Every card collector has cards they don’t particularly want or would be happy to swap for a different card or lot of cards. Currently, the only way to really trade online is to search the blogs to see if you can organize a trade with a blogger. While these bloggers are awesome and they have done a lot to encourage online trading, it can take a lot of time to search through their want lists and there isn’t a way to connect with other readers. Zistle is trying to make it easier for collectors as well as bloggers to find other collectors who are interested in trading cards online with our Want List and Trading Bucket features. With our Want List feature, you can quickly build a list of cards you want (thus, “Want List”) by simply selecting sets, teams, and players that you collect. We will automatically create your Want List with any cards in our database that you don’t currently have in your collection. Similarly, the Trade Bucket feature allows you to add duplicate cards and other card you are willing to trade. With this information, Zistle will show you which members have cards to trade and likewise members who want the cards you are trading.

If it sounds complicated it isn’t—here is an example. You are working on completing the 2008 Topps Chrome Main Set and you need a handful of cards. Rather than adding those cards one by one, you can add the entire set to your Want List with one click and Zistle will automatically add all of the cards that you don’t currently have in your collection. Then you look at your Want List and you see that there are several collectors who have some of the cards you need. You select one of the collectors and it shows that they have 5 total cards in their Trade Bucket that you need. If you have cards up for trade that they want, Zistle displays that for you as a potential trade option. If not, you can see what they collect (e.g. Kirby Puckett, 1986 Topps, etc) so that you can propose a trade on your own. Proposing a trade is just a quick message that is sent to their email address. At Zistle, in less than 5 minutes, you can create your entire want list, find members with cards you need and propose trades with other members.

We are working on a few related features to make sure that this system works well. For example, creating a trader rating so that members can see if the people have a good trading history or not. Also, if you add a card to your collection and it is on your Want List, we automatically update your Want List so you only need to update your information once. We think that these features will make managing your collection and making trades much easier and more accessible to all collectors.

If you are excited about this idea, be sure to join our mailing list at www.zistle.com and join our private beta! We need your feedback!