Do you want to know how to trade as safely as possible for Magic: the Gathering Online (MTGO) cards?  Read this before you buy in order to protect yourself from potential scam-artists that lurk on the Internet.

PAPER vs. DIGITAL

The number one mistake that people make when bidding on Magic: the Gathering auctions is that they do not verify to see if the cards they are bidding on are Genuine Paper cards that are used for in real life (IRL) play or if they Magic Online Digital Objects (MODO).  Not all sellers will use "MODO" in their auction titles but rather they will use "MTGO" or "Digital Object."  Typically if you are dealing with a Genuine Paper card auction, "MTG" will appear in the auction title.

Remember: MTG = Paper and MTGO = Digitial

CHECK YOUR SELLER

One of the easiest things you can do to check your seller is to look at their feedback rating.

HEY! IT'S INTERNATIONAL!

Something many users do not realize is that there are MTGO players from around the world. This means that there are players online 24 hours a day.  This also means that if you purchase your cards from someone that is located 1/2 way around the world, your schedules are most likely opposite of each other.  While you are playing MTGO, he/she is sleeping and when he/she is playing MTGO you are sleeping!  Keep this in mind when you are buying cards from an eBay seller that is not in the same country or time-zone as you.  Most non-US sellers speak at least a limited amount of English so post-auction questions typically are not an issue.

A WARNING ABOUT POST EBAY SALES

Be careful of eBay Sellers that have a relatively low feedback rating that ask you if you want to purchase different cards or more of the same directly.  Even if you have completed your purchase for say a Jitte for $10 and everything went smoothly, this does not mean that the 3 other Jittes for $24 that the seller might be offering to you at a discount will ever make it into your MTGO collection.  This is simply gaining your trust with a solitary eBay auction and then preying on the trust that was just established.  Why does this work?  Because you have already exchanged positive feedback with the Seller so he is pretty much free to do whatever he wants outside of eBay and this does include scamming you out of your hard-earned dollars.

Disclaimer: Not all eBay sellers of MTGO product are out to get you.