Ever since the locked card feature came out, I have been a huge fan. With so many traders having bad experiences with getting ridiculous offers on their top cards, this prevents a lot of headaches for a lot of people. However, it can also be confusing to understand which of the cards you own are actually worth locking up.

The biggest thing to consider is that its always a good idea to lock up what many collectors refer to as “PC.” Your personal collection consists of cards you are just not looking to trade. I have a ton of Joe Mauer inserts that arent worth all that much, but at the same time, I wouldnt consider trading them.

The next consideration are your low numbered chase cards and sigs. Because I had some of these cards, a lot of my posts in the fan feed would get me 5-10 offers on cards I wasnt going to give up unless it was on my terms. That’s one of the beauties of locked cards – you can offer them in trades, but no one can make an offer on it back.

I have seen users lock gaming cards they like, but most of the time, it complicates things when I am trying to work out a deal with them. This is one of the problematic situations that happens – every time a big card comes out, and you have to make offers, a lot of times you have to go through and unlock everything.

My suggestion is this – only lock your cards as a last resort. Dont go locking cards that you might trade under the right circumstances, unless you are getting bombarded with trade offers for it every time you post in the feed. Its not going to be a constructive exercise, and you might miss out on a great offer because they cant do anything with your cards.

Similarly, I would advise against sending 1:1s on people’s locked cards asking them to unlock, unless you know they are looking to move it. I am sure that can be just as annoying as the trade offers on the card itself from before.