Youve bought many boosters... you probably have doubles of many cards... on the other hand, there are many cards you are missing and need to complete your sets or decks. you cant go on buying boosters hoping to pull all those cards because sooner or later youll be broke. The stock of singles in your local comics store is limited or too expensive... or there may not be a comics store in your area... not many of your friends collect magic, and those who do dont have the cards you need...

The best and most efficient way for you to get the specific cards you want would be through online trading. Here you have instant access to hundreds of Magic players who may have the cards you need and at the same time want something from you.

But you have never traded online before... so where do you start?

First off, you should know that as long as you take the nescessary precautions( i will get to them later on), online trading is safe. Most of the people are honest. there are tens or even hundreds of successful online trades going on every day. You can trade online with confidence

Finding the trades: There are 2 main ways to find the cards you need. You can post your Haves/Wants list- the "Haves" being the cards you are willing to trade (maybe because you have doubles of, or just dont need it), and the "Wants" consisting of the cards you are interested in. Make sure your list looks neat- Organize the cards by color, Alphabetical order, Sets, whatever you see fit- as long as its readable. Non-organized lists will most likely repel traders who will just move on to another list. Anyway people will soon be posting offers at your list.
The second way is to browse through other traders' lists. You can just go through the lists one by one if you want, but a more efficient may be to use the Haves/Wants search insert the cards you need and the cards you have for trade and youll get all the lists that match. when you find those lists post your offer for example "How about my Rishadan Port for your Spiritmonger?"
In any case make sure the trade you are doing is fair. do you know the real value of your cards? Take a look at MOTL's Price Guide or at Magazines such as Scrye or Inquest to make sure the cards you are getting are of around equal value to the cards you are giving. Feel free to ask for advice at MOTL's Trade& Value questions forum, which is intended specifically for that purpose.

Communicating: Once you've received an offer you like (or someone else has agreed to an offer you posted), the next step would be for you to exchange emails regarding shipping terms including order of sending and addresses. Make sure you clear certain things up before the trade. Always ask the condition of the cards. In any case, its important to save all the emails between you for future reference

Sending order: Sending order is mostly decided by references. A "Reference" is someone who has traded with you and is willing to vouch that the trade was successful. The Logic behind this is simple: the more references a person has (meaning the more people he has traded with) the more reliable that person should be. Thus most cases a person with more references than you will ask you to send 1st. if you have a similar amount of references most likely you will send same time.
It is highly recommended that your 1st trades be done with people who have high amounts of references (at least 30). Thats right, you may be forced to send 1st, but slowly you will build up your reputation, and soon you will have enough references for sending the same time, or even having others send 1st to you.
Always check a person's references before trading. I already wrote an Article on references, so i wont discuss it further, but i recommend you go over that article so that you understand more about the reference system

Important: One last step before sending the cards would be to make sure the person you are trading with is not on the bad traders list. MOTL runs an extensive list of people who have been investigated and proven to be bad traders. use the Search Function to search the Bad traders forum and the Confirmed bad traders forum. the best keywords to use would be someone's address, for example name of street, since that data rarely changes. If you find out the person you are dealing with has been confirmed as a ripper, you should break off the trade and if he is a MOTL user you should also report him to a moderator so that he can be banned again before ripping off more people.

Sending the Cards: Ok youve agreed on a trade, checked references, and exchanged addresses. The next step would be to mail the cards.
You should mail the cards properly protected. if the cards get bent or damaged in the mail, the trade isnt worth anything. The minimum protection is a Top-Loader which is a hard plastic case primarily used to protect cards. You can get those at any comics store, and they dont cost much. If you are dealing with more expensive cards, a padded (or "bubble") envelope would also be highly recommended.
Always have your name and return address on the envelope. It is also recommended you add a note including the details of your trade. The other person may be involved in several trades and its important that when he receives your card he know to which trade it belongs too. A nice addition would be to add a "Thanks for the trade" to the note, and "Looking forward to trade with you in the future". it makes the trading experience more pleasant.
Note that if for some reason you cannot send on time you should keep your trading partner updated.

Completing the trade: Once the other party has received your cards, he will email you telling you that he got your cards safely and that he is mailing his part of the deal. When you receive his cards, let him know. Ask him for permission to exchange references. if the trade was successful he'll most likely agree. Log on to the Reference Checker and submit his email address.

Congratulations, you have just completed your 1st successful online trade

Problems? What happens if you dont receive the cards he owes you?

First off, its important to be patient. Mail sometimes works at the speed of light and on other times it crawls like a snail. Give it enough time- At least a week for domestic trades, and 2 weeks for International. Email your trading partner to find out whether he received your cards. Sometimes a bad trade can be a result of a simple misunderstanding, one which could have easily been worked out through emails.

Still havent received your cards, or no reply? if you feel you have been ripped, you should now post him in the bad traders forum. A moderator will look into your case, and if its found justified, the necessary steps will be taken so that he does not rip more people off (usually putting him on the confirmed bad trader list and banning him permamently from MOTL) Also go to the post office and inquire about filing mail fraud charges (Some traders dont bother to do that with small trades, but this is up to you). Let him know what steps you are taking. Sometimes the threat of filing mail fraud charges alone would be enough for him to send you your cards back.

Like i said in the begining of the article, Online trading is considered safe and the majority of the trades end up successfully, so as long as you follow the above guidelines, you can go ahead and trade with confidence

Good luck and Safe Trading

Author does not accept responsibility for any cards, monetary funds, or other possessions lost in trade, or any other negative outcomes as a result of using this information

In addition to your "fair trade" section, i think it's always good to post the trade in Trade & Value Questions forum. So many veteran MOTLers help you there, that you can't do bad. Price Guide can be misleading sometimes (i don't mean that the guide would suck, what i mean is that it's not sensible to trade your Morphling to a couple of Nematas and some other decent-but-not-good rares) .

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Hey mama, look, i'm in the Internet! *waves*

-DA king

quote:

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Originally posted by kingkyle3:
I'm new to trading but what envelopes do people perfer?

-DA king

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Like i said in the article, Padded (or "Bubble") envelopes are recommended since they give cards the best protection from being damaged in the mail

-Jason