Has trading slowed down?

I completed a few trades recently, but the whale hunters and pastrybois have overrun the forums. Some of them delete and repost the same thing every day.

One thing I will say is that many things I used to trade for are widely distributed. I remember one of my first trades was for Big Bad Baptist and Sucaba. Those beers are now available for in store purchase for me. Now I am not cool enough to even be sure what I want.

That said, I think a lot of the trading is between regular traders who just want to discover new stuff without any pressure.

 

Just thinking out loud here and not directed at any one individual who's responded to this thread.

I see a lot of people complain about the trade forums being overran with whale and bourbon hunting these days... Why don't those individuals post trades that would be more attractive to them then? Users drive the activity on the trading boards and if you're not seeing what you're interested in, make that shit happen.

 

Agree, post your ISO and post your FT. I post a lot of bourbon because I have a lot of bourbons. I’m waiting on receiving a trade of beer today (hense BourbonForBeer).

Don’t be afraid to post, you only land trades if you post them. My current trader reached out to me and said, “you’ve been busy trading lately, I want to trade with you.” We worked out a trade within 15 min and I shipped within an hour later.

Make it happen!

 

I get what the last 2 guys said and it’s valid. The point I was making was...
1. It’s annoying to see the forums saturated with the same pastry/bourbon stuff. It’s just the nature of the game though. No one wants to let their whales go too easily. I think people get bored of random local 4 local boxes. Or those traders gravitate to bif’s.
2. I have posted well thought out trades fairly regularly and usually get no response.

In contrast to this I recently posted a well worded trade post with pics, and will probably close 2-4 trades from it. maybe it’s partly in the advertising.

 

I think the underlying issue is there is so much good beer available across much of the country that people don't need to trade. As far as the whales/bourbon trades being more frequent it is the exact opposite; there is a limited so there is going to be more trading activity off them. Another thing is money, a lot of people are in dire economic straits. Craft beer isn't the cheapest hobby in the first place nor is shipping beer. The people moving big bottles clearly have the money to do so. Other people who were previously trading frequently might be trying to save some cash during unsure times so are sticking with local or macro stuff.

 

Hmm got it

Very true, I can actually go to a gas station in Chicago (for example) and find pretty awesome beer without trying. I do like branching off and trying something sought after that's from somewhere else and compare it to local brews.

 

I do think how you list makes a difference. When somebody lists a hundred ISO’s and a tremendously long FT, my ADD kicks in and I lose interest.

 

Big bottles only move for cash or bourbon it seems nowadays. Also selling and buying seems to be favoured over trading. For international trades there's also less interest in Lambics now their avalability has become better. So it's slowing down for sure.

 

It really seems trading on this site is taking a nose dive since the recent changes.

Trading beer is such a niche thing that sometimes there is only 1-2 people in the trade forum for certain beers. Except for people trading big stouts or whiskeys, I don't see the scale of smaller trades being offered or closing. If anything the barrier to entry for trading has given rise to even more whiskey trading, which I think is ironic given the initial discussion surrounding the changes.

I am not sure if there was a plan revisit the new requirements to enter the trading forum, but I think it is certainly worthwhile before trading dies on this site.

 

To be honest, I really don't see the benefit of making it more difficult to make people trade here. If I'm in trade talks with a new BA, it's on me to make sure he/she knows what they're doing and that they ship first.

I could go longer, but I have to get back to work

 

The changes were made to limit selling of beer.

It was understood that this would reduce the total volume of trading to some extent, but really it is a substantial drop in trading.

 

@Todd, thanks for engaging with the community on this topic. Trading volume in addition to quality posts is definitely something to continue to watch. I am definitely seeing more whiskey trades, probably because they aren't being diluted by the volume of beer trade offers that were occurring before.

I know you will be hesitant to go backwards if this change completely stops selling, but it's still worthwhile to consider options to make it easier for some to trade.

 

Still not quite sure how the changes improve long term of trading by cutting out any potential new traders.

Since the Super Bowl is coming up, I'll use a football (Patriots) reference. The current rookie draft class for the Patriots cannot fully be graded until a few years later. Only then you can see how players have matured and either fit into the system or not. There is no question that a good draft class (new traders on BA) will help the team long-term. Now if you eliminate a whole draft class, how can you possibly say that is better for the team long term?

Whether a BA has 1 Beer Karma points, or 51 Beer Karma points, their first trade is still their first trade.

Do you see these changes as a positive for the trading community or BA as a whole?

 

How does limiting new traders to a minimum Beer Karma total directly correlate to a better trading community?

 

@Todd , as much as I disagree with the reasoning, this is at least an actual response so thank you

 

I try to scan the trade forum daily. When reading through the threads, I can basically categorize them two ways:
1). I don’t have that beer/I don’t have access to that beer.
2.) I may have that beer but I don’t feel motivated to trade.
Since there is such a narrow market, it hard to be active in the market. The only way it changes is if people post a greater variety of threads. This would open up another category:
3.) Good beers that I can get for you (in other words, being a beer advocate). Help others try cool new beers.