[Off-Topic] Community Chat Thread

[Treamayne]

Yeah, or finding a home for the card. For example, the last SCD over on mtgthesource was about Thran Turbine. People tried to slot it into an existing shell or strategy.

Copy all, thanks. Maybe a Mod can add definitions of this and other niche terminology (I just noticed MCD - Multi-card discussion?) to the Commander Rules thread - first post so there is a place to find them, or steer other people who ask into finding the answers.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Quick rant:

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I ordered a full art Grim Hireling from TCGplayer over a month ago. Gave the seller an extra ten days before I reached out, given that the USPS is slow and it was getting into the holiday season. They give me a song and dance, ask me to wait another week for it to show up. On a whim, I go to order a replacement, because nothing's shown up and I can afford the $5 while I wait for the refund. Problem is, the card is now $20. After checking the price history, I noticed the price spiked shortly after I ordered it.

As a future card-carrying member of the Church of IGMCYLSL. my first thought is that the seller never sent the card in the first place and was willing to take the $5 hit to make $15. I want to give them the benefit of the doubt, but it still stings a little to know I'm going to have to shell out 4x the cash. /end rant.

Dude, the same thing happened to me ordering off Amazon a few months ago. I ordered a copy of Advance Wars Dual Strike for 40 quid, a pretty good deal, and 2 days later they announce the AW reboot camp thing and the price doubles. Needless to say, my product never shipped in over 2 weeks but somehow I got my refund within an hour of demanding it. Real funny in an olfactory kind of way...

[kirkusjones]

Quick rant:

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I ordered a full art Grim Hireling from TCGplayer over a month ago. Gave the seller an extra ten days before I reached out, given that the USPS is slow and it was getting into the holiday season. They give me a song and dance, ask me to wait another week for it to show up. On a whim, I go to order a replacement, because nothing's shown up and I can afford the $5 while I wait for the refund. Problem is, the card is now $20. After checking the price history, I noticed the price spiked shortly after I ordered it.

As a future card-carrying member of the Church of IGMCYLSL. my first thought is that the seller never sent the card in the first place and was willing to take the $5 hit to make $15. I want to give them the benefit of the doubt, but it still stings a little to know I'm going to have to shell out 4x the cash. /end rant.

Dude, the same thing happened to me ordering off Amazon a few months ago. I ordered a copy of Advance Wars Dual Strike for 40 quid, a pretty good deal, and 2 days later they announce the AW reboot camp thing and the price doubles. Needless to say, my product never shipped in over 2 weeks but somehow I got my refund within an hour of demanding it. Real funny in an olfactory kind of way...

I haven't gotten a response from the seller, let alone a refund. Anyone have any experience with TCGplayer's customer service department?

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Quick rant:

SPOILER

Show

Hide

I ordered a full art Grim Hireling from TCGplayer over a month ago. Gave the seller an extra ten days before I reached out, given that the USPS is slow and it was getting into the holiday season. They give me a song and dance, ask me to wait another week for it to show up. On a whim, I go to order a replacement, because nothing's shown up and I can afford the $5 while I wait for the refund. Problem is, the card is now $20. After checking the price history, I noticed the price spiked shortly after I ordered it.

As a future card-carrying member of the Church of IGMCYLSL. my first thought is that the seller never sent the card in the first place and was willing to take the $5 hit to make $15. I want to give them the benefit of the doubt, but it still stings a little to know I'm going to have to shell out 4x the cash. /end rant.

Dude, the same thing happened to me ordering off Amazon a few months ago. I ordered a copy of Advance Wars Dual Strike for 40 quid, a pretty good deal, and 2 days later they announce the AW reboot camp thing and the price doubles. Needless to say, my product never shipped in over 2 weeks but somehow I got my refund within an hour of demanding it. Real funny in an olfactory kind of way...

I haven't gotten a response from the seller, let alone a refund. Anyone have any experience with TCGplayer's customer service department?

From what I've seen, their nearly universal response to these sort of problems is to throw store credit at the issue, given how little leverage they have over the individual sellers. Assuming you've already contacted the seller directly to no avail, first compile screenshots of your order confirmation and all messages sent to the seller concerning the order. Then attach all those to a calm, strongly worded email to TCGplayer customer service that clearly indicates how deeply unsatisfied you were with the experience of using their online marketplace AND(!!) given that you are yet unrefunded and have been effectively ghosted by the seller, you will now require more than just a simple refund as recourse to restore your consumer confidence in their capacity to run a reasonable and accountable business.

