Hey new traders

Yes, and add beers to your wants/gots! The more the merrier, really, especially when you're still figuring out what beers are realistic to obtain. Hint: your first trade will probably not include Blåbær or Wooden Hell.

 

My 1st trade was a bottle of CBS the first year it was bottled. I wasn't into stouts then, and craved IPA's that I had no shot of seeing in NC. I was overwhelmed with over 70 responses, it was really unexpected, and I was in over my head. I got exactly what I wanted, but it would have been easier with a few locals for locals kinda trades under my belt.

 

Aslo, if you do use cellarHQ try to remember to post that link either in your ISO:FT or at least on your profile page. Same goes for those of you who use Google Docs for a cellar sheet. My first trade was for a few bottles of Marshal Zhukov for KBS. I probably should have started with a locals for locals trade but luckily i had an experienced, and friendly, BA on the other end of the trade. Welcome! and if you ever feel in over your head or need to ask a question, please ask, there is a general trading forum for a reason. Cheers!

 

I agree with this. Same with people saying "Hey I am visiting your area, what beers should I look for?", how should I know without knowing where you are from and what you already have access to.

 

And please include your trade history. Or if you don't, please don't be offended by the questions.

 

As a relatively new trader, I feel a little intimidated filling out my wants. I buckled and filled some out for my first BiF, but even then I feel as though its not an accurate representation of what I want as it is beers in the appropriate category with sufficient rating that had 100+ reviews. I haven't had a chance to try a lot of things I dont normally have access too, and I dont want to just "want" every hyped beer.

It's probably feedback I should send to the bro's, but the system for adding wants, at least based on my experience updating for the Sours, Saison, and Funk BiF was rather frustrating and time consuming.

My question to the more experienced traders is this:
If you were to see a list of wants that were all wales, or a list of the past month's (over)hyped beers, is that really helpful, or something that would make you feel more inclined to trade with a noob? And is there an easier way to add wants than opening each individual beer's page and clicking the want box?

Anyways, thanks in advance for any help/feedback you guys throw my way. Hopefully I dont get shat on too hard for outing myself

 

The more WANTS listed the better. Put it all down.
When talking through a trade via BM don't be shy. Your trade partner will help you along. And when in doubt, ask. I have sent messages to the more experienced traders and have received prompt and invaluable feedback.

Don't worry about the few who feel the need to be harsh, keep truckin'.

 

I had been drinking craft beer for a while, but just locally. When I found this website last year I started filling out my wants based on the "popular" beers and highly traded beers. Eventually once I started to branch out and figure out that there breweries past the ones I could get at my local bottle shop I started to just dance around the website. Found breweries that had some beers in the top 25 of specific styles, looked at some of their other beers, and now it's snowballed into a want list of over 200 beers. Am I ever going to try all of them? Nope. Do I care? Nope. There are so many beers out there and I've been fortunate enough to try some ridiculous brews. No one cares what your want list looks like. Just have fun when you do it, it's just beer.

 

We all want whales. Why not? I actually enjoy having them because they make me appreciate the local stuff even more because some just aren't as glorious as some peeps make them out to be. Once I start a convo with a trader, I just ask what styles they are into at the moment and then hook them up. I look at the "wants" list, but don't base my final judgement off it.

We all started out as a noob at one point in time. Luckily, there are a LOT of gracious and helpful BA's on here and they helped me out along the way. At first, I asked a ton of questions to make sure I didn't do anything wrong or stupid. I figure if you have a question and are uncertain about something, ask. It is better to ask than just assume. Haven't had a bad trade yet, either....(knock on wood) Cheers Brutha!

 

It can be time consuming, but certainly don't feel like you have to make your wants list completely exhaustive. At least if you put some different beers from different breweries, people can make suggestions (knowing you likely don't have access to that brewery). The other thing this can do for you is to give people ideas of what types of extras to toss in the goodie bag and send along for the ride.

Honestly, it's less about ettiquette and more about what you want to get out of the site/trading in general.
Good luck and happy trading!

 

For Sour's, Saison and Funk you really need to have an updated wants list as part of the requirements of the BIF. The goal is to craft a box (that fits the rules) which maximizes the number of wants you can hit on your respective target. If you were struggling at all, working through the highest rated Saisons, American Wilds, Lambics, etc... will give you a good baseline for what kinds of beers will be exchanged and desired in this BIF.

Limiting yourself to beers with more than 100 ratings in insane for a BIF like this as folks will be sending out very limited / hard to get / "whales" that wont have 100 ratings for months / years.

As for the time consuming part, how would you make it any faster than going to a beer's page and clicking a box that says want?

If I go to trade with someone who has 0 wants I make sure to re-evaluate the trade (or I typically know the person from outside BA). If you have no visible wants, its hard for me to target a box that you would enjoy.

Food for thought.

Cheers!

 

Thanks for the advice. I will start working on my Wants list right away.


Any Idea how I make a wants list in my profile page .

 

Thanks for the feedback, guys! Just spent about an hour (>_<) adding to wants. Threw up everything in the top 100 beers of fame i've yet to try so that there's something i feel is more realistic.

Gonzoillini, I think two separate columns for wants and gots to check while browsing beers by style (say, next to the bro's recommend and write a review tabs) would be an awesome start to making the process simpler and quicker.

texasdrugaddict, the long way is to individually seach by each beer you want. on the right hand side of the page there will be boxes you can check for want and got. If you're looking to do it more quickly, you can browse by style, sort by your preference (in my case, rAVG), and open a new tab in your browser for each beer you want to add. check the box, close the tab, and repeat. once you're done (for now), edit your personal information to linclude this link: http://beeradvocate.com/user/beers?ba=RedBeeron&view=W replacing RedBeeron with texasdrugaddict so people can actually see your wants. That last step was something i didnt do until just now, and i feel pretty stupid for failing at.