Re: Request for Comment: Trading restrictions&User levels to promote trust

TheWorldHatesPaul wrote:

Some folks want restrictions, other just want warnings. I like the idea of both, reduce the restrictions as stated in your original post, but still add some (such as users under some threshold must send first, users under a certain threshold can only trade below a certain value, etc). Also include the warnings and verified users.

How low should I reduce the restrictions though? I felt 250$ traded at the same time is plenty, but it seems people do not agree...

Finally, I am all for 2-step authentication on this site!

Yep, on my list of things to look into.

Re: Request for Comment: Trading restrictions&User levels to promote trust

sebi wrote:
TheWorldHatesPaul wrote:

Some folks want restrictions, other just want warnings. I like the idea of both, reduce the restrictions as stated in your original post, but still add some (such as users under some threshold must send first, users under a certain threshold can only trade below a certain value, etc). Also include the warnings and verified users.

How low should I reduce the restrictions though? I felt 250$ traded at the same time is plenty, but it seems people do not agree...

What if the following was used:

New traders have a maximum value cap of $400 (i.e playset of tarns or lotv, or a couple gaea's cradles), and may have no more than 3 trades open?
I think this would allow enough room to trade high value cards for new users, and limit the downside of doing multiple small trades to just build up rep too quickly. If we are talking about building up to a range of 20-30 rep, then it would take a decent amount of time to actually get there.

Re: Request for Comment: Trading restrictions&User levels to promote trust

kathirene89 wrote:

Would it also limit people doing many low value trades at once ? Like 10 or so 2-15 dollar trades ?

Well, the thing is, if you only do low value trades, and you have less than 250$ in many months, do you really want to at once start doing 250$ worth of trades at the same time suddenly?

The restriction would just be for all the trades that you have open at the same time where the other person did not yet receive the cards. So for the cards you promised and are "in transit".

Re: Request for Comment: Trading restrictions&User levels to promote trust

I mean it would not prevent you from trading, a new user would simply need to wait for his cards to get to destination before opening new trades for other cards. For national trades this would be 2-3 workdays usually, no?

Re: Request for Comment: Trading restrictions&User levels to promote trust

sebi wrote:
rfioren wrote:

I DEFINITELY think that once a trader has an OPEN issue/complaint to resolve, that they should not be able to initiate new trades,

I am generally suspending users as soon as I see problems occur, and they become unresponsive...

It is hard to draw the line of when you want someone blocked. If just opening a dispute blocks someone, users will use that in annoying ways. If it would block both the disputer and the disputee, people would not open them because they would be blocked, and they will open a support ticket instead...

I agree with the idea of course, I was just not sure how to best put it in practice.

I think if someone is abusing this, that they should be suspended or banned. I see this as a pretty serious "red button" (like the button on trains for example). Pushing this stops the train (stops trades / summons an admin). If what they're complaining about seems frivolous, they should get a warning/suspension. All I can say is that as a trader making a potentially large trade, knowing that someone has an open complaint against them for fake cards or not shipping would make a big difference to me. As it is, I actually snoop around and look at past trades and open trades with my trade partners if the value is more than $50, but that's a time consuming, onerous, incomplete, and frankly a little creepy thing to do.

Alongside verification, I think the best way to prevent scamming is to leverage and surface the traders'/victims' experience as soon as they suspect something is wrong, to slow down the scam and prevent the next victim.

Re: Request for Comment: Trading restrictions&User levels to promote trust

Amurphcs wrote:

New traders have a maximum value cap of $400 (i.e playset of tarns or lotv, or a couple gaea's cradles), and may have no more than 3 trades open?

The idea that Deckbox must support a new user to trade high value cards in their first trades is ridiculous.

Re: Request for Comment: Trading restrictions&User levels to promote trust

kathirene89 wrote:
Would it also limit people doing many low value trades at once ? Like 10 or so 2-15 dollar trades ?