If you do all of that, they might toss enough store credit at you to afford a hireling at their current price. And if all else fails, you can always leave some absolutely ruinous reviews.

@DirkGently any other advice in the realm of getting what our dear friend Kirkusjones is rightfully due?

[Hermes_]

And this is why I don't do business via TCGplayer

[DirkGently]

@DirkGently any other advice in the realm of getting what our dear friend Kirkusjones is rightfully due?

Actually now that I think about it, my story must have taken place on mkm since I was living in the UK at the time.

Idk, complain and threaten to leave bad feedback is all I got.

[kirkusjones]

@DirkGently any other advice in the realm of getting what our dear friend Kirkusjones is rightfully due?

Actually now that I think about it, my story must have taken place on mkm since I was living in the UK at the time.

Idk, complain and threaten to leave bad feedback is all I got.

Done and done. We'll see what shakes out. #TCGGate2K21

[TheAmericanSpirit]

@DirkGently any other advice in the realm of getting what our dear friend Kirkusjones is rightfully due?

Actually now that I think about it, my story must have taken place on mkm since I was living in the UK at the time.

Idk, complain and threaten to leave bad feedback is all I got.

Done and done. We'll see what shakes out. #TCGGate2K21

Good luck and may the God of IGMCULSL bless this endeavor! Get thee hence, $h*tlords, and give this esteemed Cardinal his due or face an eternity in a wasteland of public ownership!

[kirkusjones]

Good luck and may the God of IGMCULSL bless this endeavor! Get thee hence, $h*tlords, and give this esteemed Cardinal his due or face an eternity in a wasteland of public ownership!

Preach! Holy $h*tlords, hear thy prayer. And may the eyes of the mods pass over that which is clearly satire.

[benjameenbear]

Yea, and the eyes of the mods did verily pass over the comments categorized satire and also enjoined the God of IGMCULSL to bless the endeavor of KirkusJones in obtaining that which is his due. May the unscrupulous sellers of cardboard shards who've thus robbed Kirkus be granted bad karma through all their days!

Yeah, the lower prices on TCG Player can't compensate for getting cards when you want them at the price you originally paid. I've been a pretty loyal CardKingdom patron for over a decade and I've only had ONE issue in all that time (they forgot to include one of my pre-ordered Hullbreachers but more than made up for it with surplus store credit).

Good luck @kirkusjones!

[Dunharrow]

I would tell the seller that you do not want a refund and that you will wait for the card to be shipped.

My friend ordered a Protean Hulk at 7$ when it was unbanned and he refused a refund. After 2 months they offered him a foreign language version at the same price and he took it.

I think stores do in fact withhold merchandise in scenarios like this... but also many of these stores are selling through multiple channels and when things are in high demand they oversell their stock and get screwed. They may be trying to get another copy, all the while knowing they are taking a loss on the order.

[Dragonlover]

Funnily enough when I worked for a singles seller we'd have the opposite problem: we wouldn't notice a spike and then technically lose a pile of cash. Never bothered us, the bosses approach was always 'yesterday I'd have taken a fiver for it, who cares if today its fifteen?'. Also the guy has so many unsorted cards we'd just assume there's another 20 in a box somewhere.

Hope you get it resolved though, that's a scummy move.

Dragonlover

[toctheyounger]

Funnily enough when I worked for a singles seller we'd have the opposite problem: we wouldn't notice a spike and then technically lose a pile of cash. Never bothered us, the bosses approach was always 'yesterday I'd have taken a fiver for it, who cares if today its fifteen?'. Also the guy has so many unsorted cards we'd just assume there's another 20 in a box somewhere.

Hope you get it resolved though, that's a scummy move.

Dragonlover

This gives me my LGS vibes. My guy is a real decent guy, he'll treat you fairly and he's friendly, but going into his store hes always surrounded by boxes and boxes of random cards. I just dig through while he sorts my orders and we chat. I imagine he would have the same attitude, he's there to build a community not make a buck.

[kirkusjones]

Funnily enough when I worked for a singles seller we'd have the opposite problem: we wouldn't notice a spike and then technically lose a pile of cash. Never bothered us, the bosses approach was always 'yesterday I'd have taken a fiver for it, who cares if today its fifteen?'. Also the guy has so many unsorted cards we'd just assume there's another 20 in a box somewhere.

Hope you get it resolved though, that's a scummy move.

Dragonlover

This gives me my LGS vibes. My guy is a real decent guy, he'll treat you fairly and he's friendly, but going into his store hes always surrounded by boxes and boxes of random cards. I just dig through while he sorts my orders and we chat. I imagine he would have the same attitude, he's there to build a community not make a buck.

