[kerryandbeth]

There have been hundreds of comments on Beckett from users that are frustrated with the website for various reasons, but the biggest complaint I read all the time is that this site has become super quiet for trading.

IMO, the #1 cause of this lack of activity is OURSELVES. Now, before you get mad, hear me out...

I used to spend hours looking for cards I like, submit a trade request, wait to hear back, and then hopefully complete a trade. Time consuming? YES. Frustrating if no response or trade offer declined? YES. But, I completed a lot of trades, anyway.

Now, all I see are guys/gals doing this: "Hey, everybody, I got great stuff to trade. Look me up and let me know what you want. Let's make a deal!"

Easy? YES. Quick? YES. Effective? I would say not nearly as you want it to be. In other words, those who want trades are relying on others to do all the work while they sit back and do nothing, and then complain when nobody responds!!

If I want to trade, I should be the one doing all the background work...and if I choose not to, then I better live with all the cards I no longer want.

Beckett does a lot of crap that frustrates me, too, but it is not Beckett's fault that the amount of trades on this site has greatly diminished. There are still plenty of people on this site all the time...we just have to be willing to make an effort to win the prize.

Alright, your turn.

[djohn]

You're definitely correct that trading takes some work and that for some people it's their own fault if they can't find a trade. I renewed my subscription at the beginning of the year, after having it off for almost 6 months, and was pleasantly surprised to see that there is still a good amount of trading activity on here. In fact I have done more trades in the past 3 months, than I did all of last year. A lot of that was because I got more active with seeking out trades and sending offers. I actually really like the MatchMaker function, as it makes it easy to find people who have a bunch of cards I need from a set I am working on instead of finding people 1 card at a time.

[bonds20001]

I am in the minority too. I like the Matchmaker and have done more trades this past 2 weeks than before. Of course, I have been here a long time and have done over 2000 trades, so I am a bit of an oddball according to current trends. I have to do a lot of background work before a trade, but Matchmaker sets up traders with multiple cards I need quicker than scanning ORGs of would be traders.

And, I like this site for storage of info on cards, ORG and OPG. Do a lot of selling on eBay and the OPG with cut and paste makes it easy. With the scanner and OPG, I can pull a card and in under 3 minutes have that card posted on eBay.

Each site has its pros and cons..but I like being here and trading.

[flood and fire]

I actually LIKE doing all the work. It's fun to look through the cards people have available. I'm always finding older sets I forgot about or insert sets that I hadn't come across before. I do think Matchmaker has helped finding traders with multiple cards I'm looking for but, as it's been stated many times before, inactive accounts can be frustrating no matter how you come across them.

[zeprock]

I'm with all of you. I like Beckett for storing the info on my collection and the organization of it and the OPG. It is a lot of work for me to make a trade happen as I cross-reference what people have available with what I am in need of. I don't bust cases or even boxes so my main problem is not having a lot of the "new stuff" to trade although after 48 years of collecting, I do have more than 80,000 cards listed for trade. That is overwhelming to some potential traders and they'd rather cancel the trade than try to filter down what I have to find something they want. I have had a few instances where I have spent multiple days setting up trade offers only to have them cancelled because it's "too much work" on their part. Bulls**t. I did all the work. I still average a couple of trades a week and it's like Christmas each time a package arrives for me in the mail. My wife is jealous because the only mail that comes with her name on it are bills.

[charbs1111]

I also believe the reason more people are posting here is what I have is because of all of the inactive users. At least that is one of my excuses, though Ive still been scouring orgs...however is almost exclusive to folks that are posting on the boards which is far less than when I started in 08/09. However I have found other places as easy to use given I have no desire to reinventory my items elsewhere.

[cjgiannini]

Yeah, the inactive accounts are frustrating when using matchmaker. It would be great if there were a reverse matchmaker feature to find people looking for card in my own org too.

I like that people make threads asking for trades. At least that way I know they're an active trader.

---

I'm with all of you. I like Beckett for storing the info on my collection and the organization of it and the OPG. It is a lot of work for me to make a trade happen as I cross-reference what people have available with what I am in need of. I don't bust cases or even boxes so my main problem is not having a lot of the "new stuff" to trade although after 48 years of collecting, I do have more than 80,000 cards listed for trade. That is overwhelming to some potential traders and they'd rather cancel the trade than try to filter down what I have to find something they want. I have had a few instances where I have spent multiple days setting up trade offers only to have them cancelled because it's "too much work" on their part. Bulls**t. I did all the work. I still average a couple of trades a week and it's like Christmas each time a package arrives for me in the mail. My wife is jealous because the only mail that comes with her name on it are bills.

I don't have them on my want list, but I'm looking to finish some Topps sets from the early '90s. I'll take a look at your org this weekend.

[fairon75652]

I don't know what the matchmaker feature is, but the OP hit right at me. Since I came back from my long hiatus, I've been posting trade threads with no trade offers or even comments. Figured it's because I didn't have many good cards. So added a bunch (up over 400 now).

Decided to start looking at other peoples' threads to see what they had or to take the 5 or so minutes to click their name, go to their ORG and start a trade. After all that time, there's been a couple of times where I haven't seen much I can use (much like the requests I got in the beginning).

I have made 2 trades though since I started trading about a month ago. Slow? Sure. Definitely not the same pace as the 600 or so I had before I stopped trading and left Beckett. But it's been nice to slowly get back involved.

Another big thing I see is the value is irrelevant for a lot of people. I had a small trade going the other day, and the other trader canceled and said he could just get it cheaper on eBay that what he'd have to pay for shipping. Now, I know shipping at $2.60 can be a pain.

But it's more fun IMO to trade than to just go on eBay and buy without any communication. You find, bid/buy/pay/get card, end of deal. Zero communication throughout the entire process. At least on here, you're interacting with other collectors and have seen the person's cards and there may be some interest in another deal down the road.

I'm also like zeprock in that I rarely open anything newer. If I do, I usually sell it in 1 big lot for next to nothing. I just buy packs now to scratch the itch. I'm really a vintage collector. That's why most of the cards in my ORG are vintage. But it seems NO ONE around here trades vintage, and not many even have it in their ORG. Everyone's after the newer, shiny, new stuff.

All that said, hopefully I can get back to trading around here the way I did before I left a few years ago. The hobby was a lot more fun back then.

[kerryandbeth]

Thanks for the comments! To piggyback the discussion, I put out a thread late last year that I was giving away cards as a thank you to those 200+ people that have traded with me in the past. I got 3 responses! For free cards...unbelievable!!

So, no matter how nice the cards are, no matter how many are available, or how cheap they are selling at, for some strange reason there is a reluctance. Another example is that I saw a thread where over 600 people read it, and yet only 2 responded at all.

Like many, I enjoy the interaction and opinions from others on this site. If it keeps dwindling, the ugly dinosaur will raise his head and come after Beckett.

[fairon75652]

I put out a thread late last year that I was giving away cards as a thank you to those 200+ people that have traded with me in the past. I got 3 responses! For free cards...unbelievable!!

I feel ya. I started a thread giving away a 1959 Topps Yogi Berra. Giving it away. And got zero response. It wasn't in bad shape either, probably Ex or so and it's an $80 card. Yet got no takers. So I don't know what the deal is