Personally, I set that bar at about 50%. If I'm making more than 50% margin on a trade and I think my partner doesn't understand the value of the cards involved, I feel obligated to say something. That something is usually along the lines of "This trade isn't really fair to you, why don't you pull a few more things," rather than "this trade is X dollars off," because pricing is entirely subjective.

On the other hand, if my partner wants to set dollar values to cards, I have no problem with that either. I don't need to shy away from prices, either I'm going to make a certain margin on a trade or I won't make it. I leave all the decisions regarding how we're going to trade to my partner, rather than being aggressive and telling them how it's going to go down.

I certainly don't want to see a trader's stock dwindle to nothing, but if he makes those trades with sufficient knowledge of what he's doing, it's really beyond my control. It's not my responsibility to watch over every trade they make, I can only offer assistance if they ask for it. I tell my trading partners that their trades will end up in an online column, so it's certainly not like I'm hiding the values of anything that occurs.

I'm all for making profitable trades, but if I'm getting over $10 of value on a trade, something should be amended.

While your mannerisms with those players were impeccable, if they were to go check the price value of the trade, would they not be upset?

I think I am a little to personally involved to make a valid argument since this is why my collection dwindled so much when I got back into the game in 2002. I had a bunch of dual lands and other older staples but none of the new 'in' cards of the Odyessy/Onslaught era. I got taken for a huge ride simply because I valued the new cards much higher than I should have because I didn't know about the way the market flowed with new sets.

Don't get me wrong, this article was AMAZING and the most detailed explanation of trading for value that I've seen. But, something strikes me as 'off' about getting SO MUCH value in each trade.