How to Trade

Set Up your Trading Log

Everything that you do on 5x5 TCG must be recorded on your trading log! This means that every card you receive (whether through update freebies, games or trades) must be written down on your trading log, so that we can check that you're playing the game fairly!

Example trading log:

JANUARY

2008/Jan/15: card08, card09, token05, photo02 for Mastering Deck A
2008/Jan/06: traded card03 for card07 with Member B
2008/Jan/05:Game Prizes:
card04, token03 from Memory
card05, card06, token04 from Guess the Intro
2008/Jan/01: card01, card02, card03, token01, token02, photo01 from Starter Pack


Organizing Your Cards

You've just received your starter pack and you're mega excited about trading! That's fantastic, so let us first organize your trading page for easy access.

You will need two distinct sections for your cards:

COLLECTING:
These cards are the ones from the decks which you most want to collect.
These cards are NOT FOR TRADE to other members.

TRADING:
These cards are the ones which you would like to trade with other members for more cards from the decks in your collecting or keeping or might trade sections.

Most members will also have other sections for the cards in-between! They are commonly named:

KEEPING:
These cards are from decks which you are definitely planning to collect in the future.
These cards are NOT FOR TRADE to other members.

MIGHT TRADE:
These cards are usually up for trade ONLY for cards which you are currently collecting.

PENDING TRADES:
These cards are the ones which you are currently offering to another member in a trade.
As a general rule, DO NOT ask for cards in the Pending section.

>> Also, make sure that you put your email address on your trading page! This makes it easier for other members to contact you!


Asking for a Trade

Now that your cards are neatly organized, it's time to go through the members list and seek out some trades!

>> Example (where you are Member A and the member you wish to trade with is Member B):

Upon stumbling upon Member B's TCG page, you find that they have a card (Card A) from a deck which you are collecting! You then check your own Trading section of your TCG page and find that you have a card (Card B) which they are missing from a deck which they are collecting.

The perfect chance to offer them a trade! :D

Many traders also have trade forms on their pages, or comments on their Livejournals, but for this example, we will use email - since every trader on 5x5 has their email address listed on the members page!

You can email them in any way you like, but if you're a little bit stuck on what to say, here is a very basic message template:

Hi (Member B)!

Would you possibly consider trading your (Card A) for my (Card B)?

Thank you for your time. :D

[Your Name] & [Your TCG page URL]



It is important to be polite whenever asking for a trade! Members will quite often remember their past interactions with you, so the smoother your trades go, the more likely they will want to trade with you in the future. ^___^

>> You do not have to accept every trade offer. If you receive a contact message for a trade which you do not agree on, you can decline the trade offer. However, this does not mean that you can just ignore the trade offer. Make sure that you reply politely to the other member because no one likes to be left hanging for a response! A short, "I'm sorry, but I'm not looking to trade this card at the moment" is absolutely fine as an answer.

To avoid having your trade offers rejected, make sure that you look properly at Member B's collecting card section and offer them cards which they are currently seeking! Most traders will not refuse an offer to be given a card from one of they decks that they are collecting. ^o)


Accepting a Trade Offer

If you're happy with a trade offer from another member, you need to reply to their email and attach the cards which they have requested from your trading page. It's important for you to attach these cards because (especially in the case of a trade that involves several cards), it is unfair to make the member you're trading with go through the deck pages to find the cards which they have requested from you.

Once you have replied to their email, move these cards into your Pending cards section. This ensures that other traders will not ask for these cards when browsing through your TCG page.

Once the member you've traded with replies to your email with the cards that they offered to you, you must then delete the cards from the Pending section of your page.


Logging your Trades

After deleting the cards which you've traded away, you can now add the cards which you've received from the trade to the appropriate sections of your page! :D

The last step of the trading process is to log which cards you traded and with which member.

>> Example: 2008.01.01: Card B for Card A from Member B

I cannot stress how important it is for you to keep your trading logs updated! When we process your deck masteries, we will be checking how exactly you managed to get all the cards from that deck. If you've only listed how you got 8 out of the 10 cards you have in your deck collection, you will not be given your mastery (something which none of us wants to have happen!).

And that's how trading works! The more you get involved in trading, the quicker you will familiarize yourself with the processes. Happy trading everyone! :D



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