It took me a while to come up with a thread title that I think briefly sums up my point. Here it goes. Long thread; my apologies. / / Why do we trade beer? Obviously, because we like beer, and want to try more, but it's a rather strange hobby to most outsiders. I have a theory. When I was growing up, almost every young male traded baseball cards. (Gamers can expand this to any number of collectible card games.) Football and basketball had cards, too (as did Marvel comics!), but baseball cards were a time-honored American tradition. If you listened to music before the mp3 age, you may have traded cassettes, records, and/or CDs. Do any of us do this anymore? If you want a CD, and you're an adult, don't you just go buy it (or download or Youtube it; I'm not judging)? By and large, we traded because of the scarcity; as kids and teenagers, most of us couldn't afford to just buy any cassette we wanted, and the baseball card industry created their own scarcity (not unlike beer); buying a complete set was not financially viable for most kids. Collecting your heroes' rookie cards was a thrill. / / So how this applies to beer: These are things that, as adults, we no longer need. Many (most?) of us grew up collecting and trading something (or many somethings), but as adults, we find in our consumer culture that we have easy and affordable access to all of those things. Except for beer. You want Prop and you weren't in Chicago? Gotta trade. Heady and you can't make the trip to Vermont? Trade. Westy? Trade. We even number them and track them like stats. We go after rare beers, the top 250, the Beers of Fame. We trade and tick and collect and drink. I think that, on some level, beer trading satisfies a nostalgic craving, filling a niche many of us probably didn't even realize was empty. A callback to adolescence. It allows us to explore another world without necessarily being a part of that world, professionally. / / Just a thought. I'm curious if anyone else here has ever looked at it in those terms. Sorry for the length; I've never been accused of being too succinct.
I never really traded anything as a kid or growing up. I trade beer because I enjoy spreading the "wealth" of beer that others might not have access to. And on the same note I want to try beer that I dont have access to in my area.
This isn't the case for me either. I never traded anything as a kid. I trade beer to get great beers that I otherwise wouldn't have access to. I think it's more likely that people trade out of the classic "greener pastures" trope, combined with a healthy dose of hype, which itself is manufactured in part by limited availability, another thing that causes many humans increased desire: we want what we can't have. Sorry to disappoint you, OP. It is an interesting thought and may spawn an interesting conversation. It's clear you spent some time and thought on it, but it doesn't seem to hold much water when you increase the sample size.
Definitely think that's part of it, Rog. I've thought a lot about this, too, and besides nostalgia, there's a small but real illicit thrill in the psuedo-illegality of it. Whenever I try to describe beer trading to people, the part that makes their eyes light up is when I say "It's not strictly legal." (Never mind the fact that the chances of actually being prosecuted are somewhere between tiny and none.) Those of us who trade for fun (mostly $4$, etc.) also do it because it's one of the last places to participate in generosity and surprise. You're a great example of it, bud.
Ehh, I could be completely wrong, but even though it may not be true for "you," it may be true for others. I'm not even sure it's true for me. Just a thought experiment...and no, @THANAT0PSIS, I didn't spend much time on the thought. Just came to me on the drive home. I think generosity and sharing (@JayORear and @Iamjeff6 mentioned above) is a big part of it. Drinking delicious beer is a big part of it. I'm just curious if there isn't also something else involved, at least for some people - whether they realize it or not. ....and maybe that answer is no (although this sample size is thus far pretty darn small, too ).
For me the nostalgia in beer trading does not come from the exchange itself (ie like baseball cards as a kid), but rather acquiring a beer I can no longer purchase that has a special meaning in some way to me. Raison d'Extra and Nemesis '09 come to mind.
I originally said no in my head, then I opened my closed mind @Roguer . I somewhat agree with you. Yes, it is about the beer and nobody can deny that. Spreading the wealth, trying new things, blah blah blah. But, it satisfies the mind and soul and makes me feel nostalgic myself. I loved skipping school and going to the "big city" to record/music stores to buy cd's that weren't available in my hometown. I would buy 2 or 3 extra rare cd's or uncensored cd's (yes, music used to have a censored and uncensored version) so I could sell or trade them to my friends when I got home. My friends and I would get together and trade and marvel at each other's latest scores and listen to our cd's that would use cuss words and celebrate our latest scores. Now, just substitute the word "beer" instead of cd's for what I do now. LOL. Yes, there is a ton of reasons we trade, but the thrill of the hunt, the actual hunting, the going to stores when you pass by a town on a trip, the driving an hour out of the way on vacation to "run by" a brewery, the trading, etc. it's all fun. It brings joy to me on so many different levels. Reminds me of my music obsession in high school, my comic obsession in junior high, etc. So, I can see your original point. Cheers.
Thanks for the thoughts OP. To me, a better analogy would be a kid at Christmas, similar kind of feeling when a beer box shows up and you open to see the great beer you traded for and surprise of what extras you got.
I mean, I traded pokemon cards as a kid, but trading beer doesn't bring back any nostalgia for me. I trade because I love getting packages of beer and I love giving someone something to be excited about.
I was just thinking about that at lunch today while tracking some boxes that are supposed to be delivered today. Ive said to before and ill say it again, my favorite part about trading is the extras.
This is why I do it. It's just too much fun when a box shows up. You instantly start thinking about what you're gonna do with the beer you just got. Will I drink it by myself or take it to a share? Who else would like this one? Ooooh! Look at the extras! I also love the joy you can feel on the other end when you send a great box and it's more than what the other person was expecting. There's also the nervousness surrounding a box that you sent out that I think is part of the allure of trading. Will it make it without incident? Did I pack it well enough? I heard that one bottle sloshing around as I took it into FedEx- will they hear it and I'll get caught? And then of course the relief when it gets delivered and you hear it all got there in one piece.
and @jrnyc Don't get me wrong; that's a huge part of the allure for trading to me. Sending a gift, with the recipient none the wiser; coming home to a box on the porch, knowing immediately that it's beer, and yet having no clue what beer it is. That's exciting - both as the giver, and as the recipient. Just not the only thing, IMO. @Droopy487 summed it up, I think, more succinctly than I: nostalgia (or routine, if you will) may not be a conscious factor, but for a lot of us, it's an interesting thing to think of as a contributing - not causal - factor.
@Roguer , I see where you're coming from. I traded cards as a kid and still being a bit of a geek my wife gives me some packs of cards on X-mas for old times sake. Anyway, I do very much see the similarities in card trading and beer trading. Trading a Prop for Vanilla x 2 is like trading a MJ rookie card for Bird and a Magic. In both forms of trading it's about seeing if you can get what you want with the things that you have and trying to trade them with equal value. With that said, I don't trade beer because I miss trading cards as a kid. I trade beer because it's nice to try new beers that I can't get around my neck of the woods along with being happy to spread the wealth of what I can get. Fun tread, thanks for posting.
