Community trust, and the new climate of buy/sell/trade online.
 

Buying, selling and trading toys is a big part of the toy hobby for many collectors. It's as fun, arguably, as retail toy hunts.

I have been buying, selling and trading collectibles since my photography evolved into toy photography and opened up my desire to collect again as an adult.

My first few trades were Marvel Legends and older G1 Transformers. I went into it with the mindset of an adolescent and just assumed people were honest and for a good run of about 2 years, I was right. It was a great experience each time. Shipping is usually a tough pill to swallow, but Canada Post is a whole other story.

Eventually though, I did experience the darker side of trading online. A recent example is a trade I got involved in where I had a box full of BAF parts and a guy offered me 3 Legends and duplicate BAF figure in trade. We agreed to both send in the morning and by about noon he had a pic of the reciept and tracking # in his DM from me on IG. Later that day he messaged me and said something came up and it would be sent out the next day. That's fine. I said no rush. It'll get here when it gets here.

A month later, several changing reasons and a life story about addiction and job losses later I finally posted a thread about my experience warning the community this guy shouldn't be traded with. It was what it took for this guy to come to terms with how rediculous it was not to spend the 17 dollars to ship my stuff. He eventually just gave me 5 bucks per BAF piece and I washed my hands of it.

Let me tell you though, I had several great trades before that guy. And I only let go of stuff I'm not attached to. So really, even if he never came through, I was never going to build those BAFs. This one bad apple isn't going to stop me from enjoying apples.

Statistically, the trading is a really excellent part if the hobby for me, and I'm not going to be apprehensive of paranoid about it. That's a toxic way to think imo, so I choose to carry on the way I enjoy it.

Now the climate of this part of the hobby, of buy/sell/trade, is not how it was when I began. It's a climate of distrust, protectionism. I never even considered a few years ago that trading used plastic toys would resemble isolationist fear based foreign policy of regressive world powers. How sad is it that trading plastic toys has evolved into a bitter side glance of every individual, because 1 in 20 (estimate based on my personal experiece) screw it up or scam the other person.

So my statement is this- I am questioning who is actually responsible for the negative climate of the buy/sell/trade part of the collecting community. Is it the 1 in 20 scammer? Or is it the people who treat the 19 in 20 like the scammer?

Food for thought.

Re: Community trust, and the new climate of buy/sell/trade online.
 

I've been doing this stuff pretty regularly since 1995, by and large with positive results. You can't let one or two bad apples spoil the batch.

Not sure about isolationist fear of foreign policy of regressive world powers....... :p

Re: Community trust, and the new climate of buy/sell/trade online.
 

But wouldn't having a receipt and a tracking # mean that he sent it? Wouldn't showing that "proof" then saying he didn't send it yet show he was a liar? Weird.

I'm not quite sure what this is supposed to mean.

This paranoia doesn't just extend to trading, I think the whole "buyer pays fees" and stuff is also a symptom of paranoid sellers.

The first time I ever traded something through the mail, I was a little apprehensive. What guarantee did I have that the other person was going to hold up their end of the bargain? So far I've only done it a handful of times, but each time was a pleasant experience. One of them even got me a shout out on Radio Free Cybertron!
I suppose when it comes to trading, all you can do is hope for the best, and if you get screwed, do your level best to slag the other guy's reputation all over the internet so they don't have the opportunity to do it again!

Re: Community trust, and the new climate of buy/sell/trade online.
 

Trading is tricky these days. The reach of the Internet gives the illusion of community without the benefits of actual contact, and leaves you with the feelings you had mentioned. Trust is a big issue on the Internet, and I often reflect: "How much do you trust someone you have never met?" when an online transaction is offered.

At least with purchases, you have the protection of your payment method to backstop your losses (and those payment companies are very willing to help you out, so you keep buying at other sites). As you mentioned, with a trade there is no protection, and therein lies the rub. Personally, I'd love to do all my trading at a convention or a local meet, but life/time/fate conspires to ruin my attempts at joining the local scene.

I once heard from someone (who has other hobbies, but has the same problem) that she Skypes the other party to seal the deal. I think that's an interesting way of looking at it, but if it helps you with achieving the sense of community that secures your trust in the transaction, then maybe that's not such a bad idea.

Re: Community trust, and the new climate of buy/sell/trade online.
 

I don't trade much through forums other than with people I already know (either via previous sales/purchases, or from conventions). But I do have a nice story.

I got back into collecting TFs in August/September 2005. And as naïve as I could've been then, my very FIRST forum-based toy transaction in my adult collecting career was a trade with a guy I never met, but I ran into on the old TFans boards, as we were able to find different waves of the toys back then.

He ended up e-mailing me a video of him slipping a $10 bill in one of the boxes (to account for the value difference in the trade), and we both shipped out our stuff. Trade went through without any problems.

And to this day, the dude I traded with is still a great friend of mine. Props goes out to Cliffjumper69 on the boards here. :)