General Forum

I think it's important to put as much effort into bulking up your trade lists as it is expanding your want lists. 

I can't tell you how often I come across a member whom I have 100+ cards on their wantlists, but they have NONE I need. 

Just checked out the lists on a member that showed up in recent matches for me where they have 39,000+ cards on their wantlists and fewer than 2,800 on their trade lists. 

While it is tedious and thankless at times, I always try to make sure my trade lists (20,000+ currently) exceed my want lists (16,000 right now)

Out of curiosity, what do you view as the solution to this complaint?

People add cards to their FS/FT list that they don't want to trade just to balance things out to a hypothetical ratio? They add cards they don't have to bulk it up? They buy or trade for cards just so they can add them to their traders (I know some do this, but obviously it is not for everyone) just to get this effect?

Or should they not wantlist cards to reduce the ratio the other way? It's a bit rich trying to tell others what cards they should collect.

I get that is is a bit weird if a person has 100,000 cards on their wantlist and only 100 to trade, but who cares? Doesn't that make it easier for you to find a trade if you want one of their traders?

Plus, it's not just a quantity/ratio thing; I would guess I have more wants than traders but I get way more matches to my FS/FT because my wants are harder to come by.

I recently dumped my trade list because it just wasn’t moving. That said, in the internet age it’s so much more economical to buy the cards you want vs opening product and ending up with a large trade list that I feel like a larger want list would be the norm. It doesn’t seem feasible to be the other way around honestly 

I feel your pain totally.  My wantlist is huge because I have listed evrery Saints and Shaq card onto it.  I really don't expect to get any of the lower numbered cards in a trade, which will reduce my wants tremendously.  I currently have almost 50,000 cards on my tradelist, and am in the process of adding 20,000 more.  They are across all 4 major sports and a few non-sports.  I understand that my wantlist could be considered narrow.  That is the reason that I try to bulk up what I have to offer.  That being said, if it's on my tradelist, I am willing to get rid of all of them to get my wants.  I do think it is a PITA to go through my trade matches, find someone with large quantities of matches, and then find they have nothing for me.  I have also tried trading for cards that I may not want, but might be able to trade them in the future.

DodgyDave,

Not really a complaint, just an observation, I guess. Everyone does their thing here differently. I just notice that my matches go way down if I don't keep adding desirable trade bait. 

Jay

It is all about what you have to trade and what you collect.  You may "want" a lot but have little to trade.    Not everyone has tens of thousands of cards to trade.

I have 22,237 on my want list.   Everything that I can find of Nebraska football.

I have 19,596 on my FS/FT list.  Just a small amount of what I have to get rid of, but it is the better stuff.

Just because my numbers are balanced does not mean I'm not see the same thing you are seeing.

But if you dig deeper into my numbers.    You will see there is only approx. 300 cards listed here FS/FT out of that 22,237, that is on my want list.   Then you take away the members that are non-active, only selling and the ones that will not reply.  The number of cards is under 150 and one member has most of them.     So there is no need for me to add 1,000s of more cards when there is only 20 members or so that has cards for me.  Most of them I have a 10 to 1 ratio they need vs I want or more now.

I have 10 cards for you, and you do not have any for me.   As you are only baseball and I'm only Nebraska Cornhusker football we do not match up very well on my side.    There are a lot of members like that. (No good matches due to what they collect and have to trade.)  You have purchased cards from me, So thanks.

Yes there are members that could add more and get more/better trades, but they may not want to.

I understand that some members are on this site only to track their collection and are less interested in the trading aspect of the hobby. These don't go out and intentionally buy larger lots to get not only a few cards they want for their collection but to bulk up their trade list. That is their choice in how they enjoy the hobby and I respect them for that. What I do wish is that there was a way that these members would not show up in potential trade matches. Maybe a simple "button" in the profile page would be able to remove them from all trade matches.

If I had more access to cards I want without trading, I might do the same but when all the LCS and flea markets closed down mainly due to online sites, it drastically reduced where I could get cards. Sites that sell cards have increased the fees to where buying cards online is not reasonable. So for me, trading is my main source for cards to fill my wants.

I agree with the original OP that if you wish to trade, you need to have a large quantity of traders to attract offers to your wants. I don't list duplicate cards in baseball but do in all other categories. I do list everything I have no matter how over-produced it is, e.g. 1987 Topps, and I do list all VAR for those who collect dots or no dots. I have everything from early 1950s to the most recent releases in varying quantities. I also list higher value cards (I know some who don't list them and hold them in "reserve" for special trades).  I have over 90k baseball and almost 40k in the other categories that are for trade. My want list sits at just over 53k, a bit higher than I normally like it but it is because I once added everything Nolan Ryan. At times I will expand my want list in sets I have not really started collecting in order to make a trade where I don't have many matches with someone who wants cards that I have for trade. In short, I think I have a balanced collection.

What I don't understand are members who want to trade for certain eras in cards but don't have similar cards to offer in trade. I receive too many trades offering me early 1990s or newer commons, asking in return 1960s and 1970s cards. Often on these trade offers, I simply decline without even leaving a message; if I have to explain why then that person really doesn't know the hobby. Nor has he read my Profile. Yes I know some do accept such trades but in my thinking, if I want cards from certain eras, then I need similar cards to trade back. This is where bulking up your trade list is important if you wish to actively trade and that may mean spending $$ on a larger lot of cards in the era you wish to collect in. 

Lastly, when it comes to a reasonable want list, I can't understand why anyone would have 1.4 million cards on their want list other than in the hope of receiving cards for free from members who are just looking to dump their unwanted cards.

Does it really matter? I have 2,300 cards available for trade. A finite number of cards I actually possess. I add to it periodically, but not aggressively. 

I have over 21,000 on my want list. Do I think I will get all 21k for my 2,300 traders? No. Am I casting a wide net to help find matches? Yes. 

Additionally I often use the "Match items in collection to other members want list" link when working out transactions. It doesn't help with trade matching per se, but it does give me another 15k cards to use if I want to swap something out of my PC.

The challenge is it doesnt take equal effort to add cards to your wish list versus your trade list.

If there is a specific set, I can go to it, identify the 100 cards I'm missing and add them to my wish list in 10 seconds. Adding 100 cards to my trade list isnt a 10 second process, to say nothing of the additional time to make sure they get filed properly to be found if requested which isnt there on the wish list work.

That's what I'm saying. It's work, but without it,  you don't have much to offer if someone has what you're looking for.