Pucatrade
Economics forum
Posted on Dec. 23, 2013, 7:09 p.m. by crystalizeq
I apologize if this is in the wrong forum.
I was thinking about starting to use it, but I would like to know if members on there are reliable, or if it is easy to scam people on there.
It is the greatest trading site I've ever used. 100% satisfaction across the board.
December 23, 2013 8:04 p.m.
You list cards you have. If somebody else wants that card and has enough points to pay for it, you can send it to them. They lose the points. Then when they mark the card received, you gain the points.
Pucapoints are worth 0.01 each, and the value of cards is automatically derived from the same source tcgplayer/magiccards.info use.
December 23, 2013 8:10 p.m.
And as for scamming, since they lose the points as soon as you opt to send them the card, there's no real benefit to them to lie about getting the cards, though I suppose they could just from spite?
But the admins are pretty good about resolving cases pretty reasonably. There's an entire formalized case system, and either party can escalate issues to admin intervention. I've never had any transaction through the site go south at all.
December 23, 2013 8:14 p.m.
So you send a card to someone and you gain points which are worth value? How does that make sense? You give stuff away and get value?
Is it essentially like saying you have points which determine your worth and you cash in points for cards from other people? So it's not a trade per se. It's more like multiple transactions with made up money.
December 23, 2013 8:21 p.m.
Right. Pucapoints are an intermediate currency.
You send a card "for free" and in exchange you get the point value of the card.
Then, for those points, someone sends you a card "for free" and gets those points.
It's trading without needing to find someone who both wants your card and has the card you want and value them the same. You can sends cards to person A B and C, and get cards from person D. It's awesome.
December 23, 2013 8:23 p.m.
Worldwide. But since the sender is on the hook for shipping, don't expect people to send overseas unless it's a high value card.
You could find other UK users though. I know I will send more stuff to other Canadians than I will International people.
December 23, 2013 8:26 p.m.
How many other people do you know that have had good experiences with this, Devonin? I'm a bit wary that, as good as this seems, I haven't heard too much about it.
December 25, 2013 4:48 p.m.
@erabel Well, I've gotten about 120 cards from probably 90 different people, and sent out 60 or 70 to probably 50 people, and I've had universally positive experiences. You haven't heard much about it because it's relatively small scale still. I'm hoping it can catch on more, because the more people involved, the faster cards can slide around.
December 25, 2013 4:54 p.m.
aeonstoremyliver says... #17
This sounds neat, but I'm wary. If it's anything like Listia. I thought the site was groovy at first; you bid points on items and win an auction like EBay. You're given a few to start and obtain more by listing then auctioning items. I won auctions and never received items. Also I listed items and never got an address to ship.
December 26, 2013 1:42 a.m.
Do you have to pay money for initial Pucapoints? If you don't have to, could I give my friend a bunch of cards, get heaps of points, and then just get him to give them back to me?
December 26, 2013 1:52 a.m.
ShadowLand says... #19
@ jonhydude, that wouldnt work, cuz your friend would have to have the points for you to send them to him.
@ Devonin, does it take a while for cards to show up that people want usually? I have a whole binder and it seems like there aren't very many people who have wants . . . or is it just because of the time of year it is?
December 26, 2013 2:11 a.m.
Epochalyptik says... #21
From what I gather, no. You send cards out to people who can pay for them (i.e. people who have accumulated points through trades). That's how you get in.
December 26, 2013 2:30 a.m.
@aeonstoremyliver You get points by sending out cards to people who already have points. Since, once again, they lose the points automatically when you agree to send the card, they really have no incentive to rip you off if you send out the cards. If you don't send out the cards, you won't get the points, but then that's you trying to rip someone off, so I guess just don't do that :P
@jonhydude All you could do by cheating with a friend is shuffle the same set of points back and forth which doesn't accomplish anything. Since point value is automatically derived by the site and not set by the user, there's no way to do arbitrage either.
Also, you -can- buy points directly from the site. They cost the same 0.01 each that they are valued at, so to get a 25 dollar card (2500 pucapoints) you can either send out 2500 points worth of cards to other people, or pay the site 25 dollars directly, or anywhere inbetween. You also get a certain amount of "free" pucapoints as part of paying to upgrade your account to silver or gold status (which are fewer points than the money you spent but you also get some increased functionality in exchange)
@ShadowLand The potential lack of cards to send OUT is a function of the small size of the userbase at the moment. Since you can move cards around at their current value and the system is built to facilitate trading up (You can send 50 1.00 cards to 50 people, and with those points get one 50 dollar card from someone else, which you really can't do in direct trading ever) there are a few people who are obviously stores or big dealers, who tend to jump on most cards as soon as they are available. I'd say it's likely that 50-60% of all pucapoints in the system are probably in the hands of a dozen people whose want lists are all ABUR duals, and other high-value staples.
Generally the way you use Pucatrade is to list as many cards as you have, and periodically you just pop your head in and see if anybody's got wants you can fulfill. You just need to manage your own want list carefully. Because the second somebody marks one of your cards received, you get the points, and everyone else is also hammering refresh all day to see if they can send out, so 99% of the time, by the time I even notice that I have more points from something I sent getting received, someone's already taken those points sending me wants. Which is awesome.
December 26, 2013 8:24 a.m.
Alternately, be occasionally willing to send out a high value card for its current market value even though, if your want list is full of commons for whatever reason, you might be trading down. Some people (like me) care more about having cards I want to use than having cards which are maximally value-efficient. And I'll send out 15-25 dollar cards knowing a lot of those points are going to be used to fulfill <1.00 value cards I need to go right into decks.
gnarlicide says... #2
wtf is pucatrade
December 23, 2013 7:23 p.m.