No experience with them, but I wouldnt trust a setup like that, ever. No offense to them, but I think Ill stick to the old fashioned way of trading/buying.
Puca works surprisingly well, I've found. I joined it in September and I've traded (back and forth) about $1,400 of cards? Living in a rural area makes the pool of available cards for trade pretty limited, and Puca's gotten me Thoughtseizes, Mutavaults, Hierarchs, shocks...
It's been a pretty fantastic experience thus far, but I understand why someone would hesitate when presented with the idea.
I've been on it for a couple months, and I've found it a good way to pick up obscure cards, especially for EDH. Some people trade huge things like original duals, etc, but so far the most expensive cards I've sent out or received have been fairly small (a few bucks at most). Since I've joined PucaTrade, my "look for" list of janky old cards has gotten a lot smaller. I've sent out a bunch of EDH staples, plus some things that are popular in Standard and (occasionally) modern.
The biggest downside I've encountered is that some people are really slow in sending out their stuff. Because of that, I wouldn't use it to trade for anything I needed right away, but for me, it's been great. It gives me more funky stuff to consider when I'm making EDH decks.
I've joined for a little over a month now and it's been great. Best way for me to trade up my collection for a couple of fetches i need for edh. Only downside so far is the postage cost out of Australia. The members are mostly based in USA, so until more people from other countries join up I don't think I can sustain sending cards internationally.
I love this site. Been using it a ton lately and it's great. Out of probably like 150 trades I only had 2 which didn't work out and they were both promptly worked out fairly.
I love this site. Been using it a ton lately and it's great. Out of probably like 150 trades I only had 2 which didn't work out and they were both promptly worked out fairly.
I've seen a few photos regarding Pucatrade saying, "check out what I received!", but I don't seem to understand how it works. Honestly, the posts and photos seem more like someone pushing the trade website instead of being an actual trade.
From going to the website it looks like you send out cards to people who have the cards on their wants list and in return you receive points. Once you have these points you can spend them to get cards that you want? (Looking for some confirmation here from someone who has used the site.)
Another question, what type of guarantees are there that the site developer can't give himself a ton of points and get whatever cards he wants for free? Also, why can't I get 20 friends or create 20 accounts together and "trade" to up my points?
i have turned a bunch of sub 3$ cards that were just sitting in my binders into a 99% complete legacy goblin deck, a playset of Dark Confidant, and odd other cards i have been looking for locally for a while with no luck... it also let me get playsets of a lot of the rares / mythics from M14 that i wanted (minus like 6 but that just means less i will have to buy / trade for locally) (the M14 stuff is still in the mail on it's way to me should be here sometime this coming week)
have slowed down on using it some right now because of how the market works ... not many people wanting the cards i have left that have enough points built up to afford me to send it to them. but i still check a few times a day to see if i can get another card or two sent out...
I've seen a few photos regarding Pucatrade saying, "check out what I received!", but I don't seem to understand how it works. Honestly, the posts and photos seem more like someone pushing the trade website instead of being an actual trade.
From going to the website it looks like you send out cards to people who have the cards on their wants list and in return you receive points. Once you have these points you can spend them to get cards that you want? (Looking for some confirmation here from someone who has used the site.)
Another question, what type of guarantees are there that the site developer can't give himself a ton of points and get whatever cards he wants for free? Also, why can't I get 20 friends or create 20 accounts together and "trade" to up my points?
the first part, is basically people that are enjoying the site but wanting more people on it so that there will be a better diversity of cards and more want lists on the site for more potential for making points to get what they want .. but it can come off as a push for the site ...
second part, that is basically how the site works...
third part, there is no guarantee that the site developer would not do that, but have talked with him on several occasions and he seems to take the site quite seriously so i dont see it happening ... i have done a trade or two with him as well .. both sending cards and receiving cards from him.
the last part about the 20 friends... the points value is basically a fixed amount .. with the odd 250pts getting injected into the system when someone else signs up ... the total points will shift between people .. but there is no way to just generate points out of thin air .. so 20 friends could basically shift their small amount of points from one another till one person has them all .. and then they could be spent to get a good card or two ... but that seems almost pointless ...
the whole site is built around trust ... there is a small up front cost for mailing out your first few cards .. and that is the biggest leap ... after that it all starts equaling out ... personally i try to not mail out cards that are less then $1 unless it is several cards to one person. just to not waste money on postage stamps.
