The Client's Needs:

Version 2 of PucaTrade was a huge step up from the original Beta version, but lacked a few key features.

1. MTGO Trading (Trade Between Digital & Paper Cards): Something that didn't exist on the internet.

2. Non-English Cards: Version 2 of the PucaTrade website only allowed trade of English cards.

3. Card Condition: Cards are not always kept in perfect condition. This feature allows you to be able to grade your card based on it's condition, and trade-values will adjust accordingly.

4. Modern Mobile Experience: 25% of our members access the site from a mobile device, and our goal was to utilize responsive design to craft an elegant experience for our traders on the move.

5. Package Trading/Shipping: This feature lets you manage all versions of a card you would accept, and allows you to bundle your trades together as packages.

Our Solution:

The solution (in theory) was simple, build those features. The problem was, those are complex features. The Mobile Experience and Conditions were pretty straight forward once the designs were in place. But tackling MTGO and Package Trading were quite challenging.

Since the Magic Online system is a closed system with very little ways to extend or extract data, we had to contract an outside firm who know all the in's and outs. Once that relationship was in place they started building us "Bots" that could interact with members and send/receive digital cards like a lockbox. And of course giving them to the correct authenticated users.

This required an API from us so our trade system could communicate with the Magic Online digital platform. A lot of code and testing went into that, but in the end it was a success, and something no one else has accomplished.

Package Trading was another very complex project with sophisticated matching algorithms to match one members Have List with all the other members Want Lists and Vice Versa. This was eventually solved with a number of available card tables that match sequences and cards between members. We needed to pair down the millions of cards members have uploaded into the site to just the essential ones that are actually to be traded.

These are just a couple of the complex solutions put into place for the many large features on the web site.

The Results:

We have one of the most comprehensive Magic: The Gathering card databases in existance with nearly half a million cards. A large portion of this is related to hundreds of thousands of Non-English cards that were added to the site to accommodate Non-English card trading. Magic: The Gathering is in eleven different languages. Twelve if you count the digital versions.

Package trading is very popular on the site and PucaTrade has facilitated nearly 7 million trades. It services about 150,000 users. All these new features are ever increasing the ease and flow of trade.