Sports cards book chapter 3

A “smart trader” invests some time and energy into learning how to avoid trade problems before they happen. When the inevitable dilemma does arise, a smart trader knows how to manage them calmly and effectively. Reading this sports card guide is the best step you can take towards becoming a “Smart Trader”. Trading on the Internet normally involves collectors hooking up via email. In a nutshell it goes something like this. You go to your preferred trading site and post a message on the message board. Traders will post messages for what they have for trade (WTT = want to trade) and what they want to obtain (WTTF=want to trade for). Likewise, you will be able to respond to the messages that other traders post. Depending on how the message board works, other traders will then be able to view what you have posted and respond to you. The ideal sports card message board will give you the option of viewing the messages in a variety of ways including via email, on the message board itself, or in a once daily email message called a daily digest.

"Trade Smart”
“The Internet is an amazing tool that will help you immensely with your sports card collecting! It is also a handy tool that thieves use to steal from collectors who do not use common sense and Internet “street smarts”. There are several proven methods that I am going to teach you that will help you minimize your chances of being the victim of a true Internet crook. If you trade a lot online, it is inevitable that eventually you will encounter some type of trade problem. The distinction here is that a trade problem is usually the result of some type of miscommunication or accident and one that can be resolved. Whereas when you are the victim of a true sports card thief chances are you are in for an unhappy “learning experience”.

Each trader must take personal responsibility for his or her actions. All traders should spend the time to learn how to protect themselves to the best of their abilities and not rely on anyone else to do this for them. No site, no matter what the security measures that they put in place, can ever eliminate 100% of trade problems or exposure to sports card thieves. However, you can reduce trade problems and thievery by practicing the smart trading recommendations presented in this guide. We discuss the topic of the true sports card thief throughout the course of this book. Fortunately, crooks are the exception and unfortunately just rare enough to allow traders to get lazy. The bad guys can easily take advantage of them so….DO NOT GET LAZY!

A well thought out “Smart trader” personal trading policy will help to keep you safe from sports card thieves and trade problems in general. Once you have read this guide, you should establish your own personal trading policy. It needs to be composed of the rules and standards that you require of both yourself and fellow traders. It is likely that this policy will evolve over time as you gain more experience and determine what works for you and what makes you feel secure.

REPUTATION IS KING

Good Traders

When you are new to Internet baseball card trading you will have to earn your reputation as someone who can be trusted. One of the best ways for you to do this will be for you to trade with people who already have those good reputations. If you are familiar with eBay, you know that they have a ranking system, which helps people earn the trust of fellow eBay users. Sportscardfun.com also has a ranking system for the same reason. Some of the other trading web sites have followed our lead and created ranking systems as well. Being able to establish yourself as someone who can be trusted will be very important to your success or failure as an online sports card trader. Earn a solid positive reputation and you will reap the rewards and have a lot of fun trading on the Internet.

Bad Traders

If you are irresponsible, careless, rude, etc, and do not do all that you can to be a “good trader”, you will likely have an unpleasant time in the world of online sports cards. You will quickly be labeled as someone to avoid. Most sites will post “bad traders” or the list of traders who have been banished from trading with them. You will want to do all that you can to stay off of these lists since word tends to travel quickly across the Internet.

Let us say you come to a site like Sportscardfun.com and you have "0" Sportscardfun.com good trader points. On our site, you earn 1 point for each successful trade you make, and you can only get one point from each person with whom you successfully trade. As a trader with "0" good trader points, and no other reputation enhancer such as eBay feedback, do you think a trader who has 100 good trader points will feel comfortable making a high dollar trade with you? NO! Or at least I certainly hope not. It is not personal it is just plain smart. You have a couple of options in this situation. The trader with 100 points can go a head and make that expensive trade with you, but if they are on their toes, they are going to ask you to send your cards to them FIRST. And you, the trader with 0 points can certainly engage in this trade, BUT, you should protect yourself as well by shipping your cards with insurance or the most secure method, registered mail (more on this topic later).

Perhaps you are wondering why you would need to use these special shipping methods. After all, the person you are trading with has 100 good trader points; surely they will not steal from you? Remember, you are getting “Internet street-smart” now. This is a high dollar trade and you do not want to risk this item being lost in the mail right? (Yes, things do get lost in the mail)! What if this good trader who you are trading with suddenly (and heaven forbid) dies, winds up in the hospital, or figures this might be a good time to become a crook? You will want to protect yourself from all of these rare but possible situations.

