Monmouth Cards — Local services in West Long Branch

Sketchy place. Super overpriced, particularly with pokemon. That isn't the pressing issue though. Only offered my 8 year old son 50% of the value for trade in, of a pokemon card he brought in. We should have just taken the hint and left then and there. Bought a fusion strikes etb, which had all white code cards in it, aside from 2 hits, that happened to be the exact same 1$ card. My husband also bought a booster box which he saved specifically for today, which happens to be Christmas, for my 8 year old son. Noticed something off with the very first pack rip. Any one who has ever opened up a pokemon pack knows that the packs can sometimes be a hassle opening just by hand. Well every single one of the 36 packs we opened out of the fusion booster tore as if you were tearing a simple piece of thin paper. We compared it to other fusion packs not from Monmouth cards and even the packs looked different. I'm not pointing fingers, but someone is resealing items and selling them. O and just to hit home on the point of this review, almost every single one of the code cards in the fusion booster box were white, (just like my etb,) meaning no hits. We got 4 vstar cards worth a dollar and change each, out of 36 packs. We are huge pokemon collectors, we purchase packs, etbs, collection boxes or booster boxes pretty much every other day. There is bad luck with the gamble of opening pokemon packs, and then there is just being plain ripped off like we were from Monmouth cards. O! And last time we were there, they offered to give us the hard sleeve protectors for free that we were planning on purchasing, in return for a positive review. My husband had forgotten his phone out in the car, and the lady kept harping on us to get the review done. I've since deleted the bribed review because I'm not going to spread false truths about this place. Just....buyer beware, and shop at your...

I am not a card collector in any sense of the word. My father had shown me a large Topps baseball card collection he had amassed in the mid 70s. Prior to going to Monmouth Cards I had done some research and was aware that there were quite a few cards that could be significantly valuable. I walked in with 2 binders containing roughly 1000 cards. Prior to looking at them, as the individual was walking over, I provided a brief description of what I had and was asked how much money I was looking for to sell them as a set. His questions totally changed upon seeing the cards. I made it clear that I was not a collector but I knew there were cards that are potentially significantly valuable. The shop and individual I dealt with deserve a lot of respect, the idea of them buying the lot was no more and the discussion switched to the best way to get the highest value for the cards. He never made an offer that to an individual that had done zero research would have seemed like they hit the lottery. All of this is basically to say that (in my experience) they are trust worthy. For example he didn’t flip through and offer me $5,000 for the lot, in fact he did the did the opposite and complimented their condition and stated that he never expected to see old cards in such a good condition. We discussed how they had been stored that kept them in good shape and the next steps to take to sell them for the highest value. Again I need to state that although I knew there were valuable cards I never needed to state that and he never attempted to buy them all for the price that just one could sell for. The shop itself was clean, well lit, and new. This is the complete opposite of other “collectibles” shops that I have been in. They never tried to take the cards to some “back room” (which seems to be common but, to me, unsettling), everything took place right in...

I've ordered a few things from this store in the past with no real issues. That's why this was surprising to me, but Monmouth cards is pulling some shady business now so I won't be going back, personally.

I wanted to share my experience to help others avoid the same issue and to just use a different hobby shop. I ordered 6 individual cards from them on 11/1/24. 4 of the cards arrived.

3 weeks go by (11/18/24) and I reach out alerting them I haven't received the 2 cards, and they responded that if they determine the cards are lost they'll refund me. That's great, let me know!

After I had to reach out 2 weeks later (12/3/24) for a follow up, they claim the cards are back in route. On 12/6/24, I reached back out as the tracking showed yet another processing exception. No response.

I give them a week to respond and send another email on 12/13/24 officially requesting a refund, no response.

I give it the weekend and on 12/17/24, I opened a new ticket by submitting a separate form on their website. You guessed it, no response.

So I am now currently awaiting resolution of the dispute with my bank and writing this very honest review - btw photos of the email communication and the tracking history are attached - to help other card enthusiasts by just avoiding this store because it's not worth the hassle. They WILL ghost you instead of doing the right thing like responding to a customer with a legitimate issue.

Thanks for hearing me out! Happy hunting to all the chasers and...