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Guide to Trading Online
By Dark Marik
 

March 10, 2009

Article #4: Confirmation of a Trade

            Confirming a trade is the same as signing your name on a contract. Once you sign it you must fulfill that contract, and if you do not, you must pay the consequences. Basically that is how all contracts work in the real world, and if you are one of those people who believe a contract is “a load of crap,” then you are wrong, and just look at what happened to Upper Deck when they broke the details of their contract with Konami. By breaching your contract with your trading partner, they can do many things in which you will not like, as described in the last article, which I am sure none of you want to be titled a ripper, cheater, thief, or worst names on the boards or in life.

This may sound scary, however what counts as confirming a trade? That answer is very easy, a trade is not confirmed until both users have contacted each other back and forth via Private Messages (On the message board), also known as PMs, and have signed their name by giving the other person their full address or mailing location. Once both users have sent their address, the trade is confirmed, and the contract must be fulfilled. It is not in effect unless both users have replied with their addresses.

What if they take a week to reply with their address and I have assumed they did not want to do the deal anymore? Good question, to answer that, you have to go with your own instincts, and decide how long you are willing to wait. I personally believe anything after 48 hours is too long, and the deal is off, if they do wait too long, you have a valid claim to rescind the trade if needed and they decide they want to fight back by leaving negative references on your I-trader. Just inform the Pojo Trading Committee of the problem and they will take care of it.

      When writing up the contents of your deal it is important to include all details of your trade in the body of the contract. This is important whether it is a detailed contract or not. These details include the condition of the cards, the quantity of each card, the edition of the cards, rarity, booster set, who will be sending first, if a mod trade or delivery confirmation will be used, and any other details needed to fulfill the trade. To escape confusion it is best to delete unneeded content from the message so nothing else will be included. If a counter-offer is made, that is declining the original contract, and a new one must be made so, it is best to ask one last time before if what you have down is correct before signing the contract with your address.

      Once you have confirmed your contract it is final, and nothing will change after it has been confirmed, unless both parties agree to the new terms. An example would be if you have 28 references before a trade starts, and your trading partner has 30 references when the trade is confirmed. You tell them you will send out on Thursday, which is two days away, however on Wednesday you receive three positive references from previous trades that were completed on that day, giving you an I-trader rating of 31. You tell your trading partner that now that your I-Trader is higher then his, you want him to send first, however unless he agrees to these terms, he is not obligated to send first because at the time of confirmation, he had more references then you had, so by the content of the contract you must still send first.

      Another situation is when the condition of cards comes up. Say you confirm a trade with someone, for their Mirror Force from the Metal Raiders booster pack. You are excited about getting your new card and a week later you receive the package containing your card. You rip it open and see that the card is not what was described to you, it is severely creased across the front, and contains a lot of side damage (also known as edge wear).  You send a message to your trading partner, and you didn’t ask about its condition, so I assumed you did not care. Now this is not legal by any means in any situation, unless it is part of the original contract. It is the responsibility of your trading partner to notify you of any damages, defects, etc of a card before they confirm the trade. Since the card is not in stated condition they can ether to do a reverse on the trade, or they can pay up for the damages (in ether cards or money). If they simply ignore you, you do have a legal clause against them, and if it was of enough value (say a Shonen Jump Championship Promo), you could take them to court.

This also is the same if you confirm a trade for a Snipe Hunter, giving them an expensive card, and then in exchange they send you a common version of the card, and then they say “You never asked for the Champion Pack Version, so I assumed you wanted a common one.” Rarity, Language, condition, edition and version are all important things that should be discussed before confirming a trade. However there are some exceptions that could be used in defense of the person.

The First one is if they clearly stated it was not mint, and you just didn’t bother to read it. That is your own fault. If you originally posted on their trading thread, and it was clearly labeled as “Non-Mint,” and you offered for it anyway, it is assumed that you knew of the condition of the card. This also applies for cards in other languages, if you have a Japanese Dark Armed Dragon, and it is clearly labeled as “Japanese” on your trade thread and someone offers for it on your trade thread, it is counted as “they know,” and it is their own fault for offering and confirming a trade for a card they knew was not what they wanted. It is best to ask all the details about a card before you confirm the deal, so these problems do not come up, this way none of the above situations may occur.

Now what happens if my trading partner becomes banned from trading while we have a trade confirmed? It is possible that the person you are trading with will end up with a negative reference from a moderator on the Trading Committee stating “This User Is Banned from Trading,” or something similar to that notion, which can occur from a number of different ways. However, when this occurs, you are not exempt from your contract. That reference means that person is bared from starting new trades, however trades currently in progress are allowed to go on as intended, and you must fulfill your end of the contract, even if that person would receive your end first. You can back out of your deal, at your own consequences however. This does not apply if you are sending first to someone who has been posted on the “Rippers List” at the top of each trading forum. If you confirm with one of the moderators that someone from this list is your trading partner, your contract is now void and you are able to back out without any risks for negative references.

Another way out of a trading contact is when the person sending first takes more then thirty consecutive days to send their end, and cannot provide proof to their transaction (as explained in article #2), hence breaking the Thirty-Day Rule. Once thirty days has expired, the trade is now void, and you do not have to keep hold on the cards in your offer for this person. You may now complain about their breach of contract as well.

An unacceptable recession of the contract is to say you did not have internet service, so you could not send out your end of the deal because you did not have internet. This could be because you did not pay your internet bills, loss of electricity, etc, it does not matter for what reason, if you are in a deal, and these conditions are possible it is wise to ether write down their address on paper, or even get their phone number so you could call them if something happens. Remember almost all public libraries and schools offer internet service for free, so it is not hard to get online. No matter what happens, you are still responsible for the trade, and if you do no fulfill your end, you must pay the consequences.

Once both ends are completed, it is best to store your contracts for at least sixty days after completion for proof of the transaction. This here has hurt me in the past, and I have learned from my mistake, and now store all trades offline in a special folder so it does not exceed my inbox limitations and cause an overflow. It is very simple to export the contents of your inbox, at the bottom of your Pojo.com inbox there is an option that says “Download all Private Messages as:” and gives you three options to choose from. I personally choose text, which opens up in Word Pad, a program which all Microsoft Windows computers have when you purchase them. It is easy to convert the contents of Word Pad to Microsoft word, or other word processors as well, and it is readable offline. Do this regularly and clear your inbox so it does not fill, which will cause you to not be able to send or receive any new messages.

Now you should be able to understand the most important parts of confirming a trade, and should be able to stay out of trouble.

ü  A Trade is confirmed when both parties exchange their addresses.

ü  A Trade Confirmation is like signing a contract.

ü  A Deal is As it is at confirmation, no matter what changes.

ü  There is no “You didn’t ask, I assumed you don’t care” Rule.

ü  There are very few acceptable excuses to end a Trade.

ü  Keep Your Inbox Clean

Thanks for reading, and I hope it has helped you understand trade confirmation a lot more. I invite you to read my next article which will cover making a trade thread.

If you have any comments, questions or concerns, feel free to contact me at mrh40@uakron.edu or contact Dark Marik 07 on the Pojo message boards.