I trade cards to build baseball, hockey and some miscellaneous sports / non-sport sets. I also PC Felipe Alou, Derek Aucoin, Steve Begin, Jennifer Botterill, Kevin Dineen, Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, Bob Kudelski, Manon Rheaume, Gabriela Sabatini and P.J. Stock as well. I do not buy cards. I also have a sweet spot for oddball / food issue / regional sets. New cards are regularly added to my FT/S list too.
I don't collect micro-variations (dots, stars, copyright marks, holograms, printing plate codes...), they're not fun to search and I dislike the incessant frequency with which new ones are added. Seriously, what's the point if you gotta need to use a magnifier glass to check out if there's a dot on the back of a 1991 Fleer? However, I do all my best to check all my cards and to keep my lists up to date, but please ask me first, if micro-variations matter to you. The site really needs some way of opting out of micro-variations (just a default / any var. / unverified option for each card).
I am fine with shipping cards in single or multiple PWEs, if the cards are properly packaged. All the cards I list here are NRMT or EX unless specified and I expect the same of you. Also, I don't mind large or small transactions, but I currently prefer trades with 10 to 20 cards going each way or at least that the cards carry more value than the postage. I am working 12 hour shifts, but I always try to ship the same or the next business day. Just remember that Canada Post doesn't pick up or deliver on Saturday and Sunday.
International shipping is very easy and here are some tips to save on shipping costs to Canada: use PWEs (Plain White Envelopes) and avoid bubble envelopes, plastic boxes and big stacks of cards. Ship as flat as you can (cut 9 pocket pages in 3 rows and insert 4-5 cards in each pocket). The more it looks like a greeting card or documents mailed in a regular letter instead of a package, the more it tends to be cheaper to ship.
Lastly, no cross-border shipping by Fedex or UPS: they charge $40.00+ custom brokerage on each and every package they handle no matter if it is duty free or not.
A.S.
