Trade Policy

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Everything listed below is pretty much common sense.  Please take the time read through the policy and if you have questions please let us know.

1. Mistakes happen, no one is perfect.  If either one of us makes a mistake please be respectful of each other and please allow time to have it corrected.  We will do that same for you and I except the same in return.
2. We try to devote as much time as possible to trading, however there are times as a full time working parents and full time students that we need to be mindful of other responsibilities.  With that said we will make every effort to respond to emails and trade requests in a time manner but if you feel that our response is taking too long please be aware that we may be dealing with something that is more important.  If you feel that we have forgot or missed an email from you within a reasonable time frame please send us another email. 
3. We are not obligated to trade with you and you are not obligated to trade with us.  If for any reason you or us feels that there is something wrong with a trade please back out prior to agreeing to a trade.  We harbor no hard feels and would rather this happen then one of us being upset.
4. We do not consider our pre-1980 cards to be in mint condition.  Their conditions vary greatly.  Please ask to have scans provided for the cards that you are interested in.  We are not gradera and everyone seems to vary a little bit in their grading standards.  We don't want there to be any confusion or misunderstanding about the grade or condition of these cards, so please request a scan prior to agreeing to a trade.
5. We do consider my post-1980 cards to be in mint condition.  We will make effort to inform you if they are not and we would appreciate the same courtesy.
6. We due prefer mint condition cards but will accept ex or better as long as the value is adjusted for such condition.
7. We generally try to trade to Beckett's BV High <-> Beckett's BV High however this is not a set in stone and there are occasions where I will not.  Such as, if we provide you with 230 2000 Topps Baseball Regular cards and the total BV High is $56.00, we will adjust accordingly.  Why would you pay $56.00 for 230 2000 Topps Baseball Regular cards, right?  Additionally, if we have cards that we want and consider them a priority we will trade in your favor.  We have included in the trade bucket all of the mint condition price for each card,  when selecting the cards that you want please try to give us a equal as possible trade in the other direction.  Please don't request $75.00 in cards and offer $30.00 in cards.  It is not fair and waste of time for the both of us. 
8. We are in the process of trying to provided pricing for each card in my database.  Some cards do not have pricing ($0.00) in such cases we will lookup their value.  We lookup values in Beckett's, CheckOutMyCards.com and eBay to name a few.  We do not pick pricing out of the air, if we cannot find a value we will work with you to determine a fair and equitable value.
9. We try to make it the post office at least twice a week however there may be occasions when that does not happen.  If we are really delayed in shipping your trade we will send you an email.  If it is getting close to a holiday we will make every effort to send your package prior to the holiday.  You will generally notice that our trading drops considerably prior to holidays, this is one of the reasons why.
10. We will make every effort to inform you that we have received your cards and hope that you could do the same for me.  It is helpful to know when a trade is complete so that I could mark as such in my trade database and award points on some websites.  We would also request that if a trade was made through a website that awards points that you rewards us with points too after the trade is received.
11. If a card set has the words "eBay" next to it that means that the set is currently posted on eBay for sale.  Please do not ask for cards from that set.  We do not cancel our auctions once they are started unless there is an error in the posting.   
12. For traders that are not a member of a trading forum that I belong, we will require that you send cards to us first.  Once we receive the cards we will send you your cards. There no exceptions to this rule!
13. All cards listed in the trade bucket are available for purchase.  Most of the time we will not sell cards at Beckett's BV High.  If you are interested in purchasing cards please send us a list of cards that you would like and what you are willing to pay.  FYI, low-ball offers will be ignored.  Once we have pulled the cards and agreed on a price and shipping cost, we will send you a PayPal invoices.  Once payment is received we will mail your cards out.

Grading Policy

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We like to use the guidelines that Dan Austin put together on his site.  The guidelines seem to be the most fair and pretty self explanatory. 

The following scale shows approximately the percentage of NRMT that I would use for determining the value of a card in the following conditions:

• 100 - NEAR MINT or better (NM, NM/M, M)
• 90 - EXMT/NEAR MINT (EXMT/NM)
• 75-80 - EXMT
• 65 - EXCELLENT/EXMT (EX/EXMT)
• 50 - EXCELLENT (EX)
• 40 - VERY GOOD/EXCELLENT (VG/EX)
• 25-30 - VERY GOOD (VG)
• 20 - GOOD/VERY GOOD (G/VG)
• 15 - GOOD (G)
• 10 - FAIR/GOOD (FA/G)
• 5-7 - FAIR (FA)
• 3-4 - FAIR/POOR (FA/P)
• 1-2 - POOR (P)
  

Of course, there are also in-between grades allowing the percentage to be pretty much anything. Often, I will eyeball the card to estimate the grade and when I look up the price, I will round to a somewhat even number. I.e. - I find a $5 card in VG - I might just call it $1 or an $11 VG card might be $3.

In some cases, where prices for lower grades are available in the price guides, I will use these as a starting point to determine a more accurate estimate of the value. For example, the price guide may list a card in VG, so if I look up a VG card, I will just use that value, rather than adjusting the NM one.

Here are some general guidelines I use to place cards in various grades:

• NRMT - Beautiful, any flaw would have to be pretty minor.
• EXMT - Great looking card, can be a bit off-center, some minor corner probs, print spots, etc.
• EX - No creases! No miscuts! A nice collectible card with some flaws that are not serious. Minor corner creasing OK.
• VG/EX - This is the highest I will grade a card with very minor surface creases (wrinkles) or 100/0 centering on the front.
• VG - A decent looking card that would be EX or better if not for one or more noticeable creases, or just a card with some scrapes, minor stains, that sort of thing. Centering problems are OK, even very slight miscuts.
• GOOD - Still a collectible card, but will have creases, stains, corner rounding, other flaws. Insignificant pen marks are OK. A bit of miscutting is OK here.
• FAIR - A bit nasty looking and beat up, but still good as a filler, may have fading, noticeable scuffing, minor writing, tiny pieces missing, etc. May be noticeably miscut or have tons of creases, some of which may be serious.
• POOR - Quite nasty, serious writing, pieces missing, horrendous stains, and other fatal flaws! I generally don't like to trade for these.

Thanks for taking the time to visit our site.

Happy Trading!
It Just Old Cardboard