Originally posted by wolfmann601
I BELIEVE this would be a GREAT opportunity for one of the "BIG-TRADERS" to step up and give us ALL a step by step set of "GUIDELINES" that we SHOULD all follow when we "TRADE" knives. BEYOND the common knowledge that BOTH parties who enter into a "REAL DEAL" should coordinate their shipping day to be as close to the same day as possible, the rest of the "FAIR TRADE" remains in a GRAY area.
I'm not a big trader. I've traded maybe 6 or 7 times so far. Probably completed one trade for every five I tried to negotiate. It ain't easy. Executing a trade is, oh, what, maybe 4-6 times as hard as simply executing a simple purchase or sale involving currency. It requires desire, equivalence agreement, cash position, timing issues to be synch'd up on both ends.
I'm sure some of the "BIG-TRADERS" maybe have some other ideas they can contribute. But here are a couple thoughts on the requirements for a good trade, from an infrequent trader:
1. requires two honest, straight-shooting people to begin with.
That's the hardest part. GB&U helps, somewhat. Being willing to walk away from a knife you "really want", because you don't have any history on the other party, also helps. So do decent quality pictures of the actual merchandise if not production pieces that are easily described and pictured elsewhere. Or pictures of a maker's prior work that are representative of what the piece is going to look like, along with an accurate, conservative description of the pieces condition (grading "condition" is a whole guideline document unto itself).
2. yeah, simultaneous shipping should happen, unless a delayed shipment is agreed to, up front. Otherwise, one doesn't trust the other; see #1.
3. requires a 3 day review period stipulation, and both parties must agree in writing to this up front. The trade is not complete until both parties confirm to the other in writing (EMail) that they are satisfied with the trade ... and do so BEFORE the traded goods are carried, used, or for cryin' out loud, traded or sold to another party! (I'm amazed to hear stories like this. Such total BS.)
4. Ship your merchandise in some trackable and/or insurable form! At least use USPS Priority Insured (insured gets you a signature) so you can get postal inspectors involved if you need some help. Delivery confirmation helps if you don't want to insure something below say $80 (but costs money also). Yeah, a$$holes can ship empty boxes, but US Mail fraud ain't the kind of thing you want to discuss w/ a government postal inspector. Fedex and UPS are private companies, you have no help from a US agency inspector from what I've heard.
5. trade or sell overseas at your own peril. I've done it twice, it ain't pretty. Probably won't again. A trackable package overseas is hard to accomplish, and at a minimum, you've got two things working against you:
a. you often have unethical Customs pukes rifling through your package, and in one case of mine, they took off all the bubble wrap to look at a $300 knife, and then threw it loose back into the soft tyvek envelope, the a$$holes. It wasn't damaged but could have been.
b. Not to mention any kind of intervention if you get shafted by the potential buyer/trader in a foreign country. Whatcha gonna do? Fly to Singapore and grab some skinny scumbag by the trachea over a couple hundred dollars?
Trading and bartering hassles are why intermediaries like "cash" and cash equivalents (MO's, checks) were created waaay back when ["I'll trade you my cow for those four pretty female sheep over there." "No, you can't have that one, she's my favorite, how about those three over there and this pitchfork?" "Over where?" etc. ]
By the way, money orders drawn from the USPS are replaceable if lost up to certain limits, as long as you keep your paperwork/receipt.
Cashier's checks from banks at a minimum require a long wait (3-6 months) if lost, and some banks may consider them "lost like cash, gone" if lost. MO's often are not replaceable at all if drawn on bank, credit union.
[Sidebar: One guy kept Emailing me with questions, I kept sharing knowledge with him. I don't have that much, but what knowledge I have I got from others, so I will share. Conversation lead to my telling him I had a forged knife made by Dick Runkerly (not his real name) to my specs, ironwood, mokume, forged... and this guy decides he just HAS TO HAVE that knife, my knife. I didn't want to trade or sell. He really wanted it. Went back and forth, found a piece I thought I might like in his collection. We traded. I didn't really care for the knife I got that much, but thought I could resell for a break-even. He decides the custom forged knife I sent was a POS and the blade was crooked to boot (I hadn't noticed any crookedness myself), and he didn't really want it now, and wanted his piece back! He sent it back, and was pissed off at me, and I obliged and returned his "Zim Towada" knife back to him. Amazing. You gotta be prepared to waste another round of shipping/insurance costs and a suppression of your bile and just unwind the deal, cleanly.]
