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It is a marketplace for trading cards for cards. Nobody buys anything: you list what you own, say what you would take for it, and negotiate a swap with another collector. We never hold, own, or ship your cards — you post directly to each other. What you pay us is a fee for running the trade, plus the actual postage.

One fee of 5% of what your own side of the trade is worth, with a minimum of $2.50, plus postage at the carrier's real price with nothing added. Trade Protection is included in that total. You are charged once, and only after both of you have confirmed — if either payment fails, neither of you is charged and both sets of cards go straight back to your collections.

You file a claim on the trade, and if it is upheld we reimburse you in full up to what is covered. Every trade includes protection up to $80 of the card's value as standard. You can raise that to the card's full value before you pay. Claims pay 100% of what is covered — there is no deductible.

Within 7 days of paying. We remind you on day 3, flag it on day 5, and if nothing has been posted by day 7 the trade can be cancelled and refunded. Your label is bought for you when you pay, so posting is just handing the package over.

File a claim on the trade within 48 hours of delivery. You will need your unboxing video, so film continuously from the unopened package — it cannot be added afterwards. A real person reads every claim.

No. New accounts start with lower limits while you build a record — a handful of trades is enough to lift them. The limits exist so that somebody's first trade is not their most valuable card with a stranger.

It is a marketplace for trading cards for cards. Nobody buys anything: you list what you own, say what you would take for it, and negotiate a swap with another collector. We never hold, own, or ship your cards — you post directly to each other. What you pay us is a fee for running the trade, plus the actual postage.

No. New accounts start with lower limits while you build a record — a handful of trades is enough to lift them. The limits exist so that somebody's first trade is not their most valuable card with a stranger.

You list a card and describe what you are after. Someone sends you an offer of their own cards. You accept, counter, or decline, and you can counter as many times as it takes — but an offer expires if nobody answers within 48 hours, and no single negotiation runs longer than 5 days. Countering or sending a message resets the clock. Once you both accept, you each pay your own fee and postage, we buy both shipping labels, and you post to each other. When both packages arrive, a 48-hour window opens for either of you to raise a problem. If nobody does, the trade completes and both collections update.

Another collector. Swap Shack is not a party to the trade: we do not own, buy, sell, hold, or ship any card. We run the process, hold the payment for the fee and the postage, and step in when a claim is filed.

Before either of you has posted anything, yes — the trade is cancelled and both sides are refunded in full, protection included. Once cards are in the post it is a claim, not a cancellation.

One fee of 5% of what your own side of the trade is worth, with a minimum of $2.50, plus postage at the carrier's real price with nothing added. Trade Protection is included in that total. You are charged once, and only after both of you have confirmed — if either payment fails, neither of you is charged and both sets of cards go straight back to your collections.

Running the trade: escrowing the payment, buying and issuing both shipping labels, tracking the packages, holding the claim window open, and handling any dispute that follows. It is 5% of your own side's value with a $2.50 minimum — your side, not the combined total, so a lopsided trade does not punish the smaller half.

No. Each of you pays your own fee and your own postage. Their side is their cost.

No. You pay the carrier's quoted price, passed through at cost. The quote you see before paying is the real one.

Once, after both traders have confirmed. Nothing is taken while an offer is still being negotiated, and if the other side's payment fails yours is not taken either.

You file a claim on the trade, and if it is upheld we reimburse you in full up to what is covered. Every trade includes protection up to $80 of the card's value as standard. You can raise that to the card's full value before you pay. Claims pay 100% of what is covered — there is no deductible.

Every trade includes cover up to $80 of your card's value, charged at 3.5% of the covered amount and never less than $1.75. Before you pay you can upgrade to cover the card's full value at 6%. The upgrade replaces the standard charge rather than stacking on top, and the screen shows you the exact difference in pounds and pence before you choose.

The card not arriving, the wrong card arriving, or a card arriving in worse condition than it was listed in. It is a contractual guarantee from us, not an insurance policy, and it covers the trade — not damage you cause afterwards.

Up to $200 on any one trade, and up to $500 across all your trades in any 180 days. Payouts are capped at the card's market price: declaring a common card as worth a fortune does not make it so, and you are only ever charged for what is genuinely covered.

Nothing automatic. Mutual claims pay nobody until a person has looked at both sides, because two people each blaming the other is exactly the shape of an attempted fraud. We review those individually.

Within 7 days of paying. We remind you on day 3, flag it on day 5, and if nothing has been posted by day 7 the trade can be cancelled and refunded. Your label is bought for you when you pay, so posting is just handing the package over.

It is bought for you when you pay, and appears on the trade page ready to print. You do not arrange postage yourself, and you do not pay the carrier separately.

The same clock applies to them: reminded on day 3, flagged on day 5, and cancellable from day 7. If they never post, you are refunded and their record takes the hit.

After 30 days without delivery we treat the package as lost and open the claim path — you do not have to wait indefinitely for a carrier to admit it.

Penny sleeve, then a top-loader or card saver, taped shut, between two pieces of rigid card in a bubble mailer. Film yourself packing it. Most condition disputes are really packing disputes.

File a claim on the trade within 48 hours of delivery. You will need your unboxing video, so film continuously from the unopened package — it cannot be added afterwards. A real person reads every claim.

Because it is the only evidence that settles an "it arrived empty" or "that is not the card" argument. Film continuously from the sealed package, with the label visible, and keep going until the card is out and readable. A video that starts after the package is open proves nothing.

48 hours from delivery. After that the trade completes automatically and both collections update.

Use the contact form and choose "report a user", or file a claim if it concerns a specific trade. Contact details shared in chat are redacted automatically — taking a trade off the platform removes every protection it has.

They are a record of how you have traded, and they decide your limits. Completing trades cleanly moves you up; strikes and abandoned trades move you down. Nothing about ranks is bought.

You start Unranked, capped at $150 on any one card and $200 on a whole trade, and you can list up to 5 manually-entered cards. 3 completed trades moves you up to Silver and the caps rise with you. There is nothing to apply for.

A recorded failure that was your fault — not posting, backing out, or a claim upheld against you. How many it takes to move you down depends on where you are: while you are Unranked or Silver, one is enough. Everything on your record is wiped every time your rank changes, up or down, so a promotion is a clean slate and so is a demotion. Bronze is the penalty rank below Unranked — 2 at-faults while you are there suspends the account for 7 days, then 30 days, then permanently. That ladder resets after 90 days with nothing on your record.

Look at the corners, edges, surface and centring under good light, and describe the worst of what you see, not the best. If a card is Used you must say what is wrong with it. Over-grading is the single most common cause of a claim, and a claim upheld against you costs more than the trade was worth.

They run from a card that looks like it came straight out of the pack to one with obvious, describable wear. Anything short of pristine should be photographed at the flaw, not just from the front. If you are hesitating between two tiers, pick the lower one.

No — most trades here are ungraded. A card already in a slab from PSA, BGS or SGC carries its grade with it, and you can say so when you list it. Swap Shack doesn't grade or authenticate cards itself: condition and value are what each trader declares, both of you see photos before agreeing, and if a card arrives not as described you have 48 hours from delivery to file a claim.

From SportsCardsPro, which publishes one market price per card per grade. We show that number as it is given to us. It is a reference, not a valuation of your particular copy.

You can declare a higher value, but protection is capped at the market price, and you are only charged for what is actually covered. Declaring $200 on a card the market says is worth twenty pounds gets you twenty pounds of cover, at the price of twenty pounds of cover.

Yes. Without a market price we go by your declared value, and the standard $80 of cover still applies. The upgrade is offered where it would actually add something.