I've been a yu-gi-oh player and seller for years now and feel bad every time I see people being taken advantage of by unscrupulous dealers on e-bay. Here're some easy steps to give you a fighting chance. This is a work in progress and yes, most of it is common sense and I don't want to insult your intelligence :

a) If it looks too good to be true, most likely it is !

b) Read the fine print ! There're many grab bag / pot-luck auctions on e-bay where the seller tries to lure the potential buyer by advertising great cards in the title and/or description. Too bad that you only have a minute (if at all) chance to get these great cards - as there're always one or 2 cards in the list of possibilities that are much cheaper than the rest. So, you do a search for Necroface or Ilb Blud. The title reads "GLAS-EN090 Necroface Secret Rare MINT !!!. Cool. Then you read the description. An example:

In this auction you will win one of the following (printed very small):

• PTDN-EN019 Dark Armed Dragon
• AST-037 Enemy Controller
• STON-EN000 Grandmaster of the Six Samurai
• GLAS-EN090 Necroface

Take a wild guess which one YOU will end up with ! If you picked the Enemy Controller, you're right ! Of course you could have bought a Enemy Controller elsewhere on e-bay for about $5. 

When the seller says that he will "randomly" pick, in 99% of the cases it's just a ruse to get your money. Just for fun, e-mail the seller and ask for a picture of the offered card(s), with a dated newspaper in the picture. Guess what, many sellers do not even own the card they're trying to lure you with ! Unbelievable, for example, how many Shonen Jump Trophy cards are offered on e-bay when in reality only a few of each (under 20) exist - and who in his right mind would offer such a $2000+ card in a grab bag ? Nobody will win a SJ trophy card in grab-bag auctions ! The best bet here is to just AVOID GRAB-BAG AUCTIONS !

Here's another example:

Title of auction: 3 Grandmaster of the Six Samurai, 3 ULT Cyber End Dragon, SJC-EN003 Shrink

Inside: "I am selling out my collection, you are bidding on one of the following listed:

• 1x SJC-EN003 Shrink
• 3x ULTIMATE rare Cyber End Dragon, 1st edt.
• 3x STON-EN000 Grandmaster of the Six Samurai
• 1x Jinzo (BPT version)

Did you notice the ONE in "one of the following" ? A lot of people don't and are in for a shock when, after spending $100+ they will receive a BPT Jinzo and nothing else !

Also, read the s/h fine print (VERY IMPORTANT). I have come across auctions where the s/h was very reasonable and was ready to buy until I noted the small print which stated that I HAD to buy insurance at an extra US$9. The negative record so far is held by a store owner who only sells to foreigners if they pay US$25 s/h. Rather steep if you're looking for a rare Kuriboh. AVOID AND ABORT !

c) Avoid buying yu-gi-oh packs on e-bay unless they come in a sealed (by manufacturer) box and/or they come from a seller you know and trust. Most packs on e-bay have been searched, be it through weighing or knowing the positioning of certain packs within a box. Again, I can't  state that you will never find the elusive ultimate or super rare in single packs bought on e-bay, but on average you're better off buying sealed boxes. The same goes for buying from retail stores by the way. Too many hobby retailers weigh their product and the poor buyer gets the left-overs !

d) Packs vs. Singles. It's almost always cheaper to buy the single card(s) instead of packs, unless you have a need for a lot of extra cards. It doesn't make fiscal sense to buy and open 24 packs to find the single Jinzo you might or might not find. Of course it's much more fun to find the card you want, but....

e) Are you a collector, a player or both ? Most cards (certainly not all, as those needing another Cyber Dragon can attest) have been reprinted, be it in a starter deck, a structure deck or the reprint sets (DB1, 2 ,DR1, 2, 3 & DP1,2 ). Often these cards are MUCH cheaper than the original. A lot of players don't care whether their D.D. Warrior Lady is a super rare or a SD5 (Structure Deck 5) card. The difference in price is significant ! Buy a structure deck and then go out and buy the extra singles you need on e-bay !

f) Compare the whole deal ! Especially non-U.S, buyers have to be careful as some dealers charge an arm and a leg in shipping and HANDLING costs, some up to $25 to send a single card ! Think about it - a seller wouldn't list a Buy-It-Now auction for US$0.01 unless he's certain to make a profit on shipping and handling. What's a better deal for you ? A $2 card with $2 s/h added or the same US$0.01 card with US$5.99 in s/h ? Yes, this sounds very logical - but I'm flabbergasted every day by people who prefer the cheap card over the cheap overall deal !

g) Check for COMBINED s/h charges ! Many dealers have a flat fee per card or per auction (BIG difference), some dealer have a maximum in s/h, many do not. This can make a really BIG difference !

