[bakerman8419]

Just a random thought I had today and would like to see what you guys/gals think.

I like to trade (even base) but it appears we have an issue going on from what I see. It seems that no one is really trading anymore. The same people have the same scans/list over and over again but hardly nothing changes. You see people who have been here awhile but have maybe 10 trades but post a trade thread quite often. There isnt anything "wrong" with this but overall this is a trading site right? What can we do to increase activity on the boards?

Things that contribute to this problem in my eyes:

sell value vs. book value - Sometimes this debate gets ugly

Strict collecting habits - Only collect 1-3 things but still bust wax and get stuck with cards they cannot move

shipping costs - People may have something you need but due to the cost to ship low end cards they feel its not even worth it

laziness - because we have to log every card we own into the organize I feel a lot of people choose to not add the low end stuff that can help fill in those gaps in our PCs due to the time consuming aspect of it

the eBay effect - this to me is a major issue. You will see people posting I have X amount of paypal and looking for X but have you noticed they will always go to the bay to make the purchase? The eBay effect is the illusion you got a nice card at a steal price. The problem with this is it lowers sales on this forum because of the assumption you can buy something on the bay for a "steal" price.

poor communication/poor negotiating skills - How many times have you sent an trade offer or PM and didnt get a response? If you arent going to respond then why be here? How many times do you send an offer and the only response you get is "trade has been cancelled"? Why is there no room for negotiating? Usually if I dont see anything I need I will offer to sell the card or ask them if they have something not listed, etc. I try to keep the deal going for as long as it can before cancelling.

In the end I dont think much will change but a lot of people have a lot of awesome cards for trade and they sit there forever and Im confused as to why?

Thanks for allowing me to vent lol.

[monsterx]

I agree w/ a lot of that man, and I agree it's at an all time low( since 2010 for me). I literally can't remember my last trade!! But the thing is, I haven't really been trying. It seemed when I wanted to trade, I got a lot of responses like 3 or 4 cards for my 1 from people I haven't seen around here on the boards.


And I am guilty of being a bad trade responder if I don't know it's there. I don't check the trade, unless I'm expecting one, and I've missed a few. My bad guys, I'm working on it!! lol

[rgf17]

i am right there with you man. would love to trade base inserts etc if people would. seems unless you get the big hit or someones pc player nothing ever moves. i started a base trading thread awhile back got a bunch of hits on people wanting me to give them lists of their players (which i did) but not one trade came of it all. one member bought a stack of mannings off me but other than the little paypal i got i ended up with no cards. it gets old trying and not getting anything done but it is what it is. to get my fix i have been on other boards trading/selling. seems more of that happens elsewhere and here has just been a hangout for us to talk more so lately. which i enjoy too but would like it all in one place. maybe im greedy.

[monsterx]

i am right there with you man. would love to trade base inserts etc if people would. seems unless you get the big hit or someones pc player nothing ever moves. i started a base trading thread awhile back got a bunch of hits on people wanting me to give them lists of their players (which i did) but not one trade came of it all. one member bought a stack of mannings off me but other than the little paypal i got i ended up with no cards. it gets old trying and not getting anything done but it is what it is. to get my fix i have been on other boards trading/selling. seems more of that happens elsewhere and here has just been a hangout for us to talk more so lately. which i enjoy too but would like it all in one place. maybe im greedy.

Dude, seems like all it boils down to is SV. There's no cash in base anymore.

[pbean]

excellent thread

for us it's just a "wait and see" philosophy ..... no need to dump $100's into players that aren't even on a roster yet, and till training camp starts well even our main PC's will be a tad stagnant for a while.

we try to trade when/if we can but no one here collects/trades vintage (no vintage is not the 1990's lol) so it's hard to work on our PC's from the 40's to the 60's

are we getting "fussier" yes .....we are very careful who we trade with and we'll always scrutinize every deal ..... been burned too many times

would we love to trade more ..... yes that time will come in the next few months

[rgf17]

Dude, seems like all it boils down to is SV. There's no cash in base anymore.

cash in it or not i still need lots of base for my pc's. just wish we could all figure a way to get it done

[bigtrip18]

I'll add another reason that's pretty obvious. Like cars were in for most of the 20th century, we too have a "Big 3" in terms of card makers. Right now Panini, Topps, and Upper Deck make 80+% of all the products, and it leaves Press Pass, Sage, and Leaf the trimmings, with ok designs, but zero licensing agreements.

Products from the 90's were pretty much just gobbled up and taken over by parent companies and some stopped creation. It's awesome that Crown Royale made a nice comeback and Contenders is still a solid product, but I'm getting sick of once great product brands being reduced to thin card stock and the EXACT SAME PHOTO (Prestige I'm looking at you).

I love trading, but I find myself buying and trading for 90's inserts, and vintage stars, just because I've seen eevrything that's out there, and it's been the same for 4 years.

[jmessick86]

I was looking into selling some of my RC's and noticed they don't sell for anything anymore, the only thing people are after are autos and patches. In my opinion the flooding of the market with these products is slowly killing the hobby, I remember when pulling an autograph of anybody was a big deal, now we get four in a box and complain because we didn't land a Cam Newton. Inserts aren't worth anything anymore unless it's a Topps Chrome Refractor Variation. I think less auto's and jersey cards would be a good way to bring back the "crappy" cards nobody wants to being a little bit better.

[p18mann]

I agree with you and want to comment on this with my 2 cents but I just don't know how to right now....ugh

But to start.... people like me don't like to trade stuff under $40 bv....just doesn't seem worth the trip to the po or the wait.

Then the cards I do trade for and want to move, bv $100, people say they are interested and then when you tell them what you like that's in the same bv range they say no...then try to hit you with a bunch of low end cards or just don't even reply back to you.

I have also noticed that on here if you want a card, you should be prepared to trade in favor for it....I don think I have ever picked up a Pc card on here that was a 1 for 1 trade that was the same bv on both ends...

As many of you remember I used to post a trade thread at least once a week and now its maybe bi-weekly, just because I feel that its a waste of time some days.

I love trading and I love sports cards...... and I'm also very picky

Just my 2 cents

[monsterx]

cash in it or not i still need lots of base for my pc's. just wish we could all figure a way to get it done

I was saying that is why I think people only trade hits.