The biggest problem would then become whether you get through step 5. Can I, knowing the risks, honestly recommend a buy on MCM where you would accept whatever condition gets sent?

I certainly would not recommend such a setup to a friend. I likely will not do it for an acquaintance, though I might do it for someone I don’t know assuming they can convince me they fully understand what they’re getting into. I would certainly be happy to do that for my worst enemies.

Grading can really be terrible on MCM, you should not want such a deal.

I have an idea – what if the person you are buying for agrees to take 100% of the condition risks posed by MCM sellers? In other words, what if there’s a guarantee that you will not have any issue resolution work to do (I suppose aside from if the card never arrives at all). Would this help overcome some of the barriers? In some cases the price discrepancies between Europe and the U.S. is so large that even should a NM card arrive as MP, it may still be profitable or at least breakeven.

Just a hypothetical question to spur discussion, not necessarily something I wish to pursue.

Thanks. I’m apparently not totally incapable of coming up with something original 😉 . I think part of why this hasn’t been covered before is that there aren’t many non-US writers published here or on other sites you might read mtg finance articles on. This particular topic definitely needs some experience as well as a perspective only obtained by not being US based.