Welcome Frozen Bear! I am Tash, I too am also on Instagram. I am tashv48, glad you have made your way here to this fourum! I’m sure in good time you will recognize a lot of the members here!
Highly dangerous!
You will need to search for references from other collectors that have done business with the person you are about to conduct a trade with.
It is very easy to get scammed on Instagram.
My best advice is to seek information on any collector’s integrity within the surrounding community that they are in.
Usually a trade is conducted by someone of lesser reputation sending their cards first. The recipient will than send their card once they have acquired the other party’s cards.
you can also allocate a middleman that both agree to , to act as an arbiter on both of the parties involved in a trade. you and your trade partner will both send your cards to the middleman. Once the middleman aknowledges that both ends of the deal are met he will send the cards to both parties involved.
Also remember that dealing with someone who has references and perceived reputation and integrity does not always mean a safe transaction. We had a big thing last year with a forum member and highly repped IG trader/grader who was swapping out cards that she was grading for customers when they got a higher grade than ones in her personal collection. Wasn’t the first, won’t be the last.