Trade Profiteering?

Call them out. Call the whole group out too.

 

No one's the A-Hole. Value is subjective and there's nothing wrong if once in a while you can't come to an agreement.

If you order a can of heady topper in a bar in VT it's about $8. Multiplied by 4 is $32. So it's all how much you're willing to pay at the time and place.

 

Only if you are barefoot and liked it.

 

Shucks, wore some 99cent Old Navy flippy floppies...

 

when figuring $ value i always go by US shelf price (assuming i'm trading with someone from the US). so, for example, if i paid 5 eur for a cantillon gueuze from a belgian site, i still figure the value as $16-18 as that's what it would cost on a shelf in the US that didn't gouge you (when you factor in shipping, it comes out about the same).

unless someone is muling for you and you are reimbursing them, gas/shipping costs shouldn't be considered in the $ value of a beer.

edit: of course, the shelf price in the US typically has shipping costs built in, so there's obvious leeway when you order something that isn't available in the USA. but original point still stands.

 

Not sure I'd use rip off in either example. Bars mark up bottles and cans. They're a business and need to make a profit. Not much you can do there.

In the case of trading, he's being honest about what he's looking for up front and allows you to decide if it's worth it. My reaction would be to write the guy off and seek out another deal. There's no shortage of the stuff. I can understand a bunch of buddies going in on a long distance beer haul and divvying up expenses, but passing them along with each 4-pack you trade is just being cheap.

(Side note: Squeezing nickels on $4$ usually means forget extras, forget swag, forget fun surprises, etc. Turns a fun hobby into a business transaction. Just another reason to find someone cooler to trade with.)

 

I wouldn't trade with those individuals based on the other behavior you described. However, when you're in the trading business you should expect people to value things differently and I wouldn't get too bent out of shape about it.

 

I think the issue is less what is "deserved" and more "what is sporting/in the spirit of being a good BA."

Technically yes, you can trade beer for whatever you damn well please, even cash. That's why despite legal issues and widespread bans, eBay beer sales still happen frequently. However, those people are dicks, in my opinion as a beer advocate. This was a trade from another site, but the point of *this* site is to advocate for craft beer, and many integral members of the site feel that this includes maximizing exposure to different brands and varieties in an open spirit of equal sharing and collaboration.

Demanding recompense far above and beyond the value of the beverage itself is a very slippery slope. In this particular case it seems like the other member of the trade knew he had a valuable and hard to obtain product and wanted to capitalize on that. In the context of beer advocacy, that's poor behavior. In the spirit of free market capitalism, he's being shrewd. But this is BA, not eBay, so that guy sounds like a dick to me.

 

Are the initials of this group "ABNT"?

 

This thread is heading for deletion already, can't hurt.

 

Needs more gifs

 

Or MS Paint

 

Shhhhhh we don't talk about that

 

Oh no?

 

If you're going to calculate the cost of gas it takes to drive to get the beer you might as well calculate the cost of gas it takes to get to work to make the money in which you then use to buy that beer... There are a lot of greedy bastards on here.

 

Anyone that includes gas/hotels is not worth doing any type of business with just a Jack sss trying to make money
I can understand if he wanted lil extra for his time. But were not talking bottle release
Its available at brewery regular basis

Its pretty simple he the a hole. N ur better off not trading or associated with that group nemore

 

Not worth the money to make that trade, lotta folks with that beer who trade it $4$.

Not worth the effort to make this thread without naming the group, we all know there are assholes looking to trade for profit, quite a few more of them in the last year and a half.