How do TRADES work?

TheseusTheDestroyer

TheseusTheDestroyer

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Nov 4, 2012
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Hello all, today I posted a picture of a knife I wanted to sell on Instagram, I received a comment asking me if I'm interested I. Trading but I never have.

How do trades work? What can I do to lower the risk of getting scammed?

Is there anything I should keep an eye out for?

Thanks everyone!
 
You should find out if the dude is a BF member, or anything else that may add to his credentials.

Personally, I'd be a little leery of trading over IG, but that's just me. I don't trust anyone these days.

You might wanna talk it over with the dude if they'd be willing to ship first. Maybe that would help.
 
I would only trade through this forums trade section. Or if I knew the person, but nobody I know have any knives I would want.

Maybe a face to face would do, but then again you also have to live within driving distance.

Good advice from grownstar^
 
Since the risk in a trade is higher than in a sale, the first thing that needs to be looked at is feedback and reputation. If both parties have good feedback then both usually ship their item without having the other item in hand first. If I were trading with someone with very little to no feedback then I would probably want to have the other item in hand before I ship mine. Always use insurance, and use certified mail if you can.
 
The only way I would make a trade outside of this forum would be to require that the other party ship first, with the understanding that you will send after receiving his knife. Now, you won't find many people willing to do that, but it is the only way I would trade.

At least here, you have the iTrader rating to rely on and you can check this sub-forum for any issues that the individual might have that would not show up on his iTrader rating. That research is critical.

Now I am not much of a trader, but the one trade that I have done was here and with a member who had a good rating. I offered to ship first because I was the n00b here and did not have much of a rating. But that trade went extremely well and I would not hesitate to trade here again if the member has a good rating and is here more for the forum than for the exchange.

But like others have said, I would be very hesitant to trade elsewhere. Just not worth the risk unless you can mitigate the risk as I suggested above.

Best of luck. :)
 
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I've done a lot of trades here on the forums. I've shipped first on several occasions. I always ship either USPS Priority box with insurance, or UPS with insurance, and tracking for both. I would not trade on Instagram with anyone unless I personally knew them, or they could prove they were a member in good standing here on BF. The only proof I'd accept of their BF membership would be a pm from them here to let me know who they were. Short of that I would decline a trade offer on Instagram.
 
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