General Forum

Hello every my name is Bob and my son is Big Dan. We been on here for years but only been trading for the last few months. 

   One thing I'd like to talk about is trading. We have made almost 80 trades and hope to make thousands more. Alot of trade offers and proposals we make are heavy on our side. That's not a bad thing. 99% of the offers we receive are heavy on the other side. 

      You know what is so awesome about this site? The ability to counter. We have added hundreds to our trade and want lists. So when we receive a trade offer we do everything we can to counter. And if there isn't anything on our want list that we feel is comparable to what your asking for then we use another awesome part of this site.

     The ability to search your trade list. We look for other cards that we are interested in that are not on our want list. That adds another element to trading and building everyone's PC collections that I think is fun. I've found cards in the 2000's that I didn't know existed which I thought is impossible. 

       There are some on here who we have sent trades to who have looked at and declined and some of those also came with a mean comment. Im sorry that some on here expect the offers to be perfect. They either don't have the time or passion to look through my trade list or other trade lists to find that next card for your collection that you didn't even know you wanted. That is a shame in my opinion. You should be willing to use the tools on here that are fun in its own right.

     As for the mean comments i get it. The social media accounts has made the whole world angry. I left them sites a long time ago. Between the politics and people being keyboard critics over everything you post or say makes it hard to find joy there. So i understand. 

      Some people say they decline because I didn't leave a message to counter. I didn't know I had to. I thought that was a given on here. After years of working I have nerve damage in both hands. So some days typing is almost impossible for me. I didn't think you needed it but here it is. If I send you a trade you have our permission to counter in fact we encourage to. 

   We hope to trade on here a long time and get our collection where we want it and also help all of you to get yours where you want it also. That's why we're all here

Appreciate your honesty and I too have felt similar thoughts with some on here.

Might I make a couple of suggestions though. Instead of making offers that are heavy on your side, try to make somewhat fair offers. I personally look at offers that come in and if they are too far apart on what is offered and what is asked for in return, I will Decline instead of Countering. An offer that is so far out of balance tells me dishonesty whether it is intended or not.

Another way to do it is to leave the offered side of the trade empty or with only one card in it, with a message to the other member to counter and aks for the cards he wishes in return. We all have our priorities in our wants so this often lets the other member search for those.

A message is nice but I am used to the silent offers so it does not bother me much. But I am more likely to work out a trade if the other member has left a message.

Just ideas to make the trading experience even more rewarding.

I don't make them that heavy. I guess I exaggerated some. I don't offer base and ask for inserts. They're more like trying to get close to fair but sometimes you cant but would hope theyd look at my trade list instead of just declining. The point is that no offer is carved in stone. If they were we wouldn't have a counter button.

I only go heavy on my side in a counter if I am getting stuff to possibly trade down the line. I will get trade offers with just a few on my side and a lot on the other side  balance wise. When I try to balance them out (if they don't have enough I need) I tend to weigh values different then if it is stuff I need. But that usually only happens in a counter and not a trade I propose. Other then that I tend not to worry about it.

I try not to be too sensitive when it comes to trading. Message, no message, heavy for one side, balanced, brand new trader, hundreds of trades, 1984 cards for 2023, era for era, I don't care. I know I can always counter. The cards I have for trade aren't doing anything but sitting here. I think of it as getting the cards to where they need to go to be appreciated. Of course I want a fair trade like everyone else, but this is a fun hobby to me. I understand and appreciate your take on trading, but apparently not everyone does.

Whether or not someone thinks a deal is fair or completely unfair, mean comments are not needed and completely uncalled for. I hope they are rare.

I have gotten some completely lopsided trade requests. One was 20 cards from me for 1 lone oddball Jim Rice card (I think it was Rice). Completely not worth it. However, the other person added a note and said that they wanted the 20 cards and to counter with what I thought  was fair for the cards they wanted. Had they not left that note, I would have simply declined (with no nasty comment). I have received others that did not have a message with the lopsided offer, and have simply declined, again, without saying anything about it being completely one-sided or anything. Figured there really was no need to say anything. (I may have simply wrote "No thanks.")

It happens. Block them and move on. I equate online message boards to driving in traffic. Sometimes you encounter some nice friendly courteous people...and sometimes you speed up to get past someone having a bad day.

I have gotten some way off offers and have declined them without any mean comments ( I hope they weren’t taken as mean). I understand that some people will make offers just to put out feelers looking for counters. 

What I found upsetting was when I received an offer for some higher end cards and noticed that the last prices added were from the person who sent the offer and were lower than what the market value was. I don’t use the site for pricing but when all the cards in the offer had price changes by the user had me scratching my head.

I'm still in my rookie season as far as trading goes. I've completed 41 trades and 2 more in the works. That being said, I've declined several trade offers because I felt they were really lopsided. That being said, Every trade offer declined has been done with a polite I think I'll at this time. Thanks for the offer. There's no reason to be mean or rude. The thing that I like about this hobby is not just the cards that I have and that I'm chasing, but the people and the relationships that I've built. Many of them I've never seen or talked to other than through messages or comments on blogs.