Post #1: First Post! It's Raining Stoneforge Mystic!

So an interesting scenario that happened to me today, that kind of sparks some inquiry. What would you do? 

I went to trade with someone today at FNM and they seemed pretty cool. I was eyeing their trade binder from afar and saw some goodies I was interested in. I pulled a few cards and started talking to him about magic and what format he played in. He said he was starting to play legacy and was looking for miscellaneous things. I pulled a couple cards and a noteworthy stoneforge mystic. He pulled some cards out of my binder, not really around the value of what I was asking for. I asked him if wanted to find more because I knew he hadn't taken enough to equal what I had picked out. I was wondering why he didn't pick much and I asked him what he valued stoneforge at, because some people value him differently based on preference; he replied with about $2-3. 

For everyone that doesn't know, stoneforge mystic is around $20 and is one of the highest chase cards in standard and legacy right now. (http://sales.starcitygames.com/carddisplay.php?product=171669). 

I kind of held my breath for a second and was really surprised by this. He probably wasn't keeping track of it's value, but the lowest value I ever remember him at was around 8. I had two opposing sides, let him know what the value of the card was and risk losing the opportunity to get it, or make a heavily skewed trade in my favor. 

As a veteran player, I know that sometimes trades are heavily skewed. When playing with people who are new to the game or don't follow values of cards, there's a grey area between helping others and helping yourself. It's hard to put in tons of money into a card game, so you can play the cards you want, of which those cards may be heavily beyond your price range. It's also hard to watch new players spend money on cards when you may not be able to. Hounding new players when they open cards may be someone's only way to get new product through trading with those players. It's also very difficult to stay competitive in a format (or casual group) where the prices of cards are quickly increasing, way past anyone's budget. 

Here's what happened. 

I told the guy that his card was around $20. To my surprise, he didn't care. He told me almost verbatim "I have like 5 of these, so no worries." I tried to add more cards to his pile so the trade would be more fair and he said he found what he wanted. The final trade was about $20 on my end to his $30 in cards. I left content that he knew the values of the cards he was trading and we were both happy with the outcome. 

I try to trade heavily in favor of newbies and go $5 or even $20 over the value of what they're giving me so they feel welcomed and that we aren't trying to rip them off, but help them become part of our community. In the end, we're all people and trading is just a way to help us get cards we want to play or get rid of cards we don't want to play. Be respectful to who you're trading with and don't be afraid of 'losing value' on whatever trade you're making. The worst thing that could happen is you'll make a new friend.