A recent topic of thought for me has been, what happened to trading In pokemon? I personally prefer trading to buying and selling with money,
but nearly 100% of people Ive talked to in the process of finding packs for my collection have declined to discuss trade options.
I just find this really strange for a trading card game
Looking back at pokegym, there was trade threads where one person had hundreds of trades, so its not like it never happened,
but looking now at the e4 buy sell trade section, there is only a few trade threads, and most are completely silent,
this just makes me wonder what changed?
Im really curious to hear others thoughts on this =)
I think that it’s pretty rare to have something that someone else wants to add to their personal collection while that same person has something you want to add to your personal collection, and then on top of that you’d want the value to be similar.
In my opinion if those conditions aren’t met then one or both parties in the trade are doing it solely for some kind of perceived financial gain. Whether that’s thinking they’re getting better value than what they’re going away, or maybe they just think what they’re getting is easier for them to sell for cash than what they currently have. Either way, it turns it into less of a fun thing when it has that connotation associated with it in my opinion.
I think part of what made trading easy back then was it was mostly like “hey I like that, hey you like this, let’s trade”. There was some little kid version of “value” back then that we gave different cards, but it wasn’t monetary.
I’ve gotten to a point where I actually prefer trading. For several reasons I don’t want to sell most of the extra cards I have, but if someone can offer me a card I need for my collection, I’ll happily trade for it.
I’ve done several trades with E4 members recently and they’ve all worked out great. It’s certainly rare, but when it does work, I love it.
Trading is usually more cumbersome. I’ve done more cash + trade deals. Most trade offers I receive are a bunch of cheaper cards for one valuable/rare card.
@ thsigma, understandable, but I also think the spirit of trading is to trade something that isn’t your favorite, for something you like more?
@ dyl, thats fair,
@ jonbo, I wonder if that partially has to do with the ever increasing number of things there is to collect
and honestly yeah at the gain thing, most of the things on my “list of things to trade to others” is more mainstream sealed things Ive aquired over time, so most of my offers to people they wouldnt really gain value, but the things I collect tend to be niche as it gets, and as such not very easy to sell, to some limited success
@ fourthstar Yeah I had one work out really great recently where we both got things we were excited about, and it was just a really great experience
What I need is rarely found so trades are tough, but in general its a mentality that shifted for most people as they both get further along in narrowing what they want to collect and everything being centered around financial value. I still will happily overtrade for things I want but I also want to do it without feeling like the other person is taking advantage of me and going to flip the card for profit the moment they have it. I want trades where both sides gain in the experience, not just money.
Collectors tend to purchase/procure only cards they want specifically. So unless their collection scope changes, they would have no interest in parting with a card they already owned. Trading away a card I already own would mean leaving a gap in my collection. I still want/need that card.
The distribution of cards through random booster packs produces an environment where collectors are not guaranteed a card they want from purchase and are also likely to receive duplicates. In this context, players would have a sample of cards they do not actually want and be motivated to trade them for cards they are seeking.
But in a secondary market, this environment no longer exists. People buy the cards they want and that’s it. So people only have cards they want and have no additional cards to trade.
For modern cards, I think there would be more incentive to trade cards you open from packs on the interest of completing sets or subsets. But you could go through the trouble of doing that or you could just buy the card you want with no hassle.
For me I really only trade in person, so that immediately creates a limitation. Short of frequenting a local shop or playing area, a lot of community interaction is done online, and I can also search for exactly the cards I am looking for. If I do plan to go to an event/trade show in person, if I have cards I am desiring to part with I will bring them all with me and let a little more of the monetary value piece slide in the spirit of trading and camaraderie.
Given how this boom started, this is a unicorn prospect. Call me skeptical, but I doubt anyone in my local group/country would not flip. There is a real lack of community in this hobby on the collector’s side of things outside of niche online groups.
and because of that, if I sell its at market price or just under. But a trade, as long as I get what I want then I am happy helping someone else meet their collection goals.
I’ve been in one or two situations where I’ve been unable to get the booster box I wanted because the only ones “available” were from people that only wanted to trade, usually for very specific items. That was a long time ago though.
Trading can definitely be a valid or even fun option, when all the stars align. I don’t see myself being in that situation ever again in this hobby but you never know.
I didn’t read the replies yet so if I say the same thing as someone else it’s because they are right
Efficiency is the answer.
Back when pokegym was relevant, say like 2009, you only had original WOTC era, ex era and DpPt. Very small sets, only a handful of popular cards. Prices were also compressed. $500 was a wild amount of money. Grading wasn’t as popular and mint cards were very available regardless. So was sealed product. You could buy whatever set you wanted sealed, pull your own cards from any set you wanted to. Collectors were card rich and money poor. It’s easy to trade when everyone is collecting the same stuff and everything is the same price.
Trading today is almost impossible. First of all it’s really hard to find someone else that is even collecting the same stuff as you. Even if you did, you’re less likely to have doubles of things so you’d be forced to trade away items you’d probably need to reacquire. Everyone is so particular about condition too. $500 in 2009 is like $10000 today, so the range in prices is massive and even a small difference in condition translates into a huge difference in price. There are way more eras, a lot more cards per set, more grading companies, more grades people collect.
Ultimately price matching in your trade is nearly impossible. An unbalanced trade could mean a loss of hundreds of dollars or more. You could pad the trade with stuff but then you’re just sending/receiving things you don’t want.
The most recent time I ever traded someone was a couple years back with an actual close childhood friend of mine. The trade itself was just regular full arts and vmax cards.
Times I’ve been offered to trade by strangers or vendors, usually I’m offered about 75%- 90% of last sold pricing, and their cards are valued at full market. That makes it’s easy for me to never want to trade.
I’m not really adding anything to the conversation. I just wanted to show off this card I traded for from a fellow e4 member recently since we’re talking about trading
I agree and understand that. 90% is rare and was only for the higher end types of cards like gold stars and crystals (I only had one vendor offer me the 90% though).
The % is the biggest reason I don’t trade with vendors. The other reason is most vendors I’ve seen just have modern or LP vintage and expect to get top dollar.
For vendors I’d rather just sell items and cards that are usually less desirable and take the 75% they usually offer.
I’ll admit I haven’t participated in trading as of yet, but it’s something I’m interested in, as I like to pick up random cards that don’t necessarily need to fit in a defined main collection. These tend to be cheap cards (<$10) that I don’t care to go and actively search for regularly on Ebay or TCGPlayer. I also just like the idea of happening upon these less-organized-kind-of-side-collection cards in a somewhat more organic or spontaneous manner.
One advantage to trading that I don’t think I’ve seen mentioned here is potentially realizing greater value of cards. For example, if you sell a card through Ebay, you’d have some percentage of the sold price carved out for Ebay fees. On top of that, you also create a taxable event in which you’d have to pay taxes on any potential profit made off that card. After all this, if you then use that money to go purchase another card you want on Ebay, you’d have to pay sales tax on top of the purchase price of that card. These little fees and things add up, and, all of a sudden, your $200 card sale is probably more like $150 in actual value retained. However, when the stars align and you are able to trade for a card you want, you avoid potential loss in value due to taxes and fees.
As an example from @neverforget50in07, being offered 90% value on your card and assuming full market value of the other party’s card would still be on somewhat even footing with just selling and buying on Ebay.
