After the Detroit casinos opened, I got a stack of chips and made trade offers. I received a reply from someone who said, basically, send me 25 chips and I'll send you 25 chips. I wrote back that I had chips from 4 casinos - which ones did he want and in what quantity? He wrote back that it didn't matter, just send 25. I wrote back again that I would split them about evenly, and he wrote back "whatever" or whatever the equivalent was back then. I sent the chips, and received 25 in return. Then I received a nasty e-mail stating that it wasn't proper to send duplicates when trading like that, and it put him in a difficult situation.

The trade that got me out of the hobby for the next 6-7 years was with someone in Denver. We agreed to trade about $10 worth of chips. I sent mine; I received from him a thin envelope that had obviously been ripped open during transit by a mass of loose chips. I wrote him and (seriously, politely) told him that he might like to know that his packing and shipping method did not withstand the post office's machinery, and did he have any suggestions. If I had sent a defective package, my suggestion would have been "I'll send another set right away, and I'll use a padded envelope this time." My inquiry, however, was met with silence.

And so I got out of the trading end of the hobby until about 6 weeks ago. I have since made dozens of trades with Board users, and have not had a difficult word with any of them/you.