Has anyone randomly sent out a box to a previous trading partner, expecting nothing in return? I received a box from a previous trading partner a few months back and sent one to him in return. I also received three extra bottles from my secret santa (in March!). This got me thinking: What if more us did this type of thing and, instead of sending back to the one who sent us the random box, sent it forward to a different partner? This is something that could very well be happening already. If it is not, I hope some of you readers are inspired to do so. I will be giving a box to a trading buddy sometime this week with a message to be sent the day before arrival with the tracking number and instructions not to send back to me, but to (if they feel up to it and can afford it) send different brews to someone else. No lottery, no contest, no need for anything but ability to receive a box. I think it would be cool to post what was received (with no indication as to who sent it) in a thread. Thoughts? Ideas? Previous Experiences?
excellent idea! i did something similiar when the old forums were up. there was a guy who posted a bad trader thread that got him nowhere, and i had the bottles he was screwed out of so i offered to send them to him with the only expectation being that sometime in the future when he could pay it forward to someone that got screwed he do so. i was also able to get some of his major wants and made him happy as can be. dont know if he has been able to pass it on yet or not.
There's at least one of these going around. The box that passed through my hands even had funds in it to return the box to the guy who started it, in case you weren't interested in continuing 'it forward'. And yes, very fun to get an unsolicited box.
Seems like a very cool idea. Sometimes I'm more excited to see extras than the actual bottles traded for. Unsolicited beer is awesome.
Instead of the person giving a target by BA name plus info, you could just receive the shipping info so you have no idea who the BA is, their likes, wants, etc. No min. No max. Just a random, carefree BIF. Maybe for those just happy to get random surprises and opposed to looking for whales, their favorite style or wants. Could be fun.
> This got me thinking: What if more us did this type of thing and, instead of sending back to the one who sent us the random box, sent it forward to a different partner? This is conceptually great, but very difficult to obtain the person's address and keep it a surprise. In fact, I've definitely had people randomly message me and offer to send me beer based on forum discussions. I've done the same as well. These are going to turn into trades nearly every time though, even though they're meant as offers of generosity. It would be cool if there were some sort of group that makes their address freely available to members within the group, and then there were tracking points. So if you felt like sending a random box to someone, you could see who had sent out more than they had received, and thus deserving of a box of their own. I just don't know how this would be manageable though without a whole different web site dedicated to it.
This is really easy, as past trade partners give up addresses pretty easily if you explain why you need it. What's more difficult is being absolutely sure they'll be at home to grab the box.
How do you get a group of interested people without ruining the "surprise" aspect? Also, is there a problem filling out ups or FedEx labels without shoppers name?
What I was suggesting is sending to a previous trading partner. That way, their info may already be saved in BM/convo's or shipping profiles. It would be slick to do this for a totally random person, but much more difficult.
