General Forum

Just curious how the trading community feels about not receiving their side of a  trade,
for whatever reason? Not a bunch of Trout rookies in the trade, just a base card trade.
Lost in the mail, damaged and arriving in PO plastic bag, PWE arrives with nothing in it, 
PWE arrives and all cards are damaged, whatever the case.  Is there an expectation of 
replacement cards, or having your cards returned, or do you just shrug it off and eat the loss.  

I did search the forums and didn't really find anything about what is expected, or should be
offered.  Thanks for the read.

Some opinions were recently discussed here:

https://www.tcdb.com/Forum.cfm/Page/G/ID/0/?MODE=VIEW&ThreadID=43702&PageIndex=3

First, let me preference this by saying I think I have only done 1 trade on here ever. So maybe I shouldn't have an opinion, but I do so take it as you will. I would only be truly upset if I sent my end of the trade and my partner never actually sent their end of the trade. If that were to happen, I would report them on the site and never trade with them again. I also wouldn't expect them to send me back my cards because let's face it if they couldn't be bothered to send their cards, why would they return mine. As for cards that are damaged / lost in the mail, I wouldn't be upset because those things happen.  Even if the packaging was inadequate or the letter was misaddressed, I wouldn't be upset.  I would just let the sender know how the package came and call it good to go.  I would accept replacements if offered, but I wouldn't demand them as they aren't really what I wanted so are they truly a replacement? As for the cards sent, I am either trading duplicate cards or ones I truly don't want (which would likely never happen as I love all my cards even those Giants / Eagles / Commandeers cards) so I would never ask for them back. That is just me though and I know not everyone will think like that so there isn't truly a one size fits all answer and since all trades on here are based on the honor system, I would not expect the Admin to step in and set a rule saying replacements must be sent if cards are damaged or lost.  

This recently happened to me, the envelope was open and the cardboard was there but no cards.  I DO NOT have an expectation that my partner replace them.  I fully trust the cards were enclosed and I really think the cards just fell out in transit.  My trade partner responded almost immediately after I let him know what happened, and offered to replace them with an equivalent batch of cards, which is truly appreciated.  That being said, if my side doesn’t show up I offer to replace them as best I can.  I do feel that stuff happens from time to time and also that no one is obligated to make up for the 3rd party involved.  I do feel that at least offering some recompense goes a long way in trading practice “good will”  Bobby, I know one of our trades had a little mishap along the way, and you handled it perfectly-offered me advice on how to try to avoid that situation in the future.  You’re a seasoned trader and a gentleman, I’m sure you’ll navigate whatever issues you encounter impeccably. 
 

I think when there is a lack of communication from one side it can be more frustrating than the awry trade itself.

Depending on the trade, depending on the fellow trader. I will just shrug it off. I dont let things get to me too much other than the person never shipped his end or just got scammed. That ticks me off.  PWE the receiver of the PWE was willing to take the chance the cards show up damaged or not so i dont usually fault the shipper on PWE. Looking at the package usually states how the post office(s) handle your package you are getting. If it is all beaten up i can’t honestly say its the shippers fault. But if the package shows up clean and crisp and the cards are damaged i have the reason to believe the shipper knew and just didnt care.  I try not to be narrow minded on such things.  I have thrown away about 100 cards since i traded here and not at fault of the shipper just by looking at the envelope.  I just went back in and added the cards back to my wants and deleted the cards in my collection 

I know if can happen.  When cards I sent get lost or damaged, I do my best to make it right.  I won't typically have extra copies of the same cards, but will try to find something else from the other member's wantlist.

If I'm on the receiving end, I probably just shrug it off.  Never very rare or high value stuff involved.

I've been lucky and have only had one trade go belly up on me and I reached out multiple times to the trader offering to send him an equal number of other cards from his Want List that I had and was even planning to through in a few extras for his time and trouble.  He was a good sport about it and told me not to worry about it.  Still, that's just how I roll.  I'm hoping one day those cards will still arrive for him.  they were only going one county over.  

To date, nothing I have sent has come up MIA, knock on wood. Several have taken way longer than they should have to get to their destination and a couple were returned to me as undeliverable, but I simply confirmed with the trader that address was correct and sent them back out again with no problems.  With that said, I recently had one delivered to the wrong mailbox and luckily a neighbor realized it and delivered it to the person I was trading with.  I've had very few instances of cards damaged during transit, but I moved on as the person who sent them used one of the standard methods that many of us use to protect the cards.  It wasn't on the trader for the way the PO handled the envelope, so I didn't reach out.  I can relate to getting an item from the PO with the envelope inside or a bag and the sorry, we care (but we don't care and we are washing our hands with it by sending you the damaged envelope in a plastic bag) sticker on the front.  Luckily the ones I received were eBay transactions and I simply followed up with them as eBay gives purchasers that option.    

The biggest issue I am seeing is people using top loaders and just tossing the top loader in a PWE.  This makes the envelope rigid, and it snags in the postal machines.  Just about every time someone sends me a card in a top loader in this fashion the envelope is destroyed. 

I do think its owed to your trader to advise that you didn't receive the items or how you received them. They may need to adjust how they are mailing items out and, in some cases, they may do what they can to make it right.  If they don't then just move on unless you feel that this was intentional or for lack of properly protecting the cards they sent you. 

I do think its owed to your trader to advise that you didn't receive the items or how you received them. They may need to adjust how they are mailing items out and, in some cases, they may do what they can to make it right.  If they don't then just move on unless you feel that this was intentional or for lack of properly protecting the cards they sent you. 

I think this is an important point. I have been guilty early on in causing damage to a card; the individual advised me and I adjusted how I packaged the cards (and hopefully since made up for my error in other trades with the same individual). I also make the effort to advise when wrong cards are sent in error (and would like others to let me know if I send the wrong cards - it has happened a couple of times). Sometimes it is simply the wrong card from a set; other times it is that they sent me the parallel or VAR card of that particular card. I do so for a couple of reasons. One is so that they can adjust their trade list and keep it accurate, or that they check other cards they have listed in that set to make sure they don't have the parallel version for trade and not the base. The other is often to see if they will take the time to respond; I am not looking for them to send me the correct 5 cent card when postage will be 25 times that but to see if they actually care about their end of the trade. Some still do; others thank me for letting them know; and some don't acknowledge it so I just move on till the next time I get a trade proposal from them.

Only once did I not send a message about the errors or condition of cards in a trade as they were so numerous, I gave up on recording them and simply added the individual to my No Trade list. With how poor the cards were and the amount of errors he made, he obviously did not care much about the other end of a trade.