Philosophical Trading Question

[whiteymet]

Hi All:

I am somewhat of a newbie in the Net54 fraternity. I no longer collect the really old stuff that most of you do, but have been in the hobby since the mid 1960's.

With that said, I want to start off with a disclaimer. I understand and agree that all collectors can do with their cards/memorabilia etc. what they want to do with it. It is their choice entirely to trade or not to trade anything in their collection. From what I have read in many posts since I have been here it seems most collectors want to help others out whenever they can. A real collegial attitude has been noticed in many posts.

With that out of the way, I wanted your take on a recent encounter I had with a prominent member (at least in the number of posts) of the board.

I am collecting a set that I wrote this fellow about and asked what cards he had in the set. He replied that he had one card, a common player. I replied with a list of cards from the same set that included 13 players two of which are HOFer's.

I asked if he would trade his lone card for any of the ones on the list I sent him. Meaning a one for one trade. Thinking he would be pleased to be able to pick out a HOFer in trade for a common.

In the reply I received, he said he had not thought about trading it, but that he would do any of the following if the cards conditions are comparable:

Both HOFer's or one HOFer plus two commons for his one common.

I replied:

"Since mine are HOFer's and your player is not I feel a one for one deal would be fairer, with you still coming out way ahead ending up with a HOFer.

SCD Standard Catalog has the HOFers at $90 each and your common at $50 almost double in value."

I received no reply to my last email.

FYI, All three cards are comparable in condition and variations so we are talking apples for apples.

So, my question after all this is, if someone is working on a set that you have only one card from, that is a common, would you help out the other guy and trade the card? Forget the HOFer vs common, just the basic idea.

Was I expecting too much? I have always tried to help other collectors in sinmilar situations where I could and this seemed like a slam dunk for a quick one for one trade.

I'd like others take on this for future reference.

Thanks,

Fred