Disputes and returns

What to do when a collection is not what the listing said, and what happens next — for both sides.

If you are the buyer

Raise it from your order, before your inspection window closes — 3 business days from delivery, or 5 on a larger lot — or, for a parcel lost in transit, once 10 days have passed with no delivery scan. Pick the ground that fits and say what is wrong.
Keep everything as it arrived, including the packaging, and photograph the problem.
The seller is told and can respond. Your money stays held the whole time — it is not released while a dispute is open.
We decide, on the manifest, the seller’s photographs and the tracking. Both sides are told the outcome.

The four grounds

It does not match the manifest — missing, different, or fewer cards.
Condition is worse than stated — damage the listing did not mention.
Something is not genuine — fakes, reprints, a slab that is not what it claims.
It was lost in transit — shipped, and never marked delivered by the carrier.
The carrier delivered it somewhere else — tracking says delivered, and the carrier agrees it went to a different address. A parcel left at your address and taken afterwards is not this: that one is between you and the carrier.

What can happen

Refunded in full. The usual outcome when a complaint stands. The collection goes back and you get the price, the delivery, the marketplace service fee and the tax. A parcel lost in transit has nothing to send back.
Partial refund. Where only part of the lot is affected and both sides agree, you keep it and some money comes back.
Released to the seller. The complaint did not stand.

Sending it back

You pay nothing to send it back. A tracked return label, insured for what you paid, is on your order page to print. Attach it and hand the parcel to the carrier — their first scan tells us it is on its way, and from then your refund stands even if it goes astray.

If the label is not on your order page within a day, post it yourself, tracked, and tell us what it cost. We pay that back, up to $150, and it is not deducted from your refund.

You have 10 days to post it, tracked, packed as it arrived. Send the whole lot.

Your refund does not depend on the seller cooperating. They have 14 days from dispatch to confirm it arrived; we remind them before that. If they say nothing, the refund goes anyway.

If you are the seller

You are told as soon as a dispute is opened, and you can respond before anything is decided. Your best evidence is the evidence you already submitted: an accurate manifest and clear photographs win disputes, and that is not a coincidence — they are what we decide on.

If the decision goes against you, the lot comes back to an address you give us. We ask for it per return, so a disputed collection can go somewhere other than where you normally ship from.

Confirm it when it arrives. That is what closes the case. If you do not, the refund proceeds without you after 14 days — an unanswered email cannot be a way to keep both the money and the cards.

If something is stuck

Email support@tcgbolt.com. Deadlines that pass because the other side did nothing are handled automatically and are not held against you — but if a return has stalled because nobody has given an address, tell us and we will push it.

The binding version is the Buyer Protection Policy.