Sebi wrote:
Well, the thing is, if you only do low value trades, and you have less than 250$ in many months, do you really want to at once start doing 250$ worth of trades at the same time suddenly?
The restriction would just be for all the trades that you have open at the same time where the other person did not yet receive the cards. So for the cards you promised and are "in transit

Me -
OK so t wouldn't really be a limit on how many trades if there all small then ?


sebi wrote:

I mean it would not prevent you from trading, a new user would simply need to wait for his cards to get to destination before opening new trades for other cards. For national trades this would be 2-3 workdays usually, no?


Majority of my trades take 4-5 days both ways unless I trade within my state or bordering states

Re: Request for Comment: Trading restrictions&User levels to promote trust

d72B wrote:
Amurphcs wrote:

New traders have a maximum value cap of $400 (i.e playset of tarns or lotv, or a couple gaea's cradles), and may have no more than 3 trades open?

The idea that Deckbox must support a new user to trade high value cards in their first trades is ridiculous.

Its not a must support is a willingness to support. The site already does this by not having a cap if you actually think about it. Is that ridiculous too?

Re: Request for Comment: Trading restrictions&User levels to promote trust

Amurphcs wrote:
d72B wrote:
Amurphcs wrote:

New traders have a maximum value cap of $400 (i.e playset of tarns or lotv, or a couple gaea's cradles), and may have no more than 3 trades open?

The idea that Deckbox must support a new user to trade high value cards in their first trades is ridiculous.

Its not a must support is a willingness to support. The site already does this by not having a cap if you actually think about it. Is that ridiculous too?

If restrictions are implemented and they're as high as suggestions like this then they're useless. Currently there's a risk of abuse. That's why we're having this conversation.

Bottom line: if a user doesn't want to be "verified" then their trades should be restricted for everyone's safety. The restrictions shouldn't be based on what a user thinks they should be able to do; restrictions should be data driven. Only Sebi has the data and so he should determine what is reasonable for a new user (not to discount this great discussion).

P.S. Warnings will simply be ignored..

Re: Request for Comment: Trading restrictions&User levels to promote trust

d72B wrote:
Amurphcs wrote:
d72B wrote:

The idea that Deckbox must support a new user to trade high value cards in their first trades is ridiculous.

Its not a must support is a willingness to support. The site already does this by not having a cap if you actually think about it. Is that ridiculous too?

If restrictions are implemented and they're as high as suggestions like this then they're useless. Currently there's a risk of abuse. That's why we're having this conversation.

Bottom line: if a user doesn't want to be "verified" then their trades should be restricted for everyone's safety. The restrictions shouldn't be based on what a user thinks they should be able to do; restrictions should be data driven. Only Sebi has the data and so he should determine what is reasonable for a new user (not to discount this great discussion).

P.S. Warnings will simply be ignored..

I just feel that the initial quote of the limit of $100 was too low to be honest.
I also feel that not being able to trade good value cards for higher value cards would be a turn off in my opinion. It would also increase the amount of shipping I would need to spend in order to get to a point where I would have the ability to trade for the values that I would be interested in, primarily trades in that 100-400 mark.
I agree that some kind of verification should be necessary in order to trade with less restrictions, and for those who dont have a verified account should be limited in the amount of trades and value of trades they are able to do.
What if it were unverified max value 100, verified 400 until established?
Then maybe established unverified 200, established verified no restriction?

Last edited by Amurphcs (2016-03-17 17:49:20)

Re: Request for Comment: Trading restrictions&User levels to promote trust

What would be the difference between verified and established?

Frankly any limit on "new users can only trade X dollars at once" will be too high for some people and too low for others. So it's already arbitrary, it's just a question of what arbitrary amount annoys the fewest people. tongue What's the threshold for mail fraud in the US? That's probably a reasonable cut-off point (at least at first), that way you have to be verified to trade at a level where not following through might have non-MTG consequences.

rfioren makes a good point; if someone is actively trying to work around whatever trade protections have been put into place, that's already a sign that they aren't trading in good faith, so that doesn't have to be a factor in designing those protections.

