A warning to the BeerAdvocate community!

Awww, you're going to make me blush lol.


So for a little back story, Patrick and I first started chatting when he responded to my very first ISO:FT, I had some New England hops up for trade and was looking for some Midwestern BA stouts. Another guy saw the post and responded first, and I worked out a trade. Patrick messaged me second and I explained that I already had a deal and he still proceeded to spend probably a solid hour out of his day helping me through the ropes and answering any question I could think of in relation to that trade. It was evident that he was on another level from what you'd expect out of a stranger you met online. We chatted for a while and agreed that the next time I was able to track down the beers in question I'd send some his way. Thankfully that occurred relatively quickly and I had my second box ever on the way. In response, he blows me up with incredible stuff from Crooked Stave, Big Bad Baptist, Bomb, Event Horizon, some New Glarus and then just because I'd never had anything from them, a 3F Oude Kriek (and more I'm forgetting about haha).

The second trade goes down and my poor wife had to haul in a monster box containing 3F Oude Gueuze (just because), Casey Saison, CW 16, more great sours from Funkwerks and Crooked stave and many more. Oh and he also had his buddy ship him some Zombie Dust and Arctic Panzer wolf just to send to me. I mean who does this?

He's incredibly generous and just a good dude to talk to. Patrick took a complete trading newbie and spent a ton of time helping me out, I can't possibly repay that level of kindness. So, if you want to trade with a complete badass of a BA then look no further than @pmoney. I am so thankful to have made such a good friend through beer trading, it's really amazing.

Cheers buddy!

 

This is what I love about BA. I have established relationships out of the majority of my trades and have also met some awesome people.

 

Good vibes here! Cheers to that!

 

CTFalcon's post above made me think that if every noob trader was assigned an experienced trader as a mentor, such a Patrick, then we might see a lot less bad/greedy traders and a lot more generous porch destroyers like CTFalcon has apparently turned into

 

^^^ I think that'd be awesome!

 

I agree wholeheartedly. Having such an experienced person help me learn the ropes made the move into the intimidating world of beer trading a complete joy. I nervously watched from afar and browsed the forums for a while, never quite mustering the nerve to wade in. To have someone reach out on my first trade attempt and spend such a large amount of their time helping me complete a trade with someone else was mind blowing. Consider me in favor of a beer trading mentorship program!

 

this is an intriguing idea...

if only we had enough experienced traders overall (not to mention ones willing to do this) to keep up with all the new traders!

personally, i would be interested in taking on a padawan.

watching trade culture from a distance can be intimidating, disheartening and destructive, especially with all the people looking to "win" trades.

you must unlearn what you have learned.

 

Awesome to hear! I always say (for 99% of the time), beer people are good people!!!!!!

 

Love to hear these posts!

I hope more traders that are so focused on "winning" read these post and glean some sense of community from some of these truly generous Beer Advocates.

 

It's refreshing to see threads like this and I hope to see many more in the near future. Porch destroyed great job CTFalcon.

 

There's a lot of love in this thread

 

Just completed my ever trade. Was very nervous about trading, especially since I was sending out a bottle of SR-71 (among other things. @bmcalister1897 completely took care of me. Awesome trader and made it so easy. Had it gone badly, I likely never would have done it again. It went perfectly though, and now I'm hooked.

So I echo your sentiment, every newbie trader should do their first trade with a vet.

 

awww this is awesome. I have a similar back and forth with a guy from my FB group. Building awesome trading relationships and turning them into friendships is so rewarding. I need a tissue now lol.

 

@ZionsvilleBeerDork handled the trade like a vet. we are already working on our second trade. glad to see that there are still a couple ba's out there on this thread just wanting to try beer they can't get a hold of. instead of holding it for ransom. if I was lucky enough to get 2 or a couple bottles of a rare beer I either
a: drink them because I like it. ( I know weird. probably will be labeled a pariah for that last statement)
b: trade it for a beer that isn't distro'd in Wisconsin. i am lucky to work in the industry and it is easier for me to get sought after beers. my very small way of paying it forward. anyway. trade with aaron. great trader on his first trade. looking forward to the next several with him

 

Great to see other people with similar success stories! Having such a positive experience so early in my trading "career" definitely set the tone, I highly doubt I'd be so gung ho to trade if I hadn't met such a great BA in Patrick.

I hope there are lots of other similar stories where a vet took someone under their wing and helped pave the way for a new trader. Maybe in addition to BA of the year we could add a mentor of the year in the trading community.

 

I've shared this story in other similar forums, but I had a great first experience here on BA. I noticed a local guy was trading one of the VT beers I had wanted for a while, so I sent him an offer. Since I was new, I had little/nothing to offer--instead of being a dick he politely said that he's tried what I had to offer. Then he offered to meet up in Brooklyn and share some of the beer I was looking to try--he was like don't worry about bringing anything I got a lot of beers from trades recently (I ended up bringing a newly released local beer that he had yet to try, so at least I was able to give him something new to try). So I show up and he arrives at the bar with a cooler full of beer--we opened cans of the beer we discussed. He then proceeded to open a growler from Tree House and we split that, too. Super nice guy who gave me the ins and out of trading/BA. End of the night I'm heading to the subway and he goes, "where you headed-I'll give you a lift." Drops me off right in my neighborhood and gives me a can to take home. True BA right there. Since then I've tried to go out of my way to be really welcoming to newcomers/take time to explain things. A few months back I did a free Pliny local give away--the winner had to be a new person who hadn't tried Pliny. Keep up the good work everyone

 

@pmoney was one of my first trades too! Totally showed me the ropes, and went above and beyond! Awesome dude! I always try to do the same for new traders now! Cheers!

 

Long time lurker, newer poster here. What Tbub shared is primarily what I'm worried about. I'm extremely new to collecting and don't live in an area with an exceptional amount of limited releases. This makes it intimidating to offer a trade to anybody. The best things I can get are mediocre shelfies that might not be distro'd in a certain BA's state. I feel like I don't even know where to start. I feel like people won't browse a thread titled "ISO: your distro shelfies, FT my distro shelfies. Thoughts?