Questionable/Bad BIF/Trading Practices: The_Craft_Deviant_Rob

First off, complete dick move - get @Tee2Grn his beer.

But secondly, this guy was on the site for 3 months before he gave his hand at running a BIF? That should have been an immediate red flag (or at least made you say "Hmm") for anyone considering joining that BIF. Not to mention when he posted his NBO he had zero trading feedback, too. It's no ones fault but his own, but I wouldn't have joined his BIF from the get-go due to those reasons listed above.

 

Your second point probably not relevant to this forum being as how this is a bad trader/BIF/Awareness thread not a bad participant thread...That being said the things you mentioned are all points that I evaluated and I am sure many in the BIF evaluated. At the end of the day other than the bad seed organizer the group has delivered going on its second round of boxes and third pending. @Tee2Grn will be taken care of by the group and in my opinion it is the group of BIF participants that make the thing go and the organizer is just one piece. I respect your opinion on why you did not join the BIF but I am not certain that it is necessary you bring it up here. To me it almost sounds like a "I could have told you so type post.." I prefer to give the benefit of the doubt up front rather than look at everyone as suspect. Cheers!

 

Most BIF organizers will vet the participants in order to minimize the amount of people who might flake. I am even seeing more often that "newbies" are being required to ship their boxes first, during an earlier window. My point is that considering he was the BIF organizer himself, he essentially received a free-pass because no one cared that he had no history; making it easier for him to flake, which is seems he might have done...

 

Yes I agree with all your points again, but I guess my point is why distract the purpose of this thread to expose @The_Craft_Deviant_Rob? I would venture to guess a large majority if not all understood the inherent risk associated with the newbie running the BIF. Now a group of us will step up to the plate and take care of @Tee2Grn and furthermore try to do our due diligence to ensure that this is a one a done situation for a bad BAer.

 

Didn't mean to distract. Hope everything works out for @Tee2Grn.

 

Damn. That would scare the pants off me to say the least if my virtual commitments were suddenly enforced in the real world by real people. Hopefully that puts the spurs in your giddy-up @The_Craft_Deviant_Rob

 

What was his defense for not shipping?

 

Takes a special kind of person to start a BIF and then be called out as a bad trader! His reputation amongst BAs is crap now and it sounds like it is well deserved.

 

If his box is sent out and he is a stand up guy, you should send a trade request and he should accept it..There you can write the problems that were had with him so everyone could see it...But.....................

 

I completely agree with this. I actually had a little bit of a bad feeling about the OP for the listed reasons as well as a few comments he had made in unrelated threads, but then I saw the group that was forming and recognized some names and knew that regardless of the OP it would be a great BIF, and it has exceeded my expectations.

 

And, as of today, it has become the fourth longest (2nd longest active) BIF thread on the site! We'll catch those no good SWTFYW degenerates soon

 

What's amazing to me is despite the issues with the organizer, I've been in 4 or 5 BIFs now on this site and this was definitely the best one in terms of group participation and the boxes were insane.

I also have never really checked on the organizer, good lesson learned for the future but it really had minimal impact on the BIF as a whole.

 

I respect your feelings, but in this case I think the "I told you so" aspect needs to be overlooked.

Folks learn here, and pointing out something that should be a red flag is a great idea.

Not everything is avoidable in trading, we take our risks by enjoying this hobby, but there are certainly ways to minimize risk we can learn on the way. Some folks have that "dead pool" feel from things that can be observed about them, things that folks can learn to notice.

 

As I previously stated and retorted to @ShanePB, I agreed there were Red Flags, his points were valid and I think most if not all that participated noticed these. It isn't exactly earth shattering news and I felt as the participant list grew with solid BAers it negated that risk inherited by a less experienced BAer forming the group.

My point (not feelings come on this is the internet):I think it is important to not take anything away from what happened here as this was an extreme rare case of a BAer starting a BIF and then potentially becoming a dead beat. I think there is a probably a thread that BIF red flags would be a better fit for ie. (http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/bif-etc-how-does-it-work.188737/#post-2527687). I think it is important that none of the blame to get deflected from the bad seed here because of the unique situation. It is really easy to point fingers and look at everyone as guilty until proven innocent but if that was the case how would your first trade/BIF have ever happened?

 

This is the beer trading talk and help section. Pointing out there are things we need to be aware of when picking out trades and BIFs to minimize our risk of trading with scumbags is what this forum is about. Pointing to specific red flags is what this forum is about. Pointing out red flags is what considerate folks do to help those newer/less experienced to learn.

The obvious thing is not there are red flags, if it was so obvious no one would have responded to the NBO. What is obvious is what you state, that the real culprit is the scumbag who didn't send, that is the obvious thing that doesn't need to be pointed out, here, or anywhere, especially as no one said anything even close to requiring that response.

 

Agreed I think this horse has been beaten to death by now.