A few month back I told you about the site PucaTrade. If you’re not aware PucaTrade is a website that allows members to list their Magic Singles and exchange them with other members for PucaPoints. A point is worth about .01 US dollars.
My initial look at the site was quite positive. Since then I’ve learned a few things about using PucaTrade that I wanted to share with you. Some stories and tips to help you get more out of the site and some cautionary tales to help protect you from the predators that lurk in the shadows.
It’s Still Awesome.
First thing’s first. This is not some silly “exposé”. I’m very much Pro-PucaTrade. In fact I’m at the point where I don’t really have a trade binder anymore. The value of PucaTrade has me leaving my trade binder at home when I go to a Magic Event. You can decide for yourself if that is good or bad. I never much liked trading at Magic Tournaments as I wanted to be focused on winning the thing or socializing with my friends. Knowing that I have this online “stock portfolio” of cards doing work for me is enough to convince me trading head to head was never something I wanted to be wasting my neurons on in the first place.
My Progress.
To date I’ve sold 133 cards for 77,915 in PucaPoints and I’ve received 56,463 in cards. I have 15520 in active points and 10044 in pending trades.
$779.15 is what I put in.
$564.63 plus $155.20 plus $100.44 is $820.27 is what I’ve gotten out. Or a net gain of $41 and change.
Now if I traded 779.15 to a store for cash I’d get about 50% of my cards worth or 389.57 in USD.
Maybe the store has a trade in bonus of 25%. That’s $584.36. So if we compare the $584.36 to my $820.27 that’s a gained value of $235.91.
I started on Mid October so a gain of $235.91 for five months of trading seems like a solid one to me.
Oh supplies! Add five books of stamps and three boxes of envelopes. That’s $40. I’m still up by a lot. Almost $200.
Always Use the System!
So obviously, I’m a fan of value. PucaTrade offers plenty of Value, but added value exists and of course I’m into that as well. Some people offer “bounties” on PucaTrade for your cards. Maybe +10% on Expeditions or Bonuses for Fetches, that sort of thing. I caution you to ALWAYS go through the system. PucaTrade doesn’t really enforce those bounties, but it does protect the sender and receiver of cards traded in the system.
A few weeks ago I opened a Expedition Wasteland. I was eager to ship it, as I had four regular copies already and I’m not really looking to foil out my Legacy deck. I went on to PucaTrade to see what kind of deal I could get. I was able to find and correspond with a trader who was willing to give me a deal.
DurdleMagus • Feb 7, 2016
i have an exped wasteland n/m are you interested?
10% on expeditions • Feb 7, 2016
Yes but I don’t have the pp right now I have around 30000 points out waiting to be received
DurdleMagus • Feb 7, 2016
Ok let me know.
10% on expeditions • Feb 9, 2016
Can I get pics of the wasteland expo I will have the points for it soon later today
DurdleMagus • Feb 9, 2016
Definitely! I’ll send them later tonight!
DurdleMagus • Feb 9, 2016
There are with and W/o a perfect fit.
(photos of the Wasteland at N/M)
Assuming that this is a go. I’m looking to get 27500 for it.
10% on expeditions • Feb 9, 2016
Ok it looks good
10% on expeditions • Feb 9, 2016
I should have the last little bit I need hear shortly
So what is the next step?
Obviously, I want to be protected here. How do we formalize this trade?
10% on expeditions • Feb 9, 2016
Just ship it with tracking in a bubble mailer
10% on expeditions • Feb 9, 2016
Just got the points
That much I can definitely do. But What I’m asking is if I’m protected by PucaTrade for the trade. You can understand my trepidation to just send the card without some sort of protection.
I’m not trying to make this complicated. Normally I just send $5 or $10 cards. Losing then is not that big a deal.
Zac
10% on expeditions • Feb 9, 2016
Yeah for the most part you are I would tack pics and a video maybe of you putting it in the envelope
DurdleMagus • Feb 9, 2016
Cool, I reach out to the admins just to double check. In the mean time I am holding it for you. The second I have some info I’ll be in touch.
Z
10% on expeditions • Feb 9, 2016
Ok sounds good
Shawn,
So I spoke with the Admins, They can only guarantee my trade if I do it via the system. So I think the best way for us to do this for both of our peace of mind (since obviously, it doesn’t make sense for you to send the credits before I send the Wasteland) is to do it via the system. and have you send me the difference once you check in the Wasteland. Does that make sense to you?
I mean a best case scenario for me would be for you to send me the points for first, but that’s obviously puts a lot of risk on your end.
The only insurance I could give you is that I run a relatively well known MTG site called Hipstersofthecoast.com. That’s not much but it’s something that at least ties me to some responsibility for this.
So TL;DR we have 2 options:
1: We complete the trade through the system and you send me the difference to make the trade for 27500 once you receive the item. (we’ll need to time the sale, which should be pretty easy)
2: You trust me to send the Wasteland and give me the 27500 up front. And I send the Wasteland.
Obviously the 3rd option is that we just don’t do the trade, which I think we would both rather not have as an option, but If this is too much I completely understand.
10% on expeditions • Feb 9, 2016
sorry someone is already is sending me one
DurdleMagus • Feb 9, 2016
No problem thank you for your time.
Now, I honestly can say whether or not this guy’s intent was to scam me. The truth is that he was likely not trying to. But if he wanted to PucaTrade would be able to do nothing but shrug its shoulders.
SO ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS USE THE SYSTEM.
Don’t settle for “I promise I’ll send you the points when I get the card.” You’ll be wishing you just took the safe route for sure, especially if it takes more than a week to get the points.
Check Your Incoming Cards.
Last week my buddy Harry hit me up to show me that he received a fake! He ordered a Chalice of the Void off the site and, because Harry is a borderline crazy person (crazy in a good way in this case) he takes a loup to all his cards. This is what he found.
Honestly, had he not told me about it I wouldn’t have seen the problem even this close. Apparently, the Outline on a real Magic card Symbol gets printed on a different layer than the symbol itself… this results in real card’s symbol borders being clean. There shouldn’t be anything but sharp on broken black on a real card’s symbol border. Compare this to the photo below.
See the unbroken black border. This is a real card!
So, of course, Harry sends the photos and message to PucaTrade’s Management team. They ask him to send them the card. He does. They determine that YUP IT IS INDEED A FAKE, and give him his PucaPoints back. They also freeze the account of the user that sent the fake as well. Harry, being more internet savvy than I am went to Reddit and found a thread of people that have been burned by this guy, it seems that he’s not the first person to have a problem with this guy.
This is actually a great story for PucaTrade. They protected their customer and removed a problem client from their database. I don’t know if they redistributed the rest of his points to the other victims, but I know that they locked his account and made it a little harder for a scammer to take advantage of the system. That’s a big positive for me, in terms of customer service and counterfeiting concern.
Of course, this guy can open a new account and start over again, but he has to decide if it’s worth the hassle of getting caught again and losing all his points before he can score another lump of cards for his troubles. It’s a suture for sure, but it’s much better than soem of the hassles I’ve heard about on ebay.
PucaTrade is Worth the Effort
That’s my opinion. The value gained with the protection and the customer service to boot versus buying some stamps… if you can play this game you can mail a letter. So if you think you’re up for getting some value out of your cards then feel free to use my invite https://pucatrade.com/invite/gift/35979 I’ll even get a little kickback from the site!
Zac Clark is the Founder of Hipsters of the Coast. An avid gamer since his early teens, Zac can often be found in Brooklyn either playing games or taking photos. When he’s not drawing extra cards, wrathing boards and countering spells, he’s taking pictures of other peoples good times and listening to 90’s Music.