Trading communication etiquette

When someone sends you a trade request and you read it, respond. Whether or not you are busy, not sure what you are going to do, whatever. It does not matter. Send them, "hey, sorting through these, will get back to you". That goes a long way. Also, if you have less than 10 or 15 logged trades, expect to ship first. If you do, make sure you understand that what you traded for should be determined PRIOR to you shipping your box. Don't send a box and then try to renegotiate the deal. It doesn't work that way. That's a sure fire way to get your box sent back to you and you'll be at square one.

 

I'm all for sticking with established trading partners. But as the beer world continues to grow I'm also about adding new ones. Some of the older trading partners decide to stop trading as much and the relationship between that person and I becomes more of a "you send whatever and I'll send whatever". While these whatever boxes are usually stellar and are tough to actually trade for, it takes away from the negotiation process which can be fun. Also, I like the idea of teaching a person, that is new to the scene, the ropes. If I send a very limited bottle to an established trading partner as an extra it is par for the course. When I do that exact same thing to a new trader, they understand that this is reality and that secondary values are ruining craft beer. Unfortunately it's an uphill battle because secondary value is the FIRST thing out of people's mouths these days, most times.

 

I've added a lot of people to my ignore list in the past couple months (I assume this is what everyone means when they say their personal DNT list). I seem to do it more and more these days. Poor communication really annoys me because more than likely the other person is running an auction waiting on the best offer. I also am not a fan of someone sending me an offer and then if I say that it works I get a reply telling me they're all set. Haha, must mean that someone else sent them a better offer and our original talks are now null and void. Beer trading is getting ridiculously difficult.

 

I've been having what I feel is an even more ridiculous problem, people responding to my ISO saying they'd like to do it if it's still open and when I basically say "Yes, it's still open, let's do this" they never respond again. How do you have time to respond to an ISO mere minutes after I post it but never respond again despite reading my messages? One trade I had three people all respond and had it happen with all of them, one after the other.

Or maybe it's my fault and I'm turning people off with my messages somehow...

 

I recently (early this week) responded to someone who posted a FT for 2 beers and ISO 3 beers. About 2 hours after the post, I responded:

"I have all 3 of the beers you are looking for, is this a simple 2:3? Cheers!"

No response. 2 days later the OP puts up the same exact FT:ISO post!

I guess they didn't respond to anybody

 

What is the proper etiquette for backing out? I just had someone back out on me and I'm pretty disappointed. Not as much because I went and bought the beer for him, but more because I said no to others with the same offer and deleted those convos. Basically I told him I would get the beer that night and asked what else he liked. We both also said we were good and happy with the trade. He responded back, and asked if I had another specific of his wants. I never responded until later that night after I got the beer. Told him I was ready and he sent back a response telling me he hadn't heard from me so he wasn't intersted any more. It was 9 hours, and nothing he asked me required a response. Is this bad etiquette or bad trading? While I did send a trade request and never accepted it.

 

QUOTE="jrstar96, post: 4692388, member: 1095059"]What is the proper etiquette for backing out? I just had someone back out on me and I'm pretty disappointed. Not as much because I went and bought the beer for him, but more because I said no to others with the same offer and deleted those convos. Basically I told him I would get the beer that night and asked what else he liked. We both also said we were good and happy with the trade. He responded back, and asked if I had another specific of his wants. I never responded until later that night after I got the beer. Told him I was ready and he sent back a response telling me he hadn't heard from me so he wasn't intersted any more. It was 9 hours, and nothing he asked me required a response. Is this bad etiquette or bad trading? While I did send a trade request and never accepted it.[/QUOTE]

lesson learned, right, Al?

don't buy beer until the trade is accepted.

i agree...bad etiquette and bad trade, especially since you told him you would be getting the beer that night.