A trade keeps money in the shop and moves stock in both directions. It also gives you two chances to get the valuation wrong.
Structure it deliberately
- Offer more in credit than in cash — a meaningful difference, stated up front. It is genuinely worth more to you, and customers understand it immediately.
- Value both sides at the same standard. Valuing their cards conservatively while valuing yours at full market is how a regular becomes an ex-regular.
- Decide your position on partial trades — credit plus cash top-up — before you are asked.
The conversation that goes wrong
It goes wrong when the customer cannot see the arithmetic. Show both sides:
- 1.Here is what your cards are worth, card by card for the valuable ones, bulk-rated for the rest.
- 2.Here is what you are taking, at our normal prices.
- 3.Here is the difference, and here is the credit rate applied.
A trade someone understands is a trade they will do again, even at a rate they would have haggled over.
Watch for
- Fakes coming in on trades more often than on cash buys, because there is less friction.
- Condition drift. Trades are quick, and quick grading is optimistic grading.
- Untracked credit. Store credit you have not recorded is a liability you will honour anyway.
How it works here
Trades are recorded as Deals with both sides captured, so the cards coming in land in Intake with a cost basis and the cards going out leave stock properly — the ledger reflects it as one transaction rather than two unrelated ones. See the deals guide.