Trading Middle-earth cards with other players is essential if you want a decent card collection without having to pay thousands of dollars for it. However, it might sometimes be hard to determine whether a trade is fair or not. The following things should be considered when making a trade.
NOTE: These are just my thoughts on this subject – other experienced players may have different opinions.
General
Useful cards are worth a lot more than not-so-useful cards. For example,
The One Ring is worth a lot more than Haldalam, though both are unique
rare cards from the The Wizards set.
Unique rares are usually worth less than non-unique cards; players
only need one copy of a unique card, but they often want three copies of
a good non-unique card.
The Wizards
Limited edition cards (black borders) are worth more than their unlimited
edition counterparts (blue borders).
The following cards from this set are worth a lot:
Assassin – excellent non-unique hazard creature
The One Ring – unique, but essential for one ring decks.
A lot of other cards from this set are quite good too (Bilbo, Mouth
of Sauron, Bane of the Ithil Stone), but because ICE printed quite a lot
of unlimited edition cards, and boosters and starters have been available
for very cheap, most rares from The Wizards aren't really hard to get.
The Dragons & Dark Minions
These sets have also been available for very low prices, so rare cards
from The Dragons and Dark Minions are usually worth about as much as somewhat
useful unlimited rares from The Wizards. No cards from these sets are really
valuable, but of course, some are a lot more useful than others (Many Sorrows
Befall, Revealed to All Watchers, etcetera).
The Lidless Eye
Since Lidless Eye cards are much harder to find and more expensive
than cards from The Wizards, The Dragons and Dark Minions, rares from this
set are worth more than rares from the first three sets.
The following cards from this set are worth a lot:
A Malady Without Healing – very dangerous magic card
Chill Them With Fear – good hazard creature enhancer against minions
Elf-lord Revealed in Wrath – good hazard against minions
Heedless Revelry – very useful hazard against certain decks
Ready to his Will – allows you to turn some hazard creatures (Assassins,
Slayers, etc.) into 1 MP allies
The Lidless Eye – allows you to play Sauron himself instead of a Ringwraith!
The One Ring (minion) – minion one ring decks aren't as good as hero
one ring decks, but most people will want to own this card anyway
The Roving Eye – forces very nasty corruption checks
Against the Shadow
Against the Shadow boosters contain 2 rares instead of just one, so
AtS rares are usually worth less than Lidless Eye rares. However, some
AtS cards are R1 instead of R2; i.e. R2's are printed twice as often as
R1's, so R1's are twice as rare as R2's! Don't trade R1's away unless you
get something really good in return (like another R1 that's even cooler
in your opinion); these cards are very probably the rarest cards in the
game (some non-english promo cards excepted).
R1 cards in Against the Shadow:
Angmarim (hero)
Dragon factions (... Roused)*
Farmer Maggot
Nurniags (hero)
The Ithil-stone
* There are also some dragon factions in The Lidless Eye: Agburanar
Roused, Scatha Roused, Scorba Roused and Smaug Roused. These are NOT R1's!
The White Hand
The White Hand boosters also contain 2 rares instead of just one. There
are no R1's in this set, but there are R2's and R3's; however, the R2's
are the unique ones, the R3's are the non-unique ones, so both are about
equally valuable.
The Balrog
The Balrog is sold in two preconstructed decks, so there's no commons,
uncommons or rares in this set. However, to get three copies of some non-unique
cards, you'd have to buy several boxes, i.e. you only get one or two copies
of these cards when you buy one of each box. These are the most valuable
Balrog cards. A few examples: Longbottom Leaf, Challenge the Power, Long
Grievous Siege, Maker's Map, Sauron, Desire All for Thy Belly, Unabated
in Malice etc.
Promo cards
English promo cards used to be free (you'd send a self-addressed envelope
to ICE and you'd receive a full set of promo's), right now they're a little
hard to get. For trading purposes, treat them as rare cards, I'd say. In
the Netherlands, english promo's are still available at tournaments.
Non-english promo's are usually worth quite a lot. Don't trade them
away too quickly.
If, after reading this, you're still not sure how valuable a certain card is, check out Arco's Card Exchange <http://www.cardexchange.com> or Patrick Karcher's Site <http://www.treebeard.com/meccgtrades.html> to see how much they are asking for that particular card.
A few more thoughts:
Take your time when trading; if you're in a hurry, you might make a
trade you'll regret later on.
Dare to ask advice from other people on a trade you're about to make
("do you think this is a fair deal?"). If the person you're trading with
doesn't want you to ask other people's advice, he's probably ripping you
off.
If someone doesn't know the card he's trading away is very valuable
(an R1, for example), tell him! Never take advantage of someone's ignorance;
he'll find out you ripped him off someday, and then, you'll have made an
enemy.
Give newbies a break. If they desperately want a card you have, but
they don't have anything you want, consider trading with them anyway, just
to help them out.
If you want to start trading Middle-earth cards via the internet, be sure to
visit Chris Cable's MECCG site <http://www.meccg.net/trading/>