What's your most bizarre Beer Trading experience?

I had a BA harangue me, and ultimately give me a negative rating, for the EXTRAS I went out and bought to specifically send him OUTSIDE of our official trade agreement.

That was both mind-bogglingly frustrating and ironically hilarious.

I had to resolve it through the Bad Trader forum (thanks BAs!), but I never thought I'd see that kind of immaturity here, relative to the wild west of social media, that is. Thankfully that kind of absurdity is very rare here.

LOL same here! Wonder if it was the same guy...

Yes please @mikecharley !

Oh shoot, that's hilarious! That reminds me, one of my first trades, from TX, had all of its beers wrapped in an entire wardrobe of old sweatshirts LMFAO! It felt so authentic but I couldn't help but wonder how much it cost, and what those sweatshirts did to him. Must have belonged to an ex

 

I traded a King Jjjulius & a Very Green for a Pliny The Younger last year with a novice trader. It was the worst packaging job by anyone that I have traded with by a mile. The bottle was actually sticking out of the package. It was a miracle that it made it from CA to MA.

 

I am definitely guilty of this lol

 

My unusual occurrences are usually just IP trades.

The strangest is one that was setup from the other guy, a gastropub at his choosing - close to him and the time he said he was available to meet. I had to drive about 1 hour to get to him, and while on my way he sends me a text saying he is on a hike with friends, and wants me to meet him at the hiking area where they parked - a few miles in the mountains from the gastropub.

I had a very bad feeling about it, and so I told him I'm waiting at the location he provided originally, and will wait. He took his sweet time, I waited more than an hour, finally made the exchange.

I realize most beer guys are nerds...didn't feel like it was safe.

 

I once got a box with beer in it and basically nothing else. No bubble wrap, no packing peanuts, no newspaper - just beer, box, and a few pieces of crumpled up paper. Was utterly shocked that it survived.

 

I traded for some OH hops and when I opened the box, there was only empty cans with some tissues stuffed in them. I messaged the guy making sure I wasn't getting scammed, but he assured me he didn't dump out those beers. Looks like UPS opened up the box, dumped out or drank all the beers, then re-packaged it just to send me empty cans. Trader made it right though and sent me a new box with no issues.

But this is why I will NEVER use UPS.

 

Happened to me on more than one occasion in a usps priority box - the one that opens on the side. Multiple bombers packed inside with nothing else. The box was bowed and our mail carriers routinely drop all packages on the (concrete) ground. Hopefully those senders also bought lottery tickets .

 

Had FedEx lose a box once due to a truck fire... I even found the truck fire on a news website so the guy knew I wasn't full of shit when I told him the box was destroyed... It was just for old ipas that he wanted because they had some sorta heavy metal themed names, but god damn were they hard to find replacements.

I had a guy not send my beers for like almost 3x years... He was in the military and this was when the war in Afghanistan was still going pretty heavy, I was honestly worried that he died... Turns out he just bailed because he couldn't get the beers quickly... He even began a new account... I found out about the new account and confronted him, he didn't deny or it or even apologize, just finally sent my beers.

FedEx once threw out a growler of a sour beer and delivered all the rest of the sticky, stinky bottles.... and the driver said, "you wouldn't want it anyway, it smelled really sour." Back in the day, Shorts Key Lime Pie was a rarity and not in bottles.

But really, the best things that have come out of the trading forums is all the amazing friends and great people I have been introduced to over the years.

 

lol what were the 3 year old beers?

 

The dude lived in Germany and I wanted to try Andesch Doppelbock... This was back when it wasn't in the U.S. He finally sent fresh bottles... Then the bottleshop near my house got them like 3 months later. IIRC, he included some pretty solid extras.

 

Oh my, and I'm a sucker for Doppelbock, but man how ironic lol

 

More of a funny/cool story than the trade itself:
While house sitting for us a couple years back, my brother in law opened my last bottle of a 3 year old BCBS I was saving for a vert. He didn't know what it was and didn't even finish/like it.
Literally my next trade after this incident, a generous BA I had never traded with before included that same year BCBS bottle as an extra completely randomly. What were the chances....

 

Update on this. Coincidentally, I got a box from a new trader today, and when I opened the box there was MORE loose macaroni.

 

I don't know you and not sure we'll ever trade, and I don't normally do noise makers, but if we ever trade in the future I'm including a whole box of elbow macaroni in there. You may have sealed your fate with other traders as well

 

Same. I usually tell the logistics company I'm shipping a fish tank.

As an invaluable aside, do you ever wonder if the big mac companies cut the elbows from a complete circle of noodle, or bend the macaroni by hand to make the crescent shape?

 

Macaroni is an extruded pasta, so its pushed through a die and cut off. Here's a decent video of it:



Pretty much all tube pasta is made this way.

 

No no, I'll have none of these sober, logically fact based responses. Deleting your post and having your imagination scheduled for a refresher course.

 

I was trading 8-10 heady topper for a single Cantillon Bio 375. Which I wouldn’t even do at this point. Anyway, I showed up and waited around for this guy to be late by 15-20 min with no mention or heads up or apology. The guy was in this old ass sketchy lookin 1990’s beat to shit minivan strewn with trash and had handicap tags, but clearly wasn’t disabled. The bottle had obviously been left in the vehicle in the summer- it was hot to the touch. And the dude was super awkward and unfriendly. He smelled bad and was a walking talking grease-matted hygienic cataclysm. He then didn’t leave any feedback and ghosted my follow-up messages. Bizarre for sure...

 

"how i traded for cantillon with a homeless man"

 

This wasn't really a bad trade, but kind of entertaining nonetheless - it was my first mail trade, for something like three bombers each. I wrapped mine like they were China cups - really over the top, using extra cardboard, tape, even chopsticks to add extra stability to the boxes on the inside. The guy who sent me my beers seemed kinda nervous to make sure I got my box on time, and specifically asked me if I was happy with the packaging. I said "sure, it was fine", when in reality I thought it was pretty bad - but not having a barometer to compare it with, I wasn't sure. His box was half full with styrofoam peanuts and some balled up paper bags with the beers mixed in...no bubble wrap, nothing protecting the bottles, they were completely in contact with each other and it was only by luck that they survived! I think in retrospect, the guy had to go away on business or something and had his teenage daughter pack it for him! Still cracks me up!