Trade Profiteering?

People can ask for whatever they want to ask for in a trade. No one is ripping anyone off. You don't have to agree to an unreasonable trade, and they don't have to trade to you.

Also, Heady is waaay overrated. I personally wouldn't do anything more than $4$ for it, but some people are willing to do more.

 

That's about what I do too. Buy a case or two, go through about 6-8 cans myself...and give the rest away while it can still be enjoyed as fresh as possible.

 

I've never sold a single beer I've traveled to purchase for a penny over what it cost me to acquire. I've muled plenty and traded some...but I've never, and will never charge a premium. When I went up to HF...I rented that SUV for $400 just so I COULD mule as much as I did, and I didn't pass one cent of that along to the folks I brought beer back for. So...whether you kid or not...this is how it is.

 

When I was on the west coast a few weeks ago I shipped 5 boxes back to myself which included a ton of gopickitupformebro from Firestone Walker and Russian River. I added the cost of shipping to the price people owed me for bottles, which I think is reasonable in that situation. But I certainly didn't tack on some of the cost for my rental car or the gas.

 

The way I see it is if they were specifically purchasing something for you (basically, taking delivery orders), then it's reasonable to add some costs (shipping, or what have you).

But it sounds like these guys just purchased a bunch of cases on their own volition and are now trying to unload them at a high mark-up to make back some of their personal costs, which is bullshit.

 

Weren't you the one who auctioned a BAVDL for ~$150 worth of rare beer? If I am mistaken I apologize.

 

The only thing I've ever seen was a few extra bucks tacked on for shipping materials which is completely reasonable when muling for people.

 

Keyword, sold. BAVDL for a case of KBS is a trade he did. Essentially the same thing in terms of profiteering. But his wording covered the 3:1 $4$ BAVDL trade.

 

Yes, you're mistaken. Apology accepted.

 

But I suppose I was in the wrong too when I gave up, voluntarily, a Hunahpu's, Marshal Zhukov, Cognac Sweet Stout, Moat Water, Ghost Stories, Dark Dark Goose, and a 4 pack each of Bourbon County Brand Stout and Bourbon Barrel Plead the 5th for a Southampton Black Raspberry Lambic.

Ohhhhh. It's no big deal when you OFFER a tidy sum of beer for one bottle, but when you seek out a case of widely distributed beer (I've bought cases of KBS before, multiple times) for a bottle that was event only, and could only be had if you were fortunate enough to win a scratch off ticket...you're profiteering. LOL By the way...the cases of KBS I purchased never cost 3x the cost of a bottle of BAVDL. If you're paying $150 for a case of KBS...then the guy selling it to you...is profiteering. By the way...the 5 or 6 people that quickly replied with a willingness to make the trade for what I was looking for...and the other dozen or so that offered up half that much KBS and myriad other bottles to make up for it.... I guess they didn't have half the issue you did...and you weren't even interested in the bottle.

I wonder if people like you wear a cape when they embark on a mission to express their opinion like this...like you're the voice of trading justice. You should approach Beckett and see if they'll let you establish a beer trading publication whereby you can impress upon others the value of their beer. It might just take.

But seriously though... How much more KBS is made than BAVDL? How many more places can you get it? Do you need to be lucky enough to score a ticket to the event to begin with? When you do, do you have to be lucky enough to score another ticket so you can buy the bottle? On top of all of that...it's not like I was looking for more than $4$ in other equally tough to get bottles. I'm asking for a shelf beer. I mean...shit, Heady Topper runs $78 after taxes for case. If I asked for a case or two of that...I'd still be profiteering? If you think so...tough shit. I don't care.

 

Personally, I'm fine with trades where $4$ totals are skewed. We are all consenting adults here. I was just pointing out that, for all your self-righteous banter about how you never make a penny off your heady topper, which you magnanimously distribute to the masses at cost like loaves of bread to the gracious and thankful peasantry, that you consistently ask for way above $4$ on in other contexts.

Again, it's fine that you ask for way over $4$ for some of your more highly sought-after bottles. I just find it hilarious that you're bragging about how equitable you are with beer, and are siding with those who find it disgraceful to ask more than $4$ when it comes to heady topper, when all the while, you happily net windfalls of beer for some of the bottles you offer.

