Anime Collections – Trading Cards and Trading
part 3 of 5

Buying cards new means you get a major chunk of what you need for a set all together, and you get rare and special cards too. But you usually end up with a stack of extra common cards you don't need, and you still need more single cards to complete your set! What can you do, other than buying five boxes of one set? Or if you have one of those sets with 18 special cards and you have to buy five boxes anyway, what can you do to turn your massive amounts of extra cards into something useful for you?

That's where card trading comes in!

There are people scattered throughout the United States, Canada, and different countries like Italy, England, Australia, Germany, Singapore, Thailand, France, Switzerland and Brazil, who communicate with each other and send cards back and forth to complete their sets. One mailing list, the anime cards mailing list, allows discussion of anything card-related, from postcards to idol cards, pencil boards to trading cards and shitajiki. How do you find these people to trade with them?

Join a group! The Animecards mailing list at yahoogroups.com had over 200 members when I first wrote this in 2000, and currently has over 330 members, and allows posts of sale or trade requests for anything related to card trading, including shitajiki, idol cards, and cassette indexes. Join and look over the posts for a couple of weeks to get a good idea of what's considered polite and normal interaction – members also often post their own site URL's online. You can read a log of past posts to get up to speed fast on what goes on in the forum – from people's opinions on different related topics to questions and answers about sets and people looking for new friends to trade a certain set of cards.

Make a site! Here are some things to keep in mind:

  • It is most important that your page loads quickly, is easy to read, and is not so cluttered with extraneous references, links and images that people can hardly read it.
  • Make sure your site lists your trading rules (and don't make them absurdly difficult or high hurdles – read other pages for good examples), your series, wants and needs.
  • Make sure you remember to put a way to contact you on your site! A beautiful list can be very frustrating if there's no way to get in touch with the owner.
  • Keep your lists up to date! You can embarrass yourself badly by agreeing to trades you don't have cards for although they're listed on your page. Alternately, maintaining a good up to date page lets you use your own site as a reference when you see something really good on someone else's site that you're not sure you have.
  • Make sure your site is very clear about the set name, type, date and maker (i.e. Rayearth PP 1 Kodansha 1995) – if you have Sailor Moon cards and don't know if they're Japanese or Hong Kong release, scan the front and back and post it next to your description along with any questions you may have, because Sailor Moon collectors can be furious to receive the more common and less valuable HK cards when they're trying to complete their Japanese set.
  • Make sure your description of your series is clear enough to avoid any confusion. Don't post 'Wants – Sailor Moon card 132.' There are dozens of Sailor Moon sets, so someone might send you the wrong thing and then you're stuck trying to reverse the trade, or just stuck with the card if the other person doesn't want to trade back. Similarly, don't post 'Wants - PP4 card 35' which doesn't say for what show. This listing ought to say the series, card type (pp, vending, etc), maker and year at a minimum.
  • Do double and then triple check card numbers in your trades – don't pull and send them when you're tired or you may send the wrong thing. I've actually sent out my only copy of a card before from my own set because I agreed to a trade and then realized later that I'd messed up and didn't have a duplicate, but thought I should live up to the trade I agreed to.
  • Send in good time – most people expect you to send cards within a couple of days from when you agree to.
  • Please don't put your site up until it's ready, and then don't put an 'under construction, changing our look' sign up and bar access to the page when you work on it! Just design the new page and put it up when it's ready. Otherwise people who are interested in trading will find your site once and never come back because nothing is there.
  • Pleeeeease don't put up a sign promising an update in a week and then not get it done for two years!
  • Look online for other people's trading lists! Good sites online that list many different places to go:

    Anime Card Trader Spiffy site run by Sara, open to new posts if you have a site to list – does not take commercial sites, only individual traders
    Anime Cards Webring Run by Ixion, 67 member sites
    New Anime Cards Webring Run by Noriko at darkharbor, 59 member sites last time I checked

    The link pages are noteworthy because the owners don't get anything out of making them – they put in their time and trouble just because they like making something good and useful for the community. That's cool! If you start from one of the sites that has a lot of page links on it and go to look at each site out there, you'll also find that many individual pages have links to yet more pages belonging to their friends and card suppliers.

