Just happened to be at Russian River this spring when they released the 3L bottles of Beatification (Batch 5), so we had to get one. Hadn't really thought much about trading, but we have had a couple of offers, and as we started researching, we saw BA forum posts that ranged from "What's the big deal with those huge bottles?" to "Here is my (amazing) cellar list - I'll pay for shipping, just tell me what it takes." If we did decide to pursue a trade, what are some guidelines we'd consider? We thought about putting together a list of things we'd like and then see if someone with a stellar cellar might want to put together a box of bombers, perhaps things like Bourbon Vanilla Dark Lord, Barrel Aged Mexican Cake, you know, the once a year, brewery-only kind of hard to get things (could use some suggestions here, too). How specific should we be, or should we just say, "Hey, we have this, what might you want to do about it" and see what happens?
You can trade **** the crap out of your fellow BA and ask for a huge quantity of rare stuff, which seems to be the thing to do nowadays, or make someone happy and be reasonable with it going close to $4$ for the beers you really want (KBBS, MD, BVDL, BA Cakes, DB Hunah, BA Abraxas, Assassin, Blaeber, etc.). Whatever you do, being specific is helpful. Putting up a vague list is basically an auction. I'd put up a list of beers you want and say you'd like 2-3 of those (depending on the beer) and + (another list of less difficult to get beers like Prop, Life is Like, DDG, Fou Foune) to even out $4$. Or you can wait to see what offers you'll get in your inbox from this post . Good luck!
Guidelines are the same regardless of bottle size. And you're a 2009er. Good stuff on the forums today.
