General Forum

Thanks to all who have traded with me. This is such a great community of people I feel blessed to share in it with all of you.  It’s amazing the transformation my collection has gone through in the past year. So many unwanted cards have been transformed into great treasures, even the commons.  Cheers to 100s more …

After 100+ trades over the past year I have these lessons learned to share:

• If you use an old envelope, like those that use to come included with bills, the glue might not stick as originally designed.  On one occasion a fellow trader received an empty envelope and a postal employee added to his collection of Kirby Puckett. Tape up those old envelopes or toss them and use new. 
• When packaging secure the contents within the protection. On one occasion the contents shifted and exposed some corners out of the intended protection. Trader received some dinged corners. 
• There are lots of O-Pee-Chee cards in Canada, who would have known, it only takes a slightly different address and an extra or different stamp.
• My USPS budget like’s uniformly thin and flexible envelopes.
• Verify and re-verify before sending.  Multiple times I was able to identify errors from inputting into my for sale/trade (FS/T) list. Card condition, Glossy vs not glossy, Topps vs O-Pee-Chee, dots vs no dots and all those wonderful holograms. 
• Even a guess on condition in FS/T lists seems to help potential traders make quality offers. 
• Populate Wantlist at the same time as FS/T list. I was receiving multiple offers day one - trade matching works best when both sides of the trade are filled with options. 
• Communication is key. Never had a negative response to letting others know life has got crazy. 

Happy Collecting

Great tips. I just started trading recently on TCDB and agree that it is a great feature. I'll add a couple tips:

• Make sure you add sufficient postage to PWEs. I've had a couple trades where I've had to pay 30 to 50 cents to cover non-machinable / extra ounce charges. 
• Use painters tape to make it easy for your trade partner to unpackage the contents upon arrival. It removes much more easily than even masking tape. (Most traders are doing this already, which is great.)
• Please add a short reason if declining an offer so the other person knows how to improve their trade offers in the future. 

Wantlist is a balancing act.  When I had a longer list, I would frequenly get offered the same low-value cards that I didn't really care about.  

Great tips in this thread for new traders. The one about the painters tape was a lesson I learned with the help of more experienced traders.

Also, the one about adding condition, especially for older cards, is an especially good one. I understand we are all guessing, but it's good to know immediately what we're talking about. If there are more questions, traders here seem to be more than willing to trade pictures.

Over the years I have been trading/selling:  (most of these are the same as above)

Communication is key.   in offers, messages  Yes even when you decline an offer  

secure the contents,  use painters tape  Communication by putting the transaction ID in the package.

Cost of postage has gone up and be awear of cost to other countries before offers are made or accepted.  

Not all Want and FS/FT list are 100% correct.  (Mine inculded)   Verify before making or accepting offers

Be prepared for counter offers and to make counter offers

Read the profiles of members to learn about their ways of doing things.  (even their postings)

Lot of listings are from non-active members.  Check before making offers or sending messages

Do not take things personally.  Declines, bad offers, poor communication

There are always going to be members that:      I have no problem with them as each of us do things differently.

Willing to throw in bonus cards or giving extra good deals.  Willing to go out of their way to help you.

Do not reply to messages or offers

Only selling or trade for like cards (years brand Autos etc or just newer/older cards)

Only doing larger trades no 1 or 2 card trades, some because of the shipping cost others because it is not worth they time.  Maybe other reasons also.

Their value of the cards are not what you think they should be.  Their cards are gold and yours are cardboard.

Members that are slow.  Check out their profiles as some will tell you that.

Then there are some members that I do not want to trade with.  Only if really needed to.  No block list for me.  Again each to it's own.

Buy a cheap postal or kitchen scale to measure the ounces! Thats a tip I can add.

I always put .88 cents for the PWEs 1 oz. for the non-machinable and have the clerk at the local post office hand cancel the stamps to avoid damages.