of English and Japanese pokemon cards (and other merchandise such as plushes and figures) but it’s all a bit cumbersome to wade through. You create an account on checkout, but there’s no way to view order status unless you go to a certain page which asks you for your order number and zip code. Ironically, that page says “Registered users should login and visit the 'My Account' tab for details on their order(s).” -- except, there’s no My Account tab that I can find once logged in. *shrug*
Overall, a middle-of-the-road experience. I’d likely only go back if they had something I REALLY wanted.
Pros:
- Large selection of boosters, blisters and boxes at decent prices
- Poke products like plushes and figures
- Poor organization of the site
- Nothing really stand-out about the prices, shipping or experience
Selection:
okeball: okeball: okeball: okeball: okeball:Pricing:
okeball: okeball: okeball: okeball:Order Experience:
okeball: okeball: okeball:---------- Post added 09/27/2012 at 11:17 AM ----------
Dave & Adam’s Card World
The first site I’ve ordered from, and so far, the best. They process orders instantly and ship the same day if the item is in stock. You get a shipment email with tracking numbers. This to me suggests, if not a larger operation, a well organized one.
Their prices are pretty decent, and they seem to allow preorders fairly early on (I’ve preordered some Dragon Vault packs and a Boundaries Crossed box). Keep in mind that if you order a “pre sell” with items that are in stock, your entire order won’t ship until the pre sell is in stock, so plan accordingly.
They don’t carry japanese products or plushes (only English TCG cards), but they’ve got a pretty decent selection and you get free gifts for orders over certain thresholds (my wife was happy getting nostalgic with the free Neopets booster and binder we got with one order, and I got some WoW cards for a buddy with another order).
They ship via UPS and to my location, the shipping by ground is only 2 days (they’re from upstate NY) and they have free shipping on Thursdays if your order is $99 or greater. You can also find coupons for their site online. Their customer reps also answer emails fairly quickly and handle issues very professionally. You can log into their site to check your previous orders at any time.
Pros:
- Large selection of boosters, blisters and boxes at decent prices
- Well-organized site with a speedy processing and shipping process
- Free gifts on orders
- Has online coupons
- Free shipping on $99+ orders on Thursdays
- No Japanese product for those looking for that
- No pokemon items available as “free gifts”
Selection:
okeball: okeball:okeball:okeball:Pricing:
okeball:okeball:okeball:okeball:okeball:Order Experience:
okeball:okeball:okeball:okeball:okeball:---------- Post added 09/27/2012 at 11:19 AM ----------
PokeOrder
So far, I’m not too hot on this one. I placed an order on 9/17 for 3 each of the Cold Flare and Freeze Bolt boosters. I also ordered a pack of Dragon Selection and a tin I had been looking for to complete my collection.
The next day I received a partial refund via PayPal. No explanation with it, so I click my yahoo orders link from the confirmation email (never a fan of the yahoo stores system btw) and notice the tin is gone. OK. So I sent an email asking that we cancel the whole order since that’s the main item I wanted. I would select something else to comprise the order since the japanese packs weren’t top priority for me. 4 and a half hours later I get a tracking number and told the order went out today. I’m not sure if they missed my email or what the case was, but alright, so I’ll get what I get. I email back and it’s explained to me they’re a small mom and pop shop and do the best they can. Understandable.
2 days later the package arrives in the mail (USPS shipping). Pretty quick -- they’re from Michigan. I decide to give them another shot and place another order. I notice they are the only site preselling the Keldeo box, so I place a separate order for that and then another order of japanese packs (at this point, I’m getting kinda into collecting the japanese cards). This order was placed on Thursday 9/20. I didn’t get a shipping confirmation until Tuesday 9/25. Not great.
I finally get my new Ultra Pro binder from amazon specifically for my Japenese cards and I decide to open up the dragon selection pack. It has the right artwork on the pack, but the cards inside are BW5, not Dragon Selection. I make sure I’m not crazy by watching some youtube videos of folks opening the dragon selection packs. Definitely not dragon selection.
I email them to ask about it, and state that I know mistakes happen, but just want to make sure the dragon selection that just went out to me is in fact dragon selection and not BW5. No response. To make matters worse, I check the tracking this morning (since last time it was only 2 days to me) and I see that my package has arrived in Portland, OR. Yes, the package went all the way to the West Coast for some reason instead of 2 states East to me. Also sent an email regarding that, we’ll see if I get a response.
