Buy/Sell/Trade Forum

I think my reaction is more to the title of the thread. I feel a lot of the regulars here are like me and come to this site as a break. Generally we like to keep things positive around here. My view is the title of this thread and how it is presented could easily spin into too much negativity.

Thanks for the reminder here. I've definitely been slacking with the Transaction Numbers. 

I get that some mebers have a lot of trades going on but isn't the worst case scenario that you have to open a few transactions and check the the sender's adress against them?

You must have some idea what transaction(s) the package is likely to apply to and can just open up them up and have a quick look?

I must admit the order of cards in a transaction has never crossed my mind but, then, I love sorting cards.

I guess I am happy for you @sandyrusty that this is one of the bigger issues in your life! (Or maybe sad that a hobby causes so much angst, I am not sure which).

Thanks for mentioning your perspective on liking to sort cards, Dave.

I am not concerned with what order I pack the cards on a trade.  I am more focused on mixing the thicker ones with regular ones to make the thickness as even as possible.  

I also like to put lesser value cards on the outside of a stack and nicer cards in the middle.

I would not expect things to be in any particular order when I receive either. 

Mark

I am with you on that one, Sometimes it is easier to make them pack evenly rather than in order

I second Mark's thoughts. As a PWE trader, I try to keep the envelope as even as possible in terms of thickness and this will usually reorder the cards. As well, I will typically put the nicer cards in the middle of a stack sandwiched between the lesser cards. 

There's a lot going on in this thread as far as trading goes. I completely understand every single point made in this thread too. Personally, I didn't start out adding the transaction # but usually do now. Since I always write the other member's address on a small Post-It note before packaging the cards, I started adding the T# on the bottom of the Post-It. Once the shipping label is printed, that Post-It goes inside of the package somewhere, in case the outer package gets damaged. USPS will still know where the contents need to go. I always sort my cards by the order in the transaction, BUT (as some mentioned before) I do occassionally re-organize them to better protect certain cards. I only ship in bubble mailers, but I protect the higher value cards better. If my team bag is a sandwich of 2 toploaders and a bunch of cards only in sleeves, the best cards go in the TL's with minor cards in the sleeves.

Another example just happened last night. I have a blind purchase offer. I pulled cards for that person from 3 different locations in my collection (all the same sport). I still organized all 3 stacks of cards into one stack to match how they would show up in a list on this site. The member has no idea what I am sending him, but everything will be in order by year and brand when he gets them. It will be easy for him to look at them and also add them to his collection on here. I hate having to sort my cards when I get them from a trade or purchase, especially when everything coming in is listed in a tranaction here. It's just wasted time for me. I'm kind of okay with backwards order if it is easy to figure out from the beginning. But mixing cards from the 80's with cards from the 2000's and then some 90's cards mixed in too is just frustrating. If you have a list of cards to ship, put the cards in that order!

I don't really care about the transaction number being inside my incoming trades b/c I only do a few at a time and it's easy to figure out by the address. But I see where it is frustrating for those doing a ton of trades at once. That is why I started including the # in my outgoing packages. My gripe with trading anywhere is when people include a printout of the trade. I already know what is in the trade and they just sent me some trash to throw away. I don't need the printout of the trade. It's already on this site (or others) and it's a waste of paper and ink. Save both of those and don't send me excess weight that is actually trash. In some cases, the piece of paper cost you more money to ship the package as it bumped the weight just enough to cost more!

I appreciate the tip about the order of the cards. I haven't done a lot of trading here, and very few large trades. I'm sure that I got the order jumbled, and to any of my trading partners reading this, I apologize for making it harder to sort.

i'm usually pretty good about including the trade number. Often, though, I forget to include it in the package and wind up writing it on the back.

The tip about including the destination address is a good one. That's good information, just in case there is an issue.

As I mainly PWE trade from here in NZ I also do this with the most valuable cards in the transaction too. It does have the unintended consequence of changing the order as such but I think it would be worth it for most to keep the better cards more protected.

Interesting all of the comments both here and in a couple of PM I received about it (both on my side of the fence).  These concerns did not warrant negative feedback but I think was worth reminding others of proper respect to their trade partners.  Not raising them here is like not leaving negative feedback which most have said they will not as they do not wish to have retaliatory negative feedback.

Notice I did not identify the two recent trade partners in my OP.  Both are very frequent traders on this site having well over 200 feedback each. I did give them the benefit of the doubt that maybe they normally do include the transaction # but in this case forgot.  Yes it does happen to all of us. But I also had noticed it happening more and more frequently so a reminder in whatever shape or form was necessary.  Unfortunately, not all read the Forums so for some, it will not be a corrected behaviour. I would like to think that when they get a trade in the mail that is identified by transaction #, the light would go on and they would take the same habit. And unless you have several similar-sized trades going on at the same time, no you would not understand the frustration of those of us who do.

As for the order of the cards, yes I too have put them out of order due to the thickness of some of the cards, in trying to keep the PWE as uniformally flat as possible. When I did do this, I actually sent a message to the member telling him why they were not in order.  No I do not expect people to do this as it may be going a bit far in the courtesy side of the house. But it is the way I was raised as well as being in the military for 35+ years where I was taught as a leader to ALWAYS put others' well-being first. It is one of the attributes of a true leader and probably one of the things that gains the most respect of the subordinates.

This is also probably why I respond to any trade proposals within a day or two even if it is to say that they are 3rd, 4th or 5th in line; why I will always respond to any messages I receive about a possible trade or question about the trade; why I pull all of the cards asked for in a trade before Accepting so that I can adjust the trade to reflect the real cards going out; why I will always identify and explain the changes in a trade that I counter with a message; why I will advise the other member of any issues with any cards he has asked for before Accepting a trade, or respond to an issue about a card in the trade that I had over-looked; why a trade once Accepted is in the mail within a day or two of my Accepting it (living rural means having to drive to a mail box or postal outlet); and why, some trades I receive in the mail sit for 2 or 3 days while I take care of pulling cards for new transaction proposals that have come in, putting those ahead in priority to sorting my newly acquired cards. Maybe all of this is why, despite my Forum posts about frustrations in trades, I have so many repeat trade partners. And no worries, the trades keep coming in with 3 more overnight and all mailed out this morning while the one PWE I received yesterday (thanks Joshua!) is still not entered in my collection.

Oh, one last point - yes I don't have much anxst in my life as I am retired with a good guaranteed pension till the day I die and all of my finances in excellent order. If this was not the case, I probably would not be here. But thanks for your concern.