The easiest way to think of pucatrade is like a giant online store where the buylist pays store credit at TCG mid price. Shipping is paid by the sender in all cases, so you pay for what you ship but not what you receive.
Like any store, the inventory is limited. They're never "buying" everything you have, and they never have everything you want, but you would be surprised both at what you can trade on there and what you can get. Also, like any store, you do have to trust the store "owner" (the site admin).
I've made hundreds (263, to be exact) trades on there, sending and receiving many hundreds of dollars in cards, without much trouble. There are pros and cons to the system though:
Pros:
You can often unload (or find) some things you would never expect to.
You always get full value for your cards. You don't need to haggle. You can "trade up", trade across formats, etc without penalty.
The site admins seem very trustworthy and responsive to problems.
It's very easy to keep track of trades.
You can't really be ripped off by trade partners, just the "store"
Like selling to a buylist for trade credit, they don't need to have a specific card you want. You can hold your credit (points) until you start building a new deck, etc.
Cons:
You pay for shipping on every card you send, and it's uncommon that the same person will want many of your cards at the same time. I have a bunch of 12 cent commons that people actually want, and I could probably earn points toward say a Snapcaster Mage by sending 200 12 cent commons, but I'd also pay $50-100 in postage to get those $24 in credits.
You have to put a lot of faith in the site admins. They are the reason your credits have value. If I "sell" someone a thoughtseize for $65 in trade credit today, and they shut down the site tomorrow, I'm SOL. I'll admit I tend to get nervous whenever I have a large amount of credit stockpiled.
The admins lack economic expertise. They recognize that a certain # of points need to be injected into the system to keep the trade economy moving, but haven't done any sort of rigorous study of what the magic number is. This is just common sense, but if nobody has the points to get your cards, you have no way to earn points, and you can't send those points to the next guy, etc. They've hired some econ majors to try to figure this out.
The "faceless" nature of the trades leads some people to be less respectful of their trade partners. I've gotten cards sent 3 weeks late, cards shipped with no toploaders, etc.
You have to check the site constantly for new trades, and they can get snatched up quickly.
Only NM, english, non-foil cards are supported. There is no mechanism for trading foils, promos, etc, foreign cards, or played cards.
I joined the site last week and have mailed off 153 cards as of today to about 80 different people. Most cards were around the $1-3 value, but I was actually able to send out a TON of uncommons and commons to people who wanted multiples that equalled, at a minimum .75 cents. To me, the biggest value I've seen in this site, is the ability to move your undesirable cards fairly quickly. Of all the cards I have traded, only 3 of them I consider them being tradable at a local store on a frequent basis. The rest of these cards would have sat in a binder shoebox for months or years before some random dude wanted a royal assassin, or playsets of 3 of the new slivers. Best part? All these trades have netted a scalding tarn, misty rainforest, and am now working for a revised dual, cards that are highly usable and tradable.
I've probably traded out in total an inch thick stack of commons/uncommons for $10~15 in total value at 14-50 cents a card, where the same inch thick stack would have netted a quarter at any LGS. That's just amazing.
I have to keep a keen eye on my send list, I check it every 15 minutes on my phone at work or out in town and run to a computer when I see a good trade pop up.
One thing I've noticed is that you cannot pick and choose who sends you what, which seems to be the general thought on non-users here. You have a 'have list' and a 'want list'. When you can afford something that is on your want list, it pops up as a viable trade to everyone who has that card in their 'have' list. Therefore, you want to keep your 'want' list small (I keep it at 1-2 cards) so that you get what you expect to get. Right now, the only card on my want list is a revised bayou. So when I have the proper number of points, that is what will get sent. If I had a bunch of random cards on there, I would never get the bayou because the random jank would get sent first most likely.