All of that being said, it is smarter for a new sports card trader such as yourself to start with smaller, less valuable trades prior to moving on to the “high-rolling” world of sports card trading. Earn your reputation, get the feel for it. Learn all of the ins and outs of negotiating, packaging and shipping your cards first.

As time moves on and you become a veteran of trading on the Internet, and as I mentioned above, DO NOT GET LAZY! Unfortunately, experienced traders do get lazy and it is at those times that they’d usually wind up getting burned. Let’s say that you are now the trader with 100 good trader points and you encounter a trader with substantially fewer points than you who wants to make a high dollar trade. You are the one who now needs to be cautious and request that the less experienced trader send to you first as outlined above. Or, being the experienced baseball card trader who you are, you tell the less experienced trader that you would like to trade with them but would prefer starting with a smaller trade.

Miscommunication And Poor Communication
I have helped literally thousands of traders resolve problems with each other. Trade problems are usually a result of poor communication. Most baseball card traders have good intentions just as you do. Their objective is to have fun with this hobby. Unfortunately, email and message boards are far from perfect, and do not always convey the emotions that people are intending them to express. Keep this in mind while you are trying to communicate. Be as clear and polite as possible. Say please and thank you. Go out of your way to use common courtesy and you will minimize many unnecessary trade problems.

If you plan to make trading baseball cards on-line part of your regular routine, you need to do what you can to create and preserve good trading relationships! Getting a reputation of being a difficult to negotiate with will not help you. Maybe you are not a jerk. Perhaps you are just a collector who is very passionate about your cards, but coming across as obnoxious in an email message is much the same as being one. Here are a few examples of how not to communicate.

Frank contacts Joe wanting to trade

Frank: "Hi Joe. I'm Frank. I have a Derek Jeter rookie. Do you have an Alex Rodriguez rookie card to trade for it? “Thank you, I hope we can work out a trade”.

Joe: “Not interested”.

Now, perhaps Joe a busy person and had a tough day at work or school, but Frank has gone out of his way to communicate clearly and politely and all that Joe responded with was “not interested”. A better way for Joe to respond to a message that he was not interested in would be more along these lines

Joe “Hey Frank thanks for contacting me. I am not interested in the cards you have offered but do you have anything else”.

(Or at bare minimum)

Joe: “Thanks, but I think I will pass for now.

Another, even worse example of being a poor communicator is for a sports card trader to contact you with some sort of trade proposal and you do not respond to them. This is the #1 trade problem reported to me. If a trader takes the time to contact you wanting to make a trade, be kind enough to respond to them. Do so even if your response is just a “no thanks” without any further explanation. Email is fast and easy to use, be sure to use it! Take the 5 or 10 seconds to respond to a fellow trader who is trying to make a trade with you. You might not want anything to do with the proposed offer. Perhaps the offer is unreasonable and offends you. At least send them a “no thank you”. Your good trader reputation will be damaged if you do not.

Moreover, both sports card traders should always respond to each other's successive offers. In other words, do not pull a disappearing act! When you are in the middle of exchanging trade offers and you are presented with an offer that you do not like, do not suddenly stop responding to the person. Keep communicating with the other person until you either decide to the make the trade or say that you do not want to continue negotiating. Do not leave someone waiting and wondering if the trade is going to happen!

Posting a Trade Message
It will be well worth your taking the time to learn how to post trade messages effectively. When you post trade messages you must be as clear as possible as to what you have to trade AND what you want in return. More information is usually much better than less Include as many details as you can about the “who, what, and where” of a trade that you would like.

Knowing how not to post is a good first step toward learning how to do it correctly. For example, let us say you post the following message to the trading board:

I want to trade cards!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is terrible. What do you have for trade? What do you want in return? Unless you have just pulled a Babe Ruth cut signature card ease up on the exclamation marks.

Let’s try it again:

WTT (remember that is short for “Want to trade”)

WTT 2004 Reflections #2 Albert Pujols $4.00

Ok, this isn’t bad. You have listed:

            1.         The card
            2.         The year
            3.         The book value

But, what do you want in return? Remember; specify as clearly as you can.

Let us try another example. This one will include a few more details that are important. It is a good idea to give people some idea of who they are trading with from the onset so we will add your name and any ranking you might have from eBay or other trading sites.

WTT 2004 Reflections 2 Albert Pujols $4.00

I want any Arod card in return.

