Staff Trading Guide

[Zeena]

This guide is created by staff to assist users in making informed decisions with their trades. This is only a starting point so please make sure to view other topics in this board and to ask questions. Always check that you are happy with the trade before you accept it.

CONTENTS
Trading Etiquette
How to Value a Pet
Unfair Trades & Reporting Scams
Trade Terminology
December 18th Information

If you need help from staff please send in a help ticket.
Additionally check out the Guide Index for a variety of guides to assist in all aspects of trading.

[Zeena]

Trading Etiquette

Be Polite

Remember the person on the other side of the trade is a fellow human. Even if you are frustrated or having a bad day, you must treat them with politeness. If you have nothing nice to say, it is best not to say anything at all.

Read Trade Rules

Many users will outline their preferences for trading in their trade rules, and can get frustrated when they are ignored. Try your best to take their preferences into consideration before sending them a trade. Check below to see our tips on trade rules!

Communicate

If you are sending an offer communicate what you want with your trade partner, especially if you expect them to edit it. You cannot expect them to automatically know what you are thinking!

Lock Pets You Want to Keep

If you do not wish to receive trade offers on a pet, place them into a locked group. This will prevent people from sending unwanted offers and prevent confusion for your trade partners. It is very frustrating for people who are trying to trade to wade through pets you aren't taking offers on.

Be Patient

You can get many more successful trades by allowing others to properly consider and gather opinions on your trade offers. Before you cancel, consider if you'd like to edit instead.

Trade Rule Suggestions

Keep It Short and Simple

Other players will not want to spend a long time reading your rules. If they are long or unclear, people are likely to make mistakes or not bother read them at all. The more rules you have, the harder it will be for your partner to remember them. Less is more.

Stay Positive

It can be frustrating when people do not follow your trade rules, but having an aggressive or irritated tone in your trade rules will make people feel unwelcome or intimidated when it comes to sending you a trade.

Make it Easy to Read

While decorating your trade rules can be nice, keep the main points easy to read. Do not use images or unusual font characters in your main rules. These will be difficult or even impossible for some users to read and may not display properly on all devices. Remember that CS has many different board themes - are your rules easy to read on all of them?

Avoid Codewords

Although you may want users to read your rules, codewords may serve the opposite purpose as your partner will spend all their time thinking about the codeword and will not properly absorb your other rules. Furthermore, many players seriously dislike codewords and will leave your trading center when they see that one is required.

Please note these are just guidelines/suggestions, you can view our rules for trading here!


Credits to Burrito Bunny for writing this section!

[Zeena]

Rarity labels are the quickest way to tell a pet's approximate value at a glance. Typically as a pet's rarity goes up, its value goes up as well.

Rarity bars come in many different styles, you can change yours here!

A pet's rarity can go up or down over time. The more copies of a certain pet that exist, the more common it is. Rarities are calculated based on how many of a certain pet are owned by active CS users; this means that pets on inactive accounts will not count towards a pet's rarity label, as these pets are not available to trade for.

Oftentimes, you may find that two pets can have drastically different values despite sharing the same rarity label. Pet values can vary greatly between the same rarity, and beyond these simple rarity labels it is left up to the community to determine the values of pets. While items do not have rarity labels like pets do, the community has also worked to estimate their values as well. There are many guides available where users have come together to give more precise values to their pets. There is no single correct answer, and there are many threads in this board that you can use to help determine the values of your pets.

Players often use the following information to decide how they value a pet:
Rarity - a pet with a higher rarity label is usually preferred over a pet with a lower label
Demand - a pet that is more popular is usually preferred over a pet that is less popular
Age - an older pet is usually preferred over a newer pet, but make sure to check if the pet is a re-release first!
Store pet - if a pet has a C$ symbol on it, it's a store pet which may be valued differently by players compared to other pets

These factors all work together to determine the perceived value of a pet. Some players prefer trading based on rarity alone whereas others prefer to consider these other factors; both of these methods of trading are valid, and you may not always share the same opinions as your trading partner. Rarity and demand can both fluctuate drastically over time.

Everyone is allowed to have different opinions, but deliberately making false claims about the value of a pet in order to persuade your trading partner is considered scamming and will get you in trouble.

Credits to Seasonal for writing this section!

[Zeena]

CS staff would like to clarify the difference between sending an unfair trade (ex. ninja trading) and scamming, as we can only reverse trades if a scam took place. We cannot do anything about unfair trades. It is up to you to look up the value/worth of your pet and determine if you are happy with a trade before accepting it.

What is ninja trading?
Ninja trading is when someone offers on a pet for less than it is actually worth in attempts to get a good deal. Usually the trade will involve a high valued pet on your side with lesser valued pets on theirs, sometimes they may offer many lower valued pets so it looks like you're getting more. Anyone can be a target though they typically will try their luck with someone who doesn't appear to know their values well. Please DO NOT ACCEPT A TRADE if you are not 100% happy with it. Research your values, check out the numerous topics available in the CS Trading Guides & Help forum, ask questions and know the worth of your pet BEFORE you trade it away.

Unfortunately there is little CS staff can do in these cases as it is not against the rules to send an unfair trade. We cannot reverse trades when you change your mind or later find out the trade might have been unfair. It is your responsibility to make sure you are happy with the trade when it was completed. Please block users who you do not want to trade with so they cannot send you any further trades.

What do CS staff consider to be scamming?
Scamming is when someone deliberately lies about what they are offering you. For example, if someone sends you a trade claiming their pet is worth more than it is or if someone claims your pet is worth less than it is, then that would be considered scamming. Lying about the pet (ex. claiming your pet is a Joker when it's not) is also considered a scam. This is against the rules and is reportable.



