User blog:MWLootLady/Talk of the TRADE

Many players who want to trade often give up after one or two tries on the big trading sites because the rules seem too strict. Remember the rules are in place for YOUR safety and must be followed by everybody. Each site has their own rules and you should read them thoroughly before attemting to trade. If you follow the rules than you will find that the admin and other traders will be more than happy to help you get the hang of it. I will cover some of the trading basics in this article. For detailed instructions on how to join The Kingpin Trading Market and The Elite Traders Club, visit the trading section of my web site. For details on using valuable time saving tools, review my article called Tool of The TRADE.

Now that you have picked a trading site and are approved to trade you need to know what a fair deal is. This can be accomplished by reviewing the site trading ratios. A trading ratio is used to figure out the worth of the items you have and those that you want. Ratios are always guidelines and help you determine what a good versus bad trade offer is. All sites use different ratios. Remember, they change as the market changes so there is no use in memorizing them. All ratios are based on Moscow High End Loot (MHEL). An example of this is 1 Zoloto Sports Car is worth 1 Ubijica Assault Rifle so the ratio is 1:1. It's not always this easy so you have to use math every now and then. If you want a Heart Tattoo and you want to use your Money Socks to get it, this is what you need to calculate. First find the ratio for the Heart Tattoo, 10:1 (you could get one Heart Tattoo for 10 Zoloto Sports Cars) now find the ratio for the Money Sock, this is 1:5 (you would have to give 5 Money Socks to get one Zoloto Sports Car). So for the Heart tattoo take 5 and multiply it by 10. You need 50 Money Socks to get 1 Heart Tattoo.

Now it's time to make an offer. Clearly state what you are willing to trade and what you want. Using the example from above you would make a post stating MY 50 Money Socks for YOUR 1 Heart Tattoo. Not wording it in this fashion can cause confusion. Many traders have learned the hard way that they both parties were seeking the same item. Always remember, MY A for YOUR B and you will avoid potential complications.

Now that you made your offer you need to be on top of your post. This is not a good time to take a break. Check frequently until you see someone has accepted your offer. A ten minute window is a general guidline for how long you should wait for a responder. If more than one person has accepted your offer than it's proper etiquette to deal with the first one.

Before you send off your valuable loot it's a good idea to check the person out if you have never traded with them before. Go to their profile page and see how many friends they have in common with you and look for their trading references. Many sites offer a middleman if both parties can't agree on who should send first. You should also be aware of the people known as scammers. They try to get you to trade with them and have no intentions of honoring their end of the deal. There is a database of known scammers and you can run the Scammers Bookmarklet on the persons facebook profile to be sure that your trading partner is not in this database. Also check out the The Official Scammers List fan page to learn more about spotting a scammer.

Now it's time for you and your trading partner to the agreed upon items to each other. This should never be done at the same time because loot can get lost in the Zynga blackhole and never be recovered.

Now the trade is complete and both parties should go to the trading reference notes of the other and leave a comment regarding the trading experience.