They are currently working on implimenting foils, which will only make pucatrade that more awesome for us modern and edh players. As I've come to a point where both my decks are a pain to find the last few foils to trade for locally, I'll bet I can get them in 1 day on puca.
Yep, although by a very conservative estimate you must have spent at least $25-$30 in postage to send 153 cards (assuming ~3 cards per envelope average). Like I said, there are pros and cons.
Yep, although by a very conservative estimate you must have spent at least $25-$30 in postage to send 153 cards (assuming ~3 cards per envelope average). Like I said, there are pros and cons.
I've spent about $36 in postage to aquire ~$180 worth in pucapoints.
imho, very worth it since I would NEVER have gotten even $40 for those cards
I've spent about $36 in postage to aquire ~$180 worth in pucapoints.
imho, very worth it since I would NEVER have gotten even $40 for those cards
I don't disagree. I just checked my own records. I've done 272 pucatrades, sending and receiving about 45000 points each way ($450 dollars). 201 cards out, 71 in. Many of those 71 cards were 50 cent EDH cards that I couldn't find locally and weren't worth paying shipping on, but over 80% of the points I've spent have been on 6 cards (JTMS, Flooded Strand, Thoughtseize, Scalding Tarn, Sphinx's Revelation, and Arid Mesa).
I use it pretty consistently. I've traded about 800 or so cards on there and received 5 or 600; about $3,000 in value altogether. It's really a great service if you're willing to put in the time to get a lot out of it. I know since the Kickstarter, a lot of people have kinda soaked up points trying to get ridiculously rare cards (NM Library of Alexandrias, full art Mutavaults, etc.) and so a lot of points are "in stasis" atm, but I suspect that once the site goes out of beta, it's going to attract a lot more positive attention.
Can I ask what kind of cards you received on here? Any eternal staples or just mainly been hot standard? Wish it had the Goozex type of Most Wanted and Most Available, seems like you kind of have to hope that someone will list your highest wants instead is being able to "shop" like you could on Goozex.
So, I'm curious. What is there to guarantee that the cards you are looking for are available once you get up enough points to potentially get them?
None at all. That's why I use the store credit analogy. You can stockpile points, but there is no guarantee that the card you want is "in stock" when you have enough.
I stopped trading there a while ago because I needed to focus my attention elsewhere, and I was doing a pretty good amount of trading at the time. I should probably go back, but I ****ed up and did not send a trade that I agreed to when I stopped. I had thought all my trades were complete, but apparently not and I left some people hanging. They got their points back and the owner was really polite about it even though I had clearly dropped the ball, but I kinda would feel like a total asshat to slink back.
It is a great site and I am eager to see what is done with the kickstarter revenue.
I stopped trading there a while ago because I needed to focus my attention elsewhere, and I was doing a pretty good amount of trading at the time. I should probably go back, but I ****ed up and did not send a trade that I agreed to when I stopped. I had thought all my trades were complete, but apparently not and I left some people hanging. They got their points back and the owner was really polite about it even though I had clearly dropped the ball, but I kinda would feel like a total asshat to slink back.
It is a great site and I am eager to see what is done with the kickstarter revenue.
Hopefully added the ability to trade promo's and foils. And of course massively improved it's terrible adding cards to it's want's and haves. As it stands adding multiples of cards if so stupidly annoying to do.
Hopefully added the ability to trade promo's and foils. And of course massively improved it's terrible adding cards to it's want's and haves. As it stands adding multiples of cards if so stupidly annoying to do.
Have you ever added bulk cards? The bulk adder is so much easier and faster that I will use it even if all I am doing is adding 4x of one card.
I stopped trading there a while ago because I needed to focus my attention elsewhere, and I was doing a pretty good amount of trading at the time. I should probably go back, but I ****ed up and did not send a trade that I agreed to when I stopped. I had thought all my trades were complete, but apparently not and I left some people hanging. They got their points back and the owner was really polite about it even though I had clearly dropped the ball, but I kinda would feel like a total asshat to slink back.