Re: Request for Comment: Trading restrictions&User levels to promote trust

Amurphcs wrote:

What if the following was used:

New traders have a maximum value cap of $400 (i.e playset of tarns or lotv, or a couple gaea's cradles), and may have no more than 3 trades open?

sebi wrote:

I mean it would not prevent you from trading, a new user would simply need to wait for his cards to get to destination before opening new trades for other cards. For national trades this would be 2-3 workdays usually, no?

Capping the number of open trades seems bad for trans-Atlantic traders.  Yes, it does only take 2-3 days for national trades, but I don't think very many people outside of the US are trading primarily with their countrymen.  Much like the proposed $50 limit, I would end up spending a lot of time just sitting on my hands waiting for my cards to reach Florida.  Capping the number of open trades also feels like it would lead to a drop in courtesy.  For example, Easter is coming up.  I'm not sure how it is in other countries, but things shut down for four days here in Germany.  It's a good excuse to travel abroad, or maybe just visit your grandma out in the country.  Currently, if a trading partner was like "Hey man, I'm going to be away for five days, is it okay if we pick our trade back up then?" I would have absolutely no problem with letting it sit.  With a 3-trades cap, I would be encouraged to cancel the trade in order to keep my slots open.  Sure, canceling a trade isn't a hostile action, but it still feels unpleasant when both parties are keen on said trade and will likely lead to fewer trades overall.

Re: Request for Comment: Trading restrictions&User levels to promote trust

sebi wrote:

I also see a lot of users complaining a 3.99$ monthly membership is too much, but wanting to trade more than 250$ worth of cards AT THE SAME TIME on deckbox, while also receiving the benefit of administrator moderation, support, and everything else.

There is a difference between spending $50 a year for features people may not want or use and trading cards you no longer want or need.  There are many other sites that do trading and the experience is the same for trading.  You can open a box of Standard right now and pull a card worth more than $250 that you may not want or need.


sebi wrote:
kathirene89 wrote:

Would it also limit people doing many low value trades at once ? Like 10 or so 2-15 dollar trades ?

Well, the thing is, if you only do low value trades, and you have less than 250$ in many months, do you really want to at once start doing 250$ worth of trades at the same time suddenly?

The restriction would just be for all the trades that you have open at the same time where the other person did not yet receive the cards. So for the cards you promised and are "in transit".

Again, many people use your site to trade cards that they just opened that they don't want.  Many casual players decide to start playing in FNMs or GPs everyday and they learn that their collection can be organized and traded easily with this site.  I can definitely see someone randomly trading a high value card or cards because they are going to a GP and need to make a deck or they just opened something they don't want and want to get the most value out of it.

Re: Request for Comment: Trading restrictions&User levels to promote trust

Well at this point, I think a majority of people are against potential rule as is stands. I am perfectly wiling to go with the will of the people.

Re: Request for Comment: Trading restrictions&User levels to promote trust

mobung wrote:

Capping the number of open trades also feels like it would lead to a drop in courtesy.  For example, Easter is coming up.  I'm not sure how it is in other countries, but things shut down for four days here in Germany.  It's a good excuse to travel abroad, or maybe just visit your grandma out in the country.  Currently, if a trading partner was like "Hey man, I'm going to be away for five days, is it okay if we pick our trade back up then?" I would have absolutely no problem with letting it sit.  With a 3-trades cap, I would be encouraged to cancel the trade in order to keep my slots open.  Sure, canceling a trade isn't a hostile action, but it still feels unpleasant when both parties are keen on said trade and will likely lead to fewer trades overall.

sebi wrote:

The restriction would just be for all the trades that you have open at the same time where the other person did not yet receive the cards. So for the cards you promised and are "in transit".

AFAICT the restriction would only be on number of trades in transit, which means only trades marked as shipped. You could presumably open and negotiate and confirm and sit on as many other trades as you want, waiting for bandwidth to ship. BUT I imagine people will work around this by shipping without marking trades as shipped (even if they have to exchange addresses manually).

