Bartertown.com

Hey Everyone,

Edited to Add: I'm getting a thicker skin and learning how to weed through the bad trades and obvious predators. I don't want to delete this thread because it may be of value to future members, but I am learning how Bartertown works now, and the site has been great to me since I returned. Just ignore, or don't even respond to the guys that offer crap deals, it's not worth it...

I'm just curious.

I spent some time on here in the late 90's and I had a good trade record, great reviews, and was known for being a straight up guy. I have trades on other forums, within the gaming community, and on other forums for some of my other hobbies. I also have a very active PLOG on a great 40k Forum that will illustrate how dedicated I am to this hobby. I only entered back into the trading world because I have buckets full of OOP metal rare models, not much money, and I want to trade them up for some of the cool plastic kits that I've seen come out in the last 2 years. Since the birth of my first child, keeping up with 40k has fallen by the wayside, and so I am looking to get exactly what I want without the crap of having to buy full boxed sets, and in the late 90's this is where you'd go to do that.

So the purpose of this post is to ask:

Is it normal now that when you are new to this forum you get bombarded by the people with high stats who then offer you a trade that is so horribly in their favor that your jaw hits the floor? I'm not criticizing the site, but I am a bit shocked. In the time I have been here I have had people offer me trades of non-rare items I can buy on Ebay for like 10 USD and then ask for about $100 in rare items in exchange. Or my favorite was a guy who is well known and I watched him over a decade ago, and he offered me two OOP models that came to about 70 USD for about 250 in OOP marine kits?

Is this normal?

Do I have to weather this crap until I find an actual group or person willing to do a real trade?

I have had to turn down some cash trade because I'm strapped at the moment and I want to assure all of those awesome people I have talked to about PayPal that this post is not about you, you have all been great.

But seriously? What's with the people offering one miniature in trade for two or three OOP force organization slots?

Every trader everywhere is looking to find what they want on the cheap. Some are more willing than others to hope that their potential new trade partner doesnt know what they are holding onto and come out ahead. Is it fair or right? Probably not. But it does happen. Since you arent required to accept any trade you arent comfortable making you arent really being forced into anything. Just bide your time till you find someone you are willing to trade with. Or hit up eBay, you'll get hit with fees but at least you wont have to worry about lowball offers.

Tordeck hit it on the head.

Also, when you read this, PM me. If you were here WAAAY back in the 90's, you might have some references. We'd like to get them tied to your new account (since the old 90's account is gone) so you get credit for the trades you did. The old account might be gone, but the references will still be in the system!


Eric

I find that newbies are more likely to make a trade or offer that is not as good as they could have gotten. I always try to be fair, if I dont think it was a fair conclusion I will just throw some extra stuff in.

Also, there are some people here who feel, no matter who you are, their stuff is gold and your stuff is crap.
They want NIB for their painted, broken junk or want full retail for it and anything else is you not being reasonable.

I would honestly say its not just to the newbies.

I've personally dealt with it just over the last few months again here as has one of my friends from Cleveland.

I had over 2k up in 3 separate lots and someone asked if I'd take 100.00. I was confused and asked for what exactly... Guy wanted everything. He never even received a response back from me from then on.

I've actually found over the last 18 months or so this has become more frequent on here. Both from what I've seen personally and from what I have heard from my friends that deal on here. I'm not sure if its just the straight price increases from GW and people want it cheaper or what exactly but you're going to run into people that do this. The other thing I've found most recently is that the trend lately has been everyone's stuff is worth double what yours is - no matter the quality in either direction for the trade. Everyone should be reasonable and it feels to me like that has changed lately. So either respond with a quick no thanks or just ignore them would be my suggestion. Don't let it bother you. not worth it. Just hold out till you're happy and its all good. Everyone works as intended. If you're not happy with it - just say no and wait. Doesn't take longer than 30 seconds to respond to a message saying that.