Thanks,

John

eBay feedback 534

Sportscardfun.com points 2

Now let us move on to an example of a more expensive post:

WTT 2004 Fleer Genuine Insider Autograph-Bat AP Albert Pujols $250.00

Thanks,

John

eBay feedback 534

Sportscardfun.com points 2

This is a little better. All of the important details are listed in this example except for what you want in return. As the value of the card goes up, it becomes even more important to list specifically what you will take in return for it. With a more expensive card, you have more options as to what you will take in trade. Will you accept several lesser-valued cards, such as 15 inserts worth $10?

Perhaps you will take 2 cards worth $75. Alternatively, will you only consider trading for one card of equal value? If you have a clear idea of what you would like, you need to spell it out. Not doing so will waste not only your time, but the time of your fellow traders. Perhaps you are not really sure what you want and that is okay as well, fishing for an offer is an acceptable thing to do. You are welcome to say, “Make offer”, but if you do, do not be offended by the offers that people make. A blanket “make offer” statement might result in someone offering you 250 $1.00 cards!

Here is the same high dollar post with a bit more detail:

WTT 2004 Fleer Genuine Insider Autograph-Bat AP Albert Pujols $250.00

I only want 2 cards in return (maybe 3). I only collect Jeter.

Thanks,

John

eBay feedback 534

Sportscardfun.com points 2

Now, let us say you are the trader who sees this message posted by John. You decide to make him an offer of 10 inserts of Jeter and 20 inserts of Arod - 30 cards in all with a book value of $260. It is likely that you will get a far from enthusiastic response from John. You are way off base! John stated that he only wants 2 cards (maybe 3) and that he only collects Derek Jeter. What will he do with the Arod card? Keep your trade offers reasonable! When a fellow trader takes the time to spell out what they want for a particular card, do not waste your time and theirs by coming up with something not even close to what he or she wants. On the other hand, if he or she does not say what specifically he or she wants, and presents you with a “make offer” situation, then you are free to present any offer that like.

How to handle unreasonable or ridiculous sports card trade offers.
What if you receive a reply to one of your trade messages that contains an offer that is not even close to what you stated you would take. Here are a few suggestions for how to handle this situation:

1. Restate and clarify your request. Even though you have already taken the time to specify what baseball cards you want, sometimes people need a little reminder.
2. Take a few quick seconds to say a polite "no thanks"
3. If you feel tempted to respond with some rude or sarcastic message, this would be one time you need to delete his or her message and move on. There is no need to take offense, waste your time and his, and possibly create unnecessary work for the site manager. Most likely everyone will be better off if you just move on to the next sports card trade.

Message posting help for sports card set collectors
Many people that you encounter on sports card trading sites will only be searching for cards that will help them finish their sets. It is not uncommon for these people to only have cards from that same set available for trade.

Here is an example of a set collectors posted trade message:

Hello,

I need the following from the 2002 Topps base set. Have many base cards from the same set to trade in return:
223, 230, 289, 292, 299, 301, 303, 355, 360, 365, 377, 381, 384, 385,
406, 407, 409, 413,

Thanks for looking. Please see my trade page for everything else.

Steve
Sportscardfun.com points 87
eBay feedback 985

It is not always necessary to post a separate message for everything that you are looking for. For example, if you are a set collector and you need help with many different sets, you can combine those sets into one message; simply list the sets in the subject of your message.

For example:

Greetings,

I need help with the following sets and have cards available to trade from all of these sets in return. Here is what I need:

1990 Upper Deck:
7,19,29,30,33,35,36,40,41,54,58,59,60,64,78,89,93,101,
131,133,134,135,136,156

1999 Fleer Tradition

13, 25, 45, 50, 53, 56, 64, 81, 122, 196, 197, 198, 201, 202, 225, 226, 235
268, 271, 277, 281, 285, 286, 288, 298, 311, 312, 317, 322, 333, 334

2000 Bowman Chrome
7,11,15,47,71,72,103

Thank you for looking,

Jim
5 Sportscardfun.com points
8 eBay positives

Organize by Player Name
Posting the player's name as well as the card number will be a bit more work, but also will help you make more trades. This will appeal to collectors that organize their cards by player name and not by number.

For example:

WTT/WTTF 2003 LEAF LIMITED (in this case you can also use both WTT and WTTF)

I need to complete this set and I have extras to trade if needed.

