When to ship after trade agreed upon...

While I agree with everything Fbarber has said, I will say that this has almost never been my experience in 30+ trades. It normally goes something like:

1) we "negotiate" the terms, and someone says when it feels right "if all sounds good, I'll send over a trade request." That can be before or after the discussion of when to ship.

2) I've never agreed to a date. I've agreed to a time frame. E.g. "I should be able to ship out on Tuesday. That will put the package arriving on Friday." Or, if it is a 1 day transit, "I'll get the package out sometime early next week. I'll shoot for MondY, but I know things come up, so it may be as late as Wednesday. Either way, it will arrive by Friday."

3) Sometimes things come up on both sides, and people are reasonable if you had to delay by a week, even if they already shipped

Best of luck.

 

I would say have confidence. You will more than likely not be burned. Beer trading is a very cool experience and many times you receive tasty extras from out of your normal distribution. As far as shipping, I like to give a 2-3 day window and usually ship ASAP so they can enjoy their side of the trade at their leisure. Cheers and good luck on your trades.

 

100+ trades and I've been burned once.
I. Look at feedback and also how involved someone is on the site.
Good luck

 

The other issue as far as when to ship, I almost never ship on a Thursday or Friday. You don't want a box sitting in a warehouse all weekend when it is really hot or really cold.
Again, this should be a communication issue.
Usually after a deal is locked down, u will say something along the line of, "If your ok with it, I will wait to ship until Monday.,"

I also suggest USPS priority mail flat rate boxes for cans. You can get a box across the country in 2 or 3 days for a reasonable price.
I rarely use flat rate boxes for bottles though.

 

Unless your trade partner said to hold off until a specific date or (some of) the beer is not yet in possession (properly communicated), always ship as soon as you can after a trade request has been accepted.

For me, I always try to ship the next day or day after at the latest. For the most part, most of my past trade partners have done the same without really having to discuss at length "when" or exact date (as @Beer_Economicus said, and I've done a few more trades than him ). If you plan on delaying the shipment due to weather, or if you prefer to ship on a Monday (so that the box doesn't sit in a truck or warehouse over the weekend), communicate that to your partner right away. All in all, my expectation is 1 or 2 days after agreement. Anything that takes longer should be communicated.