Sometimes my trades make people wonder, "how does this guy sleep at night"!? Is it right to take a trade that is in your favor? How much you can make on a trade without being immoral? What is the limit? These are tough questions that anyone with a conscience wrestles with each time they trade.
Let me start our discussion with a question - If you won an auction for NM Tropical Island on Ebay with a bid of $10, would you make sure that you sent the seller the extra $40? I get the feeling that not a single person would send more than they were obligated to. Couldn’t you say that you “ripped that seller off'? You might defend your position by saying, surely, the seller understands the way that Ebay works when they list products. We automatically assign a level of responsibility to anyone selling products. We expect that they know the value of their inventory and that they enter the market with a basic understanding of commerce. Why don't we don’t do the same for those who trade?
There is an old saying, "if you can’t stand the heat, then get out of the kitchen". If you are concerned with card prices, and some people actually don’t care, then you should know the price of the cards in your binder and the price of the cards that you are looking to acquire. If you don’t know that info then I suggest that you either don’t enter the market, or that you be prepared to lose value during trading. This unearths a curious question. What does it mean to “lose value”?
Value is really an elusive thing to measure. Let’s go back to a simpler time when you first started playing magic. You don’t even want to know what I traded for my playset of Royal Assassins, but that card was so good in my playgroup. It was later trumped by Ward Sliver which was a huge innovation for my friend's Sliver deck against my mono black deck. These cards are not selling for much money, but we would have paid whatever the price was because we wanted those cards. Was it wrong for some guy to take my Tarmogoyf in exchange for his Royal Assassin? I don’t think so, nor do I care. The Tarmogoyf would have sat in my box somewhere, while the Royal Assassin was knifing Sliver guts all over the table. The moral of the story? Everybody values cards differently.
We have guidelines due to online stores to help us understand what the market will pay for a certain card, but at the end of the day these are just offers from online retailers. If we all decided not to buy cards at the listed price then stores would be forced to lower the prices. This means that individuals define card prices. This is even more apparent when you are dealing with a smaller market with smaller demand. As some of you know I roll with the “pimp” crowd which means that I am in the market for really rare cards. Let me help you put this in perspective. How much is a Signed Korean Mox Diamond? Go ahead, I’ll give you some time to look it up.
Do you give up? The answer is simply whatever I am willing to pay. When there is no price guide it reveals the true source of prices, which is whatever the market will bear. It’s a truth that my grandpa shared with me long ago. “Nothing is worth anything, unless you have a buyer. Then its worth whatever they will pay.” This same phenomenon happens when a card is rapidly rising in value. A recent example is Stoneforge Mystic. The card was $2 when it first came out. Then the week after the Pro Tour, everyone wanted them. If you checked a price guide on Monday after the pro tour, chances are that it would list the card at $2. Should I have traded them at $2? No way! After the strong showing at the Pro Tour, everyone knew that the card was worth more than the price guide indicated. I traded them at $8 all day long. People needed them and I was not willing to accept the price guide value on them. Was I ripping people off?
It’s a slippery slope. If you believe that I was ripping people off then you don’t respect market knowledge and trading for expected value, which is ironic because that is the only way to do a trade by price guides and turn a profit. If you say that it was ok for me to trade them highly, then you agree that it is the person, not the price guide, that is the ultimate source of valuations. I view every trade as its own little “isolated market”. It’s like you and your trade partner are the only two on earth and whatever price you agree on is the price.
People seem to forget that a trade is a negotiation and no one is forcing anyone to do anything. I encourage people to find a trade that works for both parties regardless of the “price”. Typically people trade because they need cards. I trade for profit, I don’t need cards. What I do is a service by providing a solution to people who need cards. Furthermore, I allow people to use their cards as currency to get what they need. I surrender my time, my attention and knowledge to develop a solid binder for people to “shop”. This is my way of supporting the community, but I have to turn a profit so that I can continue in my endeavors.
I want to make it clear that I do not condone lying to your trade partner to get a deal. You have to be honest with the people that you trade with. I always ask my trade partner what they value cards at and try to find a compatible match with what I value cards at, but if someone asked me if I know what a card is selling for, I will be more than happy to tell them. I will follow it up with, “but that is not what I am offering on it.” Here is an example:
I have a Jace, the Mind Sculptor for trade. Fictitious character Spike wants the card. I open his binder and start perusing the pages. I see some Fetches and a Vampire Nocturnus.
Me: What do you value the Jace at?
Spike: Like $50.
Me: Ok. (I always say ok, because pricing is relative).
Spike: Do you see anything?
Me: I am interested in the Fetches, what do you value them at?
Spike: I don’t know, What do they go for?
Me: I have seen them as high as $12 but I can’t give you more than $6 each.
Spike has to decide how badly he wants the Jace. I know that I can get a lot of cards for my Jace because he is in high demand, so there is no reason for me to “cut Spike a deal”. Some people may say that I am ripping Spike off, but how many people are going to look through Spike's binder and gather a random stack of cards for a Jace?
When all is said and done, remember that we are talking about cardboard here, not actual currency. The only reason that it’s worth something is because you and I both want it. It should stand to reason then, that when you and I meet a table and we agree on a deal then it’s impossible for either of us to get ripped off. Since we both got what we wanted and we both reconciled the value with our own measure. Be honest, have fun and make a newb happy with some free cards to get him started. Thanks for reading.
JM
