Is $4$ is broken?

I apologize, as I was just trying to think of any other barleywine to compare it too. So you take a 900 bottle release by any brewery charging $40 for ba barleywine sold at brewery only that ranks a 95. Then take same stats but the bottle is $20 from another brewery. These beers should trade equal to each other is what I'm getting at. I don't see why the $20 bottle person should have to trade 2:1 just b/c whoever bought the expensive bottle got screwed. Just b/c you got price gouged doesn't mean you can price gouge me in the trading of that beer.
I'm not understanding the "if you think the beer is too expensive, don't trade for it" I might not buy it but what do I care if I trade for it? Like I said it's not my fault whoever that buys (said expensive bottle) is getting screwed.

 

If someone is factoring in costs to the value of their beer that you don't think are legitimate, or think are legitimate but know other people have this bottle and are trading it without those stipulations, just take your business elsewhere.

 

I'm a newb, but $4$ to me was always mediocre at best.

how much is a $20 case of Bud Light worth in trade value? About $0?

 

[qutw="salzar, post: 1597467, member: 281076"]I think your definition of price gouge is a little off. Price gouging is when one pays higher than the typical retail price. If you don't like the typical price of a bottle, don't buy it. As for trading, if both beers are of similar rarity, why wouldn't they trade $4$.

Would you trade your $20 beer that you way over paid for a $5 beer of similar rarity?[/quote]
If two beers are so similar why wouldn't they trade in similarity and not price? It seems more fair to judge oz's or what's in the bottle than the price.I do see what your saying but it kinda goes both ways...yes my definition of gouging was off, but a company can ask way too much for a beer just like a secondary market can.

 

I usually trade for a core 1 or 2 bottles, on both sides. And then we expand the trade until both sides $ is about equal. So if the core trade is for me to send a Darkness ($18), then I can add stuff like Alewerks Bourbon Barrel Porter ($9) and Cafe Royale ($9) until it matches up what the other side is sending. It's just a guidepost though.

 

This is exactly right. Where it tends to go off the rails is where, for example, the guy with a 400 bottle count $30 beer wants two 400 bottle count $15 beers, rather than one bottle of comparable rarity and more mundane stuff to make up the $ difference

 

I don't trade for whales I can't, I don't have rare beers, but I think I have some really great beers that may be regional. I trade basically for regional shelf beers I care to try, and I assume the other party is doing the same thing. So 4$ applies. I love IPA's, and I've tried just about every IPA I've really wanted doing this, along with some great BA Stouts too.

 

i'd gladly trade a cherry rye ($20-25) for any number of hill farmstead limited releases ($10-15).

 

A lot of guys would too, but that's not really indicative, HF isn't rare it's so damn secluded it's a tough get, and it will command more than $4$ IMO depending on what it is. I'd trade a $25 beer for a Growler of Susan or Ephraim too. Once things get rare, limited, or remote $4$ can go out the window.

 

nc41 is offering of dissimilar rarity, and that's not uncommon - a growler of Susan (or any HF IPA) is regularly rotated through the taps and is $11 or so.

 

Also depends on how badly someone wants what too, I love Susan, if I saw an ISO for a beer I have or could get I'd go over $4$. Susan is tough because one of the hops in the blend is rare and hard to get, probably expediting my want. When I was at HF in May he wasn't sure if it would ever be brewed again because of that, then in July it pops up. But I don't consider HF a shelf beer either, tough to get to doesn't quite equal tough to get, but after doing it I'd consider the journey and it applies here. How much depends on the person.

 

Logically that should work depending on who your dealing with. There are plenty of great beers being offered 2:1 or more, depends on who, and it only takes one to like the trade.

 

Yeah, I have a BA Speedway that was $30. I want BBPt5. $4$ would be 1:6.

I just don't think anyone wants to give up 72oz of brewery only beer for 25oz of brewery only beer. Even if rarity and $ are close. And it's understandable. The crickets have spoken.

 

In some ways, beer trading is broken. There's two different activities going on.

There's a economic market where traders are trying to obtain beers of value, either to drink or to trade again. It's not that different than a stock market or any aftermarket - art, wine, etc. There isn't an easy way to value beers in this market, but purchase price is just one factor, along with rarity, quality, and other factors that should all be included.

Then there's the old school beer trading as a hobby to get to try some new things and link up with fellow hobbyists across the country. For that the point is as much to 'crush the other guys porch' as to get some sort of value. $4$ comes up as a way of making it seem fair between two hobbyists but exact equality is not really the objective.

Personally, I don't think that one is more legitimate than the other, but it does seem to drive people who see it as a hobby or part of a community crazy that people are seeing it more as an economic transition. The best thing would probably to have some auction based economic marketplace (like the maligned eBay) and let the people who just like trading get back to being nice to each other.

 

The reality is that beer is now the actual currency being used to obtain beers people otherwise can't get. We typically only use money at stores because that is all that is accepted to make purchases. If I could use t-shirts I that no longer wear to buy groceries, I would; but Wegmans won't allow it. So, money is my currency there. As is my beer here, at least on the ISO:FT board. And beyond beers being available at online beer stores, there is no other way to obtain these unavailable beers. Therefore, beer is the new "money" being used here, and that's how a lot of people treat trades, as purchases being made using their own beer as payment for said desired beers; which of course will then lead to bartering, and people trying to "win" trades, because this is simply people trying to "pay" as little as possible for the beers they would like to obtain, the same as me wanting to pay the least amount of money possible for the groceries I want at the supermarket. It is what it is. I am not condoning this behavior in beer trading; I am simply recognizing the reality of the current state of trading.

The best thing people can do is hook up with regular trading partners. When you can build a trusted trading relationship with somebody, all "rules" go out the window. You just get your partner the beers he or she wants, and he or she does the same for you. There are no deadlines for timing. If I see a beer my partner wants, I grab it. After I accumulate enough beers to warrant putting together a box, I do so and ship the sucker off. There is no bartering. And everybody "wins".