Well, many traders would feel it equally unfair to have to simul-send to someone with drastically fewer refs when they've spent a lot of time building up their reputation.

It's no different than being in a company where someone puts in thousands of hours and finishes hundreds of projects and has a higher salary than someone who's been working as long but only put in hundreds of hours and finished dozens of projects...

The choice to walk away is aways there, but if someone decides to enforce the ref rule, that is their right. Since the ref rule exists, expect to always have to send first if their refs are higher. That way you're entering the trade knowing it will likely happen and are prepared, and therefore won't have to 'fight the battle' at all;)

Well - I have yet to do any trading of VS (have traded a bit for other games, though), and one thing I have to add:

Be responsive! Provide feedback. Let the person you're trading with know what's going on. Tell 'em you've sent the cards. Let 'em know when you get their cards

I've seen this rule of thumb ignored more than you'd imagine.

I think this is just basic courtesy.

-S

Farchyld- If you feel this way why not just Escrow? If you would be having to send first in the first place it isn't gonna take you any longer to get your cards that it would if you escrowed. If they will not escrow then something is wrong because it is the safest route possible. I was a middleman(escrow) on another site and there were several times that one party didn't send in a huge deal. The person who sent was upset they never sent but atleast they got their cards back.


As for outside refs. GAB is a great system because it doesn't focus on one site for trading it includes every site. Once you have traded with someone that is the only ref you can get from them. All the emails are listed from trades so you can email anyone on the list to check up on the trader. I am not saying this should be the system used but maybe something to look at along with the Vsrealms refs. Just my opinion on that. I do like the ref system here because you can check out each list easily.

Would anyone else love to see people getting warning points for posting in the vein of "your Beatdown for my Concrete Jungle?"

Posts like this have made me all but give up trading online. I do pretty much all my business on ebay now, mostly buying cards that are too much of a hassle to trade for.

Well even if i did by mistake miss this point here it is:

LOST CARDS

This is a huge problem in the community or well the trading community which I have been victim various of times ( which sucks BTW).Some ppl dont tend to understand that sometimes cards get lost its not going to happen 4 to 5 times in a week or 10 out of 15 times cause then u would know the person is ripping u.Some ppl tend to back otu of trades in this fashion so he/she wont get a bad traders thread, Well my point is that one Confirmation and priority are the best ways to send cause they wil get there and highly wont get lost and two traders have patients ur not going to die if u dont get ur cards in 3 days mail takes along time.Well to end my horribly written post if u want ur cards to be 100% secured and u knwo there getting there send a safe way.

My srry $10.00 :p (USD :p)

DD

kool article Kerg, I agree with everything you say. Personaly, I tend to trade mostly in RL. Various reasons, 1: I lost two foil Blind Sideds...which I probably shouldn't of traded, 2: I'm a really, really slow trader....I have low mailing supplies, lol. and finaly: I'm too impatient to get my refs up and wait that long. If i really need something for a deck, I'll trade, but usually by them time it gets to me (about two weeks to a month, i'm really slow) I loose intrest, I go through with the trade but I end up with junk rares...personal downfall. I try to work up and think more long term, but RL trading just feels more comftreable to me. And you have to watch out who you trade with there too, many times a good deal is usually because your getting stolen goods...and that is horrible no matter who you are.

Escrow is an excellent idea. I was just always taught to leave out the "middle man". Perhaps it's time for a change of thought.
-Farchyld

i like the article and all the feed back that others have offered on it. As to paul's statement i have problems sending internationaly because it is very difficult to get delivery confirmation on the package. I always send delivery confirmation. It stops the whole "i did not recieve your cards" problem.
just my 2cp
lbx!

Nice article. Two things I would have liked to seen mentioned, though...

1) How does one trade for "bad" cards? I have been looking for a Mammoth forever. But no one will trade me one because his value is so low, no one wants anything from me that will make it a fair deal.

2) Comprehensive trade lists. Wow. Some of the trade lists I see on this site make me go cross-eyed. I've probably missed dozens of potential deals because I don't feel like translating the gobbledy-gook some people post. (I am the only one who uses the [card] system?) And some people's lists make me wonder if their Shift key is broken.

Lex: Well, I'm always looking for comon and uncommon foils - so when someone wants a rare of lesser value, that's what I'd ask for. Or a couple of uncommons to shore up my stock...

There's always a deal to be made, but that doesn't mean that everyone will have a deal for you;)