You are simply patting yourself on the back an awful lot for someone who openly profiteers when trading stuff like BAVDL.

You make a point that I certainly agree with about how absurd it is that in the BA community, it's okay to *offer* way over $4$ for beers, but hot to *ask* for way over $4$ beers. I respect the fact that you openly ask for way over $4$, where most prefer to do it in the shadows of bm's. But your habit of doing this makes your post about how generous you are with your heady topper in never selling for a penny over cost rather comical.

And by the way, I was talking about this profiteering ISO:FT you completed, not the other profiteering one involving KBS, which I wasn't even aware of (but thanks for pointing it out):

http://beeradvocate.com/community/threads/ft-bourbon-vanilla-dark-lord-iso-list.86103/#post-1255170

 

I personally tack on the opportunity cost associated with the time needed to negotiate a trade + obtaining the beer vs taking that time to work.

Prepare your anuses fellas.

 

I'm not patting myself on the back...and I'm not profiteering. Period the end.

I've never seen anyone offer extremely limited beer, $4$ for widely distributed shelf beer. If you have, feel free to show some examples. And my habit of doing this? Habit? Oh. Ok.

KBS is the only trade for BAVDL I completed. So you're welcome.

What's comical, really, is that you have no fucking idea what you're talking about. Really. It's funny.

 

Really, not patting yourself on the back?

"I've never sold a single beer I've traveled to purchase for a penny over what it cost me to acquire. I've muled plenty and traded some...but I've never, and will never charge a premium. When I went up to HF...I rented that SUV for $400 just so I COULD mule as much as I did, and I didn't pass one cent of that along to the folks I brought beer back for. So...whether you kid or not...this is how it is"

I'm sure that, were you flexible enough, you'd convert the self back-patting into a full on reach around.

And in the ISO:FT I linked to, you state that you had wrapped up the trade for your BAVDL in exchange for ~$150 in extremely limited beer that aren't even close to being shelf beers.

Again, there is nothing wrong with skewed $4$ trades. It's just that your self-congratulatory stance in the way you trade HT so strongly contradicts the way you trade BAVDL. How is asking for three times the cost in rare beer for BAVDL any better than wanting $30 in shelf beer for HT?

Did you end up pulling out of the trade I linked to above? If not, then why are you pretending you've only traded BAVDL for KBS? If you did pull out of the trade, you were clearly willing to make it at one point, so what's the difference.

Either way, the world is a better place for your generous and equitable trading of HT, even though, as Chris Rock would say, "that's what you're supposed to do!"

 

stand corrected, just needed more time.

 

I have traded 200-1000 bottle release beers for RR sours and Founders 750s like Bolt Cutter and CBS $4$ beacuse I wanted them.

I have also given them away free.

I'm an idiot though, I trade for beers I want regardless of rarity.
Funny though that many of my best trading partners were found doing this.

 

I don't trade HT...I mule it. It's different. So it doesn't contradict shit. And it wasn't a self congratulatory stance. I was merely stating that when I mule shit...I don't charge anything above and beyond what it costs to acquire. If you were were capable of telling apart the difference between muling something and trading something, perhaps you'd see there was nothing at all contradictory. It's also different because if you read the OP...they weren't asking for $30 in shelf beer. They were asking for THIRTY DOLLARS. As I said...I've never charged a nickle more than what something costs when I've purchased something, then resold it to someone else.

The trade I had lined up for BAVDL fell through. Shit happens. So I ended up trading it for the KBS instead. And yes...you're fucking A right I was willing to make the original trade that fell through. I don't have the kind of beer it takes to land big bottles. I just don't. I never have. So, I took one of the few opportunities that existed to take one bottle, and turn it into several that myself and my tasting group could try. Didn't pan out. Did the trade for the KBS instead.

There seems to be a disconnect between trading something for more than $4$...and selling something for more than you paid for it. Whether you consider them to be one and the same, I don't care, quite frankly. But when you start trading 4 4-packs of Heady Topper for BAVDL...you let me know. Because that'd be $4$...and we all know that 4 4-packs of Heady Topper is the going rate for BAVDL.

What I dont' get is, where you get off A) dictating what I can and cannot trade my beer for...and B) dictating what others should or shouldn't give up for my bottle if they fucking feel like it.

And if this thread gets deleted...it'll end up in the same place your comments belong. In the trash.