Our tag system is designed to organize your items and have complete control of your stock.

You can put one or more tags on any items in the moment you put it on sale.
To create a tag just write on the text area and confirm it, from now on you will be able to use that specific tag on your listings, it will be available on the scroll down.

Tagged items may be filtered, sorted, and may be hidden separately. Hidden items will not be visible, leaving online just the cards you wish to sell.

Why scanning a card?

You are doing it because you want to offer a further service to a customer and you want him to be sure of what he is buying. From your perspective, you are scanning a card because it will help to increase your sales.

Just imagine that you have to buy an expensive card, I guess you wanna see it, right?

No one would ever buy an expensive card without seeing it.

What we suggest, is you to upload the scan or a good picture of any expensive card immediately and not just send a picture when someone asks for it, this will minimize your effort.

That’s pretty easy these days, phones make great photos and if you are a “pro” there are some good tools out there that fit your needs.

If you consider that a multiple possible buyers may ask for a pic, scanning a card is a good way to avoid a loss of time. So, when you decide to sell an expensive card, do it with a scan, you’ll save your and others time.

How to do a good scan

Remember that you want to help someone to buy a card, you don’t want to scam him by sending pictures that look better than the actual card.

So, there are some rules that need to followed in order to do a proper scan:

• Use a black/dark background, this will help to see imperfections. A white background makes it difficult to see any border whitening or minor damages.
• Use your pictures to point out any problem. Let’s say that the card has a scratch or an indentation that can’t be seen from a flat scan. It’s your duty to write it on your listing and possibly make an inclined picture so that the issue can be seen.
• Make good scans or pictures. Try to do good pictures with a decent definition because low quality scans are just useless. Like a pictures with ’99 phone from a meter. I think the you know what I mean, everybody experienced this at least one time.
• Do it front and back. Yes, back matters as front, especially if the card has issues.

Here at CardTrader the shipping costs are set by our system.

You can decide to use our updated default prices, or you can create any on your own in the profile area. If you are not an expert, we suggest you use our system. You may change them anytime you wish. You can set a free shipping if the order total exceeds a threshold you can set on our system.

The cost of a shipping depends on Country of origin, Country of destination, Shipment weight and Shipment dimensions.

Which service should you use if you are a buyer is up to you, but in general we suggest you utilize cheap shipping options for cheaper items and tracking for more expensive items. There some cases in which a registered mail is mandatory on CardTrader:

• Any shipment worth more than 25$
• Any shipment from a seller that we suspect is doing fraudulent activity or has an high percentage of sent but not arrived shipping
• Any shipment from a seller with a loss rate higher than 2%.

Protecting cards is a major concern, and the level of protection may depend on the service you are using to ship your cards and the weight threshold you need to stay under. If you are sending items that do not allow you to use a solid protection, try your best by using paper or other cards in order to safeguard the integrity of the items you are sending. If you are shipping expensive cards, be sure to prepare an appropriate package. This may include use of top-loaders, plastic, or anything that can provide the cards travel safely. Remember that without a proper protection, a bubble envelope by itself is not enough.

If you are the seller, you need to ensure all items arrive safely to their destination. This means that the package must offer the proper protection to the items inside, you are solely responsible for this, no matter what. Be aware that during transit many things could happen, such as:

• Issues with the postal machines
• Improper handling by the postman, which may cause damage to the package.
• Weather issues, such as rain, snow, cold, etc.
• The package may fall, which may cause damage to the contents.

In order to avoid these problems, you must package properly. There are many ways to insure that the content can’t be damaged. Here are some tips to help you package if you are not an expert:

• You may use common cards, i.e. basic lands, to protect what you are shipping. They are low cost and provide some protection against physical stress. Typically, 4-5 of them on each side are usually enough to prevent bending or other types of damage. You can wrap them with a paper so they can’t move and corners are protected.
  Just be careful not to exceed the weight threshold for your package.
• You may use a top loader. They are light and cheap and they serve your purpose very well.
• You may use a bubble envelope for expensive cards. They are not really necessary, since they do not ensure prevention of serious damages (for that, you need to make a specific protection as mentioned above) but they do offer resistance water damage and from minor physical stress. So if you are not sure of what you are doing, maybe you should use it. They also provide resistance to rip because due to the plastic layer inside.
• Write both your address and the buyer address clearly: If you are not printing a label please make sure that you write them legibly.
  Remember to put your own address on every letter/package. A buyer may purchase the same item from multiple sellers and needs to know who the package is coming from.
• Close the letter with some tape. This will prevent unintentional openings that may happen during the postal processing.

If you have never shipped overseas, the main difference is that you need to write a foreign address on the postal form and on the letter.

Our system is automated and has all possible shipping methods and thresholds already set.

All you need to do is write the address on the letter and ship it after you sell an item.

Should you have any kind of hesitation, you may ask your local postal service for assistance.

If you do everything correctly, you should not have any issues.

A problem that may arise from a foreign shipping is related to custom fees.

Many regions don’t apply any fees (for example if you receive goods and you live in the US), however some do.

Before buying anything from another country ensure that you are not incurring in additional fees.

If you are planning to ship overseas, consider carriers for expensive cards and add this option to your shipping methods.
Carriers like UPS and FEDEX are reliable and affordable on smaller packages.

This is a premium service that your customers are going to appreciate, while allowing you to send your cards safely and faster.

You can set your own shipping methods in your profile area.

You can set a free shipping method with a service for any expense over a certain value.

For example, Free Shipping with UPS for purchases over 500 usd/eu.

This may help your sales and make customers happy, with the possibility that they may spend more.

We believe that the shipping cost should be proportional to the cost of the items you are purchasing.

Saying that, you should opt for cheaper options when buying cheaper cards, and more reliable and tracked service when buying expensive cards.

We suggest you to use tracked or semi-tracked shipping for cards that have spiked in price.