Galactic Toys & Games - Kentwood — Local services in Kentwood

I found this store at the very start of the year, and became my goto for any and all Gundam models I wanted to buy. They had inventory when most other shops didn't, and I found the prices to vary between "reasonable" and "better than expected".

But here at the end of the year, I'm no longer liking what I'm seeing out of Galactic.

First, the prices. They've seemingly gone up in ways that are difficult to justify. For example, they have been increasingly obtaining Premium Bandai items (which are made in limited quantities, and only sold once) years after they were originally sold, and re-selling them at a markup. I don't have a problem with this in principle, as for some of us, this is the only way to obtain these items if we missed out on the original sale. However, some of these items are being sold at up to a 300% markup, which I consider to be unreasonable.

(Full disclosure - I purchased one of these items with credit card points, but I've felt dirty about it ever since).

Standard items have also seen weird and arbitrary price hikes. There is one High Grade model kit that they were selling a week or two ago for $28. I found at least two other online hobby stores that had the same model, in stock, for $20. It would be one thing if it was a model that was hard to come by elsewhere, but that is clearly not the case. There are all sorts of models that cost anywhere from $5-$10 more than their competitors, and with enough digging, I was able to find enough other stores that had those items in stock. I just bought three kits from another shop, and by doing so, I probably saved a good $20 versus if I had bought them from Galactic.

The other problem I have is in regards to shipping. I usually end up paying anywhere from $7-9 in shipping, and for that money, Galactic ships out with UPS Mail Innovations. Mail Innovations is where your package travels through UPS' supply lines, but is ultimately delivered by the USPS. That means you have two different parties responsible for getting it to your door, each with their own tracking information. If something goes wrong, it's not easy to know who to contact.

Or IS it? When an item "arrives” (even when it doesn't actually arrive, like what happened to me), Galactic sends you an email to let you know. In said email is a link to their customer service team, in case the package didn't actually show up. I emailed them, and all they said in reply was:

"USPS and UPS say it arrived, so it must have arrived. Take it up with your credit card if you don't have it".

That's ... not exactly great customer service. They didn't even make an attempt to ask me questions in an effort to better understand what might have happened.

On top of that, I find that Mail Innovations is extremely slow. Packages take a week to arrive in the best case scenario, and sometimes longer. In contrast, a recent order I made with another hobby store showed up in three days, and I only paid two dollars more for shipping than I normally do with Galactic (this is because that other hobby store uses real UPS).

So yeah. High prices, no real justification for said high prices, and miserable customer service. I hate to say it, but I think I'm done with this shop unless I absolutely have to use them. They seem more interested in taking people for a ride during this pandemic-fueled Gunpla shortage than they are in helping people enjoy their...

This is a long review but it is genuine and should be of high interest to anyone who is thinking about going here to purchase Pokemon cards.

I wil say they do have a lot of options to pick from if you are going with intent of purchasing Pokemon, Magic, or other types of card games. Their inventory is always pretty nice.

However! Tread with caution if you are going to purchase things that they have behind the counter that is not factory sealed. Pokemon to be specific since that is what I would go for. Any individual packs purchased are 99% likely to be weighted. I'm so sure of this because I have purchase a fair share and they have always been the code cards that indicate there is nothing inside the pack. A friend has also had this experience. The only reason I do not say 100% likely is because I haven't seen them do it but the evidence is there. I've purchased a factory sealed Evolving Skies ETB that did have an alt art Espeon in it, that's why I say if it is factory sealed you should be good to go. When I purchased the Evolving Skies ETB the gentleman I dealt with was nice, but he did let it slip that they get their individual packs from promo boxes that they open which also makes me inclined to believe that they weigh them and then put the duds out for the public to purchase. Bottom line: Do not purchase individual packs from this store, you will be highly disappointed.

My second and more important point is that I went in with the intention of getting a quote for trading in some cards for store credit. My local store often gives me about 75-80% for in store credit because I go multiple times a week and they know what I bring in is valuable. They were a bit dry so I went here to check what they would offer and what they had available.

This place offers a humiliating "60% store credit", less if you sell. Besides that, I brought in a Gold Arceus vstar ($130+ card at the time), Deoxys vstar, and Deoxys vmax + some other less notable cards. These cards total at the time would have a retail value of a little under $200. They offered me $80 for everything. For reference, this same stack plus a couple other small cards got me $150 at my local shop.

I had the cards sleelved and in hard cases. The girl who handled my cards took them out of the cases, out of the sleeves and STACKED them on top of eachother and was sliding them around on top of each other as if they were a bunch of commons. She also walked away with them all like this, risking dropping them.

DO NOT bring valuable cards to this place, they will handle them like they are worth nothing and then offer you basically nothing for them. After you purchase individual packs from them and get nothing for 10+ packs the girl says 'well I had to buy 20 before I got anything' as if that's helpful. She clearly doesn't actualy know what she is doing. The young teenager at my local shop handles cards with grace and eloquence because he understands the value of what he is handling.

2 stars because they do have a lot to pick from on top of trading cards and they do have factory sealed stuff and some hard to find things.

-1 star for weighing packs.

-1 star for mishandling of customer belongings.

-1 star because the employee doesnt know what...

Ordered 3 Funko figures early January understanding they were a pre-order. Saw several stores get a limited # of the items I ordered even during this wait (foot locker). Have constantly checked up no less than 3x each time having the delivery date pushed further. IT'S BEEN 3mos. I keep getting asked to cancel as well.....NO. At this point they have now passed the buck as to this being Funkos fault. My suggestion is that you don't offer a product you cannot deliver for a quarter of a year. I asked for a small concession for the trouble and they will not even do that!? Not good customer service. The only thing that would change my review from 1 star would be them issuing a concession and getting me the product I ordered quickly. It's not only people that take no accountability these days it's business' too. Robbing Peter to pay Paul maybe? Get it together Galactic. (AMENDMENT: 4/2/19): I WANT WHAT I PAID FOR.......NOW BECAUSE U CANT DELIVER ....U WANT TO REFUND BECAUSE MY REVIEW IS FACTUAL?????.......U TOLD ME A DELIVERY DATE 2X NOW.......I HAVE A FEELING THE MICHAEL JORDAN POP IS IN HIGH DEMAND AND U CANNOT DELIVER IT! DO NOT CXL. You wouldn't have cxld because the figure is now selling for triple what you originally charged would you? That explains why you happily asked me to cxl 3x when I asked for updates. Seems as if u did not take me seriously until u realized my reviews actually hold water.....I WANT WHAT U SOLD ME. NOW THEY WANT TO EXCUSE THEMSELVES OF BAD BUSINESS PRACTICES BECAUSE OF A FACTUAL REVIEW BY REFUNDING EVEN THOUGH I DO NOT WANT ANYTHING OTHER THAN WHAT I PAID FOR AND THEY ADVERTISED.........GALACTIC, YAL ARE SPITEFUL AND VINDICTIVE.......SAD. Lastly, NUMEROUS other sites are able to deliver this quickly...I've checked. THIS IS NOT FUNKOS ISSUE.......THIS IS YOUR ISSUE........HORRIBLE...