    Some good sites online are individual's pages but list over 60 different sets each (and some far more) and items outside of the Sailor Moon and Dragonball cards you'll find on the majority of pages. Some of these I've traded with to good effect, others I've just come across recently and can't give any opinion:

    Aino Casey and Marisa even visit Japan to expand their collections, so they often have nifty, offbeat and unusual cards in addition to the basics
    House of Sheishun Sheishun and her mom Lambsie collect an amazing number of sets, and are darling people to trade with
    MVMina Very nice and trustworthy trader
    Arcadia's Trading Card List
    JiJi's Anime Cards
    mine (disclaimer: this site is mine) Includes sets for sale and other stationery trading items, but has been down in 2006 due to a major fall. just starting up again.

    Sometimes these individual sites will have full common or common/rare/special sets available for sale in addition to many single cards for trades, and sometimes they'll offer their single cards for either sale or trade too. If the site says that cards are not for sale, don't bug them to sell them!

    Once you find something you want and something you have that they need, then what? à

    Card Trading Etiquette, and how to approach things to make yourself and the other person happy with the trade

    Read the trading rules and the notes on any trading page you come to before you start asking for trades, because some of what you may be asking about, like whether they trade down or whether they sell cards, is already addressed on their site. When you know their expectations and you have a good list in hand of what you have that they need and what they have that you need, send them an email asking whether a trade is possible. This should always be a request, not a demand – it's up to them what they're willing to do with their cards.

    Keep your trading expectations low and be happy when things work out for the best. Don't go into it expecting people to trade their hard-won and scrounged special cards for your commons. Few people are willing to make a trade of an SP for commons – those who are have either completed the set other than a few commons or are very giving human beings (or ones without much thought for the next SP they need). Think of it this way – in one card box I opened recently, I found 3 SP cards, 12 rare cards, and 140 common cards. So for the amount of money split between cards, one sp is worth 4 rares is worth 46 commons. Those people who do trade SP's for commons will often do it for only about 10-20 commons. But many people won't, and with good reason.

    Trading different kinds of items can be a little tough. I've traded commons for cassette indexes, idol cards for rares, pp cards toward box SP's, and trading stickers toward stuffed dolls. Obviously, a currency converter would be very helpful! Some people already have a little chart on their page of how much they value different things at, at least within the normal range of pp commons, pp prisms, box commons, box rares, box specials and so forth, and that can help you to get an idea of how to convert things. But some people trade higher and some lower, trading tendencies may change based on their mood, and everyone has some things they want more than others, so you'll always be working things out with your trading partner to your mutual satisfaction. This means that any trade for something that's not a straight across trade of the same number and type for the same number and type is going to involve a little back-and-forth discussion between the two trading partners.

    When trading with someone, be polite. If they make a suggestion you think is absurd, there's no need to be upset, just say 'I'm sorry, that's not in a range I would consider for this item.' Or something similarly calm and still polite even while you're saying no. If you ask someone to drop a trade request they're usually good about doing so. If you make a trade request and someone tells you no, it's not an insult, they're just not interested in your offer.

    Try to be a little generous in your offers – follow the two tits for one tat rule. Scientists have found societies work best when instead of playing 'tit for tat,' they think more generously about their compatriots' intentions. If someone does you good, do them good. If they do you bad, do them good, and if they do you bad twice, write them off. Now, this doesn't mean being a doormat – if cards don't arrive from someone who owes them to you, they might not have been sent or they might have been lost in the mail, and they'll need to talk to you about how to make it good.* It's a good idea to make it clear before you send the cards who is responsible if they are lost in the mail, and it's an extremely good idea to get insurance on irreplaceable cards when mailing. If the person insults you or refuses to answer you when you ask what happened, that's a second bad, and you may want to reconsider whether you want to try any further deals with this person.

