Please don't fall for behind the scene auctions

If I read the mods comments right, that's a no (unless they say it's cool). If not, I invite them to see my entire exchange with the person.

 

PM to discuss ratios....

 

Correct, that's a no.

We can't read your BMs. Honest.

 

For those of you wanting more info, pm me. Thanks F2brewers for reading what I sent you and support. Very cool.

 

Agreed it's happenning way too often. Almost every iso ft thread involving lists is an auction IMHO, although opinions vary about that.

Every time I respond to one of these and ask what exactly they're looking for its met with " I really don't know man, I don't know what the ratio should be, what do you have?"

I mean WTF? it's your trade, you don't know what you're looking for or what the ration should be? You must have had SOMETHING in.mind when you.posted the thread. .....

 

I posted a thread on that exact topic a few months back, got locked. So many ways for people to get away with writing an auction style post without ever saying "best offer wins."

 

Every single list/points-based ISO is an auction. Why they're allowed to exist is one of the great mysteries/inconsistencies of the trade forums.

The only list-style trade that I think works is the pick X from group 1, pick Y from group 2, etc ones. At least those are somewhat defined.

 

Why is a points-based ISO an auction? If the point explanation is clear and the OP sticks to it (i.e. takes the first offer that meets the requirements), it shouldn't be any more an auction than an explicit "ISO: x FT: y" post.

 

what are you, doing a straw poll of every single one of these? because if you believe that the "OP sticks to it" then I have some beachfront property in Oklahoma to sell you

 

I try to stick to accepting the first offer that meets my ISO:FT. I realize not everyone does that, but I'd like to think most people try to be straight up about it, whether it's points or X-for-Y.

 

Sometimes someone can lay out points, but clearly indicate that there are some bottles they would prefer to be included. Just because they hold out after the first offer theoretically meets the assigned points doesn't mean it's an auction. Someone who says "I want 8 points for my Bvdl, Lente is 4 points, Prop is 2, Vanilla is 1.5, FW sours are .5," obviously someone who offers 16 agrestic theoretically met that point scale, but the point value of the FW sours was clearly meant as a filler if someone was going to offer say, 1 Lente 1 Prop 1 Vanilla.

 

woah, really?

I would never have figured that extreme example out on my own

 

I think points posts are more straight forward than a list saying "I'm looking for a combo from below". At least I can look at a points list and say, it would take me 3, 4, 5 beers off this list to hit the # of points. I have no clue on the non points list

 

So why is it that there are very strict rules for posting, yet we allow people to post this "BM for Ratio" crap? If your too embarrassed of how much your asking for to post it in a open forum, then you shouldn't be allowed to take advantage of this community by holding a secret auction in your inbox.

 

It really is getting ridiculous. I had someone message me the other day on one of my trades and said, " let me know if you've got this done and I'll one up their offer". WTF.

 

This is a bit of a sketchy topic when it get's to "behind the scenes" auctions. I had put an ISO up and I had a couple big $ beers up for trade and was looking for several different 12oz bottles. I stated $4$ was my goal.

So I get a message of "I have all the beers you're looking for."

I respond with, "Ok whatcha got?" and then we exchanged a couple more ambiguous messages.

My point was, is I had no idea if this dude had one of each, 2 of each, or 1 of a couple kinds and 4 of another etc, etc...it was like he was expecting me to guess what quantities he had of each and throw out what I wanted until I hit the right number of each beer he had. He backed out as though he felt like it was an auction.

Meh, just kind of a grey area sometimes.

 

Well, there seems to be a double standard at play here- practically no one would grumble about someone searching the forums to determine what their beer is "worth" and concluding something like their KBBS, despite being a $10-$20 if you live near TG, command 100s of dollars worth of beer, and then posting a trade seek based on that astronomical value, yet someone who is less experienced and does not know the "value" of their beer gets hammered for testing the waters with a vague ISO.

 

I've done wishy washy ISOs. It probably comes off looking like an auction but that's not my intent. I did it when I had stuff to trade but didn't have a firm want . I was flexible on the return. Kinda have that problem now , I have a 5 bottle set of All the 2014 old Hickory ba stuff, Lindley , event, ba sex chocolate.; plus an Omega. I have nothing in mind as an ISO , I'm flexible and $4$. But I don't ant to post what looks like an auction even though in the spirt it wouldn't be.

 

It also needs to be noted that the original poster has made 195 trades, so we know he spends a ton of time on the trade boards and knows what everything is worth.