Is it just me (trading)?

I don't know that you have been around long enough to understand the answer to your question.

There was TG
There was FFF
There was HF
There was FFF
There was Cantina
There was FFF
There was BCBS variants
There was FFF
There was HT
There was FFF
There was Crooked Stave
There was FFF
There was CCB variants
There was FFF

So who knows where it started.

 

It began with the prevalence of folks trading beer that was also bought and sold on ebay, and using ebay as a means to put a dollar value on the beers they had to trade.

Used to be folks wanted to taste beers from other parts of the country, and those folks wanted the same, now it is a collector and profit mentality.

The actual enjoyment of the beer for many now is staring at it and bragging about. Opening it and enjoying it is the least motivating factor for acquiring beer for these folks.

Thank the lord I now have so many good beers available locally that I no longer need to deal with these assholes referred to in OP.

 

Like harrymel said, this trend did not start with TG. Although I agree that things seem to have reached an all time level of lunacy of late, the trade forums have consistently been flooded with with crazy demands for the most recent high profile releases for upwards of a year now. Recently, we had the Cali Brandy Huna craze prior to the recent TG madness, and that was preceded by BA Darklords.

 

That's why I just wait until I get or see a reasonable deal these days. No sense trying to be a hostage negotiator. I'd rather not have the beer than take on another career like that.

 

The problem is that hostage taking threads breed other hostage taking threads.

Somehow we as a community need to make an example of the first to the party wall street trader at the next hyped releases instead of just letting the man trade.

If there were consequences for being a profiteering jack off maybe the community would become more of a community again.

 

Are we going to start voting people off the island? That could be fun.

 

Gas used to be $.50 a gallon.

 

Everyone keeps saying that it's people holding beers hostage which is generally true but some of the beers people are throwing up FT looking for that bottle is also a driving factor in people asking for more.

 

Yes, you are way off. It's been like this for quite a while. The ISO du jour always commands absurd FTs. I think one of the biggest issues is that people who rip on these insane trade requests feel compelled to do the same thing when they come into possession of a bottle highly coveted by others. Imagine living in the beer wasteland of Iowa for years, trading away multiple bottles for anything of note. All of a sudden, the roles are reversed and you are the one holding the highly coveted prize. Do you trade it away $4$ to a regular trading partner or try to extract as much as possible for your Morning Delight (like others have been doing to you for years)?

 

I have to wonder how much of a factor the rise of Twitter/Instagram et al are in this. People seem to care a lot more about showing off what they've been drinking than to actually enjoy what they are drinking.

 

To OP - this trend started long before you were on the site. It has been a steady decline though, to the point that many vets have gone to trading elsewhere because it's become impossible to hold the fort around here. 2012 is the year the dam broke, and 2013 has only seen more of the same.

The best thing you can do is just not buy into it. If somebody wants 3 rare beers for their 1, just ignore them and move on. You will never be able to try every beer out there, and the sooner you accept that, the more fun you'll have with trading and just enjoying what is in front of you.

 

It seems like there are too many people thinking that trading is the only reason to get into craft beer as a hobby. Everyone's looking for the next whale, and they start muling every single local bottle release, hoping to corner the market before anyone out of state has even heard of the brewery. It's absurd.

 

While I don't agree 100% on this, I know what you are saying. Last year, I traded more than I should have for an unnamed California beer and regret it. I won't be doing that again.

Maybe stuff like BA Abraxas, TG Stouts, and DL Variants is the Midwest way of enacting revenge on the coasts. Far to long have we been looked upon as the "flyover states." Vengeance is ours and a dish best served cold. (Nobody get offended at my humor attempt please)

 

While the mega whales will always have some mysterious appeal to them, I've been having more fun just trading for locals and semi limited regional releases. Much less time negotiating and more time spent buying/shipping/drinking!

 

[epic eyeroll]

 

This has been going on for as long as interesting beers have been produced in quantities far outstripped by demand in areas where exciting craft beer is dominated by very few breweries. Toppling Goliath is a great example, as was Cigar City a few years ago.

My $0.02: if the asking price is too high for you, then look elsewhere. There's plenty of new beer to discover, and if you can't taste the new TG/HF/SARA/etc. release, well, it probably won't impact your life in any meaningful way anyhow. It's not always advisable to look to the emperor for what the new fashions will be.

EDIT: It should also be noted that the majority of trades happen off the boards between regular trading partners under reasonable terms.