I need these 2003 LEAF LIMITED

1 derek jeter
7 jim thome
13 chipper jones
18 josh beckett
23 alfonso soriano
33 mike mussina
45 roger clemens
49 frank thomas
61 ken griffey jr
62 craig biggio
82 kerry wood
89 pedro martinez
98 mark grace
105 mike piazza
119 manny ramirez
127 barry bonds

Send me your want list from this same set and we’ll work out a trade!

Thanks!
David
Sportscardfun.com HOF member

How to write a good subject
Get into the habit of writing a good descriptive subject for your trade posts. Create a subject that gives the reader some of the basic information about the contents of your post. Try to include something additional that entices them to take the time to stop and read your message.

Here are some subjects that are not very helpful:
“I want to trade”
“Cards for trade”
“Trade!!”
“I really want to make some trades”

Here are a few examples of some good subjects:
“WTTF/WTT 99 Bowman Chrome. Need 1 card to finish this set! I will throw in a game used card of my choice if you have it!”

“**NEW LIST** of game used, autos and rookies for trade!”

“WTTF Greg Maddux Auto”

“Need help with 05 Donruss set – I have many from the same set to trade”

“WTTF vintage baseball – I have game used and newer autos for trade.”

How much should you post?
Each sports card trading group has their own rules as to the number of posts you can make in one day. At Sportscardfun.com, we limit our members to a maximum of 5 posts per day to any one trading board. We have found that 5 per day is more than most people need. There are several different strategies that you can play experiment with in order to maximize your posting.

Effective Sports Card Posting Strategies
1. List one card per post If you only need one card or have just one card for trade, you can be very specific in the subject of your post. This can be an effective method. For example:

Message Subject - WTT 2004 Upper Deck Derek Jeter Etched in Time Auto Black

Hello,
I have for trade a 2004 Upper Deck Derek Jeter Etched in Time Auto black. The book value is $150. I am looking to get 1 equally valued card in return and I only collect Albert Pujols.

Thanks,
Jim
155 Sportscardfun.com points

The draw back to using this method is that it will require you to make multiple postings if you have many cards that you want to trade. In the example above, you could try including your entire want list (if you have one) right down to the exact cards you are looking for.

2. List posts by player lots. If you have several player lots available for trade, post each lot as a separate message. Include your want list in the post as well. The word “lot” implies that you want to trade all of those cards as a group and not break them up. Be sure that you specify whether you are willing to break up the “lot”.

3. List your posts by other types of lots/lists. For example, rookie lots, game-used (GU) lots, autographed card lots, etc. This can be effective since some collectors only collect those types of cards and are looking specifically for these lists.

4. Post your entire want and trade list. Some collectors post gigantic lists of cards for trade or cards wanted in a single message. There are traders who love to scan large want and trade. It is also fun to see all of the different cards that people have. Keep your eye out for interesting lists of cards that appear to check over just for entertainment!

All of these methods can be effective. Chances are you will come up with an effective posting method of your own. No matter how you post, remember that generally, the more details you put in your message the better.

The fundamentals of sports card trade negotiating
Most baseball card collectors trade high book value for high book value, but this is not always the case and is one of the great things about trading. There will be times that someone might want a card that you have so much that he will happily trade in your favor.

Many traders come up with the following “like-card for like-card” trading system:

Autograph for autograph

Game used for game used

Rookie for rookie

Common for common

Etc.

Although many traders do use this “like-card for like-card” approach, some traders will trade autographs, game-used, and high-end cards for specific base (or common) cards that they need. It is not unusual for someone to exchange autos and game used for base cards of star players. Usually the person collecting base cards of the star will ask you to trade in his favor, such as $300 worth of base cards in exchange for 4 $25 dollar auto cards with a total value of $100. In other words, you give them $300 worth of the base cards they want and he will give you the 4 $25 autograph cards that you want.

Unbalanced Sports Card Trading
Trading in peoples favor or asking people to trade in your favor is a common phenomenon and will become something you do once you become familiar with negotiating a trade. If you are willing to trade in the other person's favor for a particular baseball card state that in your posts to the trading board. Often someone will offer that advantage when he needs only one card to complete a set. Many times, I have read postings stating, “I will trade in your favor for this 1 card” or “I will give you a game used card for this 1 common card that I need”. This is a great opportunity for you to not only help your fellow collector, but too also enhance your own collection by trading them a common card. Both traders walk away happy.

