So for those of you who may have seen ads for, or are thinking of checking out MTG Madness to put in some card orders, or to take advantage of those free $5 coupons or Booster Packs they advertise all the time, I am going to review their website, and offer some quick and easy info and feedback on how it goes.
So since Theros is getting ready to release this weekend, I think I am going to Pre-Order cards from the Theros set, to see if they quickly deliver on the cards that release.
Okay, so upon arrival at the site, there is already a $5 off coupon blinking at us to use. That's a good feature, if I decide to shop here, that can come in handy. Never hurts to get money off right from the beginning of the site. Second thing that catches my eye, they have articles that might be helpful for me in deciding what cards to buy. Let's check one out.
So I clicked on Theros Spoiler: Second Impression and it seems to be some pretty sound breakdowns of some of the cards. If nothing else, it at least gives me an impression of what the cards might do, or take the place of in a deck that I might currently have.
Let's check out the Rewards section before we decide what to order. We might get more free stuff if we order a certain dollar amount of cards or something of the like.
Hmm, so it seems like you do earn points for every dollar you spend, and those translate into emblems. And as you earn emblems, you can also trade those in for bigger emblems, which we can only assume will give us more discounts in the future. It seems a little confusing, but I guess if you spend $100 you will get $1 off of a future purchase, and those can be stacked up to 5 of those, and then you will jump from getting $4 to getting a $12.50 off an order once you hit the $500 spending mark. It seems like the points will go away if you are inactive on the site for a certain amount of time.
I would say they could improve on this rewards system page by explaining the Emblem system slightly better. I had to give it a few minutes thought to figure it out. All they have for an explanation is a small graph in the bottom right hand corner. Still not a bad rewards system all in all, if you order a lot of cards for your brews, saving future money is a good plan.
So without further ado, let's get into searching for some cards.
So looking up Temple of Deceit
, which I need for my BUG Re-Animator deck. Is going for $5.99 on here. In comparison to Coolstuffinc, it's exactly equal, it's also going for $5.99 there. So comparative pricing for Pre-Order there. So I added 2 of those and 2 Temple of Mystery
.
Now one thing I do like is when you click the "Buy" button, you get a detailed message telling you how much your total is. I like that because sometimes I think "Only $6 each, wow!" And then don't see til the end that a full playset of them is like $24
So I also want to pick up another Prime Speaker Zegana
for my deck. I searched it out, and as it turns out, they don't have it in stock. That's okay. There's a few other things I need as well.
As it turns out, they also don't have the Lord of the Void, Obzedat, Ghost Council
, Giant Adephage
or Desecration Demon
. I am pretty disappointed in that. Those are all staples I need to build my deck.
They did, however, have the Breeding Pool
I needed. At $13.99, which is going for $11.99 on Coolstuff, not a huge difference, but on TCGplayer the average price is $10.09, still not awful though.
And they had the full playset of Manaweft Sliver
I needed for $1.49 each. Which is once again, the same price as Coolstuff.
Almost picked up the Shadowborn Demon
to placehold for a Lord of the Void
. They had it for $9.99 on there, but then I cross-checked prices (and anyone who orders cards online SHOULD do this BTW) and found it cheaper for $5.99, which is too far of a gap for me to justify.
So I added a Dissolve
pre-order for $0.99, exactly the same as everywhere else. And I added in 3 Bident of Thassa
for $1.50 each, also dead on for price. I also picked up two copies of Jarad's Orders
for $0.49 each for that deck.
So in the checkout page, it's very simple and straightforward, AND the totem thing is explained better here. You have the ability to redeem your points for a one time shot, or you can save them to use later for a bigger discount. The promo system is easy to use and works instantly. You have the option to ship in a bubble envelope for $1 extra (I took this option) always be safe when shipping your cards! I like the fact that this option is presented.
You can either pay with a Visa, Mastercard, or PayPal, which I like, because PayPal is so easy to use, and can be filled by people of any age, who may not want or have the ability to use a credit card. Good points for them in my opinion here. However, I did take the time to notice, that any dollar amount that is discounted with a promo code will not be applied to your total spent at the site towards your points, which makes sense.
