When to ship the box?

@stevepat.

If you have a chance, it might not be a bad idea to read over some of the bad trader threads (assuming you haven't already). There's lots of useful information in those threads, and you'll understand the importance of having your trade request accepted on BA.

As FFFjunkie suggested, I think it a very good idea to wait until your partner accepts your trade request on BA, and I'm puzzled as to why you would want to ship before he accepts the trade request/offer. Far too often I've seen instances where one person was convinced that there was an agreed upon trade, only to have their trading partner try to back out for one reason or another at the last minute (and often times after they'd already shipped). Hopefully nothing like that will occur here, but it never hurts to be careful.

Out of curiosity, do you have any other contact information from your trading partner (like a cell phone number)? A central theme to almost every previous bad trader thread I've read is a lack of communication between the two parties. Frankly, if you're having some difficulty getting him to commit to making a trade on BA, I think that's all the more reason why you should text or call him in advance before shipping. Tell him that you're ready to ship, that the only hold up is his accepting the trade on BA, and that as soon as he does that, you'll put his box in the mail. Assuming he's as keen on this trade as you are, I would think he'd immediately get on BA and accept your trade offer (I mean how hard is that?).

It's one thing if you have an established relationship with a trading partner, and so have established a basis for trust with him/her, but in this case I assume this is your first trade with the other party. All the more reason why it's a good idea to exercise extra caution and patience.

Good luck.