Site Forum

Greetings! I've been on for a few months. I've had some great transactions. Thanks for the support.

Some experiences have me wondering what others on the site do in some situations. This is mostly a vintage card issue I think because it has to do with conditions.

1) Do you care about listed conditions? I know this is a subjective topic, but standards exist. I had a transaction in which I had a card listed as EX. I'm 100% sure it's EX, probably on the higher end of EX as well. I went through the process of taking a picture and sending it. The response was the person wanted a better than EX card. I didn't understand why they asked for pictures in the first place unless they were trying to see whether I misgraded or something, or they just didn't care. Which made me wonder if people card about listed conditions at all. This person had no conditions on any cards.

2) What do you do when people don't have conditions listed? Do you ask for pictures first? I feel bad making an offer I have to pull back significantly if cards are low grade, or making a low-ball initial offer. Should I not worry about that? I started to assume VG when trying to guess what to offer initially because so few people have conditions listed. That led to a situation in which I offered lower-grade cards to someone who wanted only higher-grade cards (though that wasn't in their profile), and another situation where I received a transaction with very low-grade cards.

3) I think the bigger picture is: How do you make a good offer? I don't seem to be doing well at this. Do you just consider that you're going to have to take a loss sometimes but it will balance out? Do you offer big, get pictures, then renegotiate a lot? I've taken time trying to build what I thought were good or fair offers, but most of my successes here have been accepting offers I received. 

Thanks!

You sound like a descriptive and communicative person, so I would say you’re way ahead of the game. These two attributes will serve you well. Unfortunately not everyone trading here is skilled when it comes to these traits. Though many are great, don’t get me wrong! It kind of just sounds like you’ve dealt with some kinda crappy trade partners to be honest.

Tips, though… yes, dealing with vintage cards and the condition conundrum definitely makes trades more difficult. No question about it. Condition labels are helpful, but not an end-all be-all. I would say embrace the idea of exchanging pictures. They’re worth 1,000 words, right? I don’t think it’s necessarily about misgrading always, sometimes people just have different things that they try to avoid. Whether it’s off-center, corners, wrinkles, surface issues. There’s been threads here where people have discussed that there are particular things that they avoid and others in the thread picked completely different things, so it could be something like that.

On conditions, you hit the nail on the head with two words: standards and subjective.

I personally rely on scans to allow my potential trade partner to decide on whether cards are acceptable because my grading is truly inconsistent despite the standards. Sometimes I have to still write out a description if scans don't show the questionable condition.

But I am amazed as what others grade as many times it's much harsher than I believe it should be, but that translates to me being more reluctant to give a grade so if it's not already done I usually don't bother, and stick to scans.

I think you're going about trades as one should - trying to meet others' standards. I will suggest perusing their profile for hints. I just retracted a trade that I set up after reading the member's profile and realizing the condition I was offering - which actually matched what I was getting in return - didn't abide by his description. So his "graded" conditions, the letters used, didn't match my interpretation so I just deleted the offer before sending it. (I actually starting writing about this topic on my blog earlier this week - it should be out in a couple of weeks.)

1)   No.  I'm not big into condition of the cards.  As others have pointed out there are members that are really into it.  There are times that your EX will not be their EX.    It happens to all of us. 

2)    I do not put conditions on my cards as stated my EX may not be your EX.   I have no cell phone or scanner so I have no way of sending pictures except by e-mail and from a camera and it takes poor pictures of cards.

3)  A good offer is when both members are happy no matter what the different is, (value or number of cards or condition of cards.)   I have looked at it two ways when sending and getting offers;   If I was the other guy:  Would I send an offer like what I'm getting, and would I accept an offer like the offer I send.   You can always counter offer.     As far as taking a loss you are talking about Value and again like Condition it is a very subjective topic. 

The big picture here is:    There are some many members that trade in some many different ways the best you can do is commutate the best you can.   Add any information to your profile that may help others and read other's profiles.

As for me I send messages before any offers have been send.  Why:  normally they have one or two cards for me and I have a lot for them.    I let them pick which cards they prefer.  Only issue doing that is:  You may not get a reply.  With offers they can decline with no replies or just not do anything with them.

There is no right or wrong way to go about it.

As for me I send messages before any offers have been send.

This is a great idea! Thanks for your reply. 

As others have stated, condition "codes"; EX, VG, VGEX; are very subjective. Scans and photos don't always capture all flaws. I think the best way to show your trade partner card conditions is video. I make a video of the cards to show their condition. The trade partner can then tell me which cards are unacceptable.

https://youtu.be/HV3d9g2xPhc?si=6M6J7Fh9488oPSXP