Sebi can you clarify how this would be enforced such that traders won't simply work around it?

Re: Request for Comment: Trading restrictions&User levels to promote trust

So long-time traders no longer are allowed to trade over $250 unless they give you their credit card information?

I'm not cool with this.

Re: Request for Comment: Trading restrictions&User levels to promote trust

Sleet wrote:

So long-time traders no longer are allowed to trade over $250 unless they give you their credit card information?

I'm not cool with this.

Or PayPal. Why not?

Re: Request for Comment: Trading restrictions&User levels to promote trust

The idea of having to trade a bunch of <50 dollar trades initially feels kind of onerous to me, when so much of my desirable trades is made up of duals, zendikar fetches and legacy staples.

I'd suggest a limit on number of concurrent trades as an option alternative to dollar amount.

Re: Request for Comment: Trading restrictions&User levels to promote trust

What are the thoughts on a paid trading system? Everyone starts a default set of features, but you could pay $1 to upgrade a feature of your account.

This would deter scammers because they would have to provide information to upgrade features to enable their scamming, and they are usually cost adverse anyway.

I haven't traded so I can't chime in on what would be a good baseline and then increase features. But I would imagine that premium members would have all upgrades or an allowance to spend on upgrades the day such a system would go in place.

This would also allow people who can't afford the monthly sub to spend a $1 here and there for upgrades to their account getting themselves value and providing support  to the site.

Putting this out there for consideration.

Re: Request for Comment: Trading restrictions&User levels to promote trust

ok I am going to comment based on what I am reading as I read it so if it get jumbled, I apologize.

First, I don't like the dollar limit on any tier. I think perhaps a limit on the active number of trades is a good idea. if a new trader has a goyf and wants my cards, I don't think it is fair to prevent that. the tracking and sending first helps prevent scammers at first.

second, I like the idea of enforcing the person with fewer confirmed trades to send first. However, if an experienced user is not doing this already, shame on them. I have only had one problem with a new user and I feel bad for him, however he chose not to use tracking and did improper packaging so it's not my problem. I do disagree with making it a lower sends first in all cases. I am close to 400 trades now and why would I want someone with 300 trades at 100% positive feedback to send first. doesn't make sense. I think there should be a cap at tier 1 as 20 trades and tier 2 as 50 trades.

third, having a credit card on file is not an option for me. I use paypal expressly for that reason. there have been way too many security breaches to start giving out my credit card number to every site I use.

forth @Zyron, I personally have 2 accounts. I manage them for different purposes and also (before premium) traded to myself to move cards from one account to the other. I also have noted on my profiles that the other account exists. If someone was to try to do some shady things by "trading" between accounts they created, that is of course a bad thing. I personally check the references for anyone under 30 confirmed trades to see who they have been trading with to ensure nothing shady is going on. I also check the "member since" to see if the shady things mentioned above could be happening.

fifth, if anyone is doing a thousand dollar+ trade and are not using a third party for the exchange or meeting in a populated place, then sucks to be you. this only makes good trading sense. many local gaming stores are happy to do the exchange. I see comment about a mediator. I for one think that is a great idea. this site could leverage willing traders with high trades counts as mediators for high value trades. there would be extra expense (to the senders buy sending postage value to the mediator's paypal) and time delays but as long as the mediator is verified through their address and paypal, this is a great alternative.

sixth @Amurpcs, stopping new users from selling is not a good business idea. the fact that sebi enforces people to use paypal, adds the security that is needed for buyers. they can do a chargeback through ebay if needed.

seventh @AuspSqueeky, always leave accurate feedback even if it is negative/neutral. if your trading partner does leave retaliatory feedback, open a ticket and sebi will reverse it. I have had experience with this. dude was pissed because I wouldn't take a different edition of the card worth 25% less than what he promised. left me negative feedback saying "trader is too picky". sebi reversed it to neutral feedback which is appropriate. Although sebi, I have asked in the past and would like to state it again. keeping feedback hidden until both parties have left it, is a wonderful idea!