I enjoy shops like this and have offered many times to help sort/catalogue cards for free. No one's ever taken me up on the offer, though.

[toctheyounger]

Funnily enough when I worked for a singles seller we'd have the opposite problem: we wouldn't notice a spike and then technically lose a pile of cash. Never bothered us, the bosses approach was always 'yesterday I'd have taken a fiver for it, who cares if today its fifteen?'. Also the guy has so many unsorted cards we'd just assume there's another 20 in a box somewhere.

Hope you get it resolved though, that's a scummy move.

Dragonlover

This gives me my LGS vibes. My guy is a real decent guy, he'll treat you fairly and he's friendly, but going into his store hes always surrounded by boxes and boxes of random cards. I just dig through while he sorts my orders and we chat. I imagine he would have the same attitude, he's there to build a community not make a buck.

I enjoy shops like this and have offered many times to help sort/catalogue cards for free. No one's ever taken me up on the offer, though.

I did some once for him, but that was before kids. Sadly my visits these days are very much in and out. My wife has offered too. He needs it, but more than that he deserves it. Good LGS, but also good folk.

[Dragonlover]

I enjoy shops like this and have offered many times to help sort/catalogue cards for free. No one's ever taken me up on the offer, though.

Madness, we'd have pressganged you pretty much as soon as we'd decided you weren't gonna nick anything. Free labour from someone who knows what the words mean i.e set names, rarities etc? Absolute gold dust. Also we'd have given you store credit, because an honest days work deserves an honest days pay, and you'll probably come across cards you want while sorting anyway.

Dragonlover

[DirkGently]

Sounds like ladder is finally coming to D2R! With new runewords and balance changes too!!!

Anyone want to do a team run through the game day 1? Should be pretty quick with a good party

[Dunharrow]

In the province of Quebec there were 5000 new cases today (record number). It is just so exhausting to see everything shut down again.

[kirkusjones]

In the province of Quebec there were 5000 new cases today (record number). It is just so exhausting to see everything shut down again.

Damn. Sorry to hear that. It's looking more and more like my January travel plans will have to be rescheduled, but so it goes in our brave new post-truth world.

On a related note, Jeff Vandermeer's Hummingbird Salamander feels a little too close to reality of late. Feels more like existential horror than sci-fi. Worth a read.

[Dunharrow]

I finally finished watching Cowboy Bebop (the original series). It was good, but I hoped for more from the ending. I feel like it is almost cliché at this point. Faye and Ed ended up having the most interesting conclusions to their arcs.

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Spike did not develop at all. He just dove headfirst into a predictable demise. Faye trying to stop him reminded me of Sakura trying to stop Sasuke from leaving Konoha, and I keep feeling like I have seen this scene many other times. The character chooses revenge over his new family/love even though nothing good can come from it. It's always a woman crying saying "Don't go, aren't we enough" and the guy says he has to do it and leaves. Am I wrong to say it is a cliché now?

All that to say there were some fantastic episodes in the series and I am sure I will rewatch it one day. Just hoped for more growth from Spike.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

@Dunharrow it is a cliche, but I thought it was well executed at least. Very few ways to conclude a story beat "the hero dies" in terms of narrative cleanliness. And Vicious is a villain who took his eye and his love. I'd want revenge too, especially if I only had 26 episodes to develop a compelling reason not to pursue it.

[kirkusjones]

One of the things about Bebop that really stuck with me is the vignette nature of the majority of the episodes. You can throw on pretty much any one with no context and enjoy the hell out of it.

Bu the music is still my favorite part of the show. So glad they tapped Yoko Kanno and the Seatbelts to do the live action soundtrack.

[Dunharrow]

@Dunharrow it is a cliche, but I thought it was well executed at least. Very few ways to conclude a story beat "the hero dies" in terms of narrative cleanliness. And Vicious is a villain who took his eye and his love. I'd want revenge too, especially if I only had 26 episodes to develop a compelling reason not to pursue it.

Yes it was well executed. I think because this show has been hyped up to me for about 10 years I expected more from the ending. As I mentioned I will probably watch it again in a few years as I enjoyed so much of it.

I am also just a sucker for catharsis.

[Toshi]

Happy holidays to you and yours!
Stay awesome and stay healthy my dearest peeps on the Internet.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Good god, working with the public is a nightmare around the holidays. Goodwill to all mankind? Ha! All the contrived stress and artificially-induced financial burdens will do away with that. I despise December through and through and the stupid gauntlet it makes us all run.