Lack of trades

I’ve thought about this a lot... Could PART of it have to do with increased distribution across the country? There’s a lot of stuff I used to have to trade for that I can get on the regular now at my local bottle shop.

As the craft game has taken off you do see more “tickers” out there which increases the amount of people looking for whales. It is what it is, I guess.

I do a good amount of trading for bottles I would consider somewhere between locals and whales. Think less BAA and more Casey or Jester King. That’s just me though...

Cheers!

 

I also wonder if it has to do with a lot of areas having a much better selection of local beers.

My trading has tapered way off mostly since I am pretty content with our local offerings. In fact, it is sometimes very hard to keep up with just local releases.

 

Agreed. I had a tough time affording the massive number of new IPAs throughout the summer and fall this year - it's overwhelming. When you consider that, and that you can't let IPAs just sit in your fridge, it's hard to justify going out and buying more, or trading for other things.

That being said, I love local for local trades - and I've been disappointed by the rarity of offerings on Beer Advocate. I was really psyched to get in on the Cans Cans Beer It Forward - received some really fantastic locals that I'm still working through.

 

There are so many great new breweries popping up locally that I don't want to trade as much. I can't even taste everything in my market.

 

With Pipeworks in your back yard, I sure can't blame you. I still need to find a bottle of Citra and Emerald Grouper one of these days!

 

This....and because of the explosion of craft beer (a brewery on every corner in most metropolitan areas), you also don't need to go very far to get good beer. In OH and Pittsburgh, we are starting to see more and more juicy hops from local breweries. It's not Treehouse, but its close enough that I don't have to spend a lot of money and time to get solid beer.

The barrel aged stuff is definitely a different animal though. Supply and demand is most likely the cause. Treehouse and Trillium are producing so much now that people are muling it for friends and beer traders more now than ever before. On the other hand, BA stouts continue to remain 1-6pp and the uber rareness screams high value whale. With all of the exploratory stuff and adjunct variation, it is hard to find the same thing in your home town. But I think that eventually brewers will close the gap there as well.

 

I've said this before in similar threads and @Vidblain mentioned it above. Find a BIF to join, you will get awesome brews and meet a ton of people. I have so many trusted and generous contacts now that I feel like I never have to post and ISO. I ship and receive a ton of boxes, almost exclusively with people I met from BIF, BA Fantasy leagues, etc.

Maybe its not for everyone, but it has been a ton of fun for me. I do the NBS BIF, great if your into trying new stuff. Check out the hauls thread from the last round.

 

Agreed. 1000%

 

i think there's a number of reasons:

1) as mentioned above - increased distribution, larger amounts of beer are available to larger amount of people.
2) amount of time people have been in the game - i've found that the longer you've been around the more regular trading partners you have around the country (world) and can set up regular local for local trades without having to go to the trade boards
3) Greed - some people only want to trade for the best of the best and if it doesn't move for whales, they aren't going to go pick up those beers and wast time and money trading for other locals - as a result this completely undermines #2 on my list and they never get there.
4) people are trending away from trading and more towards buying. there's an increasing mindset out there that why would i spend time haggling and negotiating for certain beers when i can just pay $60 for two 4-packs of that local beer i want shipped to my house.

I think most people probably fall into # 2 or #4.

 

All I know is, that a few years ago, people would seek me out on this site to see if I could score some Mexican Cake for trades, now I can't get rid of the stuff...and I'm not even looking for whales

 

Oooooh. I'd take some Mexican Cake. How about a Mexican Coffee Cake?

 

Nope on the Coffee Cake, here in the Upstate we only get the Regular release. If you're interested in some MC, BM me and when I get home tonight, I'll go through my stash and see what I have

 

Local beers are getting better and better. Almost every region has a brewery doing great things. I have to drive about an hour in any direction to find great breweries near me, but the guys in town are gaining steam as well. I believe the lack of trades is just coming down to better beer being around, so there isn't this great demand to have the "best" beers if you can locally get "great" beers instead. Also, like @jhavs said, the BIFs are the way to go. I just joined my first this year and would rather do those than trade any day.

 

I'm on this bandwagon too. They are basically like fun, large trades. Plus, you get to play side games and make trade partners on the side. I'd recommend checking out the hints and hauls thread to see what boxes are sent. You'll see some of the most generous people on this site in those!

 

Preach! I posted in the IP trading forum (actually joined BA to do this) that I'd be heading through Dallas/Abilene hoping to swap a suitcase full of brewery-fresh Trillium, Treehouse, Night Shift, etc for some good local craft beers. Total *crickets*.

EDIT: took out suggestion for 'local for local' tag... it already exists

 

I had the same experience when I drove up to Michigan this summer. I packed up a bunch of Darkness, BA Darkness, and fresh Toppling Goliath hops. I managed to arrange just one in-person trade. Ended up cracking bottles whenever I went to breweries, just because I didn't want to bring all of my beer home again (and it was 90+ degrees every day... was sick of buying ice every 10 hours).

I'd also love to know what folks recommend. I like in-person trades, but it seems like they get harder and harder to find these days.

 

I have great luck setting up IP trades around beer releases or events. I post for brewery releases or festivals. I probably do about 10 IP swaps at every EBF and Microbrew Invitational. And a few at every Lawson's release.

I agree that when I am just traveling it is not always as many replies. I try to post with as much notice as possible and as specific as I can. Results may vary.

 

This is baffling to me, for all of the aforementioned reasons: I would far rather drive 10-30 minutes to meet someone for a beer and a trade vs. all of the hassle of shipping. Plus, the real positive to me is meeting a fellow beer nerd and having the opportunity to talk about beer.

I'm a little leery of meeting folks from other trade forums (Facebook, etc.) because you have no way of determining whether a person is a serial killer, a beer thief, etc. Trading feedback is one of the reasons I really love and continue to prefer trading on BA, for in-person or trading that involves shipping.