Trading Community Guidelines

If you are going to use this site as a place to network for trades, we suggest a few simple guidelines. For some people who are old hat at this, these will sound like common sense. There are some people who have never traded before and may find these guidelines useful.

1.  Please don't trade/offer anything that can currently be purchased commercially. For example, trading for a copy of Inside Job or a CDr of the Boxed set won't be tolerated. Trading for a cassette copy of Shiloh, though, is okay since you can't run out to Wal-Mart and get it.

2.  Methods of "payment". This is not a place for dealers to sell their stuff. We are suggesting 4 methods of reimbursing a person for what they are copying for you. Ultimately, it is up to the trader to tell you how they handle things. (for example, we don't trade for blanks because for us, that's too confusing to keep track of. We prefer to get our own tapes/CDs for reasons that are just too boring to go into here).

Even Trade: If you have a Henley show and Fred has a Frey show and you want to just swap copies, that's probably the easiest way to do it.

Trade for Blanks: Some traders like for you to send them blanks and postage. What this means is that you send them a blank media (CD, video tape) and enough $ to cover postage (and packaging). Some traders will just ask you to send 2 media for every copy you want.

Nominal Fee: Some people just ask for a fee to cover the cost of the media, postage and packaging. It's reasonable for people who do a lot of copying for people to ask for a little extra to cover their time and wear and tear on their equipment. We suggest the following fees:

*Video Tapes/DVDs: $10 for the first tape. $5 for each additional tape. If the postage will be international air mail, it should be $15 for the first tape to  cover the additional postage. If you have a large order, we reserve the right to ask for more for postage.

Cassette Tapes: $5 per tape. $7 if the postage will be international air mail.

*CDs: $10 for the first CD. $5 for each additional CD. If the postage is international airmail, $15 for the first CD.If you have a large order, we reserve the right to ask for more for postage.

*Please remember that considerable time and effort can go into making one video tape or CD. If the person has a stereo CD burner, they will probably have to track your CD by hand and listen to the entire CD. That's giving up 74 minutes of their life. If the video tape you want is composed of several small clips, the person will also have to be attentive. That's much different than just hitting the high-speed dub on a cassette.

Trade for Other: This can be fun. Let's say you have a Rockline and the person who wants it lives in England. Maybe you just want 15 Cadbury bars or a sweatshirt from Oxford. We've gotten some cool stuff this way.

3.  Preserve the Quality...Refer the Source. This is kind of a pet peeve of ours. Let's say we copy Joe on the Drew Carey show for you. Then you go ahead and copy that for someone else. And they copy it for someone else. The quality goes downhill. Ever see Michael Keaton in Multiplicity? Whenever possible, try to refer back to the source. If someone wants the Drew Carey from you, you might want to consider saying, "I got this from L&M, their copy will be better." There's nothing we hate hearing more than someone saying, "I have a copy of X but the quality is horrible" when we know that it didn't start out that way.

4.  Be good to one another. Remember, this is a community. Make your trades in a prompt manner (but if something comes up, e-mail and be honest). Don't try to cheat anyone. If everyone works together, this can be really cool.