Hello all, I live in the Chicagoland area and also traverse through Indiana (Munster specifically) quite a bit. That said I want to start building a inventory to trade with other BA'ers. I know barrel aged beers usually can store well but good IPAS need to be fresh for proper trading. What are somethings I should make sure I have on hand to trade and to start building a good cellar to trade from? I'm looking to get some IPA'S I can't get where I live. The initial thought was to get trillium, treehouse and Alchemist off my bucket list but I don't want to limit myself to just them.
Spend some time in the trade forums to get an idea what things are being offered for stuff that you can get. Be on the lookout for limited releases in your areas. If something being released is not new, see if the previous vintage traded well or so. You can find that kind of information in the Completed Trades forum. That's another good one to spend some time in. Don't be afraid to ask around, and don't get discouraged if you run into an asshole mocking a trade offer or calling out something not "being fair". We were all new at some point and most of the community is willing to help.
Would definitely do two things before getting into trading. If you have done them already that's great. -Drink all the greatness in your area before trading for anything so you can get a refined idea of the things to trade for you will enjoy best. -Take a real good look at your finances and the costs of trading and decide if it's really worth it. So easy to get sucked into this fun and all of a sudden you have too many trades and a budget problem. Not all trades are for whales, locals for local is easy to start with. If you do decide to go the rarity route be prepared to wait in lines and/or travel in many cases. Do research as has already been suggested, but not only for which tradeable beers you have access to, but for potential traders. Be clear in trade requests conversations, always make trades official, and offer to send first to experienced traders with 100%rating will get you good trades.
Start with locals that you can readily obtain, and keep the cost at say $25-30. You'll get a chance to get some great beers you'd never see otherwise. You'll learn like I did that less beer packed well is an advantage, or use a bigger box. Your responsibility in trading is making sure your beers arrive safely. I'm afraid the only thing you'll learn from the FT site is that's it's a Whale hunt, but it is what it is. If you like IPAS I'd look to Seattle , lots of great beers available. If your thinking of 3F to trade for NE ipas it might take some doing unless a guys really local and your beers are his list. It's tough to pull NE IPAs , even though they're not hard to get the distribution is really limited.
Regarding cost that was brought up by cavedave: In the beginning, before really acquiring much of a cellar, you are likely to find trades for your locals. For example, someone from out west looking for Zombie Dust, pipeworks, or Mikerphone. Since this is likely to be a $4$ trade, it can get heavy on your end (say, 3 six-packs). On their end, this might only be 1-2 bottles (if bombers/750s). You'll have to weigh whether the cost of shipping is worth it. For me, I haven't made a trade that was further than 2 business days by FedEx ground. It just became cost prohibitive given that I didn't have anything glorious to trade, so my box was always pretty heavy, and the cost (even with the discount associated with making an account through FedEx) just became too high. On the flip-side, if you complete some trades where you might be exchanging 8ish bottles for 8ish bottles, even if shipping ends up being $20 (which is reasonable for a 1-2 day package, unless all 8 are bombers), that means you're only paying an extra $2.50/bottle due to shipping. That's worth it, in my opinion. I'd advise you to be scrappy. Try to find people that actually want to trade with you. This can take time. It's worth it to find nice BAs. There are plenty of people out there that are interested in 'winning' trades. If someone mentions secondary value, avoid them. If a trade becomes a hassle, drop it. Sharing good beer should be something you enjoy, not a difficult procedure where you're coming out of it feeling upset that you did the trade. On that note, one last thing to add: Beer Karma is real. Don't worry so much about whether trades are 100% fair. Both you and your trader should just be happy. The way this works (for me) is a little give and a little take. Sometimes you get a slightly better deal, and sometimes they do. It's about sharing good beer. Ideally, you'll develop become trade partners with a few people, and you'll trade with them again. It all balances out in the end.
^^^^ This!!!! I'm not looking to make out like a bandit. I just want to share good beer, whales be damned! I want to make connections to areas and people I wouldn't normally be able to come into contact with because of where I live. Ultimately I want to share and try different quality beers with other people that want to do the same. Thank you everyone who replied to my thread your knowledge and advice is taken very seriously. I truly appreciate it.
This is a pretty good example of what Private Message Conversations look like (only this happens to be on a thread since replies are now allowed). https://www.beeradvocate.com/commun...ish-tilted-barn-trill-th.527714/#post-5560135
