Attention to detail inversely related to # of refs? New rating system?

I can certainly see someone with only a few trades being very careful with what cards they send, how they send them, and trying very much to make sure that the trades go down smoothly as possible. And then someone with an established reputation not sweating the details nearly so much.

When I first came to this site, card condition was not an attribute of the card you could change, so everyone either clarified when they were trading, or just assumed everything was "mint enough". Now people seem to think is a couple of pixels in a tiny little star is enough of a warning to their trade partners that they need not mention that their dog ate their mox pearl and what they are sending is actually what they managed to scrape off the roof of his mouth and flatten into the approximation of a magic card. (Purely fictional story) And next day shipping is in a similar vein. Many people that trade on here have jobs (big boy jobs or not), classes, no printers etc. If me not sending the next day is a deal breaker, please let me know so that I can decide if that is possible. I work from 7am until 2pm. Then have classes immediately following that, if I have to choose between food and shipping your magic cards in time for FNM, I will choose survival.

I think the biggest thing here is communication. I think if timing or condition is urgently important to you, then you should mention it and you trade partner should do his best to oblige. I don't think you will experience too many cases of people with 100+ trades blatantly LYING to you in order to make a few bucks.

As Unstable has said, my bad experiences come from people with relatively low feedback.

Until recently, sub 30's was fairly common to have minor issues. I've had a few people try to rip on here, but were unable to do so since I don't do paypal gifts. Invoices are much more contestable and enforceable. Paypal will absolutely remove money from someone's account if they renegade on an invoice.

As for difficulty trading, it's been my experience that trades which involve insulting downtrade offers tend to have bumps. Usually it's some new(ish) person trying to hustle their standard / reprint things for non-print things.

I think communication and attention to detail has to do with the person.

I personally will fill your chat window if you show any interest in talking. I love the idea of haggling and trading, I would rather help someone get what they need instead of just buying (though I do that as well when necessary) I enjoy the personal interactions with folk who express their interest in certain things.

If I mess up a trade I make sure you end up with something extra because that was a loss of time as well as card mix up or loss. I have never had a trade end with hard feelings due to this attempt to always set things straight. On the other hand you have people who will not do anything to help the situation and are antagonistic just wanting what they want and damn everything else, but that is the internet and that is humanity there are some fun people and some assholes.

So that said, I have over 100 positive feedback and I would like to think I am even more gregarious and engaged now than when I started.

Thanks all!
Amarus Cameron

I have traded with Paul multiple times and he walks the talk. We have always set expectations and though it may seem petty it is less about getting all the value and more about making sure we are both happy in the deal. When one talks about their expectations assumptions fizzle out like an aura without a target. This way no one is surprised with what they get and both sides are happy.

That said I think I have traded with almost everyone who has commented here at least once and none have been a bad experience, quite the opposite so these guys know their stuff.

Gnome said it quite well.

Good example is this guy: http://deckbox.org/users/Teenyhuman

Impossible to get a hold of 95% of the time. Has tons of stuff, etc.
*Shrug*

This gent and I just traded and it is pretty much as he said, we conversed and were able to work something out quick and easily. And to be honest I would trust a person who will talk with me much more than someone who's only communication is to change the configuration of the trade. There are enough people here that I like trading with that I steer well clear of those folk.

Perhaps if there was a field for tracking information, that could also be quantified. 10 trades going out, none with tracking? Possibly cause for concern if the trades are all high value.

Just a text field that the user can put the tracking number into, that people can see and check out on their own. No need to have tracking integration, it would be yes or no - a number or a null. I don't see it as a privacy issue, as they only show town names and not addresses, but if you're trading with someone, you have that info to compare to. If the user is in, say, Boston, and the tracking number says it originated in Boise, I'd question that.

Last edited by ABottleGnome (2013-07-24 18:07:36)

Well like any redditor's comment stream this has degenerated into something else =P

I don't think the character of trader can be quantified by their refs. Perhaps it's just that a trader is more inclined to show their true nature when they have a large number of refs. As a new trader, you might be willing to invest more time, be more polite, or even show a tougher skin as a defense. As an established trader who has a large number of refs, you might be more inclined to lean on those refs and less inclined to use a facade. If your innate character is one that lacks empathy or is of arrogance, it could be more evident in your trades. If your innate character is one of empathy and humbleness, perhaps you are even more likely to present a positive trade experience for others.

A second issue is attention to detail. Some people are very detail oriented, and some are not. As a new trader, you might not know what to look for, but you are probably more likely to take the time to look and scrutinize things. As an established trader, it could become routine. You might stop looking so carefully at the things you send out, or when you said you would send them. You might start thinking to yourself as above the rules or that you should be warranted more leeway or that you can get away with more things because you have more refs.

An important note is that I hypothesis that these behaviours are less apparent to ourselves than others. We might not have intentionally meant to sent a card late or sent a card that was actually played when we had it marked as NM. However, we might be more inclined to think we are less fallible. "That person has a fourth of the refs than I do, certainly I could not have been wrong. They must be trying to cheat me."

These are only thoughts based on anecdotal experiences I have had. Between motl and deckbox combined I have a little over 90 refs. In all those trades, I've only had 3 genuinely bad experiences (2 motl, 1 deckbox) that I can recall.  All three of those were with traders that had a considerable amount of refs (over 100). In two of those cases, they misrepresented their card condition and tried to pass the blame onto me when I questioned it.

One other small note, people sometimes seem to slide card grading tolerances based upon the value of the card. A $1 rare they are happy to say is SP, but a $35 card is NM unless it's MP or lower. I know 10-30% off the card value is a lot more meaningful on a $100 card, but if a card is not NM, it's not NM.

Thanks for all the replies!