Trading Group

Years ago on a now defunct website I started up a fairly successful online trading forum. The group ended up with around 200 members and we facilitated thousands of trades across the US and also internationally. Would anyone be interested in starting a mtgthesource trading group? I know there are other options available, like manatraders.com, but I didn’t know if anyone here wanted to just keep it to the small community based here on The Source. Without the opportunity to go to the local store for regular events I’m really missing the trading part of this game. It was such a fun way to acquire cards and build decks. What I couldn’t trade for I would purchase at the store, but unfortunately my LGS closed early on when Covid19 struck.

Long story short, I’m posting up a poll to see who would be interested in maintaining the archaic paper trade through the mail with the community here at the Source.

Deadline to vote in the poll is coming up on December 1st. Once I have a total I'll start gathering information and feedback to see how to move forward. If anyone has ideas on how to make this happen, please write them down here! I will take care of all the work, I just need some help deciding how to organize.

Thanks for reading!

I'd welcome a trading subforum. It would bring some much required activity back to the site.

Also, perhaps a bit of generalization, but still, us eternal players tend to seek niche, pimp or other nonchaff cards that are not so readily available on other trading platforms and I think Source could be a nice gathering place for such people.

I voted in support, I figure a references section is in the works, but I think having users start a thread for themselves and have others comment on it would be pretty easy to manage and helpful. Similar to the facebook groups. I don't know if this site itself has other features that are hidden to the average user that could serve this role, but I think that would be good enough for many.

Great feedback, thanks !For myself, I am first and foremost a player, not a collector, so for me foils/foreign/unique cards aren't a priority, I just want to play. Trading for me would be to simply have an avenue for building decks, which can be difficult given budget restrictions or card availability (considering covid.) Another reason for me is to build community contacts; legacy is a fairly close-knit community that goes far and above other formats for building comradery and supporting each other. The Source has been part of that from the beginning, and I don't want to see it go away. However, this could be another way to keep it relevant.

To summarize the points:

-Incorporate a referral system
-Provide a network for niche and unique cards
-Community-based trading to support Legacy as a format
-Foster activity at The Source to help keep it relevant to the legacy community

Thanks, Mr. Safety for bringing this up. I hope this can be a way to keep people and interest in the forum. I've been coming here everyday for 14 years (long time lurker before I joined) and I've seen such a change in that time. Getting more involvement at any level is great.
Plus, I'm less inclined to sell on eBay since they've blown up their payment methods, so I'm more open to do more trades within the Legacy community.
Keep the Source alive and gets cards to our fellows Legacy players!
(And free Nedleeds)

Good idea. When do.you expect it to be active?

I'm gathering feedback in this thread (so thanks for jumping in!) And then looking to organize a thread within a week. There is interest, at least 7 people are definitely interested and 2 more are interested but want more info before committing.

The other group I was involved with had a level-up system based on number of successful trades. It was a corny but effective system based on wizards (novice, sorcerer, mage, archmage.) Newer traders (novice) had to mail their half of the trade first and be recieved before the other side sent their half, for the first 5 trades. Then you leveled up to sorcerer and it would be a simultaneous trade for the rest of your trades. The purpose of leveling up after that was to establish a reputation in case high level trading was involved. People were literally trading power by the end.

I wish I still had the old rules saved somewhere, it was really buttoned up. A little reinvention will have to happen. As I wrote already, I'll put together a thread and post within a week.

I think rules should be rather simple and left for the trading parties to agree on specifics. I think each each user who would like to trade on this subforum should create his own Have and Want thread, listing what he has and what he wants. Each user should create his own set of rules for trading within his own thread, clarifying who sends first, how are payments made, what type of postal service is available and at least rough estimation of shipping fees, to avoid excessive time loss on each side of the party I would suggest articles to list at least condition and preferably also price (which doesnt mean it has to be final, just as orientation if nothing else).
Each user could provide their past reference from sites like TCG, MCM, ebay, etc.

Ultimately it falls on the two trading parties to go into agreement in terms of trade and to carry it out. Sure, we can track positive/negative trades, but this would put additional strain on forum staff and ultimately.. in the age where 90% purchases are done through ebay/MCM/TCG (?.. idk, I'm EU) and recent activity (or lack thereof) on this forum (+ current corona situation) I honestly do not expect big boom of trades at once. So maybe having such list may be beneficial for future, but.. honestly I don't see it being that usefulin the begining.

I totally agree. I was just giving historical reference; the internent, and the world at large, has changed quite a bit since the last time I was involved in trading cards online. The general level of maturity in this forum is way higher than most other forums, so I agree that just agreeing between parties is appropriate on how to proceed.

I really like the trading thread sub-forum idea. I think the easiest way to accomplish that is to have a Trading Forum with individual threads. This is kind of what I was envisioning:

-Trading Forum
--Trading Thread - just a main thread to state what cards you are looking for, stickied with disclaimer/basic rules (trade at your own risk, yadda yadda)
--Individual Trader Threads - opening post would have a wants/haves list, people can post requests for trading
-Details of trades, especially address and personal information, would be kept strictly to DM's; doxing is a very real concern, even with the traffic in this forum being lower than it has been

I'll get in contact with the other mods/admins to work out the details of how to get that rolling.

Thanks again for the feedback! :smile:

I’d definitely be interested. Thanks for proposing this!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mr. Safety

I totally agree. I was just giving historical reference; the internent, and the world at large, has changed quite a bit since the last time I was involved in trading cards online. The general level of maturity in this forum is way higher than most other forums, so I agree that just agreeing between parties is appropriate on how to proceed.

I really like the trading thread sub-forum idea. I think the easiest way to accomplish that is to have a Trading Forum with individual threads. This is kind of what I was envisioning:

-Trading Forum
--Trading Thread - just a main thread to state what cards you are looking for, stickied with disclaimer/basic rules (trade at your own risk, yadda yadda)
--Individual Trader Threads - opening post would have a wants/haves list, people can post requests for trading
-Details of trades, especially address and personal information, would be kept strictly to DM's; doxing is a very real concern, even with the traffic in this forum being lower than it has been

I'll get in contact with the other mods/admins to work out the details of how to get that rolling.

Thanks again for the feedback! :smile:

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I would recommend a non-indexed forum (that is, one hidden from search engines) and possibly a minimum post requirement to unlock the Trading Forum.

Another good idea, thanks for the feedback! I'm not sure how that would work, but I'm sure our capable admins will be able to help me organize this.

Trading Forum is up with basic rules. I will update as I go on how to improve, so any and all constructive feedback is warmly appreciated.