So, I have been hanging around this site for like 4 years now hand have yet to try my hand at trading. I'm not looking for whales or anything (nor am I able to provide them!), just wanting to maybe get a hold of some items that aren't available in my neck of the woods. How does a novice start down the road of trading, particularly the open-ended kind I'm envisioning? Thanks for your help.
1. Don't try to win trades 2. Communicate OFTEN 3. Be easy to deal with 4. Read this http://alewatcher.blogspot.com/2010/11/new-trader-tips.html Have fun! Cheers!
1. Start small. 2. Trade your good local shelf beer for someone else's good local shelf beer, $4$. 3. Try to trade with someone who is experienced, they can help you and are less likely to screw you over. 4. Communicate! A lot! Most people will understand if things happen if you let them know what's going on. Can't ship today because your car broke down? Ok, just let me know, and tell me when you can ship. If I just don't hear from you for a week I start to get nervous. 5. Send extras. They are the best part of trading for me. I love opening a box and finding unexpected things inside. I mean like cool local beers, glassware, brewery swag, not like a live rattlesnake or anything. Extras don't need to be special or expensive, just something your partner likely hasn't had before, or even never heard of. I have found quite a few beers I really like that I never would have known about if they weren't extra'd to me. 6. Check your partners profile for styles he enjoys or does not enjoy, Hads, Wants, & Gots, and use www.seekabrew.com. Don't extra, or even worse try to trade, something your partner can buy at his local bottle shop, or something he has had before and not really cared for. 7. Go slow! Its easy to have a successful trade and then start setting up a bunch more. Its fun, but can quickly become expensive and time consuming. Don't become a bad trader because you burn out or run out of money. 8. Have fun!
Totally off the subject but do you own one of the derpiest cats on the planet? I think I've previously seen your avatar contain cats with bread over their head, and now this guy on the remote... pretty amazing.
My dog would love her too. For breakfast. OP my favorite trades were locals for locals. And the best of those were the ones we sent blind, it is so much fun opening a box and having no idea what is in it, except that it is some one else's favorites from his local breweries.
It is technically only illegal to ship it via USPS. Shipping via UPS and Fedex is how we all do it. It is just against policy to ship alcohol with them. You only really risk losing your box. I have even had a box that was leaking repacked by Fedex and delivered I will send a box of FL locals to anyone that can find documentation of a successful prosecution of a person casually trading beer on the interwebs. As far as underage, not sure, You have to assume the trader must be of age. After all they have to buy the beer they are sending to you.
I highly recommend this, too, especially for your first trade. I love getting a box of random shit that is unavailable to me, especially from very local, mostly unheard of breweries. It's so exciting because you have literally no expectations or preconceived ideas of what those beers are going to be about. And you'll be surprised how damn good some of them will be. Example: not too long ago, I took up a local for local offer from a guy in PA offering Pizza Boy growlers. He suggested and sent me one of their coffee stouts and it was amazing. Better than FBS.
Do a simple local 4 locals trade, just about everyone has something local somebody would love to try. It's simple and shouldn't be too expensive, and your doing a straight $4$ so it should be easy. Read thru some of the shipping threads and you'll get some good tips on protecting your product.
be specific in the threads you start. Also, when you send a BM do so as if you plan to honor the offer. It's not about maximizing everything.