Let's say you buy 50 cards from dealer #1. He charges $3 for the first card and $0.50 for every other card.Your s/h charges for 50 cards will be US$27.50. Dealer #2 charges $3 for the first card and US$1 for every other card, until a maximum of US$7 in s/h is reached. Of course, your total s/h here would only be US$7 !

h) Check feedback !!!! Yes, a few negative comments in 100s or 1000s transactions don't mean a lot - there're bad apples out there, on both sides. BUT, the moment the feedback goes beneath a certain number (for larger-volume dealers I'd say 98%-98.5%), there' is a problem. Yes, 97% on a math exam is great, but if on average 3 out of 100 people are not happy with a dealer, there is a 3/100 chance that it will be YOU.

Be fair to the dealer - check the negative (and of course the positive comments) - if they're mostly from e-bay newbies who thought that three days were too long to wait for the card to reach Rome from Toronto, ignore. Check the feedback of the buyer - is he/she a complainer, does he/she have often delivery problems ? Perhaps it's NOT the seller's fault afterall. Note the volume ! Easy math, but a seller with 90% can be a good seller if he only has 10 positives and 1 negative (said negative by some nutcase who complained that his Japanese card wasn't in English). Check the history ! If a dealer has had great feedback as of late, perhaps he had some bad luck in the past and turned a corner. And vice versa !

i) COMPARE, compare, compare. Don't just check the auction, also check the stores. Many great deals can be found in e-bay stores. Sometimes dealers forget to update their store and that rather hard to find Smashing Ground (a $6-10 short-printed common at the time I write this) is still tucked away in some store for US$1 (it's not, I checked, this was just an example).

j) Make certain that you know where the card is coming from. Know that cards shipped from foreign countries might take longer to arrive. Feedback is international - a local dealer with 94% feedback is NOT a better choice than a foreign dealer with 99.9%. Make certain that the card you purchase is tournament-legal where you live !

k) Be careful with (better yet AVOID) pre-sell / pre-sale auctions ! There're strict rules for this on e-bay, BUT, unless somebody complains to e-bay, these rules are often NOT followed. Sellers can NOT presell unless they can guarantee a shipping date within a 30-day timeframe after auction end ! They have to clearly mark their auctions as a pre-sale and indicate a shipping date. If the auction ends August 31st, the auction cannot state "Will ship by the end of October". Yet, more than half of the pre-sale auctions on e-bay break the rules !

Also: you often can buy the same item cheaper upon official release. Much cheaper ! Yes, it's nice to be the first to have a certain card - but especially with pre-sale items you often will receive your items AFTER everybody else has been served - afterall, the seller already has your money ! From experience I can say that certain dealers use the pre-sale auctions as their bankroll.

l) If the condition of an item is not mentioned in the description, ask the seller ! If he doesn't reply, do NOT buy.

m) If you had problems with deliveries in the past, check if insurance is offered . Does it make fiscal sense to insure a US$0.50 card ? No. Does it make sense to insure that ultimate rare Lars Vogelstoph at US$450 ? Yes ! (no, the last card does NOT exist. I know !) Avoid dealers who will force you to insure even the lowly cards. Avoid dealers who insist that insurance is not available (Period). Don't deal with people whose feedback indicates that their product is often lost in the mail.

n) Pick a few dealers you had a good experience with and keep on checking their items. You have a favourite xyz-store in real life, why not online ?

o) I have to repeat - there are now MANY sellers on e-bay offering deals which are almost impossible - 2 Crush Card Viruses in the same auction - without a photo of the actual cards (just a stock picture) by a seller with VERY low feedback. Now, if you had $3000+ plus worth of 2cards, wouldn't you at least bother to take a picture and provide provenance (card a was won by xyz at SJ Seattle, card b w won by xyz2 at SJ Honolulu or such). Also check the other bidders - if they're mostly 0-10 feedback bidders, forget about high-priced cards !

p) If it looks too good to be true, most likely it is !

q) Have fun!

For suggestions and comments, please contact me through the e-bay link.

Thank you,

Knut

on e-bay: celebmags