“Trade bait”
This is a good time to acquire “trade bait” that you can use to attract other sports card traders in future trades. There will be times when you encounter people who want something from you, but they have nothing you want from them in return. “Trade bait” is a card(s) that you trade for that you do not plan to keep for yourself, but you know that someone else will really want. Trading is fun and helping another trader get a baseball card from you that he needs is rewarding, so keep watching for good trade bait!

Do your share
Put a concerted effort into the negotiation process. It is tempting to try to make your trading partner do the bulk of the work involved in negotiating a trade. Do not let this happen. Read all messages carefully. Do the same with each others trading lists. If, when someone posts a baseball card for trade specifies what he wants in return. You answer with “see my page to see if there’s anything you want from me.” You have created an extra step. He has already told you what kind of sports cards he wants from you! A better way for you to handle this would be for you to take the time to find a few of the cards he might want and send him that list. If everyone does their share during the trade negotiation it makes for a much more efficient trading experience for all.

Do not get too many trades going at one time and stay organized!
Mistakes are most often made when too many trades are going at one time. Even the most organized baseball card traders can make a mistake when they have more than a few trades being negotiated at once. Take a few days off from trading once in a while and organize your cards. It will be helpful for you to go through your collection from time to time and inventory what you want to keep in your collection. Follow that with what you want to trade away and what you still need to acquirer. These down times are also a great opportunity to update your sports card trading web site.

Pulling Sports Cards
Pulling Cards and the subsequent putting them away again is one of the major activities involved in card collecting. You "pull" the card out of your stash in response to a posting that you have read from a fellow trader who is hoping to add on to his collection.

Baseball card collectors will post large lists of cards that they need for various sets. Picture this scenario. You see one of these messages and being the nice guy that you are decide to help out the collector. You then proceed to take an hour of your time to pull 255 cards off of his list out of your extras box from the same set. The next day you get an email message from the collector saying that he now only needs 5 of the cards on his list since he just completed a large trade with someone else. This can really be frustrating! Now you have got to spend another hour putting those cards away! Multiply this scenario by several different traders and several different sets, and you will wind up being surrounded by leaning stacks of cards only to have to file them again for future trades. Talk about a BIG waste of your time!

There are a couple of ways to avoid or at least minimize this situation. Here is a warning. First, do not pull any sports cards until you are absolutely sure that your fellow collector still needs them. After this is confirmed, let him know you are going to start pulling cards for him. If you know that you have a large percentage of cards that he needs, you should let him know. Ask him not to have anyone else pull cards for him until you are done. Second, clarify to him how long you will keep cards pulled; this will help reduce the stacks of cards piled on your work space. Many traders will pull cards and keep them pulled for 3 days only. They, tell those with whom they correspond that this is their procedure. They also inform the person that if they do not hear back from them within that time they will put the cards away and move on to another trade.

Provide Accurate Sports Card Information
Include as much information as possible about a card you want or have for trade when posting your message. Remember that some people sort their cards by set and number, others by year and player name. For example, let us say you collect rookie cards and post a message asking for rookie cards of Chipper Jones, Bernie Williams and Carlos Beltran. Be sure to at least include the years that those players were rookies! Ideally, you will also provide the sets that they have rookie cards in as well. When fellow traders have no clue where to begin to track down a card for you they will often not even bother trying. Keep this strategy in mind for all of the different cards you want to trade for; chances are you will wind up making a lot more trades!

Sports Card Condition
Take pride in the condition of the cards that you send to your fellow collectors. Mostly people assume that the cards they will receive will not be flawed; dinged, stained, damaged, chewed on, etc. It is a good idea for everyone to describe any obvious flaws in the sports cards they are offering before they confirm a trade! For some people, the exact condition of a card is very important. If you are one of those people, be sure to let the person you are trading with know! Others do not take the exact condition of a card as seriously. Clear communication is the key to success

Backing out
If you have spent time arranging a trade and both of you have agreed to the terms of the trade, try not to back out or suddenly change your mind. Some people have to spend hours finding cards in order to make a trade happen. Do not make them do all that work for nothing!

There are only a few good reasons to withdraw from an agreed-upon trade. For example, perhaps you realize that you do not have the cards to trade that you thought, or you cannot complete the trade due to unexpected life circumstances, or perhaps you begin to suspect you are dealing with a possible bad trader. As you become a more experienced sports card trader, you will start to develop a good sense of when something is not right. You should trust that “trade problem radar”. In most cases, backing out of a confirmed trade is irresponsible and wastes the time and energy of your fellow traders.

