Can someone explain PucaTrade to me?
General forum
Posted on Feb. 16, 2016, 1:24 a.m. by Atony1400
Im new to online mtg, (besides T/O of course), and I'd like to know more info before I create a profile. How do puca points work? Is it worth creating an account? PLEASE HELP!
Servo_Token says... #3
Puca trade is a site that allows you to trade with others online instead of in person. Many other sites facilitate this, but they endorse 1 to 1 trading, this means that 2 people group up and exchange cards with one another of approx. equal value that the other has.
Puca trade is different because it eliminates the pressure of 1-to-1 trading by letting you send your cards to anyone that wants them, resulting in you getting a number of points equal to how valuable your cards are. You can in turn spend those points like cash to get other people to do the same to you.
Basically, you send out a Snapcaster Mage to a guy, then other people send you the Primeval Titan, Lightning Bolts, Steam Vents, and Ratchet Bombs that you wanted.
The reason that I use it is to fund my Speculation, as a lot of cards that I want are pretty cheap and easily available. Others use it to reach the 'puca dream', which is turning your pile of Possibility Storms into one Tarmogoyf or whatever. That very seldom actually happens, and you kind of need to work the system the other way around to get any real use out of it, but it's very good for certain people. You just have to trust the system, and be willing to send your cards out. Having an account is totally worth if you're also into in person trading, as the two work together very well.
Basically my process is to spend a bunch of points on spec options, get a million copies for cheap, wait for their price spike or increase or whatever, send them off again (or trade them in person for big ticket items), then repeat the process. I also turn big ticket items into smaller more volatile ticket items and have had success cashing in on that as well.
By doing this over a couple months, I've finished a new modern deck from scratch (ok, well, I had some of the commons...), and finish a legacy painter deck sans Imperial Recruiter. I literally just traded cards to get these decks, and my binder's overall worth hasn't gone down at all. Puca Trade is basically the wall street of magic where you go to play the stocks. If you're good enough, you sometimes get there.
February 16, 2016 1:32 a.m. Edited.
No worries, I was only going to ask for Vraska the Unseen and a few other things for my EDH deck.
Other question, do I NEED to send stuff to earn points before I can get the cards I need?
February 16, 2016 1:32 a.m.
No you can also buy pucapoints with money 1 USD equals 100 points and you also get 200 or 300 for signing up and other amounts for upgrading. Other than that yes you have to send out cards to get points.
February 16, 2016 1:35 a.m.
I will say though, it's totally worth using. There's lots of ways to get points, including inviting friends to join. You can unload a lot of crappie and end up with some goodies potentially. I've been using it for a while and have had no disappointments
February 16, 2016 2:23 a.m.
Souljacker says... #9
There are other ways to gain Pucapoints. First one is by letting someone sign up through your link: Sign up using this link please!. That gets you 100 points as a regular member, and up to 300 as a gold member. You can't easily abuse this as the one that signs up needs to verify with a phone number, but let's just say there's people with more than 1 phone or people that are willing to let you use their phone number :)
You can get 500 points by just signing up and filling out info/verifying your phone number/uploading an avatar and that kind of stuff. That should be enough to get your Vraska.
As DevoidMage said it's an easy way to cash in expendable cards (IE standard cards you got from a sealed or draft event), and then just put a couple of EDH/Modern staples on your want list and rejoice when they get sent to you. I don't play standard but I do like to draft and play sealed, and especially just after a release everyone wants your cards so you can get points quickly. I sent out a useless (to me) World Breaker and got back a Primeval Titan the same week with those points.
The biggest benefit is that you're not limited in getting cards your traditional trade partner is willing to give you. The biggest downside is that it can take long to get a specific card you want. But if time is of no essence or you're looking for a bunch of cards, then this should be no problem at all.
February 16, 2016 3:49 a.m.
If you are looking for standard cards, or low end end cards, they tend to be the cards everyone is unloading. I have been "using" it for about a month. Got 10 cards in, and 3 abur duals and a promo sneak attack inbound. But to get higher end cards you have to do things like accept cards under NM condition. I am a premium member there, as paying a little to rid myself of cards I won't use to get cards I will is worth that amount to me.
February 16, 2016 7:10 a.m.
I have been thinking of signing up as well, but am hesitant for fear of people ripping me off. I hear a story about someone receiving a card that was not in NM/M condition like the card description had said. Has anyone needed to contact PucaTrade to resolve any issues? Are they reasonable and easy to work with? How do they regulate if someone claims to be sending you the card you want, but never does? Last little question, am I able to load only one card in my wants list? I am looking to acquire a Jace, the Mind Sculptor so I do not want my points to get redeemed for something else first.
February 16, 2016 8:05 a.m.
Souljacker says... #12
Yes you can put 1 card on your list.
The experience I've had with the other members and the staff are exclusively good, I had 3 Summer blooms and an amulet of vigor on my wants when the bans leaked, and all members who engaged in a trade with me were kind enough to cancel the trade. As far as I know the staff is pretty lenient with refunding points for cards not received, although for higher value cards you need to have insured shipping etc.
February 16, 2016 8:14 a.m.
trollslayer it is free to sign up and use but you can spend money to upgrade to get certain benefits.
February 16, 2016 12:39 p.m.
It's great for me. I draft and play edh. And lots of people won't trade standard for non standard cards. I don't have lots of extra money to buy the cards I want for decks. So I trade my cards from drafts on pucatrade and then have a want list of mainly things I wouldn't pay cash for. And to me it is worth it to upgrade as it lets me do things like send people points.
February 16, 2016 1:22 p.m. Edited.