As for their site and ordering process, it’s a bit cluttered and cumbersome (slightly worse than Collector’s Cache IMO), and the only way to check order status is to click the link in your confirmation email -- which is fine I guess, except they don’t actually update the order status.
Pros:
- Large selection of both English and Japanese pokemon cards. Also other products.
- Prices seem on par with other sites.
- Yahoo orders system which isn’t as great as logging into an account with saved info and viewing your orders
- Shipment notification emails seem manual and inconsistent. They also don’t update the yahoo order information.
- Small shop, seems disorganized.
- Poor communication.
Selection:
okeball: okeball:okeball:okeball:okeball:Pricing:
okeball:okeball:okeball:okeball:Order Experience:
okeball:okeball:*update* I ordered 3 Keldeo boxes which I cancelled once I saw the issues I was having with Pokeorder. When I got back from vacation, I had my order sitting on my porch -- 3 Keldeo boxes that I didn't pay for. Sheesh, that's a costly mistake for them. I shot over an email to ask how they wanted to handle that. We'll see how soon they respond.
---------- Post added 09/27/2012 at 11:22 AM ----------
Pokevault
I can’t give a full review of this site yet as I only placed an order on 9/18 and at that time, there was a clear message on the site that the site owner was away and orders wouldn’t begin processing again until 9/29 at the earliest. I appreciate that this was prominently displayed, and I decided to order anyway.
I ordered a Dragon Selection booster and 3 each of Cold Flare and Freeze Bolt. I also ordered the 2010 Zorua and Celebi promo.
The interesting thing to me, is that my order was placed at 7:40 PM EST and at 7:49 I had an order update email. The email basically said my order state was updated to “processing” and I almost dismissed it as automated until I scrolled down a bit and actually saw a note from the owner Brian reiterating that the store was closed until the end of September. Figured it could still have been a canned response with my name inserted by some macro but I responded in the affirmative that I understood and asked a question about the eventual availability of Plasma Gale (BW7). 5 minutes later I had a response.
I say all this to get to the point that, so far, I’m impressed with the organization and communication from this site. Emails while on vacation and (presumably) late night? Pretty good service. It’s a little unfortunate that the operation is small enough that a vacation effectively shuts down the site, but the fact that the communication remains intact during this is a huge positive. Jury is still out on “normal” performance, but so far I’m impressed. Should this order go well, I’ll have to place another to see what normal operating times are like.
*update 10/12/12* I went on vacation and my order arrived while I was gone. It was shipped 9/1 and actually landed in NY on 9/2 somehow... It sat in customs until it showed up at my local post office on 9/9. Just over a week from shipment until delivery -- pretty awesome.
Pros:
- Wide japanese selection for those looking
- Available coupon codes
- Good communication
- Lower prices on japanese merchandise compared to other sites.
Cons:
- Small enough operation that vacation effectively halts shipping operations (this is just something to note, not necessarily a huge negative as it shouldn't happen often -- I hope!).
okeball: okeball:okeball:okeball:okeball:Pricing:
okeball:okeball:okeball:okeball:Order Experience:
okeball:okeball:okeball:okeball:okeball:Potomac Distribution
While on vacay, I couldn't find Dragon Vault so I figured I'd order from these guys. They had a decent price on a box of 6 of the blisters and luckily they were on my route home and offered in-warehouse pickup.
I ended up finding the DV packs in a Walmart while on the road so didn't need to pick up and they shipped the order to my home. Shipping was $8.95 via Fedex and the order arrived the very next day.
These guys have a LOT of stuff (new, old and non-pokemon too), but they are more for volume ordering. If you want a box or a case, they might be a good spot to hit. Going to see what their prices are like for other things, but so far their prices on the BCR box is the same as D&A Card World, so I'd only win on quicker shipping, but will lose on not getting free shipping.
Overall, looks like a solid company, will need to place another order to see how things go, but I definitely will keep them on my list of places to shop.
Pros:
- Large selection of bulk pokemon products old and new
- reasonable shipping and quick order processing
- pickup for those in the VA area
- Only sell bulk
Selection:
okeball: okeball: okeball: okeball: Pricing:
okeball: okeball: okeball: okeball:Order Experience:
okeball: okeball: okeball:okeball:
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