So now I will wait, and the rest of this article will be finished as soon as I receive the cards in the mail, as I cannot finish the rest of the review until I can comment on how fast the cards arrived. And it will be after the 27th that the pre-ordered cards will ship.
So far, my assessment of the site is as follows on a scale from 1-10, with 10 being the best
8/10 - EASE OF USE:
For the most part I found the site very easy to use, and it flowed extremely well. I did notice that it is extremely hard to use the hover-over card feature on a cellphone to add cards. Hence I had to wait until I got to my house to use the site. Also the confusing thing with the points system from the Rewards page needs to be addressed.
SOLUTION: Having a manual feature below the card so you can add the cards to the cart and having the price featured there would be extremely helpful. Also adding a further explanation of the Rewards benefits I think would be great.
7/10 - PRICING :
A couple of the cards seemed a bit overpriced. The pre-release cards were dead-on what everywhere else was. Competitively, the pricing discount seems to even things out though. (Once again, it deems to be noted that this company is new on the scene, so their price margins can be expected to be a bit higher, due to not having as much stock and business flow as other sites and stores that have been established for longer.)
SOLUTION: Perhaps check out other sites and figure out who is offering cards at the lowest price, and match them a little closer. In the long term, I do not foresee this being an issue, because the longer they stay in business and the more customer base they build, the more even their prices will be. I would expect to see even prices along this whole new set, and better availability of product moving forward.
6/10 - PRODUCT AVAILABILITY:
It should be noted that this site is very young, and more product will be available the longer they are around. However, I was extremely disappointed in the lack of cards that I wanted to buy being there from the RTR block. All the cards I wanted to pre-order from Theros were available, which was a plus. But the ability to get what I want when I want it is crucial to where I buy cards from. I don't mind having to spend a bit more, especially when I am getting rewards points for doing so, but I want a one stop shop. As long as Theros stays in stock, and has a high level of availability, I would raise my evaluation, but that remains to be seen moving forward.
SOLUTION: One thing I can see that will help this website resolve this issue, is giving users incentives for turning in their own cards for store credit. Plus it will help them with their inventory problem. And cards that they see as being really high in demand, or are on a WANTS list, they could offer just a touch more for them. Not, obviously, at market value, but say a card is worth $9, offer them $4 to turn it in, they still net a $5 profit, and get a card they need to inventory on the site. They could have a $10 minimum on the amount turned in or some such . . . I'm rambling, just an idea.
SHIPPING: 7/10 (Incomplete)
COST: Shipping seems a bit pricey, with the cheapest shipping being around $4. However, this company is located in Israel. So pretty much everything is international shipping for them. I feel that as their company grows, it will improve, and the cost of the shipping will go down.
SPEED: I recieved a notice on (9/29) that my cards had shipped. So 2 days after the release the cards were in the mail. That seems to be right on par if not a little earlier than I expected. I really wasn't expecting a shipping notice until Monday, the 30'th. They arrived in the country on 10/2, and arrived to me on 10/10 in good condition with the packaging intact and the cards safe. Due to the fact that this is internationally shipped I would say 10 total days isn't bad. .
I will have more to come as soon as the cards arrive. Look forward to my full review and recommendation as soon as they get here! As always, thank you for reading and check back soon for more!
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| The Bubble Mailer |
So we opened up our package to find the cards bundled nicely in-between two top-loaders.
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| The Cards In-Between Top-Loaders |
So we took the top-loaders apart, and they had them in two penny-sleeves to keep them safe.
 |
| The Cards In Penny Sleeves |
And then we looked through the cards, and everything seems to have arrived safely and in order.
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| The Cards Arrived |
So in conclusion, we would definitely recommend this website as a place for you to give your business, as they are reliable, and do deliver what you order. My experience with the management was good, they responded to any questions I posed through e-mail within 24 hours and tried to be as patient and as courteous as possible.
Even though they are a small company, they are trying to build their base and compete with some rather large established gaming companies. And while they do have room to grow, I do believe they will do so well, and fulfill a lot of the options that people are looking for in time.
As always, thanks for reading, and we hope to see you soon!
