Hey Guys - I'm very new to trading and actually just completed my first successful trade yesterday. I have been trying to make a trade with one or two bottles of Westy 12 that I have from the brick. However, I have been struggling to get any real offers from this which you can see on the ISO/FT forum. Basically, I wanted to see what you guys thought is a good trade for Westy. I have seen people place the value at approximately $15/bottle. I am trying to get a hold of some Zombie Dust, West Coast stouts/wild ales, etc and wanted to know if you guys have any insight into what has been traded for Westy before.
You're way off asking for Cable Car. Zombie Dust is doable. Bruery stuff is doable. Russian River wild ales are doable. I see you only posted that ISO/FT thread about 2 hours ago. Give it time, man. You just need the right person to see your thread.
If your asking if a couple Westy XII could pull a couple HF growlers...probably. Let me explain my reasoning a bit. In my opinion, Shelton Bros effectively crippled the trade market for Westy XII when they released the bricks. They flooded the market with enough Westy XII that it killed the allure and mystique of the beer, and made it 1000% easier to try. When the bricks were released, they sold out super quick and probably traded pretty exorbitantly only because this was Westy XII, not smuggled in from Belgium,and hyped as the best beer EVAR. And I think that as more people sent out individual bottles from the brick(s) they bought, and more people were able to try Westy XII, they realized that it's fantastic, but it's a Quad, and I think that style gets sold a little bit short by a lot of people. For me personally, I'd rather go buy a Rochefort 10 and get close enough to Westy XII, then try and find it again at this point. Furthermore, I don't see too many people jones-ing for a Westy XII fix. It seems to have become get a couple bottles to see how good it really is, and that's it. In my experience at least. All that being said, I think there are people in VT who have not yet tried Westy XII, see how highly it is rated, and would probably trade a 750mL HF growler for a bottle. But the new Westy XII is Westy 8, or the Blond. But good luck with those.
Good thoughts. I posted an ISO for HF growlers earlier this week and both Westy 12 and 8 were included in the FT list. Didn't get any bites, but it was late Sunday I believe. Will have to try again.
Shelton Bros. certainly temporarily hurt the Westy trade market - but that was a one time thing. It still trades for limited or hard to get "shelf beers". Something like 2 KBS for 1 Westy 12 is a decent ratio. re: Rochefort being nearly as good. Sure. but how good the beer is is only like 20% of it's trade value. the rest is price and how hard it is to get.
And that's what is wrong with the trade game right now. Not that I don't agree with you. But for the most part I think we're in agreement with Westy XII's perceived value at this point.
I'm gonna do an IP trade for one next week for 2 KBS and 1 Founders IS. I prefer KBS, but I would like to surprise a friend with the Westy since he's never had it.
Westy will always have its place in the trading world. With time the beer geek population will only grow considerably and there is no Westy 12 for sale in the US. So it's either pay tons of money to have it shipped out or trade for it. And it is one of the best beers in the world after all. Not that Rochefort isn't but it's a different beer and people will want to compare.