Reporting Scams and Reversed Trades
How do I report a scam?
First go to the trade page and view the trade. Scroll down to the very bottom of the trade. Directly above the 'Accept', 'Edit', and 'Cancel' buttons is the share trade link.



Next, go to 'get help from staff' and choose 'Help with trades/pets'. Then write a description of the problem and include the link from the trade. We need proof that the user claimed the value of a pet was more or less than what they offered. If this was done in a PM instead of in the trade itself, please report the PM messages by going to the message and clicking the 'report' button. Please include all the information possible so we can deal with the situation quickly, rather than having to contact you for more information and delay the situation.

Additionally its best to not contact the user involved and leave the situation for staff to deal with. You can block the user if they are bothering you.

What is a reversed trade and why do staff reverse trades?
A reversed trade is when staff intervene and give back the pets/items/c$ you traded while giving the other user their pets/items/c$ back. This is done typically when scams take place, but could be large-scale trade reversals for various reasons such as multi-accounting/cheating or a hacked account. You will be notified by a trade in your 'completed trades' section if this happens and it will name the admin that reversed your trade.
Staff will never reverse a trade without cause. We will NOT reverse a trade because you found out after a trade that you traded away a pet for less than its worth. It is extremely important you are happy with the trade before you accept it.
If you are unsure why a trade was reversed you can send in a help ticket.

[Zeena]

CS users have come up with various terms in order to quantify the value of a pet. Here are some terms you might come across! If you are unsure of a term please ask for clarification, research it throughout the forums or send in a help ticket so our General Helpers can assist!

List pet

An older term from a retired trading list that is still used often as a standardized value in comparison to other pets. It refers to any pet that made it on the list. This list was split into various groups of pets that also have their own terms such as "Advents, Mains, Septembers".

Mid-advent (MA)

An older term from a retired trading list that is still used often as a standardized value in comparison to other pets. It refers to any pets that were in the middle tiers (tiers 5, 6, and 7) on the advent list.

Non

Also an older term from a retired trading list, a non refers to pets from litters considered to be worth less than their littermates. Some examples are below!

Non-jewel - Non-swirl - Non-tag

Extended release

Some pets were released for an extended period of time in the past, these pets will have a longer range of adoption dates. A guide on these pets can be found here.

Re-release (RR)

A pet that was released again after its original date, usually these are pets from December 18th. Keep in mind that a re-released pet is the same as an original, though some users may pay extra for an original date.

True date (TD)

A pet that was released and adopted on its original date that matches the archive (ex. was not re-released on December 18th).

Unreleased (UR)

A pet that was never released before on CS until December 18th. They are found under "Special Releases" in the archive. Read more about URs in the December 18th section of this guide!

Trade down

Trading a higher valued pet for lower valued pet(s) typically in bulk (ex. trading a rare for a bunch of commons)

Trade up

Trading lower value pet(s) typically in bulk for a pet that is of higher value (ex. trading a bunch of commons for a rare).

Paperclip challenge

This is when a user is trying to trade up from a lower value pet to something of high value. Typically nothing else is added on the users side as the whole point is to trade only that pet. The name comes from trading in a paperclip (something not worth much!) to see how valuable an object you can end up with.

Rarity Acronyms
OMG so common (OMGSC) - Extremely common (EC/XC) - Very common (VC)
Common (C) - Uncommon (UC) - Very uncommon (VUC)
Extremely uncommon (EUC/EU/XUC) - Rare (R) - Very rare (VR)
Extremely rare (ER) - OMG so rare (OMGSR)

[Zeena]

December 18th is a very special day on CS and is part of our Advent event where we re-release older OFTEN MORE VALUABLE AND RARE pets that have been previously released over the past 15+ years. They are re-releases of rare, very rare, extremely rare and OMG so rare pets. You will have a chance to adopt from three boxes and get one pet each that is randomly chosen.

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Extremely Rare and OMG So Rare pets |

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Rare and Very Rare Pets|

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Additional Rare and Very Rare Pets


DO NOT TRADE THESE PETS UNTIL YOU KNOW THEIR WORTH!
Please use the various topics in this board and the dedicated December 18th topics to ensure you know the worth of the pet before you trade it away. There will be lots of information available on the home page leading up to December 18th with links to these threads where you can ask questions. December 18th is typically the worst day for bad trades, so make sure you only accept a trade if you feel happy with it.

COPPA users can send in a help ticket for General Helpers/staff to assist. We recommend you wait until your pet is fully grown before you trade it away, and to always make sure you know what your pet is worth so you can get a trade you are happy with.

What is a Unreleased Pet/UR?
Unreleased pets (URs) are pets that have never been released on CS before, so they are very valuable, highly sought after, and are ONLY released on December 18th. They are often extremely rare or OMG so rare. You have a chance of getting one of these from each box you adopt from on December 18th. If you get one of these pets please make sure to use all the resources available to you and DO NOT trade the pet until you know its worth! The unreleased pet guide can be found here.

Examples of UR pets:

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UR Pancake 2023 ---- UR Zonkey 2016 ------ UR Ice Cat 2012

What is a Unreleased Item?
Unreleased items started in 2023 where on December 24th an item box was released similar to our giveaways on December 18th. This box allowed users the chance of getting older more valuable items, allowing them to adopt 5 times. Unreleased items are items that have never been released on CS before, so they are very valuable, highly sought after, and are ONLY released on December 24th. You have a chance of getting one of these each time you adopt from the box on December 24th. These items are in the archive under the 'Special Release' section. If you get one of these items please make sure to use all the resources available to you and DO NOT trade the item until you know its worth!
Examples of UR items:

UR Dragon Cake - UR Holo Cake - UR Orange Cake (all from 2023)