eighth, I like TechnicolorMage's idea on expanding the feedback option. I have to say that at least 1/3 of my trades have come in with a problem (ie wrong set, bad condition, missing card, etc). most traders are very quickly fix the problem but sometimes it isn't worth the hassle for a 10c card. for those of us who have collections of playsets this would be a great way to give a lower score for the issue but still leave positive feedback.

ninth @sidewayzracer/Amurphcs, buyer feedback is a decent idea. ebay does it and it shows that you are active on the site like Amurphcs states and not some inactive scammer. perhaps not even feedback but just a tally of how many purchases you have made through the site.

tenth, I talked about it above but I cant find it now. I think that limiting new users to current trades in route is a better idea than a dollar cap. I think that 3 is too low though and that 10 would be my max until they hit the next tier.

tenth @sebi, I think this site is amazing and I consistently tell everyone at my LGS how awesome it is! thank you for an RFC on such a big issue as this.

Re: Request for Comment: Trading restrictions&User levels to promote trust

wonderdog79 wrote:

ok I am going to comment based on what I am reading as I read it so if it get jumbled, I apologize.

forth @Zyron, I personally have 2 accounts. I manage them for different purposes and also (before premium) traded to myself to move cards from one account to the other. I also have noted on my profiles that the other account exists. If someone was to try to do some shady things by "trading" between accounts they created, that is of course a bad thing. I personally check the references for anyone under 30 confirmed trades to see who they have been trading with to ensure nothing shady is going on. I also check the "member since" to see if the shady things mentioned above could be happening.

ninth @sidewayzracer/Amurphcs, buyer feedback is a decent idea. ebay does it and it shows that you are active on the site like Amurphcs states and not some inactive scammer. perhaps not even feedback but just a tally of how many purchases you have made through the site.

Just to clarify, I was referring to shady trading practices, not people legitimately using 2 accounts.  Mostly meaning that if there is a trading limit until you hit 25 trades, or $250 worth of trades, people can just open two/three/four+ accounts and just trade between them to hit those numbers.  Since they aren't actually trading anything they don't even need the cards or pay anything.  Maybe they do 1-2 legitimate trades to make it look better.  I'm just saying, cheaters gonna cheat.

Also, Ebay removed negative and neutral feedback for buyers, you can only leave positive feedback.  They did this because of the aforementioned reasons here, sellers would withhold feedback until a buyer left it then use it as a weapon if the buyer had a legitimate complaint.  For instance, a seller once sold me something not even close to what they advertised.  I paid return shipping on the item, so I was out a few bucks, and I left neutral feedback, not even negative.  The seller was so upset that he shorted me and made me pay return shipping that he left me bad feedback even though he sold an item that wasn't what he stated.  It's hard to have a system where buyer feedback is honest since it is basically another tool for bad sellers to use to pressure buyers into giving fake positive feedback instead of honest feedback.

Re: Request for Comment: Trading restrictions&User levels to promote trust

Zyron wrote:
wonderdog79 wrote:

ok I am going to comment based on what I am reading as I read it so if it get jumbled, I apologize.
...
ninth @sidewayzracer/Amurphcs, buyer feedback is a decent idea. ebay does it and it shows that you are active on the site like Amurphcs states and not some inactive scammer. perhaps not even feedback but just a tally of how many purchases you have made through the site.
...

...
Also, Ebay removed negative and neutral feedback for buyers, you can only leave positive feedback.  They did this because of the aforementioned reasons here, sellers would withhold feedback until a buyer left it then use it as a weapon if the buyer had a legitimate complaint.  For instance, a seller once sold me something not even close to what they advertised.  I paid return shipping on the item, so I was out a few bucks, and I left neutral feedback, not even negative.  The seller was so upset that he shorted me and made me pay return shipping that he left me bad feedback even though he sold an item that wasn't what he stated.  It's hard to have a system where buyer feedback is honest since it is basically another tool for bad sellers to use to pressure buyers into giving fake positive feedback instead of honest feedback.

