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300 Trades Complete -- an observation
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a few years back, i sort of went a little nuts with the whole boardgame collection. buying cheap, and trading up was a major passtime. now my trades completed has reached the nifty sum of 300, and so i thought i'd look back on the lot, and see if there's anything interesting to say. as an overall comment, i guess i'd like to say that trading was an awesome way to get some of the harder games to find. i don't find that it is very viable these days, with the exceptionally huge shipping costs. it used to be okay to send and receiving from Canada, but those days are gone. even cross country -- it can be $15 to $18 to send a moderate sized game. so i think the salad days of my trading are gone.
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Posted Wed Aug 6, 2008 10:48 pm
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1.
Board Game: Tikal
[Average Rating:7.44 Overall Rank:74]
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although not my first trade, it was my first trade with the new trade system. I traded I'm the Boss for Tikal, and i remember being still a little skittish about sending a game away for "free"  Thanks stlkt! i still have, and enjoy Tikal.
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my second completed trade. this was no big deal, since both items were light, and easily shipped. i still have, and would play King of the Elves, though i have trouble getting anyone to play. thanks Sky Knight X!
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my first Large trade. i had been told that trading large amounts of games was more economically agreeable, so i gave it a try. My Amun Re, Carcasonne the Castle, Hera & Zeus, Puerto Rico, Attika for o2bjsm's Chaos Marauders, Elfenland, Lord of the Rings, and the LotR Friends and Foes and Sauron expansions.
Was this successful? well... it sure did cost less to get this many games at once, than shipping each individually... however I never managed to play Chaos Marauders, or the Sauron expansion (until very recently -- and not my copy). Elfenland lies getting dusty, though i would like to play it... again it is hard to get anyone to play.
would i do it again? well... i doubt it. shipping costs have gotten so extreme, especially with larger packages, that i am doubtful that i would do it.
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my first international trade! i had fallen for the (well deserved) hype surrounding Splotter Spellen games, and just had to have Antiquity. I was disappointed that it wasn't available in the states, and so turned to our international friends. buergerberatung provided that service. he sent me Antiquity, Diamant, Die Macher, Taj Mahal, and Verrater. I sent him Swashbuckler, Talisman 3rd Edition, and Hacker Deluxe, and some cash.
was this successful? of course! i ended up with one of my favorite games, Antiquity! Diamant also became a favorite for our parties... easy to explain and quick to play. Never have played Die Macher, Taj Mahal or Verrater... but it was more than worth it for Antiquity.
international trades are tough these days. probably only worth it, if an extremely difficult to find, and expensive game is involved, so that the postage costs and possible loss, are acceptable.
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this is my favorite trade, since it involves what has become my favorite game... Roads and Boats. this was in the time before the latest new edition had come out, and Roads and Boats was going for LARGE amounts of money... $200 to $350 or more. i put out the call, and received an answer to my prayers from Airbear in the UK. he put together a list of games he wanted for R&B, and we dickered for a bit, and finally came to an agreement. i ended up shipping a huge box of games to him, and he sent me Roads and Boats. it was my happiest trading moment.
Roads and Boats for Dune, El Grande, Elric, Lord of the Rings - The Confrontation, Samurai, Traders of Genoa, Vinci, and YINSH.
thanks Airbear!
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another large international trade, just a few weeks later. i am proud of this one too... traded for a complete set of Eon Cosmic Encounter, and some hard to find Heroquest expansions. Again going to the UK, geek mrraow made me happy. He received Around the World in 80 Days, Australia, Bootleggers, Mammoth Hunters, Gulo Gulo, Lord of the Rings - The Confrontation, Mutiny!, Thieves Guild, and TransAmerica. I received Eon Cosmic Encounter and all 9 expansions, HeroQuest, HeroQuest - Adventure Design Kit, HeroQuest - Against the Ogre Horde, HeroQuest - Wizards of Morcar, and Sorcerer's Cave.
while i never played the HQ expansions, i was able to play Cosmic, and enjoyed it. i have since sold the set for quite a bundle on Ebay, so all in all, it was successful. Thanks mrraow!
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this was an odd trade, and came out of the blue. coming from geek Ikyoto, an offer of Big City, for Hive. i was astounded at the offer, and had to write back and ask if it was correct. i had gotten Hive for a little over $20 including shipping, and it was a very tiny game. admittedly i was disappointed when i saw it. Big City was a large game, and difficult to find at that time.
that just shows that sometimes the worth of the game is definitely in the receiver. you never know what trades will be acceptable.
well i sent Hive, and received Big City, and was happy as can be. I hope Ikyoto wasn't disappointed with Hive either. thanks Ikyoto!
it
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received as part of my latest trade... don't know exactly what i traded for it, since it was part of a math trade. It was probably on the order of Russian Rails and Industria... which is my absolute latest trade recorded.
math trades are an interesting development. on the one hand, they can be fun... but you really have to be careful to read the descriptions of each item, and also which items you'll accept for your trading items. in the larger lists (1000+ items), this can be exceedingly difficult. i have grown a little disappointed with the typical results, and don't participate very often.
i am somewhat happy with the latest trade i was involved in, and have enjoyed playing Order of the Stick. thanks leroy43!