As I learned a long time ago in business - people that are idiots should be treated with the same respect you'd treat someone in a bar - indifference - just ignore them and you're day will go better in the long run.

Saying that,
Overall I love BTown and will continue to use it when the oppurtunity is there. Best site I've ever come across for doing stuff like this and allows pretty fluid transition of games/armies.

speaking of that... finally finished my Khorne army... time to take pictures to get my points in the painting challenge!

An easy way to avoid lowball offers (or at least reduce them) is to set a price in your ad. If you ask for someone to make an offer, don't be surprised if it is a low one.

pretre wrote:An easy way to avoid lowball offers (or at least reduce them) is to set a price in your ad. If you ask for someone to make an offer, don't be surprised if it is a low one.

This exactly. If you're going to play the game of not wanting to set a price lower than you MIGHT be offered, buyers will make offers concerned about offering more than MIGHT be accepted.

Do I have to weather this crap until I find an actual group or person willing to do a real trade?

Short answer is yes. Until you have completed a single trade all of this sounds like sour grapes to me.

I can only speak for myself but yes. I've moved back and forth over the last decade here and I can state categorically that people are much worse now than they used to be. And no this isn't "it was all better back then" kind of thing.

What used to be normal (My X for your Y, they're roughly equal value) is now rare. Now it's "Here is the retail value of my items. I will give you 40% of retail to my 100% of retail. And you should be happy to get that" and now that's every single trade. And God forbid someone thinks they can take advantage of you. They descend like vultures.

I had 5 separate people offer me a ps3 for over 2000 dollars of orks and then acted offended when I pointed out that they were being ridiculous crap heads. But I will say that it's not just on here. The entire hobby seems filled with people whose only goal in life is to get over on someone else.

To cut a long rant short: I'm glad I'm getting out of it.

Not my experience at all.

I've got a red Username and 600+ reputation. I acknowledge the difference this makes in how people treat me in trades (typically). I DO NOT try to use it to my advantage and have no desire for anyone else to. That said, I recognize that some people will.
Now, that said, I'm with pretre. I don't usually get any ridiculous offers. Occasionally, someone will offer me something that I think is over-valued for my stuff. I can never know if it's due to a lack of knowledge on their part or the red Username, but I always dial them back down, if I think they're over-doing it.
On the occasions that I get offered less than I think something's worth (in cash or comparative trade), it does not come across as if they're trying to rip me off, but that they're valuing things on their own scale; if they want orks, but are willing to settle for Nids, they're not as likely to give a good deal on the Nids. They're "settling," so they want a better deal. Makes sense to me. Hell, I do it myself.

Eric

Not that I don't get or give stilted offers, but the vast majority start out a little off and then work to even. I want a deal to be good for both sides because a couple extra minis isn't worth the stinkeye lingering over future trades.

pretre wrote:An easy way to avoid lowball offers (or at least reduce them) is to set a price in your ad. If you ask for someone to make an offer, don't be surprised if it is a low one.

I wish this worked more.

I typically set an asking price and recently had a bundle of items that I was asking a fixed amount for plus shipping to be paid by the buyer. This was a large bundle of items that weighed over 5 pounds when packed and required an over-sized box (per the USPS' standards). I received an offer that was 60% of my asking price shipped. My asking price essentially covered the retail value of one item in the bundle and threw the rest in for free ($60-70 worth of freebies) so this was an extremely low offer. I countered with a reduction in my asking price (20% off) and insisted that the shipping be paid by the buyer. The response I received was hostile and uninformed both in terms of how much parcels cost to ship and what the cost of the models in question were at retail. The kicker was that this trader has almost triple my rep score and so SHOULD, at the very least, know the basics of shipping (like how much a flat rate Priority box costs, for example). I was really floored to receive such lunacy from an established member.

This occurred last month, and was the first time I have experienced such a one-sided offer from a member with a higher reference score than me.

It really depends on what it is. If it was GW, 60% of retail price shipped isn't bad.