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Trading Sense: Red Flags

Discussion in 'Trade Talk' started by maximum12, Jun 5, 2012.

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  1. maximum12

    maximum12 Grand Pooh-Bah (4,662) Jan 21, 2008 Minnesota
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    Well, we seem to be in another mini-epidemic of bad-lousy traders. Unfortunate, but it happens. There's little defense against a long-time, well-established trader going off the rails, but what about the rest of humanity?

    So my question is: what are your personal red flags?

    My biggee: Slow Responder Guy. If I'm trying to set up a trade, & there's a two or three day lag time between responses, I'm going to call it off. Maybe I'm paranoid, but I always figure that if someone doesn't have time for a thirty or ninety second response to an inquiry or refinement of a trade for days at a time, the chances of them finding time to pack up a box in their supremely busy schedule are close to nil. The once or twice I've broken my own rule, I've rued it (though the slow-motion traders still came through in the end).

    Let's hear it. It would be nice to know what other people consider their 'red lines'.
     
  2. tewaris

    tewaris Initiate (0) Jul 14, 2009 Minnesota

    1. Deal too good to be true.

    2. Poor (read horrid) English.
     
  3. Photekut

    Photekut Initiate (0) Mar 31, 2006 Tennessee

    1. people who defend bad traders
    2. usernames with drug references ( not my idea, but it seems to fit more than several times already )
    3. people who demand wales for off the shelf beers and post the same threads over and over.
     
  4. GuisseppeFranco

    GuisseppeFranco Initiate (0) Nov 7, 2010 New York

    I can't stand slow responders. A day is fine, but when it takes 3 days to respond to a BM I'm leaning on not making the trade. I recently turned down a trade from a reputable guy because he took too long to reply.
     
  5. futura123

    futura123 Initiate (0) Jul 29, 2010 California

    BA username is Mikegroove or any on the bad trader list.
     
  6. GoGriz

    GoGriz Zealot (648) Dec 2, 2008 Massachusetts
    Trader

    No trades with women, hippies or Bobcats. In other words, people who worship the devil. Other than that I'm open.
     
  7. maximum12

    maximum12 Grand Pooh-Bah (4,662) Jan 21, 2008 Minnesota
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    I've been on the giving & receiving end of deals too good to be true, but I'm with you on the bad English. Our old friend JoJo was a classic in that respect, though our trade actually went off without a hitch.
     
  8. MarkIntihar

    MarkIntihar Initiate (0) Mar 17, 2010 Michigan

    If they're new-ish to trading, not being willing to ship first.

    Additionally, since I spend way too much time on this site, I tend to form opinions on users based on the way they post and/or how they act in an argument. May not be fair, but then again I'd rather just keep my beer to drink than hook up someone I can't stand (which, truth be told, aren't many users... I'm a pretty tolerant guy).

    I dunno, I just kinda know one when I see one...
     
  9. shuajw

    shuajw Pundit (830) Aug 12, 2007 Georgia
    Trader

    All of this. I have a decent list of people that I'd probably not trade with based on their posting. Especially in some of the bad trader threads, people that seem to be deadbeat apologists.
     
    aasher, Rempo and Photekut like this.
  10. ShogoKawada

    ShogoKawada Initiate (0) May 31, 2009 Pennsylvania

    1. unsolicited offers
    2. over-eagerness
    3. setting up trades with pending trades
    4. spasticated forum postings
    5. repeated flailing in FT posts (will this work? how about this? how about this? how about this?)
    6. Imagined Over-value (IE this bottle sells on eBay for $xxx, so let's work from there)
    7. People with cellar spreadsheets (especially if it's color-coded)


    I'm way less concerned with timeliness- I know I dragged my feet before, and I had one dude who took *eight* months to ship his end. What did I do? Maintained no-pressure contact and told him to get it out to me when he could. He did, and it all worked out in the end.
     
  11. tewaris

    tewaris Initiate (0) Jul 14, 2009 Minnesota

    What about spreadsheets?
     
  12. csano

    csano Initiate (0) Sep 21, 2010 Washington
    Trader

    Who hurt you?
     
    JustinF, JxExM, Weebay and 9 others like this.
  13. dvelcich

    dvelcich Zealot (605) Feb 6, 2008 Illinois

    A flag that pops up in my head from time to time comes from the guy who can't remember what you and he talked about over the course of the trade negotiation when all he has to do is read the several posts above his new one asking what we talked about. Is that guy for real? It's happened to me three times I can remember.
     
    jamvt, atoulouk, rmalinowski4 and 3 others like this.
  14. MarkIntihar

    MarkIntihar Initiate (0) Mar 17, 2010 Michigan

    Oh yeah! Another big one is someone who posts in the ISO:FT multiple times a week, every week. I have as much free time as just about anyone outside my 8 to 5, but even three trades a week is exhausting after a few weeks of it. Someone trading that much is likely to burn out at some point, and I'm not interested in being the person on the other side of it.
     
    trxxpaxxs likes this.
  15. ShogoKawada

    ShogoKawada Initiate (0) May 31, 2009 Pennsylvania

    I don't like spreadsheets. And I hate being linked to spreadsheets. And color-coding spreadsheets is just silly.

    that one's mostly in jest, mostly.
     
  16. baybassboy

    baybassboy Initiate (0) Feb 23, 2011 California

    unwillingness to share phone numbers and/or e-mail addresses

    wanting to go as big as possible in one of their first trades

    "but you live in SoCal... how hard can it be to get a case of week old Pliny?"
     
    afrokaze and BdubleEdubleRUN like this.
  17. tewaris

    tewaris Initiate (0) Jul 14, 2009 Minnesota

    Agreed on that one. I wish more people were aware of the "publish" feature on google docs that lets you send a webpage instead of spreadsheet, although I suspect you might hate it equally.

    I am not opposed to viewing spreadsheets but I don't like people cellars showing up on my docs list :-/

    I personally stick to good ol' Wants/Gots list.
     
    HopsJunkiedotcom likes this.
  18. GrumpyOldTroll

    GrumpyOldTroll Initiate (0) May 5, 2012 New Jersey

    People with color coded spreadsheets are exactly the types I'd think are the best trade partners. Attention to detail, everything is well thought out and they're unlikely to blow their reputation by blowing off a trade. But maybe it's too much of a good thing...
     
    VonZipper, JxExM, ridglens and 7 others like this.
  19. Steimie

    Steimie Maven (1,404) Jan 7, 2012 Michigan

    Yep, not communicating. I haven't traded that much, but it doesn't take long to send a quick note. I have a pending trade right now with someone that I traded with once before. He was slow to respond but I was super new to trading and thought my expectations were just a little too high. Turns out I wasn't being unreasonable in expecting a reply within a day or so. Now, it's been since Friday and he hasn't replied and I'm sitting on a 12 pack of a beer I don't particularly want b/c I haven't heard form him yet.

    He's got until tomorrow and I'm putting up a FT for this stuff that I don't want (but some others may).
     
  20. cbeer88

    cbeer88 Initiate (0) Sep 5, 2007 Massachusetts

    Communication is king. Not just frequency, but being unnecessarily terse/brief worries me.

    I'm very skeptical of poorly written messages too. I'm not looking for the Queen's English, but if you write a trade offer that reads like a 12 year old sending a text message, I'm probably going to run away.

    Anyone that ever references Ebay during negotiations is just not somebody I'm going to bother with.

    Lastly, if I don't recognize a person from the forums, and particularly with new users, I'm going to scan their posting history.
     
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