you're going to get a lot of advice from this thread. In the end take it all in, then do one thing. Don't be a complete **** to other people when you're trading/selling or it will bite you in the ass. If you're going to sell at huge markups above the going rate people are going to hate you, if you're going to trash talk people all the time theyre going to hate you, if you're running around offering people tons of money trying to secretly outbid other people , then people are going to hate you.
I been trading/selling a lot in the past few months and i've been lucky enough to win a couple raffles which made that easier for me. Some people will frown upon selling artisans for a mark up, and i'll give you this advice on that matter. If you win a raffle don't immediately flip your caps, try trading first for caps you like/want. The three big raffles I've won have been blind bags and thats been awesome because it really encourages trading and I've made a lot of good trade partners/friends that I can trust in the future to trade with and we help each other out when we know one of us is looking for a particular cap. If after awhile you can't find that trade then I believe it's okay to sell. I've sold some caps at below market value, but for the most part i sell them at market value. Some people won't like that, but the way I see it is this if I won a fugu and paid $50 and I can't seem to find anyone willing to trade me for it, but then I see the one I wanted for sale at the going market value of $100, I'm going to purchase the one I wanted, then sell mine at the going market value that I just purchased the other fugu at. Then I will have made $0 off the cap (still be down the $-50 of the original purchase), and got the cap I was looking for, while also giving someone else the cap they were looking for. It's almost like I traded the cap for the one I wanted but theres an extra step in the middle. There will probably be people that don't like it done this way but I think its the faster way, that leads to the same goal, and allows more artisans to exchange hands.
Take for example the person that never wants to sell, and only wants to trade. Say you win a nice Booper cap, but you really want a different one and will only trade your boop (b1) for the other color boop (b2). Except the person that has b2 does not like b1 and doesn't want to trade for it, but will instead trade/sell it to someone else. Well now you're stuck holding b1 hoping the next person that gets b2 wants to trade you, and if not then the cycle repeats and could possibly never end. UNTIL out of nowhere b2 is for sale for real money at the going market value of $300?!! but you see this and say I don't want to buy a cap for that price when I paid $50 for mine, I only want to trade. And now you're still stuck with b1 even though you want b2. Meanwhile someone who is in love with b1 is sitting there with almost no hope because the only way you will get rid of b1 is for b2 and if you wouldve just bought b2 and then sold your b1 to fund it than he actually wouldve had a shot at getting the key he wanted too!
I know a little confusing but I hope I got my point across. There are many differents routes and paths to take when trading/selling. Everyone will have some sort of argument about something. Just be pleasant and support the community. Don't be a huge **** and enter artisan raffles just to flip keys and make a quick buck and leave, and you should be fine.