It is a great site and I am eager to see what is done with the kickstarter revenue.
I meant to say this a while ago, but I think you should give it another shot. It sounds like your messed up trade was resolved, and I think they'd rather have a wider pool of participants than have someone stay away out of a sense of shame. If you really feel bad about it, donate a few bucks to their redesign project as "pennance"?
It seems kind of an odd way to do things, but I've seen them on Tumblr. Anyone have any stories to tell?
It's been a pretty fantastic experience thus far, but I understand why someone would hesitate when presented with the idea.
The biggest downside I've encountered is that some people are really slow in sending out their stuff. Because of that, I wouldn't use it to trade for anything I needed right away, but for me, it's been great. It gives me more funky stuff to consider when I'm making EDH decks.
Same. I've had mostly very good experiences.
Rancored Elf will cancel your order if prices go up. Read about him and other shady vendors here.
My Trade Thread!
From going to the website it looks like you send out cards to people who have the cards on their wants list and in return you receive points. Once you have these points you can spend them to get cards that you want? (Looking for some confirmation here from someone who has used the site.)
Another question, what type of guarantees are there that the site developer can't give himself a ton of points and get whatever cards he wants for free? Also, why can't I get 20 friends or create 20 accounts together and "trade" to up my points?
Modern ~ GR Tron
have slowed down on using it some right now because of how the market works ... not many people wanting the cards i have left that have enough points built up to afford me to send it to them. but i still check a few times a day to see if i can get another card or two sent out...
the first part, is basically people that are enjoying the site but wanting more people on it so that there will be a better diversity of cards and more want lists on the site for more potential for making points to get what they want .. but it can come off as a push for the site ...
second part, that is basically how the site works...
third part, there is no guarantee that the site developer would not do that, but have talked with him on several occasions and he seems to take the site quite seriously so i dont see it happening ... i have done a trade or two with him as well .. both sending cards and receiving cards from him.
the last part about the 20 friends... the points value is basically a fixed amount .. with the odd 250pts getting injected into the system when someone else signs up ... the total points will shift between people .. but there is no way to just generate points out of thin air .. so 20 friends could basically shift their small amount of points from one another till one person has them all .. and then they could be spent to get a good card or two ... but that seems almost pointless ...
the whole site is built around trust ... there is a small up front cost for mailing out your first few cards .. and that is the biggest leap ... after that it all starts equaling out ... personally i try to not mail out cards that are less then $1 unless it is several cards to one person. just to not waste money on postage stamps.
Like any store, the inventory is limited. They're never "buying" everything you have, and they never have everything you want, but you would be surprised both at what you can trade on there and what you can get. Also, like any store, you do have to trust the store "owner" (the site admin).
I've made hundreds (263, to be exact) trades on there, sending and receiving many hundreds of dollars in cards, without much trouble. There are pros and cons to the system though:
Pros:
You can often unload (or find) some things you would never expect to.
You always get full value for your cards. You don't need to haggle. You can "trade up", trade across formats, etc without penalty.
The site admins seem very trustworthy and responsive to problems.
It's very easy to keep track of trades.
You can't really be ripped off by trade partners, just the "store"
Like selling to a buylist for trade credit, they don't need to have a specific card you want. You can hold your credit (points) until you start building a new deck, etc.
Cons:
You pay for shipping on every card you send, and it's uncommon that the same person will want many of your cards at the same time. I have a bunch of 12 cent commons that people actually want, and I could probably earn points toward say a Snapcaster Mage by sending 200 12 cent commons, but I'd also pay $50-100 in postage to get those $24 in credits.
You have to put a lot of faith in the site admins. They are the reason your credits have value. If I "sell" someone a thoughtseize for $65 in trade credit today, and they shut down the site tomorrow, I'm SOL. I'll admit I tend to get nervous whenever I have a large amount of credit stockpiled.
