To buy or not to buy?

Well we all know you will buy but will you buy from ebay, the shop, the club or the market? And before you leap to an easy assumption all are good and bad and I have done all. But I must get on. Yugioh’s the name and Duelling’s the game. My step son has somewhere in the region of 2-3 thousand cards, of which 50-150 are fake, 85% are common, 10 % are rare ish and a handful (I can’t count) are Ultra Rare.

Crads are not good because they are real, or rare or shiny. Cards are good because the owner loves them!!!!!

Cards MUST BE VALUE FOR MONEY.

My Mum bought three boxes of Fake structure decks (120 cards) for a fiver for her grandson! Bargain to her, not him. If you want a sure fire method of checking validity of a card then go to a playground. All Jonahs friends can smell a fake. They are very very good but. . . They will often be thicker paper, weight more and have a shiny effect / prismatic look all over the card – real cards have matt edges and only the inner picture is shiny or hologrphic. Rael cards have silver or gold text only for the card name and should have a code at the bottom (GB XXXXXXX) and one half way down on the right POTD – EN01 for example. The rare card will have First edition or limited edition printed to the bottom right of the picture. Ultra rare often have embossed pictures on real cards.

Check the spelling and descriptions. Even though genuine cards are hard to comprehend they do at least have legibility. We had a full ste of Exodia (head, two legs and two arms where all five cards had the text"The left leg of the forbidden one"! oops but that aside it was an exact copy. I have also seen Harpies pet dragon as Bird pet beat, harpies dragon pet, dragon of birds etc etc.so be careful.The backs on most of the fake cards we have unearthed seem to be more orangey than the brown Konami backs (NB all real god cards have yellow, blue and red backs or the same colour as them selves ie slifer is red, obelisk is blue and Ra is yellow)

NO Fakes can be used in offical tournaments. But also there are several banned lists of cards for tournaments so ask before hand or take several spare cards as a judge will check the deck and remove the banned cards- You could rush out and buy a booster pack to bring your 37 up to a legal 40 but better to plan ahead I suggest.

God Cards are not legal!!! Shock horror you have spent £20 on fakes and then £150 on the best Genuine yugioh cards only for your crying son to run up to you and say he lost his first duel beacause a mean old judge would not let him use Slifer! And yes the judge knows Yugi did it on TV but this is Duelling not TV. The god cards are NOT tournament legal and you cannot use them in a UDE sanctioned event, they are not mentioned on any banned list because they are not viewed as correct enough to be banned ( do not ask me, emails to UDE or Konami please) So perhaps your quest for a God is really a Quixotic joust after all?

Ebay can be a horse trading market when it comes to God cards, rare and very rare cards.Some (you know who you are) add pictures and titles that refer to expensive cards but the fine print explains that you will get the free pen not the plasma TV! Ie the mails shot approach to business. These people may not even have the expensive card ( read very good advice today that was you ask me to send you a pic of the card with a daily (today’s) paper) that way you can be sure you are not bidding for a jpeg but a real card.

BUT yes I sell Bundles, because I have boxes and boxes in order to get the rare ones. However the bundle is all different common cards, the Ultra’s are real and desirable – no child will ever return them and they are tournament legal (at time of press ha ha ). Check the feedback. I am new but I have offered all customers 100% refund in attempt to placate worries, anyone who insists on cash, or no refunds would concern me. I can offer insurance (well the cards are valuable) and I will send well wrapped (same reason)

Lastly add in Postage! A card bought at £10 with postage of £1 is not worse than a card bought at£2 with £8.99 P+P - Do the MATHS. If both are £10 then fine toss a coin and bid, if both offer the same postage ie std, recorded, special then fine choose but safety first.

These cards are expensive for a reason – ie they are few and far between! If it looks and smells like a fishy then guess what IT AIN’T FILLET STEAK

Boosters

Now before buying from me (?), or the shop or anywhere do research. I have seen Booster packs in shops at £2, 2.50 and 2.99 and tins range from £12 – 20. Why? They are relying on your lack of knowledge of the other local retailers. I was adviced years ago to buy a structure or starter deck ( I recommend the Structure decks) and build on them. Structure decks are the themed ones ie fire, water, dragon, dinosaur, zombie, rock etc Starter ones are named so – Yugi, Kaiba, Pegasus. The structure decks can be easy (Dragon) – or experienced (Dinosuars) I would choose one your duellist will like – DINO’s PLEASE. Avoid as much a spossible the Saturday trip to shops with pocket money as you always go over the £1limit a wk on the £3 booster pack. You also end upwith 8 cards that are redundant (how many copies of spark blaster can I own!)

Clubs / Tournaments – Most pro players have stacks of old cards they do not use (grown out of), cannot use (banned), never wanted (no good to a duellist) and would be happy to trade, sell, swap or donate. (Thank you the very nice man who gave my lad the last 4 bits of EXODIA - I owe you a pint or ten).

Whether it is nobler on your bank balance to play an Ultra rare "Brain Control" or bog standard one is not the point.When duelling any version of a card is the same. So perhaps you should shop for the less rare version of Chimeratech Overdragon (£20 as opposed to £40) and your kids will still be very impressed, won’t they Jonah!

Lastly First edition’s are valued more highly but the unlimited versions are the same cards just not as old (what’s a few months eh!)

Remember Value for Money

A too good to be true deal probably is!!

Only look a gift horse in the mouth when it is offering Jinzo or cyber stein for £10 or so – any cheaper and it is a fish!!! Smells and looks fishy?