Perhaps a tally is a better option in this instance, however, would it hold any weight when going from purchases to trades? I also wonder if we could publish orders as we do trades, so at least everyone could see the value of purchases, who we are purchasing from, etc. Not sure if that feature is already there or not. Could be an alternative way of feedback so if someone sees a person only making a lot of $10 purchases, it may weigh less than someone who buys $50 or more.
Sorry if that got convoluted,  just waking up.

Re: Request for Comment: Trading restrictions&User levels to promote trust

@lorddax
That sounds like micro-transactions.  Mobile games say micro-transactions are a good way to make money, but I've never spent money on a time-waster game so I'll just have to take their word for it.  I can't think of things people would be willing to pay a one-time fee to unlock, but I'm also not the target demographic of micro-transactions.

Re: Request for Comment: Trading restrictions&User levels to promote trust

Zyron wrote:
wonderdog79 wrote:

ok I am going to comment based on what I am reading as I read it so if it get jumbled, I apologize.

forth @Zyron, I personally have 2 accounts. I manage them for different purposes and also (before premium) traded to myself to move cards from one account to the other. I also have noted on my profiles that the other account exists. If someone was to try to do some shady things by "trading" between accounts they created, that is of course a bad thing. I personally check the references for anyone under 30 confirmed trades to see who they have been trading with to ensure nothing shady is going on. I also check the "member since" to see if the shady things mentioned above could be happening.

ninth @sidewayzracer/Amurphcs, buyer feedback is a decent idea. ebay does it and it shows that you are active on the site like Amurphcs states and not some inactive scammer. perhaps not even feedback but just a tally of how many purchases you have made through the site.

Also, Ebay removed negative and neutral feedback for buyers, you can only leave positive feedback.  They did this because of the aforementioned reasons here, sellers would withhold feedback until a buyer left it then use it as a weapon if the buyer had a legitimate complaint.  For instance, a seller once sold me something not even close to what they advertised.  I paid return shipping on the item, so I was out a few bucks, and I left neutral feedback, not even negative.  The seller was so upset that he shorted me and made me pay return shipping that he left me bad feedback even though he sold an item that wasn't what he stated.  It's hard to have a system where buyer feedback is honest since it is basically another tool for bad sellers to use to pressure buyers into giving fake positive feedback instead of honest feedback.

This blows and actually brings up another issue I want to raise:

I would like to be able to remove my feedback IF another user does not leave feedback for me.

I'm tired to chasing people down for feedback.

This type of crap needs to stop, there was nothing wrong with this trade. We simuled, mine arrived first - my card was mint. His arrived, cards were mint, everyone happy. I leave feedback, he doesn't. Hogwash.
UPDATE: Feedback left!
Give me the power to remove my feedback, maybe then, he will pay attention to the messages I am sending him.  If you are afraid of abuse of system, then let us message an admin/moderator to remove the feedback for us.

This isn't the first time I have had to chase someone down for feedback but it would be nice if it were the last time under this type of system.

Last edited by TechnicolorMage (2016-03-22 10:35:24)

100

Re: Request for Comment: Trading restrictions&User levels to promote trust

mobung wrote:

With a 3-trades cap, I would be encouraged to cancel the trade in order to keep my slots open.  Sure, canceling a trade isn't a hostile action, but it still feels unpleasant when both parties are keen on said trade and will likely lead to fewer trades overall.

There's no "3 trades cap", only a value cap. You can leave the trade accepted without marking it sent, then it will not "Block" things. Only when you mark things sent = you promise cards were sent, then it counts them as "in progress".

Again, the whole point is to prevent people from saying they "sent" the cards to 15 traders, but lie about it, and dissapear with everbody's cards.

Latest case: http://deckbox.org/users/DoctorGraim/trades