In the last installment we covered some retail locations. This time around let’s look at Internet trading. Despite the lackluster reputation of the Net, there are plenty of great people out there – gaming enthusiasts like you and I. But, just as in day-to-day life, you’ll want to keep your wits about you while you get out there and conduct business.
Internet Trading Sites
Location: Internet Traders
Phase Relevant: All – you can set up bulk trades early on (from people that picked up duplicates from their own collecting) and swap rare titles later on to finish up a set.
You’re likely find: Many games, personal have/want lists, and several types of traders (some good, some bad):
1) Enthusiasts that want to share their love of the hobby with beginners (these people are awesome and you should make friends with them)
2) Snarky trolls that will try to derail open trade threads (best to just ignore these people instead of getting into arguments with them)
3) Game hoarders (or speculators) that seem to overvalue their items (best to shy away from these to avoid aggravation).
Strategy: While I’d recommend auction sites for getting the common games out of the way (from bulk auctions), you can also buy up collections at different stages from forums on trading sites. Often people just decide to move on or lose interest in a system and move to another. Most of the time they will want to be paid (i.e. PayPal) instead of trading. And, in these cases, they’ll often discount their prices below eBay (sort of expected by the community). I’ve had great success in picking up bulk games these sites.
Warning: Make sure the other party is trustworthy (as much as you can) and if they’re not, don’t overdo it on a trade. Don’t allow your greed to overrule your common sense. If a trade is too good to be true, it undoubtedly is. If it’s not clear from their rating (i.e. they have a good rating but not trades for a long time) be cautious. Regardless of the circumstance, make sure expectations are clear before the trade starts (meaning delivery dates and conditions are listed and agreed upon). Often, you get what you pay for when it comes to condition. Remember that reputation is not just how honest the person is. It’s how well they conduct business.
General Tips: If you start on one of these sites, prepare to send first (that’s usually the rule and it’s a common sense one). As in life, reputation is something that’s slowly built and can be lost easily. Unless you’re buying bulk items, you’re going to want to start small and build up, growing your reputation as you make trades. This will eventually enable you to request others (new people without feedback) to send first, and will also give you time to meet people and build the long-term relationships that lead to great trades. Of course when both parties have a good reputation, both are expected to send simultaneously and that’s great because everyone gets their items quicker.
Law of Averages: I don’t want to alarm you or discourage you from trading (because it can be a great resource), but somewhere in the back of your mind be prepared to be occasionally ripped off. If you’re very careful it may only happen once in a hundred trades, but it happens – just like with auction sites. I’ve dealt with people with stellar reputations that suddenly have a life crisis and can’t make their deliveries. In these cases keep positive but stern. Don’t make accusations until you have the full picture, but don’t drag things out. If someone drops off the face of the Earth, contact the site administration and get the bad trader’s name out there for others to see.
Negotiations: Be mindful of the notion of trading up when going for rare or expensive games. Say you and the other trader each have an equal dollar-amount of games you’re trading, but all of your games are worth $1 each (and he’s got several $20 games). This is a case where it’s reasonable for the other trader to ask you to come up a little on your offer. The reason for this is that the $20 games are more easily-tradable than the $1 games. And usually cash or online credit counts for even more – since it’s more liquid (more useful in purchases/trade) than games. The same can work in your favor if you’re trading your $20+ game for some common titles. It’s not always done, but it’s just something to consider during negotiations.
PayPal Gift vs. PayPal Goods: This has been a point of contention between different trading sites. PayPal offers two options for sending funds. One is a gift – such as sending money to a friend (which isn’t applicable to a fee). The bad is that if you don’t receive what you paid for, there’s no assistance (you can’t get a forced refund through PayPal). Sending for goods on the other hand will force the fee onto the seller and you will be “protected” in the case of a dispute. I believe this is overstated as I’ll explain.
The policy on NintendoAge is that all PayPal should be done as goods. On GameTZ (at last I was active there), the community expects to be paid as gift (and without mention of items purchased). Keep this in mind if you’re doing trades using money instead of a trade of goods.
Despite NintendoAge touting that goods purchases are covered by PayPal, I’ll relate a contrary personal experience. I bought $100+ worth of reproduction carts from a reputable seller on NintendoAge. The seller was overwhelmed with life issues and I never received the items. Due to the time it took to figure all of this out (from slow communications), I had no recourse through PayPal. The lesson of this story is that whether it’s goods or gift, you’re still betting money on a person and you will occasionally be ripped off. So make sure the risk is small to begin with.
Jonathan Chapman (@UrzasRage on Twitter)