If the card doesn't turn up as described, you have a way to get your money back.
TakoCards holds the payment for an order rather than passing it straight to the seller, and holds the seller's payout for as long as a dispute is open on it. That's the mechanism behind every sentence on this page. The binding version is the refund policy — this is the plain-language summary of it.
What's covered
- It never arrived within the estimated delivery window.
- It's significantly not as described — wrong card, wrong condition, missing items.
- It's counterfeit or not authentic.
- It arrived damaged because the seller packed it inadequately.
- The seller didn't ship within the agreed timeframe.
What isn't
- Changing your mind after buying.
- Minor condition differences inside normal grading variance.
- Items that turn out, on review, to match the listing after all.
- Damage caused after you received the item.
- Claims raised after the window closed, or with no reasonable evidence.
- Claims about a parcel's contents with no compliant unboxing recording.
Both lists are taken from the refund policy, which is the version that governs.
Film the unboxing — start before you open anything
This is the single requirement that decides most contents claims. If your claim is about what was inside the parcel — missing items, the wrong card, damage in transit — you need footage that meets all of the following:
- The recording starts while the package is still sealed, showing every side, the label, the seals and any external damage.
- It runs from the first cut right through to the end, with every item out of the packaging and shown on camera.
- It's one continuous, unedited take. Photos taken afterwards can't replace it, and neither can footage that starts once the box is open.
- Each item is held to the camera long enough to identify — front and back of any card the claim is about.
- You keep the original, unmodified file until the window has closed and any dispute is resolved.
Without it, contents claims can be declined, because there's no way to establish what the package held when it arrived. Full wording: refund policy.
TakoInspect — a second opinion, before you decide
If you want a card looked at by someone other than the seller, you can send it to us. TakoInspect is an optional, paid assessment of a card's condition and authenticity, currently $15.00 per item. Buyers can request one on something they've bought; sellers can request one on stock they hold.
What it is, precisely:
- A best-effort visual inspection using industry-standard techniques — an inspector's professional judgement at the time of inspection.
- It is not a warranty, certification or guarantee, and it may differ from other grading services or professional graders.
- Sealed products are not opened, and no destructive or laboratory-grade testing is performed unless we say otherwise on the report.
- Authenticity is reported as likely genuine, inconclusive or likely counterfeit — deliberately hedged, because that is what a visual assessment can honestly support.
- The fee is non-refundable once the inspection has been performed. Cancel before an inspector starts and it's returned in full.
Start one from an order or a listing, or see everything you've sent in under TakoInspect in your account. Full wording: terms §9 and refund policy §8.
How a claim actually works
Go to the order, pick the seller's shipment that's gone wrong, and open a dispute on it. Disputes are per-shipment, not per-basket, so a five-seller order can have a dispute with one seller while the rest proceed normally.
Go to your ordersYou and the seller talk in the dispute thread. They can offer a full or partial refund; you can counter with your own figure. The seller's payout is held from the moment the dispute opens, and stays held until it closes.
Your disputesIf you can't agree, either side hands it over. Both of you submit evidence — photos, the unboxing video, the message history — and we review all of it.
We make a binding decision: full refund, partial refund, or the funds are released to the seller. An approved refund goes back to your original payment method.
Not sure a dispute is the right tool? If the problem is with the site, your account or a payment rather than with a specific seller's shipment, open a support ticket instead — and if a listing or a seller looks fraudulent, use the report link on their page, which reaches moderation. If money has already changed hands, do both: reporting flags the account, the dispute is what gets you refunded.
The three kinds of refund
- Full
- The complete purchase price comes back to you.
- Partial
- An amount agreed with the seller, or decided by us in arbitration — used when you'd rather keep the item at a lower price than send it back.
- Shipping
- Automatic, and nothing to do with a dispute: when a seller combines several of your orders into one parcel, the excess shipping you paid is refunded without you asking.
Refunds are processed back to the original payment method. How long they take to appear is up to your payment provider — typically 5–10 business days.
The honest limits
TakoCards is a marketplace of independent sellers, not a shop. We don't own, hold, handle or inspect the items before they ship, and we're not a party to the sale — so protection here means a payment we control, a dispute process with real consequences for sellers, and an arbitration decision. It isn't a guarantee that every parcel arrives perfect.
It also only covers what happens on the platform. A deal arranged by direct transfer, off-site, or outside the checkout has no order behind it, no held payout, and nothing for a dispute to act on. An offer to do that is itself worth reporting.
Where this page and the refund policy or terms of service differ, the policies govern.