Hi everyone, I suspect maybe some variant of this has been asked and answered before and/or elsewhere -- if so, please direct me and accept my apologies for the newbie question! I don't currently do any trading, but would like to start. I have a fairly specific motivation, at least in the short term: I live in the Bay Area, and there are a couple specific Oregon beers -- ones which aren't distributed in California -- that I'd like to obtain as a gift for someone before I'll have an opportunity to travel there next. I live within range of all sorts of options for acquiring beer here, including stuff that's hard or impossible to obtain outside the relevant breweries themselves. I see that I could, theoretically, put a post in the ISO:FT forum along these lines (once I am eligible to post there). But how do non-established traders generally work up to a reasonable level of trust/reputation? Do I start out with low-value in-person trades and get those folks to vouch for me? Provide personal references even if they can't speak to beer-trading as such? Demonstrate that I have good feedback in some other environment (e.g. eBay)? How does this usually work? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! - Sam R.
I would just post a thread in the beer trading forums. Some people will trade with you but might ask for you to ship first. I just started trading and thats how i got my first trades in. Just post a thread you'll get some replies. Hope this helped Cheers Javi
Be sure to read through this, too: http://beeradvocate.com/community/threads/beer-trading-rules-info.229/ Also note that there's a 30 day 'waiting period' between when you join BA and when you can begin to post in the ISO:FT Trading forum. Use the next few weeks to get familiar with the site and the forums, ok? Hope that helps. Cheers, Brian
A couple more notes: If you are trading with an experienced trader, you WILL be expected to ship first. Its nothing personal, just an insurance policy. Try and do a little research on what your beers and what the beers you seek are going for. I often see ISO:FT posts that make me shake my head. Shelf beers or widely distributed limited beers generally aren't going to pull a 300 bottle count brewery only release.
Haha, really, wonder what occurred that a trading forum mod is forbidden to link to it (I am guessing msubulldog25 would have linked to it if he was allowed to do so)? It is the best information out there, and could help end most of the problems reported by traders on this forum. Seems silly to me that it isn't stickied on every trading forum, but what do I know?
OP - first, you've already taken a great first step and asked rather than simply posting a completely inappropriate post in the ISO-FT forum. Take some time and watch the boards - it doesn't take long to learn what works and what doesn't. Expect to ship first for your first couple trades. Just make sure you choose established traders that have been on BA for a while and display references on their profile. Watch out for people like Cavedave though! (just joking, Dave's a great trader) I would recommend starting out small. Better to make a mistake with a low value box than some whale for whale trade. Learn the ropes, figure out how things work, etc. Once you find a good trader - treasure them. Shower them with great extras, establish a long term trading arrangement. I rarely post ISO-FT requests, mainly because I have people like Cavedave that I know will send me a box at some point. And I'll send him one, maybe two or three. But it all works out. This is your goal. Not tracking trades down to the penny, but simply trading good beer for good beer. It takes a while to build those relationships. But that should be your goal. It makes trading so much more enjoyable. Don't try to win every trade. Yes, it's nice to know you got a good deal. But see my prior post - my good deal today means I'm sending the better trade next time around. When you've established a trading relationship where your trader sends you a Narke Stormaktsporter as a Christmas present, you know you've finally truly won the trade. And so have they, because the next box you send will break their porch. Most of all, remember, it's only beer.
