Trading Updates (December 2020)

The probationary period to qualify for trading is a nice idea but the criteria seems flawed. I’ve got 19 trades on this site with stellar feedback, but only 30 karma points; I don’t qualify to trade.

 

If the criteria were set to 1500 karma points then it would be flawed. Fifty points seems like a reasonable threshold as It's not something exceedingly onerous to obtain but it's likely to be more effective than just having a 30 day period alone. Hopefully, it's an effective disincentive to scammers and lowlifes from ripping people off. I think we can all appreciate that.

 

I've had several trade partners that fall into this category, and interestingly enough, have been some of my best.

This is pretty standard that people don't actually come back and lock their threads once completed or they've moved on. I wish more people did when it was one way or the other, but it is what it is. I wish more people used the Completed Trades forum too. The bigger the sample size, the better the info. Also, sometimes you are offering a fair trade, but there's just not anyone interested at that time and people usually only look so many pages back. Like Todd said, trading is a limited amount of traffic on this site, which means there's a limited amount of people seeing your post. There seems to be a proliferation around here that everyone on the trade forum is there to "win," but I just haven't found that to be the case if you watch who you trade with. Quite the opposite actually. For example, I had a guy give me a New Glarus R&D as an extra the other day. Complete surprise and we hadn't even talked about extras. I'd never traded with them, heard of them, interacted with them, and the trade was hammered out in about 6 total messages. Just crazy generous.

@Todd, as someone who trades a decent amount, and follows the rules to a T, I'm good with all of this. Please keep trading of beverages other than beer around. Cheers.

 

Add a review for a beer and you'll probably be over the line

 

The rules for trading seem very clear and fair. If two parties agree it worked. If it doesn’t work out then that just trading, it was like that as kids trading baseball cards, in that’s it’s beer is only different.

 

I agree with all of this - maybe a one time exception can be carved in for people who currently have a large number of positive trades, but not enough Karma points - or increase the number of Karma points you receive for a trade. If you’ve completed 19 successful trades and don’t have 50 Karma points, that seems off to me considering the positive Karma involved in a successful trade.

Also, while I’m not a bourbon drinker, I really don’t mind seeing bourbon FT / ISOs and usually just ignore them. I do have a bottle of Elijah Craig that I sip on once every few months that will probably last me for years, and if I were to ever see a bottle of Weller anything, I’d buy it. Then I’d decide whether to try it out of curiosity or trade it?! Keep ‘em!

Also, re. the Completed Trades forum - @flat_lander has a great point - I wonder if there’s a way of increasing the input here? I for one have no interest in spending too much time in the Trade Value Tuesday thread, etc. to figure out the precise value of a beer, but in the same respect, I don’t want to under / over offer - just want a fair trade. And there’s nothing worse that having people either think you’re lowballing them, or having people take advantage of you... I actually stopped looking and adding stuff to the Completed Trades forum long ago as I though it had become irrelevant, but maybe a few tweaks is all it needs?

Anyway, great job with the updates!

 

Peace out and good riddance. There's plenty of other outlets to trade bourbon. It's not like this website, dedicated to beer, is some kind of respite from the crazy bourbon secondary out there. Hell some of the demands are even more absurd here, and frankly I'm tired of seeing it.

 

@Todd can BAers with <30-days and <50 beer karma points view the trade forum? I think this would create some incentive to achieve the prerequisite criteria if that is the reason they came to BA.

 

In what may be the oldest call back in the history of BA:

There should be a sub category of trading for coral.

 

What would stop someone from joining Society to get the needed points and just waiting the 30 days? Would there be a waiting period to join Society as well?

 

While the prerequisites that you have set out do not seem onerous, it is a barrier to entry for new traders. If those numbers you are citing are close to the reality, it will lead to a substantial drop off in trading over time. A concern that was raised over and over in the initial discussion of this topic was if something is done to reduce trading it will eventually lead to people leaving this site to trade elsewhere. Despite trading only representing a small fraction of the traffic on this site, many people who come to trade also start to contribute in other forums. Pushing traders away will only take away from the overall site.

Many of the people who have commented that this is a great idea above are Poo-bah or Meyvn status. The rule will not effect them immediately, but it may if trading traffic significantly drops over time. My concern is the 50 beer karma points if a sufficient enough deterrent that many will find another path of less resistance to trade. Maybe it's not hard for a Poo-bah to get 50 beer karma points in a week, but for new traders it is a bit mysterious how to get these points. Furthermore, new users observe more than participate, thus making beer karma acquisition more difficult. If the beer karma prerequisite for trading is here to stay I would recommend dropping the minimum to 30.

 

Become a Society member. Problem solved.

 

I hope trading for other stuff besides beer never goes away. I am perfectly okay with it being behind a separate header.

My reasoning is that there is VERY little beer out there anymore that me or my tasting group don't get either by membership or ongoing trades. Almost all areas of the country have great tasting, well made local beer.

I have a bunch of beer that people want, but the last thing I need is more beer for the sake of more beer. I want to trade them the beer that I have for stuff that I want, and very rarely do I want some random brewery from a random state... I still want to hook them up though, that is what trading is all about... helping other BAs with what they want.

Anymore, I want local whiskeys for me, ciders for my wife and/or meads for the tasting group.

Just my $.02 after being here a very long time and doing hundreds of trades on BA.

 

You're a good man. Hope you stay safe. Thanks for all the years of good fun.