    Generally speaking, I try never to do large deals with a new trading partner. I test them out on some smaller ones first and while we're making those trades we also get to know each other, so we're used to each others' trading style when we try something larger. I often offer a little more than I ask – the deals I offer are geared to be at least as fair, and preferably more so, to the person I'm dealing with, than they are to me. Not only does this really increase my success rate (and achieve the goal of filling in those blank card slots in any given set), but I find that frequently the other person starts returning the favor in subtle ways, asking less for something rare or packing in nifty freebies when they send my new cards. If you get into a situation where one or both parties are trying to gouge each other, it's a really unpleasant experience. A situation where both parties are trying to make the other happy can result in a wonderful and very productive trading relationship!

    *Insurance! If you're sending anything that you can't easily replace if it gets lost, get insurance on the package! If you don't know the other person well enough to trust them about whether the cards arrived or not and they're valuable cards, you can also get a delivery receipt for pretty cheap. When packing cards for shipping, more is better. I've had the post office mangle #10 envelopes I sent, or squeeze and squash them so badly that the card protector inside fell out and only the envelope arrived at its destination! A card protector is a minimum requirement to make sure cards arrive safely – some people use cardboard instead to make the envelope firm enough to survive the trip with its contents intact. Because of increasing damage and missing items on delivery, I've gone almost entirely to sending padded envelopes instead of #10's, and use hard card protectors inside as well. These envelopes are big enough they're harder to lose, I guess, because my damage and loss rate has gone way down, and I do get insurance now on any card sets I send out or any packages of SP cards that are worth a lot.

    Whatever you do, Don't Make Bad Trades – your reputation will spread and you will have a much harder time finding good ones. Don't promise to send cards and then never get around to it even when you've received ones in trade. Don't make agreements and then not keep them on your whim – traders will remember this and it will affect how good of a deal they give you on later trades as well as your trading reputation. I've written people off my trading list after they offered me cards in return for what I had, I pulled the ones they needed and then they told me they'd traded the ones I was expecting to someone else in the course of a single day, and would I be willing to sell these ones to them instead! In the meantime, I may have turned down another trade for the same item since I was told by the first person that they had what I needed and were offering it to me in return for what they needed. Once you offer a card to someone, pull it out of your active trading pile until you know whether the deal has been completed or refused – it saves your trading partners a lot of trouble and can save you a lot too if you don't want to double-promise a card.

    Trading can help you complete your sets, or even to get a foothold on brand new sets by trading across for series you don't have yet, which reduces costs in a different way. There is one other way of getting rid of extra cards that makes a little dent in your costs, if trading doesn't work out - selling your cards.

    You can mark your cards for sale through your web site – in this case, just add a note that, for instance, singles can be purchased for $.XX amount each plus shipping. Don't make shipping a ridiculous amount. If you sell things through your web site they can sit around for ages with no interest from anyone, but there aren't any associated fees aside from web space cost. You can also post a note to any related mailing list you're on that allows this kind of notice, to let other people know what you have and for how much.

    You can also sell through auctions – in this case there are several things to think about, here's a start on a few. And no, I don't take any liability whatsoever for anything you do through an auction (or anything you do in a trade either, for that matter) – it's up to you to read the auction site rules and use your common sense. This is just a list of thoughts that might help.