Do not give up after one offer
If everyone one gave up on a trade after making one offer, there would be very little baseball card trading going on. Haggling out a trade can actually be fun and is definitely something you need to learn to do. There will be many times that you will make trades on the first offer, but if someone says “no” to one of your offers do not give up! Try to find out what it would take to get the person with to say “yes”.

1. Do they want more book value from you?

2. Are they looking for something specific for the card they are trading away?

3. Do they only want one card in return?

You will probably need more information from them to decide if you can make the trade happen before giving up.

Keep those emails positive
Emails are limited in their ability to communicate emotions accurately. Remember this often during the negotiation process. Do not ruin a potentially good trading relationship by appearing rude, impatient, offended, etc. But if someone is being obnoxious, you should “take the high road” and politely move on to another trade.

Pick up the telephone!
If you are negotiating a large baseball card trade and need additional information, protection, and reassurance, you should consider using the telephone to facilitate the process. Here are a few additional reasons to ask for the telephone number of the person with whom you are trading:

1. Not all collectors check their email every day so having a telephone number is good idea if you find yourself needing to communicate with the person you are trading with.

2. A phone call is a great way to help resolve communication problems and misunderstandings.

3. The telephone is often the quickest way to reach the person you are trading with and seal the deal!

4. Speaking live with the person you are trading with can often help both collectors feel more comfortable about their trade.

MAKING THE TRADE
You have scanned the message board and found someone with whom you would like to trade. He has a football card that you want and you have made him a reasonable offer based on the clearly written message they have on the board. Since you are brand new to trading you have wisely decided to start with a low dollar trade of $5. You have also decided that you will keep making lower value trades until you gain more experience and a good reputation. You are the new kid on the block so the veteran trader you are trading with has asked you to send your cards to him first. He has informed you that once he receives your cards he will send you his to you. This is an important piece of the trade that we have not yet discussed in much detail: who sends when?

Who Sends Their Sports Cards When?
This important detail needs to be spelled out by both parties involved. If you are a new trader with limited good trader points or other online references, it should not surprise you when people request that you send your card to them first. Conversely, if you are a highly experienced trader with 300 good trader points, you should not hesitate to ask someone with 10-50 references/good trader points to send to you first. If you are the one with more points, do not just assume that the person with fewer points is going to send to you first. Do not just wait until you have received their cards before you send yours. You need to be specific as to exactly when you plan to send. It is not fair to the other trader for you to wait to send your sports cards unless that is what you have told them you plan to do.

When two traders have approximately the same amount of references, they should agree to send at the same time. This is usually the day after the trade has been confirmed. You must arrange this and not simply assume that the cards will be mailed the next day. Sometimes when a trade is confirmed, one person mails the next day, and the other forgets to mention that he has to leave town for a week. This will cause him to be unable to ship until he is back. Do not leave someone hanging. If you are leaving town, going into the hospital, or snowed-in, be sure to make it clear when you will be mailing your trading partner his sports cards! If something major does occur to prevent you from keeping your agreement, this is also a good time to contact the manager of the trading site.

Life Happens
Even though you thought you would be able to get those cards in the mail the next day, something comes up and you cannot. This is not a problem and happens to all of us, just be sure to let your trading partner know! There have been innumerable times that something serious has happened to a member of our sports card trading site including death, homes burning down, illness, etc., and the other members of the site rally around them. However, if you do not let somebody know about your personal crisis you are jeopardizing your reputation as a good trader.

Computer Crashed! (Have a back-up in place)
Sometimes the people you are trading with will seem to disappear, do not panic. If you have done your smart trader homework, the chances are good that all will be alright. Just as I mentioned in the “Life Happens” section above, hardware and software problems happen to people as well. It is important for all sports card traders to at least have access to another computer. Even if you can only access your back up computer long enough to contact the person who runs the site. This way you can let them know that you are having some computer problems and have some trades in progress that you will take care of once you are back up and running. These days it is fairly easy to find a computer you can access if yours is down and you need to send some email.

You will want to have a back-up email account set-up as well. You can get free back-up email account from numerous services including Yahoo and Hotmail. These free email accounts come with an address book. You should put the email addresses of the site manager and a few fellow traders into that address book in the event that you need to reach them. Being a good sports card trader means you will take the time and make the effort to keep the people you are trading with well informed. Take an easy step to being a great trader and set-up a back-up email account and access to a another computer today!

Chapter 4 - Packing and shipping