Hello everyone.
So, a long time ago I'd lost my collection and after about a 10 year break I'm back to playing again. There are a number of cards going back to revised that I'd like to get my hands on again just for casual EDH play and maybe someday Modern or even Legacy. But until then I've got to figure out how to get Fetch lands, Dual lands, or insert $40 card here.

The main question I find myself asking is: Should I even try to trade for these or should I just pay cash for the older cards that I want?

I'd sent a number of emails to people who've had these cards listed on their trade page but I suspect that due to a combination of my trade page and that I've never traded here before I've been more than ignored. Is there a specific flavor of etiquette that I need to consider so that the people I'm contacting know that I'm seriously interested in the cards that they have?

Hi there,

especially old cards won't loose that much of value.
So buying these is kinda investmentsafe. Just buy them if you need them ;)

A few of my thoughts:

Many people will not trade legacy lands unless they are getting other legacy lands or high dollar staples in return which makes fetch lands and original dual lands hard to trade into.

Most people are ok with lower feedback as long as you're willing to send your cards first.

Your trade list and inventory are also both very short lists from what I can see. So you're going to have to find someone with specific wants in order to make a deal. Try posting in the EDH/Commander groups, or using the Trading Opportunities section with specific cards.

Sometimes if you really want to move specific cards and you're ok with a minor loss you can find a store with a good buy list and trade them in to the store. I just sent some of my modern and legacy stuff in to a store for credit that I'm going to use to get a Time Vault. When you think of it as selling, and factor in the the options out there for selling + the cuts that a venue like e-Bay or TCG player takes + PayPal fees, the trade value in some stores actually starts to look much more fair.

Trading into high-ticket items is really hard, but buying them is easy. If you have the cash and can find someone willing to sell at competitive rates (TCG low), that's probably a lot easier than looking for someone who wants to trade duals into Standard cards.

See if you can convince your store to start running proxy Legacy tournaments to drum up interest; that will give you the chance to pick a deck and figure out exactly what lands you need, rather than trying to get the full 40.