we here at Rogue Market are a great group of people and all our core members know well enough we're here to help each other and for the love of our hobbies, as well as building a sound community where we look out for each other, but as we all also know not everybody on the other end of the internet is always as great as we'd like them to be..

and for that, here's a quick guide to help you trade safely and protect both you and the person you're trading with.

1. make sure you keep all records of your trades. keep all your PMs in your inbox until your trade has been completed on both parts, you received your items and the other person has gotten theirs, that way if anything comes up in the end, you've got documentation of what was going and what was coming, dates it was agreed on and your interaction with one another. also, printing screen shots of these PMs is a terrific way to have solid proof of what the agreements were.

2. request pictures! it's always better to know exactly what you're getting before it arrives in the mailbox, because you don't want to receive an item you're unhappy with or the wrong item through miscommunication, so always request pictures of trade items, this also helps to get a dated photo of the item so you know it's "in stock" and ready to go, matching up trade dates will also ensure a better outcome in case something gets lost, doesn't arrive.

3. pay the extra $ for insurance. depending on the values of your trade, most trades will still be in a totally affordable bracket for getting insurance, even if the value is high, the extra money is totally worth it if something happens and you're out of your items. because even in honest good traders, we've all had the post office, ups, or fedex or whoever lose our packages before, or they show up damaged and wrecked. but if you protect yourself by paying a tiny bit extra for insurance, you've just saved yourself from a total loss and you can at least have something to show.

all in all, we've got to have a little bit of trust in our fellow traders, but if you follow these 3 simple steps in your trades, you can help yourself become more protected and leave less room for bad situations!

now go trade something and make some awesome deals, safely!!