Has your beer trading declined?

I still trade but it is more for the comradery than hunting something down. I'm not on the lookout like I once was.

 

Absoluty trading less now. Many different factors contribute to this though. I live in Asheville and it seems that, ever since the Wicked Weed buyout, their beers haven't have been quite in as high of demand as they once were. You would think that void would be filled by Burial's beers but, unless its Skillet, no one seems to give a crap. Part of it is trading is expensive and I've been trying to be more frugal. Part of it is, again, it's Asheville. There's a ton of great beer all around me locally and our distribution is fantastic on top of that.

 

For those of us who do not live in areas of proliferating breweries trading is a viable option.

 

As measured by?

 

My trading habits have changed, but quantity of beer received/sent has not gone down.

I probably receive and send out a similar amount of boxes monthly, but the I rarely post or respond to ISO/FT threads.

I have made enough trade partners through past trades, general BA conversation and BIF participation that I can usually find something I am searching for by sending someone I know a BA.

People reach out to me once in a while for a trade based on something I post and I often try to help them get a brew they are looking for. This has been fun.

 

Can you give what time period you're looking over?

I'd guess that activity would be up given the reddit close. It'd be great if you could measure this by overall amount of time spent in the "Beer trading" part of the forum, # of official trades listed as completed each month, or something similar. Do you have that data by chance?

 

Less. There are still breweries that I'll put in the time, money, & effort to trade for, but there's so much local goodness around I can't keep up with that, much less 49 other states (& the rest of the world).

 

Mostly just have good RTP's and we send each other beer without really asking as we are confident on both sides..only activity with new traders is when I am occasionally looking for a whale type bottle..

 

I will say since southern swells here in jax started putting out some awesome hazy ipas my trading has declined. Now it’s more about when I get the itch for something like Trillium, TH, etc. But twofold, with Southern Swells on the rise it has given me more tradeworthy offerings which has helped get more of my ISO

 

Less. Because as I've been trading now for several years, I've found that i've tried all the crazy beers I've wanted. Some were worth it, others weren't.

In many instances, I've just mellowed. My FOMO is declining. It seems my trades are for stuff I already have had, I know I like, and just want to drink some more of.

Also the attitudes in some instances have gotten a little out of hand. The NEED to win a trade bugs me. The lines to get the beers... I just want to drink the beer. I've also gotten away from buying beer just to trade it.

<shrug>

 

My trading has declined like the Titanic after the iceberg.

I can barely keep up with the local stuff being brewed and out distribution here in SC is pretty good. My local brewery is putting out quality beers in variety of styles and fair crowler / can prices. No need to pay for shipping, hassle, when I can go across town.

I had a Congress Street last night that I thought my local brewery (Seminar) brews something that is just as comparable.

I still keep a friend in VT for obvious reasons.

 

I've completely stopped trading. There are so many beers available to me locally that I can barely keep up - that wasn't the case years ago. Additionally, I used to trade for certain styles of beer that were hard to find but now that's usually not the case - in example, both Free Will and Naked Brewing near me now produce Flander's red style ales which used to be rare.

 

Also, I should have added this, trading used to be just about getting beers you couldn't get, and there was a kind of looseness about it, but now it seems to have become more about rare beers and trading value rather than just fairly equal money beer for beer trades - "How much can I get for this?"

 

I traded a lot for a couple years, but I’ve slowed down quite a bit lately. So many traders are looking for the same handful of beers - BAA, VR, FO, Wakefield stouts, etc. There just aren’t enough of those beers, but the focus on a short list of Wants is jamming up the works. Everyone thinks they have a shot at Whalez, so perceived lower-value beers are being passed over. It’s fine though, because there’s so much great beer available that many of the lower-value beers are just as good as the big boys.