Getting started trading is tough.

An idea of what you're asking for and offering up might help us answer the question a little better.

 

I only see one FT:ISO post you've made. And it's for Chocolate Rain, a fairly sought after beer, while you are offering shelf beers in return (& shelf beers that, if I'm not mistaken, are easy for Californians to get).

California has a lot to offer. You'd be best served trying to trade some CA locals for locals from another part of the country to start out with. Target a brewery you'd like to try - New Glarus, Surly, Trillium, whatever - & put up some good shelf beers & you'll likely get a bite.

 

No what I mean is there may be a large discrepancy in value/cost between what you are searching for and what you are trying to trade for, so an idea of the beers you are offering and searching for might help answer the question. Does that make more sense?

 

The best way to start is to get a good local/easily obtainable beer and then search out another local beer that is not available to you that you want to try and throw an offer out there. Cali has tons of great IPAs that traders want in other states.

 

People value beers very subjectivly. On BA its hard to start w/o feedback. I do research on other websites before posting. I see a lot of offers on BA that would be laughed at on other websites because there is no chance to post feedback. Trade locals for locals with someone who has a high ranking on the site. Get to know them and run values by them. I stalked threads for months before posting an offer. Also, trading takes the right set of eyes. Someone has to be iso what you have ft. Syncing is a challenge. Best of luck OP

 

Generally speaking, you want to get a good feel for the value of the beers you want and the beers you have so you can make a fair offer. Its kind of an uphill battle at first but I will try to summarize it a bit. If you are offering "shelf beer" (ie...beer you can find at a good bottle shop year-round or seasonally) then for the most part people will be happy to trade for shelf beer in their area. If you have something a little more limited...(think maybe Firestone Walker Proprietor's Reserve) then people are generally more open to trading beer that saw limited distro in their state. Same goes for beers that do not see distribution but are sold only during bottle release events at the brewery...which are typically more sought after due to their limited availability. In this case you usually take cost, per person bottle allocations, and total bottle count into consideration.

I would suggest you try to trade some shelf Cali brews for some out of state shelf brews to get a feel for the whole process. Then try to go to the next bottle release near you and at the same time look into the value beers you would like to trade for. Don't know where you are at in Cali but Bottle Logic will be releasing Picture If You Will and Lost Abbey is releasing Veritas 016 soon. Stalk the Pacific forum lol.

 

A few people recommended trading shelf beers in CA for shelf beers in other states as a way to get started. This used to be a great way to start trading. However, this type of trade seems to get done less and less. You'll find the trade forum is largely limited releases for limited releases. This is not to discourage you trading in anyway. I simply wanted you to understand why you might not see a lot of responses if you attempt to trade shelf beers for other shelf beers. Shelf for shelf will simply require more patience on your part as it will take the right set of eyes to find that type of trade. Best of luck!

 

A good way to start is post a trade in trade section with the subject "FT: Cali Locals ISO: Your Locals" (or list state if you want instead of just saying your locals) and then inside you can list some of the beers that you have for trade or breweries that you have access to that you think might be hard to find in other areas. Make sure you say that you will ship first to established traders if necessary and that you want to trade $4$ (Equal dollar amounts on both sides). I think someone will see Cali locals and bite. Luckily for you, you live in an area with a lot of great beers that are not available in many areas of the country.

 

I want to add a couple points to this:

1) While that is certainly what the trading forum has turned into these days in terms of posts, I'm sure there are still plenty of people who browse the trade forums (yet don't post very often) who still do so in the interest of seeing trade options that are more shelf-for-shelf type trades. I do this very thing!

2) All it takes for the forum to get more non-limited trading ISOs is more people like the OP posting them.

I have a feeling in this case is more *what* the OP is asking for in exchange for his beers, as noted above. Hell, some of the beers he's posted are actually pretty solid--there are some parts of the country in which Velvet Merkin would pull a nice bottle, but unfortunately, California isn't one of them.

OP--I'd recommend doing a little research on the trade forums by searching for the beers you have to offer. For example, the Velvet Merkin. Search for it within the ISO:FT forums and you'll see what people are asking for and offering for it. Often times I'll do that to get a feel for the relative demand/supply of a bottle I'm looking to trade--you can tell a lot about the beer you have to trade by how many other people have it FT vs. ISO.

 

I completely agree, which is why I wanted to emphasize I wasn't discouraging this type of action. I too like to look through the pages and pages and pages of limited release beer trades for shelf trades, but I wanted to give a new trader some insight as to why that particular type of trade might not receive a lot of responses.

 

If you're interested in a locals for locals let me know. These are my favorite type of trades.

 

I agree!!

 

If you're on Facebook, look for a group called "shelf beer trader". It's a group I help run that is exclusively for trading beers that only see distribution. There's no pressure, and everyone is super helpful.

 

Also, check out this map. It might help when you try to trade locals for locals. Most people are interested in beers they can't easily access in their general area but they are usually not interested in a beer they can get at their own bottle shop. Living in California, you should easily find some beers people would love to try in other parts of the country. Good luck!

http://www.seekabrew.com/distro/index.html

 

And kudos to you to ask more experienced traders for tips and being open to the responses.
Plenty of newer traders just keep on repeatedly posting these silly "FT: Two Hearted, ISO: MD" trades.