Outdated Pending Trades Question

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chaddie84

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I'm curious how others handle this situation and would appreciate everyone's feedback. This has happened to me quite a few times and I'm trying to find a happy medium between keeping track of things, but not tying up a mess of cards or blowing off potential trades.

I do a lot of box breaks and get inquiries in my threads or via PMs. I list the cards I have for the trader in a reply then set them aside (usually in a special pile/box on my desk).

Sometimes I get a reply right away. Sometimes I get a reply after a few days. Sometimes I get a reply after a couple weeks. Sometimes I never get a reply.

As time goes on, my pile of "pending" trades gets bigger and bigger. My PM inbox is overflowing with saved messages on "pending" trades, and I start to lose track of what I set aside for whom.

Here is my question. Realistically, how long do you set aside cards other traders ask about, but you never hear from in reply?
 
I no longer set cards a side for collectors unless they are freebies I am sending them, and those usually go out pretty quickly. If you've got the room on your desk, I'd say a week is about good to keep them out until filing them away.

As for waiting for a response, I wait 2 weeks, then just unsubscribe from the thread or delete the PM. Only once has the original requester come back after that to finish up a trade.
 
well i never set cards aside the way i look at it if they want it then they need to post up a trade, I did that before and i kept gaining cards every day and then they would come back and say they did not want them, so from then on if i offered the card or they asked for it i never pulled the card until i saw it posted in my trade manager. The way i look at it, it is not thier card until the trade is posted

shawn
 
My collection isn't that organized nor do I just have everything I have that well organized I would want to go thru having to find the cards twice, usually 2 months cards will sit out but I know I've had a few times card sat out close to 4 months and I only kept em out because they were for members with even more trades then me. So yeah it happens to atleast some of us. Hopefully one weekend some day I'll go thru and organize EVERYTHING and list it all on a site that way I wouldnt have to have trade stacks sitting out
 
I think a week is more than a reasonable amount of time. It gets too hard to keep track of, and I usually find that any trade taking that long doesn't work out.
 
I've never had that many pending trades, but i've had a few. If I don't hear back from the individual, I send them a reminder PM and if I see that they've read the message, I'll give them a couple days (maybe they're busy with work, kids, life, etc). If I still don't get a reply, I move on. If they want it bad enough, they'll get in touch with me.

I've had it reversed too. Someone has a card or cards that I need and they say that they'll make a trade with me, but I don't hear back from them. To me, this is just flat out rude. I'll send one more PM and if I get nothing, I move on. I can find it somewhere else.
 
Reasons such as those in this thread are why I'm approaching 20 members on my ignore list. The ignore list is the second best feature on the site. Only behind the Trade Manager!

Thanks
Craig
 
Thanks everyone for the feedback. It can be a tad frustrating to spend time digging through piles for a single or two a collector needs only to never hear back. As most of the piles still remaining on my desk are well over 2 weeks old, I figure it's time to move on. I don't even remember who half of the cards are for anymore and I couldn't even check as the PMs as they are long gone, and I never have them "backed up". I figure if it gets old enough that it's not one of my last 250 messages, it's probably not going to happen.

-Chad
 
I usually give mine a month, or 3 PM's, whichever come first. I have my doubles organized by set and card number. For me, digging cards out and putting them away aren't as painful as it is for others. I hate wasting time and getting no response, but then again, I do enjoy looking at my cards, even if they are doubles.

Good luck with your collection.
 
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