  • Consider where you want to sell. Look at rules and posting fees and consider the size of the market. Most card auctions at this time are done through ebay or yahoo.
  • When you do post cards for sale, be careful about minimum bids. If you set them too high, no one will bid. If you set them too low, you may not cover your auction fees, much less what the cards are worth.
  • Be careful about posting small lots where fees add up. It doesn't do much good to sell 15 cards for $.50 each when the fee on each one is $.30 plus 5%. Do you really need any additional things like bold face listings? Not when your cards are likely to sell for $1.50 and the bold face costs $1.
  • Be careful about lot sizes in general. Too small and you have the problem above. Too large and you won't get as much for each card individually.
  • Be as detailed and complete as possible in your listing description. Make sure you say what the card set series is, the date and manufacturer of the set, the number of cards included, and the card numbers included. Note whether the cards are in mint, new/mint, excellent, very good, good or poor condition. Be exacting, if you're not sure it's new mint or excellent, don't call it that. If there is any noticeable damage whatsoever on any of the cards, make sure you state it, or you can have problems with people who feel (accurately) that they didn't get what they expected. Many people will even note in particular whether a PP set metallic is one from the front of the card pack, because that often means a line across the middle from where the rubber band rubbed, tiny indentations at the side, and a mark at the top where there is glue from the tape, or marks from trying to remove the tape. Sometimes front cards have dents and dings in them from being outside the pack too, and people will state that specifically if so. It saves a great deal of possible angst after the auction.
  • Consider what your time is worth. If you can sell 10 lots of 9 cards and make $.35 per card, you've made $35.00. The same lot as a single lot of 90 cards might go for $25. But you also need to add up the 10 separate auction fees for comparison, and then the time involved. Doing auctions properly can take quite a while not only to write and post your auctions but to correspond with the bidders, do followup, and mail and possibly do followup on the item itself. Think about how much time it takes to post the items in 10 separate auctions, talk to up to 10 auction winners and ship for them all separately. Is the additional time worth more than $10? If so, maybe you're better off taking a lower price for one lot, especially as ebay raises posting costs. If your time is cheap, your wallet is thin and the auction fee percentages are low, it may be worth posting them all separately.
  • Be careful about accepting some forms of payment. Money orders are vastly more safe than checks, when one bounced check fee can wipe out your income from a dozen small auctions. Buyers can get money orders at the post office for a small fee (under a dollar), at grocery stores, or can get them at their banks, often at no charge if they have an account. Be aware that international money orders can bounce! One buyer who sent a Canadian money order to me had their Card Captor Sakura box shipped out the same day, and then I discovered to my dismay that a money order can be rubber. I was never paid for the box, and I now require U.S. Postal money orders only to pay by this method.

    Paypal means fast easy payment but also has fees and it's a legal question whether it's appropriate to charge these fees back to the purchaser, because there are laws on the books saying that vendors can't discriminate against credit card users by charging them additional fees that other people aren't charged, but paypal doesn't accept only credit cards, it also takes bank drafts and maintained accounts so this practice is not discriminatory as long as it is applied against all types of transactions through paypal. Ebay has specifically outlawed additional fees for using paypal and other credit transfer services because of the question of whether it's legal.

  • Think about whether you want to allow people from outside the US and Canada to bid on your auctions. Payments can take longer to come in, and you can end up with problems if your shipment out doesn't make it to the bidder. Some countries accept one kind of mail, others don't, and fees for registration and return receipts can be high, while insurance to some places isn't possible. I've had the worst problems with items lost or stolen when mailing to Hong Kong, and about half my mail to and from Italy is either delayed for months or arrives obviously cut open and rummaged through. I no longer accept auction bids from anywhere other than North America, though I still do some personal trading with friends in Italy. Hong Kong I've just about given up on except for purchases where they can take electronic drafts. Everyone has their own experiences, and someone else's list of problematic countries for mailing might differ from my own. (An updated note as of 2007 - after a run of bad luck, many postal systems seem to have tightened up and I do ship world wide now, but not without confirmation receipt, which usually means a more expensive shipping option.)
  • Communicate well. When people ask you questions during the auction, answer them before the auction ends, and when the auction ends, send people complete instructions on what they need to do to get payment to you and when it is due, within a day after auction close. When they get payment to you, sent out their items within another day or two (depending on whether it's a holiday or the next day is Sunday, etc.). If there are any problems, let them know what's going on and work it out immediately!
  • Keep good records! Otherwise when payment arrives you may not know for what, or if people ask you when you sent their item out you may not have a record of it. And if you need to make an insurance claim you'll need as much information as possible together with your insurance receipt.
  • Don't expect incoming fees to cover your trading card costs. It's expensive enough that they usually won't, and very few sets will sell for much. But they can help to make a little dent.
  • Where ever possible, include a picture in your auction of at least a few of the cards. It helps people to see whether the art style is one they like even if they've never heard of the series before, and it reassures and interests people who already know the set with a splash of color.
  • Otherwise, just read through every tutorial you can find on the auction site and go from there. ^_^


    • I hope this series has helped you to think about whether you want to get into trading card collecting, and if so, how to do it for minimal stress on your mind, heart and wallet! I'll have a little followup with a tutorial on some specialized types of 'cards' to collect in the next installment – idol/lami cards and shitajiki!

    Anime cards part 1, 2, 4 and 5,are right through here!