Play Magic for the game? Play it for collecting? Either way you will almost always be trading some cards to make your deck just the way you want it, because that Wash Out your opponent used should be in your deck!
This article will discuss very effective ways of card trading - so that you and your trade source both neither get ripped off - or - you get a super awesome card and your trade source doesn't even know what he traded away.
The biggest thing to effective trading is making it look like the cards you are trading are way better, and worth far more (though they aren't) than the cards you are trading for.
If you want to make the trade fair, you should always know the rarity of a card and realize how good it is, or rather how bad it is. These two ways are easy to ensure that you don't get ripped off and your trade source gets a satisfactory deal. When to trade by card rarity - when you are trading away a rare, try and get three uncommons (or two uncommons, two commons), when you are trading for a rare, try to give three uncommons for it or three commons for an uncommon. When to trade by card power - When trading for things like rare for rare, almost always there is one card that is better than the other. If your rare is, in your opinion, far better than his, then ask for an uncommon and a few commons with it that you wanted.
There are many commons that are just as good or better than rares (i.e Rancor). Many people judge the fairness of the trade by rareness, so if you can try and get three commons by trading a rare they will think "What an idea! Three Soltari Priests for his Penumbra Wurm?".
The best way of trading so that you get a fantastic deal is to get someone hyped up on one card. It is amazing how much someone will trade when they really want a card. Say that you don't really want to trade it, and how it came to such great use in some situations. The more you say that, the more hyped up they will be, especially young children. If you happened to find a few cards that you really wanted from their cards, say you will trade for all of those, but declare each card one at a time to make sure you aren't going out of your league (I.E "How about Lotus Guardian and Hunting Grounds for that Breath of life? Oh, I'll throw in that blue card that you wanted as well. Well, maybe not...hmmm... maybe if you put in Phrexian Vault and Ray of Revelation cause I really don't wanted to get rid of those..."). When they are looking through your cards, listen for those "Holy Crap!" comments and "I love those! I've always wanted one of those!" or one of those excited grunts people make when the see the "perfect card" for their deck which really isn't that great. Then, try to get them hyped up on that one card when trading.
Many people, under restricted time, look through eachother's cards for ones they want, and place them in a pile. Once the time is up, one of those people pressure the other into trading "Pile for Pile". This is the most horrible way for someone to be ripped off, especially when you are out of time and really want the cards in that pile. However, if someone says "Pile for Pile" either do not accept and say to set the cards aside for next time if you are not sure, or play it the cheap way. You could have your pile chock full of rares that don't have colored expansion symbols while your trade source happens to have wanted a number of worthless common and a decent rare that you never use. If you have no heart - take the opportunity, else you will have someone on your back angry at you for realizing how horribly ripped off they were.