General Forum

Sanity check, please?

Every now and then I get an idea to pluck a couple cards off my trade stash and go looking for someone who has it on their wantlist. I check and see if they have anything on my list, or something on their trade pile that I'd go for. I propse the trade, send a little note about why I drop in out of nowhere with this proposal, and see what happens. 4 out of 5 times they come back with a counter offer, sometimes eliminating the card I offered up in the first place. 

So, am I nuts for offering people one card they're looking for in exchange for something even, or am I missing the nuance of negotiating?

I don't know. Not everyone has the same priorities in the collection. Maybe you're offering something that they will collect later or they think that they can get something better for what you're asking. Maybe they prefer larger or smaller trades. Tons of other possible reasons. The best thing to do would be to ask them why they're doing this or that.

There are many reasons for the changes. Say you offer me an MLB card that is on my wantlist of a player I collect. But then say that card is them on a different team and you also have one of them playing for my favorite team (STL Cardinals). I'll pick the Cardinals card over an earlier or later card when they played for someone else.

In the NFL, I'll almost always pick Panthers cards over Packers or Patriots, depending on the player and the card you want in return.

Another reason to change would be current projects. If someone is working on a specific project and you have one/some of those cards but didn't put them in the offer, they'll probably chase after the current project cards over random cards from their wantlist.

I get that a lot .  I have no problem with it.    I get a card or two that I want and they get cards they want.

Normally members have 1 or 2 cards for me and I have 40 or 50 cards for them.  I have no problem with them picking what they want.

I would probably counter most proposals as I encourage most to do when I initiate the offer. A Want List is one thing, but a WANT List is another, and if you happen to have more cards for them to choose as matches, then be flexible. Don't look at it as a returned gift but as a negotiation where both can be satisfied.

I agree with everything stated so far in a reply, but I'll add another factor:  postage costs.  I would always prefer to have 5+ cards in a PWE trade, if there are 5 or 6 or so available on both sides.  And tacking on even a few more than that doesn't increase cost on stamps all that much.

I think what it comes down to is communication, really. I always put a little note in my proposals, especially if there's something I'm really specifically looking for in the trade.

I agree with folks above; it's impossible to tell just from the trade/want lists where someone's priorities are, so you throw something out there and see what sticks. Don't be afraid to counter offer! I got an offer recently that was completely bananas on the surface, but the comment section was clear: "I could really use all these cards from you, but I only have one thing off your wantlist. Is there anything else I could send you in trade?" I think most people are easy to work with if you have a discussion.

I think the postage issue is a good one too. I have a handful of stamps in my desk - a quick 1-3 card PWE trade is easy for me, and doesn't take any time at all, even for a lower-priority need or two. But something that requires more complicated packing material and a trip to the PO and a $4-5 mailing cost needs to be more substantial in terms of the "value" of the cards going back and forth.

I've done a few lopsided trades where I send more cards or a little higher value than the other person does. In order to get cards I need. 

I recently had a trade offered to me, and the card he offered was on my wantlist,  but when I saw the little scan of it on my transaction screen, I recognized it as a card I definitely had already, so switched it out for a different card.  But I also added a note explaining why.  Sometimes when you bulk add a player or team to your wantlist, you end up adding cards you may not actually want/need.  But you can't easily verify 8000 scans to make sure you dont already have any of the cards.

What I've run into recently, and haven't recevied an explaination for, falls into this boat. I bulked added cards to my PC and it added cards that were already shown as "In Collection" in that very same collection. I did several trades with this happening before I realized I was getting multiples of the same cards.