"Check My Bucket."

Three words that are as 'infamous' in the online sports card community as the day is long. Many online communities encourage its members to buy/sell/trade with a bucket.... some collectors even go as far as only dealing with people with a bucket! If you do not already have a bucket of your own, here's some information on setting yourself up with your very own bucket.

A "bucket" in its simplest form is a photobucket [link] account that allows a user to upload scans or pics of their cards into an online photo album. This gives collectors an easy way to make their collection accessible to other collectors. Does your "bucket" have to come from photobucket.com? Not necessarily. It could be any online photo gallery - Imageshack [link] , Snapfish [link] or Picasa [link].

Or, you could create your own bucket! All you need is to get your own domain name, webhost and a free online photo gallery script such as ZenPhoto [link] and you can have your own personal "bucket" with a custom URL! The advantage of taking this route is the customization of your photo album. However the big disadvantage, is your ability to host pictures could be limited depending on your alloted server storage space and allowed bandwidth - which all depends on your webhost.

(I personally took the second route for fun... check out my own "bucket" at CheckMyBucket.com!)

So there you have it. Bucket basics. You are now a bucketeer. So whether you are trying to buy, sell or trade cards, more often than not you better have a bucket prepared or you might find a potential deal dead in the water.