A pre-order reserves you a copy of something that has not been released yet. You are charged in full when you place the order, not on release day — that is the part most people want to know first. Everything else about how these work, including how to get your money back, is below.
Right now, nothing on this site is a pre-order. Every product listed is on a shelf in West Palm Beach and ships to the same-day cut-off. This policy is here for the releases where we do open pre-orders, and a product page will say so plainly when that is the case.
The short version
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| When am I charged? | In full, at checkout, when you place the order. |
| When does it ship? | On the publisher’s street date, not before. We do not set that date. |
| Can I cancel? | Any time before it ships. Full refund, no reason needed. |
| What if it is delayed? | We hold it, we email you, and you can still cancel at any point. |
| What if the price goes up? | We ask you first. We never charge your card more than you approved. |
| What if you cannot get enough? | We refund the shortfall in full and tell you the same day. |
| What does shipping cost? | Nothing. Free tracked shipping on every United States order, with no minimum. |
What a pre-order actually is
It is a place in a queue. When a publisher announces a set, we commit to a quantity with our distributors, and pre-orders let you claim one of those copies before they exist.
A pre-order is not a payment plan and not a deposit. It is a normal purchase of a product that has not shipped yet, and it carries the same return rights as anything else once it arrives.
The street date is the publisher’s, not ours
Pokémon, Panini, Topps, Bowman, Upper Deck, Bandai, Wizards of the Coast and every other publisher set a date before which their product may not be sold. Every retailer is held to it, including us.
We do not ship sealed product before its street date, and we do not make exceptions. A store that offers to break street date is breaking its distribution agreement, and the usual consequence is losing allocation on the next release — which would cost every customer here far more than one early box is worth.
The expected release date lives on the product page. That is the only place we keep it current, and it is the only date you should trust — if a publisher moves a set, the product page moves with it and you get an email.
When you are charged
In full, at checkout, the moment you place the order. Not on release day, not when it ships. Your card is charged once, for the whole amount, at the price shown when you ordered.
We say this plainly because the alternative — a charge landing weeks later against a card the customer has forgotten about — is where pre-orders go wrong. If the money has left your account and the set has not released yet, nothing is broken. That is how this is meant to work.
Mixed carts: pre-order and in-stock together
If you buy a pre-order and an in-stock item in the same order, the whole order waits until everything is ready and then ships together. One parcel, one tracking number, one delivery.
If you would rather have the in-stock part now, email support@tcgprime.store with your order number and ask us to split it. We will ship the in-stock items straight away and hold the pre-order for release.
Splitting costs you nothing. Shipping here is free and tracked on every United States order, with no minimum, so two parcels and one parcel cost exactly the same: nothing. There is no split fee and no second shipping charge. If you know in advance that you want them separately, the simplest route is to place two orders.
Allocation: when the publisher cuts our order
On a heavily allocated set, distributors give us a fraction of what we asked for. This is normal on a hot release and it is not something we can appeal.
When it happens, we fill pre-orders in the order they were placed — earliest first, no exceptions, no bumping anyone up the queue. If your order falls past the line, we refund the unfilled part in full and email you the same day we find out. You will not hear about it from a silent order status.
We do not substitute a different set, we do not push store credit instead of a refund, and we do not sit on your money against a future restock unless you specifically ask us to. Someone who ordered a particular set does not want an equivalent one.
If the publisher moves the price
Pre-order prices are set from the MSRP announced at the time. Publishers do revise that figure between announcement and release, in both directions.
- If the price goes up: we email you the new figure before we do anything else. You either confirm and we ship, or you cancel and we refund in full. We never charge your card more than the amount you approved and tell you afterwards. Ignoring the email is not consent — if you do not reply, we cancel and refund rather than charge.
- If the price goes down: you pay the lower one. We refund the difference without being asked.
If the publisher delays a set
Delays happen, sometimes by months, and they are announced to us at the same time as to everyone else. When a set slips:
- We hold your pre-order and email you the new date as soon as we have it.
- We update the product page so the date on the site is the real one.
- You can cancel at any point up until it ships, for a full refund. A delay does not lock you in — if the new date does not work for you, that is a good enough reason.
What we will not do is guess. If we do not have a new date, the email will say we do not have a new date, rather than invent one to sound reassuring.
Cancelling a pre-order
Any time before it ships, for a full refund, no reason needed. Email support@tcgprime.store with your order number and the word cancel. That is the whole process.
We issue the refund to your original payment method — usually the same business day, and within five business days at the outside. There is no inspection step, because there is nothing to send back. Your bank then takes a further 3–10 business days to post it, which is outside our control and outside our sight: if you have the refund confirmation and the money has not landed, the answer is with your card issuer.
There is no cancellation fee and no restocking fee on a pre-order. Once it has shipped and has a tracking number it is no longer a cancellation — it becomes a return under the refund policy, which has its own rules for sealed product.
Adding to cart does not reserve anything
Stock is held by completing checkout, not by sitting in a cart. A cart is not a queue position and carts are not first-come-first-served. On an allocated release the difference between a completed checkout and a full cart is the difference between getting the product and not.
Where we cap quantity per customer on an allocated pre-order, the product page says so. Orders spread across several accounts or addresses to get around a cap may be cancelled and refunded.
What arrives on release day
Pre-ordered sealed product ships in the factory state it reached us in. We do not weigh, search, open, re-wrap or reseal anything, and a case that has been sitting here waiting for a street date is no exception — it is not opened while it waits. Orders over $500 require a signature on delivery.
Once it is with you, the usual rules apply: transit damage within 48 hours, 30 days to start a return on unopened product. The refund policy has the detail, including what opening a sealed box does to your return rights.
Ask before you order
If you are unsure whether something is a pre-order, when it is expected, or whether a cart will ship in one piece — ask first. Email support@tcgprime.store with the product name, or the order number if you have already bought. One business day, usually the same morning, Mon–Fri 9:00 am – 6:00 pm ET. We would much rather answer a question than process a cancellation.