Getting Into Trading

Without having made a trade, I'd recommend including a note that you're willing to ship first. Quite a few people are leery of fresh faces, and without assurances you might miss out on a few trade partners until you've established yourself.

 

When searching the trade forums look for other people that are new to trading. You can both start to get feedback, experience. Then experienced traders would be more receptive to your FT posts and be more likely to reply to your inquiries to their FT posts.

 

Also try to do some in-person trades to start. Get some feedback, make some local contacts (friends) and learn the ropes a bit.

 

If you are brand new to trading, you probably need to follow FT & ISO's for a few months to figure things out. 75% of the listings are beyond ridiculous! Huna for Rare'15 1:1. 2 Huna's for VR. 3 quality beers for FO, Prop '13/'14 or TG Stouts.
No, no, and No way. I almost traded away my FO on my first trade. Thankfully I backed out, and a few months later I realized I made the right call.

For your first trades, rather then start the posting, (since you probably won't know if it's close), keep watching the trading forums and look for someone to match your ISO's & FT's. Respond to their request, remind them you are new. After you finalize the deal, the first 5-10 trades they may ask you to trade first. Which is no problem, provided their feedback is positive and they aren't new.

In Iowa you have some wonderful beer from TG, as well as other beers distro that you can get. So you should be fine!

 

I agree that saying that you will ship first in your trade posts will help, and many people are likely to make that request anyway so better to get it out there from the start. I would also recommend watching the trade forums a bit to get an idea of what beers are trading for. The completed trades thread is also a good thing to look at. As far as establishing trade partners, the best thing that you can do is just make all your trades go well. This includes things like great communication, well packaged boxes, shipping on time, including extras, and being fair in your negotiations. This is how you establish trade partners. Make sure people would want to trade with you again, or help you out if you are ISO of a beer in their area. If you are looking for a specific beer that one of your previous trading partners can or may be able to get based on their distribution area, reach out to them. If you two had a good experience trading previously then they will likely help you out if they can.

 

A big part of trading is learning how to find fresh beer, learning where the best places to shop are, learning what is in demand, what the distribution of different beers are, and then learning how to package and ship everything safely, cost effectively, and quickly. I was writing a beer trading guide, never finished it. It's quite long.

 

If you are around Des Moines, send me a message and we can work out a IP trade if you're interested.

 

I'm pretty new as well, just completed my first trade. If you want to do a local for local trade hit me up and we can work something out. Start building up the feedback.

 

Ok, so first off, hello! I'm newer to trading on this website and wanted to slowly get in to the trading game. But, it seems that everyone is out to get big name beers that I can't really find in my area, or beers that get distibuted to PA but only on the Eastern side (i.e. Tired Hands) and then get upset I can't obtain said beers.

Does anyone have any advice as to how I may be able to find some people to trade local brews or simply looking for smaller trades (i.e. a 6-pack or so)? I want to try new things, but it seems like people are looking more for big ticket items. Any help would be great!

 

I agree that most people are only looking to trade whales but I do sometimes see people just looking to trade local for local. Maybe post something with a title along the lines of "FT: My Locals ISO: Your Locals" and explain what you've explained here that you just want to try something different.

 

Thanks for the tip, hopefully I can get some new brews in my life!

 

Exact same thread from a couple weeks back with some good suggestions. I'll ask mods to merge the threads.

 

Constantly trade up if you can. Go to limited brewery only releases. I see you're also in PA, depending what part I cant recommened Tired Hands enough. Their can releases alone will get you some real decent beers.

 

This sentiment is everything that is currently wrong with beer trading (if I am reading it correctly). Trade for beers you want and meet people that just want to send good brews back and forth. This "winning" mentality is a fucking nightmare.

 

Im down for a trade dude!

 

Nobody can honestly sit here and say they have never "won" a trade.. When you're new to beer trading and don't have access to "flavors of the week" sometimes its necessary. If both parties are happy at the end of the day and obtained what they wanted THATS what its all about.

 

What you said the first time, however, implied that one should try to win trades, always. Idk. I don't think I have "won" a trade, ever. I think I actively try to avoid that mentality.

 

Yeah I didn't mean it that way, my fault. The mentality I'm getting extremely tired of is the one where if you have no "rare" beer to offer you shouldn't have the opportunity to try rare beer.