Also, if you upgrade to Uncommon or Rare, and pay the yearly fee up front, they award you with points. Typically its 1500 points for uncommon and 4500 for Rare I believe, but sometimes its more. I upgraded right before Christmas to uncommon and was awarded 4500 points.
February 16, 2016 2:10 p.m.
It sounds like the basic package still allows you to make good trades? The requirement of upgrading or not was another thing I was worried about with the website.
February 16, 2016 2:46 p.m.
Souljacker says... #18
Yeah with the free membership you can do most things, but not put foils on your want list so for that you need to upgrade. If you pay for the yearly subscripties you get your money in points too, so if you pay 90 dollars for a membership you get 9000 points
February 16, 2016 4:02 p.m.
So sounds like getting the FTV version of Jace would not be possible with the free version? Also, this will sound bad......but what stops friends from trading high value cards back and forth between one another to rack up their points?
February 16, 2016 7:04 p.m.
Yea, what stops a person with 2 accounts trading the same cards back and forth to rack up points?
February 16, 2016 10:01 p.m.
Nope, FTV cards nor any other foils can not be added to your want list unless you are a premium user.
When cards are "claimed" the amount of points are taken out the account of the person owning them. When the card is received, the points are added to the person who sent it. There is no way to "cheat" the system by just keep trading the same card back and forth.
So far:
I have sent 88 cards with a total value of 82,802 PucaPoints and I have received 14 cards from other members with a total value of 67,759 PucaPoints.
Recieves include: Tundra (HP), Underground Sea (LP), Bayou (LP), Gamble (LP), and Mind Over Matter (NM).
February 16, 2016 10:09 p.m.
Nope, there is no way to just get points, except to get other people to join, as you get points for each person who signs up though your linked page. But they do watch for multiple accounts and you can get banned from the site, or they will just no longer give you points for sign ups.
February 16, 2016 10:14 p.m.
Yeah, I realized that after I posted the question. I will definitely be looking into it so I can maybe trade off some of the random stuff I have. Thanks for all the input everyone.
February 16, 2016 10:14 p.m.
Actually, I just thought of one more question.....if I were to look up a card and let's say it costs 2,000pts for nm/m. Will people denote if the version they are sending is MP, LP, and HP with an adjusted points cost? I would hate to pay 2,000pts for a HP card.
February 16, 2016 10:26 p.m.
Pucatrade only wants people to send NM cards, so if someone sends you something that is not NM, you can open a case (report a problem).l In which you can either get the card sent back at their expense, or get a deduction in points.
But most traders I have had dealings with ask you if you would want it in its current condition. Upgraded users can also refund points without going through the process mentioned above, as the HP tundra I received at a 25% discount (so just under 15,000 instead of just under 20,000 at the time) - which was agreed upon before the trader sending it to me.
Some people only want NM/M. others are fine with SP, others want discounts for SP, some will take MP, some won't. Just as with trading with real people.
If you don't mind paying full points for a sp card, you are more than likely to get it faster.
Some upgraded users offer extra points for some cards (bounties), as an upgraded member can just send points to people.
February 16, 2016 11:04 p.m. Edited.
Didgeridooda says... #28
I used it to get some EDH staples, and have some friends that have used it more. I cashed out recently though. Points 3rd party sell for lower, and lower, seen down to 60 cents per 100. The admins made an update to the rules that could lead to banning if you buy/sell points. Just not really seeing it last long term, so I figured it was time for me to move on. If they somehow see an influx of new traders, it will mask these issues for a while. I do not see long term success for the site. If you use it, try to keep your risk low, and not stockpile too many points at once.
February 17, 2016 4:26 p.m.
Could I put up a card, say Thought-Knot Seer, and try to find the person who will give the most?
February 17, 2016 5:52 p.m.
Didgeridooda says... #30
You can not. You could try to find someone that would pay a bounty on the card. I think they have a sub reddit. But you find the person who wants it, and send to them. There is no auction for cards.
Some people use bots. You will actually find it difficult to send out cards like that. Standard card wants are snapped up quickly.
February 17, 2016 7:13 p.m. Edited.
Ah, I see. I would never send a more than $5 card to a stranger anyway.
February 17, 2016 8:33 p.m.
@Didgeridooda: The updated TOS that put in banning of third party selling of points was implemented due to a site that was built to facilitate the sales of puca points. It only bans third part selling of points, ie you can't have someone else sell your points for you. Even thier redit page says "Official trading thread (haves/wants, buy/sell points) | Feb 2016". So selling points is not the issue, having a site that sold points for people was.
Pucatrade does have a trade guarantee in place for traders on the site. If you don't feel like shipping high end cards out, then you might not want to do trades online at all, as there are inherent risks involved even trading on here.
i think pucatrade is another online trading tool, that can work, just don't expect to get high dollar cards and not have to put in work (ie put in all your rares / uncommon cards). Check the site daily (if not more than once a day).
You can use bots but I don't recommend them. Pucapower can be used to group trades together and hide traders that have low points.
I have way too many cards, which is why i am using pucatrade to thin my trade binders down while getting some of the higher priced cards that not many people want to get rid of.
February 17, 2016 10:18 p.m.
Didgeridooda says... #33
The sub-reddit is not run by any of the puca admins. I had seen something from an admin saying not to buy/sell so that was what I was going off of.
EmblemMan says... #2
People put on a list what they want. Then when you look up a card it will tell you all of the people that want that card you then select a person from that list send them the card and then you get the pucapoints and then you put cards on a list and people send you cares and they get the points. It is a very reactive trading site where you cant really choose what you get you just kind of hope people send them to you. I have had some success with standard and edh cards and for lower value cards under 20 its pretty good for sure just dont expect to get like goyfs or duals.
February 16, 2016 1:29 a.m.