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Guide to Trading Online
By Dark Marik
February 25, 2009

Article #1: What Is Online trading?

Online trading is one of my favorite things about “Yu-Gi-Oh!” that I never experienced in other trading card game I have played. I began trading in August 2006, and since then have traded consistently for two and a half years, and am not very confident in trading online, and have seen all of it’s true effects on my game, card pool, and overall trading ability.

            What exactly is “trading online?” I get asked this a lot by people at my local card shop when I tell them I trade online. My answer is always go to http://www.pojo.biz and look for the North American Trading Forums. (Not the only place to trade, but it is where I trade online.) By going there you will see hundreds of trading threads other users on the message board have posted. In each list people list their own set of rules, a list of cards they desire, and a list of cards they have.

By taking a look there, it still doesn’t tell you what trading online is I am sure. That will just tell you where you trade. By looking at the official trading rules you will get a pretty good idea what online trading is. In summary, online trading is when two people want cards from each other, but lives far apart. They then turn to the mail system to take care of their trading. They send their cards in the mail to each other, and then they have completed a trade.

Wait, that sounds like a good way to get cards stolen? True, but what makes online trading so successful is all the other features and rules put in place to prevent this. The first are references. If you go onto the Pojo message boards, you will notice under everyone’s avatar and user name, they have something called “I-trader rating.” This is the reference program that is installed into the message boards. Basically it determines who sends first (under most circumstances). Which ever user has less references will send first, since fewer people have determined that they are trustworthy. So once the person with fewer references sends their card, and then the other person receives their end, they send out their cards to the other person. Once you have received someone else’ end you can reference them about the experience.

A Positive Reference will increase their I-Trader score by One, and is what everyone trading desires. A Neutral Reference does not change your I-Trader score at al, and a Negative Reference will decrease your I-Trader rating by one. There becomes a point that once you have received so many negatives, the moderators on the message board will just simply ban you from trading on this website.

Speaking of the moderators, there is another way to protect yourself being having your cards stolen. This is called Moderator trades or “Middleman Trades.” Every new trader should take note of this type of trade, because it will not only help you get started to a positive experience at trading online, but it will get you two positive references instead of only one. Basically what you do here is, go to the Trading Committee page of the message board and click on the “Mod Trade Request” thread at the top. There you look through all the different people offering to do this service and select one that you feel will get your job done most successfully and the way you want it done. You then ether send them a message or post on the thread you want them to help you. After this, instead of directly sending to the other person by order of references, you send directly to the moderator, both at the same time. Then when he or she has received both ends of the trade, they will send your ends to you. It will take a bit longer to do trades this way, but it is well worth it in the end for new traders, or trades involving expensive cards.

With everything at risk and everything, why would I want to trade? Good question, the answer is very, very simple. It makes finding those cards you can never find, simply obtainable. I originally joined the trading inorder to find two cards. The first was the hard to find Toon Dark Magician Girl, and the second was the TP8 Harpie’s Feather Duster. Both these cards I could not find in my area anywhere, and I did not have the money to go and buy them online. So I logged on, and within a few weeks I had both those cards in my possession, and I felt extremely successful. Sure people do understand what cards are worth, simply they wont Trade you a Crush Card for a couple regular cards, but if you are willing to give them a fair trade for a card, you will find someone willing to trade for it, thus making cards so much easier and cheaper to obtain.

Here are some more tips for new traders:

1. Read and get to know all the rules on the board before trading.
2. If something seems fishy, it most likely is fishy.
3. Trade only with well-trusted traders at first so you can build confidence in your trading.
4. Don’t trade expensive cards without a mod-trade.
5. Be respectful to other people on the boards.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you all will read my second article next week, which will go more into detail about how to send card in the mail, postage costs, and packaging.

If you have questions or concerns, feel free to contact me at mrh40@uakron.edu or contact Dark Marik 07 on the Pojo message boards.