The admins lack economic expertise. They recognize that a certain # of points need to be injected into the system to keep the trade economy moving, but haven't done any sort of rigorous study of what the magic number is. This is just common sense, but if nobody has the points to get your cards, you have no way to earn points, and you can't send those points to the next guy, etc. They've hired some econ majors to try to figure this out.
The "faceless" nature of the trades leads some people to be less respectful of their trade partners. I've gotten cards sent 3 weeks late, cards shipped with no toploaders, etc.
You have to check the site constantly for new trades, and they can get snatched up quickly.
Only NM, english, non-foil cards are supported. There is no mechanism for trading foils, promos, etc, foreign cards, or played cards.
Rancored Elf will cancel your order if prices go up. Read about him and other shady vendors here.
My Trade Thread!
I've probably traded out in total an inch thick stack of commons/uncommons for $10~15 in total value at 14-50 cents a card, where the same inch thick stack would have netted a quarter at any LGS. That's just amazing.
I have to keep a keen eye on my send list, I check it every 15 minutes on my phone at work or out in town and run to a computer when I see a good trade pop up.
One thing I've noticed is that you cannot pick and choose who sends you what, which seems to be the general thought on non-users here. You have a 'have list' and a 'want list'. When you can afford something that is on your want list, it pops up as a viable trade to everyone who has that card in their 'have' list. Therefore, you want to keep your 'want' list small (I keep it at 1-2 cards) so that you get what you expect to get. Right now, the only card on my want list is a revised bayou. So when I have the proper number of points, that is what will get sent. If I had a bunch of random cards on there, I would never get the bayou because the random jank would get sent first most likely.
They are currently working on implimenting foils, which will only make pucatrade that more awesome for us modern and edh players. As I've come to a point where both my decks are a pain to find the last few foils to trade for locally, I'll bet I can get them in 1 day on puca.
Rancored Elf will cancel your order if prices go up. Read about him and other shady vendors here.
My Trade Thread!
I've spent about $36 in postage to aquire ~$180 worth in pucapoints.
imho, very worth it since I would NEVER have gotten even $40 for those cards
I don't disagree. I just checked my own records. I've done 272 pucatrades, sending and receiving about 45000 points each way ($450 dollars). 201 cards out, 71 in. Many of those 71 cards were 50 cent EDH cards that I couldn't find locally and weren't worth paying shipping on, but over 80% of the points I've spent have been on 6 cards (JTMS, Flooded Strand, Thoughtseize, Scalding Tarn, Sphinx's Revelation, and Arid Mesa).
Rancored Elf will cancel your order if prices go up. Read about him and other shady vendors here.
My Trade Thread!
None at all. That's why I use the store credit analogy. You can stockpile points, but there is no guarantee that the card you want is "in stock" when you have enough.
Rancored Elf will cancel your order if prices go up. Read about him and other shady vendors here.
My Trade Thread!
It is a great site and I am eager to see what is done with the kickstarter revenue.
Reprint Opt for Modern!!
FREE DIG THOROUGH TIME!
PLAY MORE ROUGE DECKS!
Hopefully added the ability to trade promo's and foils. And of course massively improved it's terrible adding cards to it's want's and haves. As it stands adding multiples of cards if so stupidly annoying to do.
Reprint Opt for Modern!!
FREE DIG THOROUGH TIME!
PLAY MORE ROUGE DECKS!
I meant to say this a while ago, but I think you should give it another shot. It sounds like your messed up trade was resolved, and I think they'd rather have a wider pool of participants than have someone stay away out of a sense of shame. If you really feel bad about it, donate a few bucks to their redesign project as "pennance"?
Rancored Elf will cancel your order if prices go up. Read about him and other shady vendors here.
My Trade Thread!
Okay, there was a guy in Belgium who *did* want a Chlorophant, but I'm not shipping a single card overseas for 74 points.
The other thing that doesn't help is that I have a bunch of foils that I can't list either.
It's a neat idea, but it needs more work, or more people, or both.