Shipping question

Shipping first is normally based on completed successful trades, not on your join date. It looks like you have 17 completed trades, more than enough for you and your partner to sip simultaneously.

Having said that, I can understand somebody being leery of someone having been here less tan two months. Personally I may not want to send you any really limited stuff without you shipping first, at least until you have a little more time under your belt

 

Maybe it's just me, but given that most (all?) of your trades are in-person trades, I wouldn't consider them when trying to determine "trustworthiness" or what-have-you for a trade involving shipping.

 

Sounds like a lot of people here have rules they go by, I have never personally asked anyone to ship first. I would say this likely depends on who you end up with for a trading partner...

I see the bad trader threads and all but for every one of those there are probably hundreds of good trades that go down, so I don't get too worried about it.

 

Part of shipping first is to ensure that you're able to properly pack a box, making sure nothing breaks en route. With most (all?) of your trades being in person if I was the kind of person that made new people ship first (I have before depending on what bottles are involved but rarely do) I would ask you to ship first because to me you would have zero shipping trades which is a completely different beast than in person.

Just my two pennies.

 

I'm not new here but admittedly green as hell with trading. With that being said, I PREFER that I ship first for the simple fact that I'd always rather someone get my beer so I know I have a clear conscience. I can't stomach the thought of someone questioning my credibility when it comes to business, and I usually take the same approach with life in general. And if my package being delayed after I already received someone else's box leads to questioning, I'd rather not have that feeling at all. I figure if I get burned once or twice, than I should have stuck with legendarily great traders or I may want to dial back a bit. Plus I use the "never buy/ship something that you can't afford to lose" philosophy. As for the more zen-ish outlook on trading, while I certainly look forward to enjoying alien goodies, I get almost as much pleasure sharing what I have available to those who can't enjoy it. So I guess I'm saying this - ship first and be done with it. By looking through the bad trader forums, I see that the community rallies behind people that get burned, so that would be the least of my worries. If it's a matter of pride where you think you "outrank" another trader, well I say "get over it" to that as well (insert smiley winky eye emoticon here)

 

Unless it's some rare-ish/difficult to replace beers are involved, I don't really care about how many feedback you have (unless you have a negative feedback). I care about how we interacted and how well you communicated with me. If I sensed that you're decent and honest, I'd much preferred giving you the benefit of the doubt to build the trust, risking some beers, but start off a relationship on trust right away. This to me is far more valuable than the $50-$75 I could potentially lose.

It may look like there are a lot of bad traders out there, but my sense is that that percentage is super small. I've only asked 1 person to ship first ever, even though I have traded with many traders with zero feedback at the time. Anecdotal, but the only time I got screwed was by someone with 32 positive feedbacks.

 

This makes zero sense. If someone has not shipped wouldn't you rather ship first so they can see what a well packed box looks like? Mythaeus is right on this one, if they seem decent I am more than happy to send a box so they can see how it is done.

 

With how many new traders are ripping people off I have zero issues with making someone else send first. Like I said I rarely do myself but I understand why someone would. There are so many ways to learn how to pack a box that if you're learning on the fly from the first trade you do you've jumped in ass first in my opinion. I read so much about trading, how to pack boxes, shipping etiquette, extras, etc that when I made my first trade I was confident in my packing and trading ability. But that could be just me.

 

I hear you, just think the whole ripped off thing is overrated. Like I said before, for every bad trader thread I think there are literally hundreds of trades that go as planned. To each their own, and I think that reading up helps, but nothing like seeing a well packed box to really know...

 

I've cringed after finally looking at traders stats and realizing they were brand new and no trades before. Hasn't backfired on me. Only bad trade I have had was on another site where the guy didn't send me additional glass we agreed to. He hasn't been back to see the negative feedback.
Just today someone backed out of a trade they agreed to Friday and I asked for shipping info so I could ship Monday with other trades. Got message today that his buddy just scored a bunch of beer from same brewery I was trading him beer from and that he no longer needed it. I told him that was bad form and wished he would have accepted trade request so I could at least put a neutral "negative remark.

Trade history, as long as they have one, is all I need to ship most of the time. If a lot of rare for rare beers, I can pull out the you ship first card. Some people look for recent trade history even if they have some from 12 months ago. To each his own.