Hi guys. Just wanted to share my experience with this, as I had other people asking for updates in a previous thread. I’ll try to keep things concise and chronological but it’s quite a long story, so buckle up, make a coffee etcetera.
I am based in the UK. The tale begins early February 2026. I’m contacted by a man (let’s call him Jeff) on cardmarket, out of the blue. He is offering to buy my entire stock. I’m open to the idea, but I’m concerned by the fact that Jeff has only about 10 purchases on his account and no sales.
I have done this before many years ago with a gentleman in the Netherlands. admittedly it was much less cards and much less money, and he also agreed to pay upfront so I was less at risk. I am aware that this kind of thing happens in the world of magic card sales and have some experience in it. But of course, I am still wary of scams and dealing with strangers online, especially when large amounts of money are at stake.
after voicing my concerns, Jeff tells me he is representing a larger Spanish account (Random-Player, I will refer to him as Jose - not his real name). In hindsight I believe this is because Jose does not speak any English. Jeff asks me to send a csv spreadsheet of all my stock to him, so that we can agree a price. I use tcg power tools to make the spreadsheet and send it to him. Power tools shows the value of the cards at about 8k, he offers me about 4K and I agree, on the basis that I want some assurances about everything being legitimate and above board.
Jeff gives me Jose’s WhatsApp phone number and says I should contact him. Jose is quite accomodating and shows me a video of him operating his cardmarket account, that there is enough money in the account to do the purchase, etcetera. And at my request he sends me a message from his cardmarket account. So at this point, I’m fairly confident he is who he says he is, and everything is legitimate. The communication is a little stunted as we are both having to use google translate to decipher the messages, but it’s okay.
the next step (suggested by Jose) is for me to put my cardmarket account on vacation mode, and then for me to take it off at a certain time agreed by him, so that he can buy my entire stock. This purchase is then cancelled, and then I am to list one card at the agreed price to represent the whole collection, which he will buy. (This is because the amount my cards were listed at was way more than the agreed price, all makes sense to me so far.)
this all goes through smoothly, and then the money is being held in escrow by cardmarket, to be released when he confirms arrival of the package. at this point I’m even more confident about everything being legit, and I just have to worry about the package being lost or damaged in the post. I begin to sort all the cards alphabetically and make a spreadsheet to check everything is there, and report any discrepancies in condition or language etcetera. Jose did not ask me to sort it alphabetical, I just wanted to do it so that I knew what was missing and could tell him in advance, and so that it would be easier for him to deal with when he received it. Many cards end up being missing (my account is old and I also sell on eBay, so things get lost or mixed up). Nothing that is missing is of any great value, so I tell Jose about it and include some extra stuff to make up the value. This process takes me about 6 days, it was a lot of cards and admin.
when everything is agreed, I box up the cards and quadruple wrap them in bubble wrap with “fragile“ stickers. I take it to the post office to send to Spain, and I’m there for about 40 minutes answering questions and filling out forms as required by the post office staff. I insured the package up to 2500 (the maximum) and it costs 140 to send Including the insurance.
I am anxiously following the tracking information and the package arrives in Spain 2 days later. however, it is held with Spanish customs. the days drag on, and it is not moving. After about 30 days, Jose tells me that Spanish customs have contacted him asking for more information. i give him the info, it’s annoying as it’s the same info I gave to the post office and was all attached to the package in a clear plastic envelope. we hear nothing for 2 weeks, and then he Announces that the package Has been “rejected” and returned to the UK.
I should say that during this time I had no contact from Spanish customs, no phone call, no email, nothing. I tried to chase the package up with Royal Mail several times, and they could not help me or provide any more information than what I already had. Also during this time, I had started again from scratch with my cardmarket and built it up almost to where It was before, so that was a positive thing.
On another side note, another package I sent to spain a week before had been held by Spanish customs for over 30 days and then “returned.“ to this day I still have not received this package (a smaller order Worth about 150). The reason I’m saying this is to illustrate my belief that there is something strange and / or malicious happening with Spanish customs. I send packages to Italy, USA, canada, France, all over Europe and the world, and I have only had problems like this with Spain.
thankfully, the large order that I sent to Jose returned to me quickly and undamaged, with all the documents they were requesting I’m a transparent envelope on the outside! I asked what he wanted to do about it, and he said he still wanted the cards. he suggested booking a courier. I had the bright idea to fly out to Spain and deliver it personally, after all the stress and anticipation of the last 6 weeks I didn’t feel comfortable sending the package away again and waiting, potentially for another month or more.
I arranged with him a day he would be able to meet. I booked a flight and hotel and set off to Spain with the cards in my suitcase. The next day he met me, with a friend who was translating for us. He quickly inspected the cards, and then confirmed arrival on cardmarket so I received the money. I spent the next day and a half enjoying the food and the sights in the south of Spain, finally able to relax. Before we met, I was still quite anxious and worried something would go wrong after all the headaches we had up to this point! The whole trip cost me less than what the original postage cost of the package was, so that was convenient.
I have put in a claim with Royal Mail about the package not being delivered despite me doing everything I was asked to do by the post office staff. They have not yet responded. It’s been exactly 30 days since I put in the claim, and they are supposed to respond within 30 days, I guess I will post an update if they do respond. Regarding the other smaller package that was “returned” from Spain, I put in a claim about that too and I just got an apology letter, they have said that it will take up to 12 weeks to return to me. I have appealed this and will hopefully get some compensation for that too. If I get any updates on these claims I will post in the comments here.
Anyway, I’m just posting this story so that others can hopefully learn some lessons from it and also to satisfy the curiosity of the people on the other thread who asked for updates on how it all went, sorry it’s taken so long to finalise. Key points I want to emphasise are that “Jose” (random-player) is very professional and great to deal with, and he didn’t do anything wrong. And that if I did similar deals in future I think I would just fly out rather than rolling the dice on postage. I’ve never had such a bad experience with Royal Mail / parcel force before so I didn’t expect it to work out like this. Hope you enjoyed my story and find it helpful, feel free to ask questions etcetera.
TLDR: everything worked out in the end but there were some issues along the way!