So I've gotten an offer on trading my rope saddle for a barrel saddle. Only thing is, its out of state. I've never traded before like this. I've seen a ton of pics and I think itll fit my horse well. I actually think it's a little higher valued than my saddle but she wants to do a straight trade with me. We friended each other on Facebook,  exchanged address and phone #'s and have been texting each other... she said shes never done this either so we are both kinda unsure. I'm straight up and I get the feeling she is as well. Is there a trick to doing this so we are both protected?? 

with all the scams and bad seller posts I see all over facebook, I would be very leery on trading saddles especially to someone out of state. I know I've heard about people sending so much to each other in paypal and then it's refunded with the item is recieved....but still iffy. 

Make sure to do your research. Go browse around facebook and google to see if she is legit or not. I got scammed many years ago on a saddle trade, we shipped on the same day and she recalled her saddle the day her's was supposed to be delivered. It could have been an empty box for all I knew.  The day after my saddle was delivered to her, she was trying to sell it the next day and I got nothing. In the end, I ended up getting my saddle back in tact but I had a lot of things that aligned in making that happen. I had a friend that lived in the same town as the woman, she knew her in person and just so happened to point me in the right direction as far as getting in touch with law enforcement. I also looked her up and went to all of the websites she was trying to sell tack and let them know she was a thief, so I messed with her 'business.' I got pretty lucky. 

Some say you can send the same amount of money via paypal to each other (so basically paying for each other saddles) to cover yourselfs. However, due to my experience, I refuse to do a trade without receiving the saddle first and then I ship mine. I have done this a couple of times, and it went well but had to do some convincing. There are just so many scammers out there, you seriously don't know what you're getting. 

Good luck!

Well, we spoke on the phone this morning. Shes sent her saddle my way with photos and tracking info. We actually have mutual friends on Facebook so I feel pretty good about it so far.