Buy/Sell/Trade Forum

In the last 3 months, I have had several trades that were proposed to me that, after I Accepted, was told not all the cards were available anymore.  One was only one card but when I received the package, five others were missing including the Topps 2013 #1 Bryce Harper.  In another trade, I was told there were 42 cards no longer available, shockingly all of the older cards of HoF.  In other trades, I have faithfully sent out the cards as soon as I have pulled them only to later find out that the other member has already received his cards, catalogued them before getting his cards sent my way.  Now I know that a card or two may have gone astray but 42 of them?  They then wonder why I get frustrated.

So a bit of advice when doing trades (whether you want it or not) and others, please feel free to add on to my list.

When Proposing a trade:

1. Make sure you actually have all of the cards you are offering.  If it is a member you have traded with before, you can pull the cards right away as it is almost guaranteed the trade will go through.  If it is not, at least visullay check that you have the cards.

2. PWE can hold up to 18 cards so proposing a trade for 20 cards can double the cost of shipping making the trade uneconomical.  Go small or go big; avoid the inbetween.

3. Propose one trade at a time.  Pull those cards out of your traders before you go propose another trade.  This will avoid offering the same cards in another trade as you will see you no longer have it when you go to pull the cards of the second trade.

When Receiving a Trade Proposal:

1. After deciding you are willing to accept it, before you hit Accept, pull the cards to make sure you have the cards that are asked for.  Once you pull all of them, do a physical count of the cards to make sure the total is the same as in the trade offer. Then hit Accept.

1a. If there are cards missing or issues with any cards, communicate this to the other member by countering or by message.  Offer a replacement or delete somethign equal from what you are receiving.  Again, COMMUNICATE!

2. If you are working on another trade when the offer comes in, don't hit Accept till you can work on that particular trade.  Instead, reply to the message in your Messages and advise the other member that you wil get to his trade offer within a day or two.  Believe it or not, most are willing to be patient.

3. Once you begin working on a trade, complete it to the end including the packaging of the cards before going tothe next trade.  I can understand wanting to package all of the trades that you have on the go before going to the post office but get it to the "ready to mail" status before working on another trade.

All trades:

1. Communicate if there are issues with the cards or delays in being able to get the cards out.  Communication has often been discussed here yet some still don't get it.  Think, "just because you know there will be a delay does not mean that the other member knows". He can't know unless you tell him.

2. If you receive the cards from the other member before you have even sent yours out (I can accept an unforeseen circumstance that has been communicated), there is a problem.  Your priority should be to get that trade pulled and sent, not to catalogue your newly arrived cards.

I am sure there is more advice others can come up with but for now, this is what I have.  Call it venting, call it whatever but the amount of issues I have experieinced in the last few months is beginning to make me second guess trading online.  I will say that in these last 3, there is only one who made it to my "Never Again" list.  Another one, I would accept a trade offer from him but I would most likely ask that the cards be sent first so that I know they are all there.  The third one (and most recent) realized his errors, has offered to more than make up for it, and has also said he has learned much from this bad experience and will avoid such a situation again.  With him, I would trade again because he has communicated and accepted responsibility.

42 !!! That's just staggering.... I think the underlying message which you hit upon is to simply  "COMMUNICATE !" and that should alleviate most if not all issues. Keep trading !

Yes, great advice.  Nothing is more frustratiting then to have a trade proposed to you, just to find out they don't have all the cards they were proposing! 

Thanks for posting!

That is horrible!

My experiences here have not been stellar except for 1 gentleman so far.

One I took time and reached out to gave me attitude, and the other simply did not even have the courtesy/decency to respond to me after i offered to help with their lists.

This " advice" is OUTSTANDING and should serve as a model for how to conduct trades here.

Well said sandyrusty!! Only a few trades (hockey) so far for me but they have gone well. Communication IS very important!! Hope you have better luck with future traders! :) 

Very well said!

You and I have had many conversations on this topic. I applaud you for taking the time to put pen to paper.

This is so much more than advice. These are Best Practices for Trading. If everybody followed these simple steps there should not be any trades going awry.

For new or disorganized traders, please follow these methods. One can become a top-notch trader in no time and at the same time it will create efficiencies in your collecting, storage, trading, and shipping.

I'm a very active trader, and have worked hard to make sure EVERY card offered or requested is in hand before accepting or sending an offer. But in 2020 with about 25 trades, I'm not batting 1.000 as in one trade I was short one card - a mini from a Topps UK set whose cards remain in their original box. I recalled confirming once that the set was complete, but that's it, and I relied on that. It didn't occur to me until I went to pull the card that I had indeed gone through it again and had pulled a couple of cards for an offer that eventually did not get accepted. So..

Now I confirm cards without pulling them. If I have multiple deals I open them up side by side on my screen and check for duplication in the offer and to see if I have multiples of the card. If so, then obviously I leave it alone, or remove as needed.

AND DO NOT RELY ON THE DATABASE. TCDB is a great site, but it's dependent on our input in most cases, but sometimes we make errors in logging or using the system that affects the inventory, and/or there may be glitches in the matrix. So as Bru (sandyrusty) stated, check physically for the card and that will end such problems.

I do have to say, though, a 42 card mess up, falls on the trader. It's forgivable, but I'd be leery of trading with them again without some safeguards.

For anybody wondering why I always say that I will take care of the trades over the weekend there are the reasons. I want to make certain that I have all the cards the other person is asking for and make certain that any issues with the cards I know and let the other person know before I accept.

Great post SandyRusty.

Excellent points, especially regarding making sure you actually have the cards before proposing or accepting a trade. It's a bit annoying to receive a message after you've mailed your part of the trade saying, "I seem to missing some cards, so can we change the trade?" It's a pain to have to manually update your collection because the cards in the proposal aren't the cards that changed hands.

I'd also like to chime in about the timing of mailing. My personal practice is to pull the cards, click "Accept", and then get them in the mail within 1-2 days. I once traded with a collector who's package to me was postmarked a couple of days after he marked his cards as "Received," even though he had marked them as "Sent" right away. He reasoning? He often has so many trades on the go at once that he can't keep track, so he marks them all as "Sent" to keep his lists updated, and then just waits until he receives a package, at which point he checks who it's from, then mails his part of the trade back. Unless there's a reason for someone to wait (for example, if it was mutually agreed one party has to mail first), then make the effort to mail promptly. Don't use your own disorganization as an excuse.