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i guess it's inevitable, that after 300 trades, there's going to be someone who isn't happy. so i do have a negative feedback. it was a little odd though, so i'll relate:
i trade warangel to Ellowen-Deeowen as part of a math trade. i sent the item out promptly, and a couple weeks later, noticed that i had received a negative feedback! imagine my surprise. i had no contact whatsoever with the geek, after sending the item. the feedback said something about having two bad encounters with me... one was a figure i was kind enough to send him for HQ, that i accidently sent to someone else. and this latest was that the box arrived damaged. huh? i get penalized because the post office damaged his box. hmm, alright pal.
i've never had to leave a negative feedback, thank goodness.
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this one goes in the "huh?" category. it was back in 2005, and i have it marked down as receiving Odin's Ravens, and sending Magic Realm. hmm. thanks zurupeto, i guess. probably some MR parts. i hope!
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Posted Wed Aug 6, 2008 9:54 pm
I then got my first experience of sticker shock at the post office when I mailed off one of my bigger boxes. I've always sent trades priority USPS with delivery confirmation. I usually use the flat rate boxes, one or two smaller games at most. It's about $9 which is pretty good. The first game I mailed off from this trade group was Tannhauser. Single game although it's heavy and in a large box. Priority mail was $18!!! What kind of crap is that! Parcel post was still >$11. Note to self, don't mail large boxes via USPS! Now the next two trades I have to send out are Europe Engulfed (bigger and heavier than Tannhauser) and a three game bundle which will be in a big box. So now that my desire to trade wasn't snuffed out by lack of responses I find that I'm not going to be able to afford to send out trades anymore!
I hear ya, just completed a trade for some CCG cards, but sending two games that together won't fit in the flat rate box. Priority would have been $23, so I sent 'em UPS Ground for $12 w/ built in tracking. Still yeah, it used to be $5-6 parcel post, $8 priority.
May be one reason why auctions are becoming more popular, the *other guy* pays the postage and you can use the cash. Still, I've enjoyed my trades (it's not the nearly 100 that my rating makes it out to be, due to 'null trades' to even out math trades) and made some cool Geekbuddies along the way.
I then got my first experience of sticker shock at the post office when I mailed off one of my bigger boxes. I've always sent trades priority USPS with delivery confirmation. I usually use the flat rate boxes, one or two smaller games at most. It's about $9 which is pretty good. The first game I mailed off from this trade group was Tannhauser. Single game although it's heavy and in a large box. Priority mail was $18!!! What kind of crap is that! Parcel post was still >$11. Note to self, don't mail large boxes via USPS! Now the next two trades I have to send out are Europe Engulfed (bigger and heavier than Tannhauser) and a three game bundle which will be in a big box. So now that my desire to trade wasn't snuffed out by lack of responses I find that I'm not going to be able to afford to send out trades anymore!
http://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/4971
I remember my first trade on here...it was with Houjix. I sent him a shrinkwrapped Epic Duels (it was extra) for Lord of the Rings, Friends and Foes, and Sauron. LOTR turned out to be one of my favorite games ever, and the trade went super smooth.
I'm in a different spot, where my trading has winded down mostly because I've gotten to the point where the only things I'm after are hard-to-get items (that I don't really "need") and I've traded and culled out so much of my trade stock that I have little left to offer. Still, trading has been mostly fun for me. I've made some bad ($$$ wise) deal, some great deals, and got to try a lot of things that I never would have tried before. Like Bonaparte at Marengo--that was something I received in trade back when it was in print and people were more willing to trade it. That became one of my favorite wargames, and I probably never would have played it if not for BGG's trading system.
I've even been guilty of doing something I never thought I would--trading for something and then trading it away before I ever played it! It was so bad at one point that the first place I was hitting every day was the Trade match tool. It's addicting!
The last time I had to send out stuff, I too got the sticker shock of not having sent some stuff in awhile. I was sending two games out--Arkadia and CIA vs KGB. I casually told the lady at our post office at work to use FedEx Express Saver. $21~?~??!!?! Whoa, whoa...what? Okay, let's go UPS Ground. Much cheaper, but still $12! Ouch.
So yeah, a combination of factors, but my trade days are winding down too.
Yeah, I run the trade match about once every couple of weeks. My problem now is that I'm forgetting who I've send trade proposals to and I end up sending the same proposal to someone who previously declined an identical offer.