Buy/Sell/Trade Forum

When putting together a trade proposal, what is typical practice to value the trade?  Right now the only option I see is to simply look up each card individually, note the value listed then add up and compare values.

Right now that is the only way if you believe the prices here.  There are many posts about prices.  Even talk about have the ability to see prices when you make an offer.   There may be a new feature request even for it.  

There are a lot of cards that do not reflect the value today.  Some way to low and others way to high but they sold at those prices at one time.  Also a lot of cards without prices.

I pay more attention to the red and green numbers. wants vs. available. For example the 1990 OPC wax box bottom panel set of 4 are on 165 member want lists, 11 in member collections, and 3 members have them fs/ft. These numbers give a better indication of scarcity than prices on TCDB. Prices are only as good as the data supplied which is not equal for all cards on the site. The numbers in collections on TCDB are a much better indicator of supply vs. demand.

This is tricky to give a good answer to. If this is a concern for you I would suggest you first send the potential trade partner a message asking if they are interested in what you are thinking of proposing. Using the values here isn't a terrible guideline but if you are offering 20 commons for one better card some members might not be interested. If you are offering 20 commons from present for 20 commons from 1980 some members might not be interested. Some members like to only do small PWE trades while others only like to do large bulk trades.

My summary statement is that each owner has different ideas on what they might want depending on what you are trading so a message might give you a quick idea on what to offer.

Thank you …. I guess value is a relative thing anyway, especially if you’re simply trying to complete a set.

This is my order

1. card value on the site
2. Ebay current lowest price listing
3. Ebay sold average price
4. Mavin average (exact card)
5. Mavin average (set the card is from)

If the card is still not able to be priced, I consider it a "no price" and will only trade it for another "no price" card or if I don't really care about it.

Someone has a card you need and you have 10 doubles that are collecting dust. What is more valuable? From my perspective I would give up a bunch of cards I have doubles of for that one card I don't have. Database pricing and eBay pricing mean nothing when a card collects dust.

To further my perspective. I just received a trade offer of 4 cards each way. I would get 4 cards currently available from 100-200 members on TCDB and on very few wanted lists. I would be getting rid of 4 cards available from Only 2 members (2 of them, mine is the only one) on TCDB. I do not even have to look at a price guide anywhere to see this is a very unbalanced trade. I am happy to keep 3 1981 gray back OPC cards rather trade for 3 JUNK wax commons I can get anywhere.

Excellent food for thought.  I appreciate the replies.

Sometimes people just consider era for era without the intent to offend.

I think getting into the scarity of a card on a trading card site is a bit irrelevent when you talk about  trading with or for 1980's cards form anywhere, I started collecting in 1979, so I saw plenty of all of those cards at shops and stores even back then. my dad paid $10 for an entire 1978 OPC set.  Using this logic presented in this topic i guess I need to offer my 1952 Red back Allie Reynolds(3 for trade) for a 1981 OPC Dave Concepcion, but I think we would all agree that's probably not a good trade for me, but I will give it a shot, maybe that will get me the last few 81 OPCs I need for my set.

Or perhaps another trade floated, 1953 High Numbers for a Heritage Josh Donaldson card(1 for trade).

Sometimes trades just involve an offer that looks to help one person complete their set in exchange for helping another person get cards they want, i have accumulated a lot of cards, so I am glad to move some for some stuff I am looking for.  I have enjoyed this community a lot over the last year, getting almost 500 trades done, but I do find some trading logic a bit weird, but to each their own I guess, that's what the trade blocking list is for.