Why No Trades?

[crzy4phins]

Maybe just having one more sub category where everyone can narrow down their search into player, team, jersey number, etc. That way at least the people that are super collectors of certain things can at least list what they're looking for and the people that just want to browse buckets can go to the main trading section. I know I've just happened across super collectors that I've been able to help out just from seeing a post they made or it's in their signature. For example, the most recent was a Justin Tucker super collector. So maybe the sub category can be called super collector wants or something of the sort.

[krunchtyme]

You have to really want to trade to get trades done and unfortunately, we all have a life to deal with...job, kids, chores, work...etc.

What if we picked one day a week, at a specific time, like Monday at the start of Monday Night Football. And then everyone would be able to post what they are looking for or had for trade and we could all respond to each other etc... More like a card show during the big show. On the other days you mail out, upload images, update your inventory, or watch the game.

I don't think the problem is with the boards or the site, etc... The more I think about it, I think its really a combination of issues:

1. What we collect. Example. I want Cowboys, ok great, but I want Cowboys I don't already have. Well... I have most of the Cowboys that are easy to get. So we move on. Now I need Cowboys that are harder to get, well, less people have them and, I have less stuff others want because they do the same thing for their team.

Expanding on that....There are a million different cards - parallels, Jsy, GU, Base and then throw in the hundred different brands and you would think it's easier...but I don't think it is. It's become cost prohibitive to create a "set" of many manufactures, so we skip it. It's even getting cost prohibitive to make Team Sets, so we come down to Players. Players come and go... If your favorite player gets traded - Dez Bryant, Demarcus Ware and many others... Do you still collect them?

2. The main issue for me is LIFE

I coach Lacrosse, have a demanding and time consuming job, 2 kids in college and one a home. My house is over 30 years old and needs some love too, as does the dog...LOL When do you have time to get on line and post a 1000 word dissertation on my we aren't trading? (Don't look at when this was posted!)

So the market is still saturated, we all think our cards are worth more than they really are (because of some book that is in no way in reality with the actual sales market except for a few stars - not that I am discounting the book as it is a good guideline on same for same deals) and since we post at different/random times, you don't always see a thread that might work for you. I can go on...but enough for today.

One issue I have that I think I am going to fix is marking guys who are more active than others and who have something I want in trade. I can't do a monthly team trade, I don't have the inventory of new stuff for that, but I do keep a list of guys who I have traded with and what they are looking for, then I try to find stuff they might want, hoping they have more Cowboys stuff.

As for the site, I have trouble searching in threads.

As for being ready to trade - I'm guilty of the simple things that could help others use the site to it's full potential, but if we all had our trade inventories updated, we could search by players and use the pre-trade feature to select cards we wanted and then contact that person to trade.

I have a bunch of almost trades pending, but I don't think I can make it to the post office this week because of work and I have been and still will be traveling, so I haven't confirmed or otherwise moved on any of the trades. Life is interfering. We all get like this, we all get frustrated and we all need to take a step back some times.

My Question to anyone who reads this....

SO.....If you inventory was more like COMC.com or more picture based for trades (let's say like a photobucket, but with info about the card), would you use it? Would you pay for it, like a subscription? How much $1 a month, $5 a year? $1 a year??? What is it worth?

Scott - Can we take a poll or see how many people would pay to use a more photo based inventory manager, but you would have to scan your cards in and it would be a pay service because the development isn't cheap and the free ones suck... but it would be sports card specific, tied to the databases we already use.

Thoughts?

[krunchtyme]

OK SIDE NOTE

Why use flckr, or photobucket, when you can use My Inventory as such:

https://www.sportscardforum.com/scf/...ge/1/at2/mem//




This is the link to my (Knunchtyme's) inventory for memorabilia. I'm going to post a few more as well:

to my refractors:
https://www.sportscardforum.com/scf/.../page/1search/

to my autos:
https://www.sportscardforum.com/scf/...age/1/at1/au//

to my Packers:

https://www.sportscardforum.com/scf/.../tm/901/sid/7/



If these work, we should be working to scan in our inventory here and use the tools at our disposal for trades. If these work and anyone wants to know exactly what I did, let me know and I will post pictures in a thread as a tutorial.

Thanks Rich

[krunchtyme]

OK...the links worked. The refractor search you have to put refractor in the search bar and my name in the User Name section.

Going to see what else we can do that we don't use enough!!!!!!!

[krunchtyme]

Last post (feel free to remove the reward points)


By going to My Inventories and searching, anyone who has the cards listed gets a hit and shows you the user name to contact. If we all focused on updating and using the tools provided, we make make more trades as we can see what each other has. Going to start trolling in wants and see if that works too!




OK...Went to SCF Inventories, typed in Drew Bledsoe, 2001....BAM - multiple hits on guys who had "0" cards of 2001 Bledsoes in their inventory, but must have placed it as a want.


Guys (and Girls) The tools are here, we just aren't using them correctly. They may not be perfect, but better than looking though 8000 images in flickr. (in my opinion)

I'm going to work on updating my PC and my inventory to see if I can make trades easier. Plus it would help the site by getting images of cards that aren't in the db yet.

Just my .50 cents and 8000 posts. Thanks

[adcgjh]

OK SIDE NOTE

Why use flckr, or photobucket, when you can use My Inventory as such:

https://www.sportscardforum.com/scf/...ge/1/at2/mem//

When I first got back into collecting in 2010 I put all of my cards into Beckett's Organizer... It was free and seemed like a real easy way to connect with other traders. One day they started to charge for it. Why should I pay for something that I can do freely at other trade sites. I've made my own MS Access database that I'm comfortable with and can customize to my liking. Personally I do not want to lock my self into one trading site...

[krunchtyme]

Good point. I hate paying for something if I can do it for free....But if you scan the cards for flickr, you could easily add them into this site as well (and any other site) and it is also free. But I understand locking yourself into one site. Good points!

[K.C._Royals]

I have been a member of this site for nine years, but I've done 10X more trades over on the Bench (even though that site is mainly baseball and there's not much basketball or football activity).

1st Issue/Reason for lack of trades
The main reason why I feel more comfortable at the Bench vs. SCF is that for whatever strange reason, many SCF members are really, really slow to getting back to you --- even if you send them a PM or post in their thread. Lots of time, I never get a response.

Over at the Bench, I get a response back within 24 hours usually about 90% of the time. The response time over at Blowout Forums is much better than SCF, too

2nd Reason for lack of trades
Another reason why the SCF site's trades are down are is because oftentimes the wants are often time really specific and the haves are pretty limited.
I try to have a broad measure of wants: I collect ALL Kansas City Royals, Carolina Panthers, Charlotte Hornets and WWE Superstar Zack Ryder I can get --- base, parallels, inserts, auto's, relics, etc.
It's pretty easy to find at least one card in your collection I might want no matter what you collect
I also try to have ample trade lists for all the sports with all the cards' player name, set description, team, book value and number all listed so it is easy to sort through.
My system isn't perfect nor is it the "best", but it's certainly pretty fair and pretty easy to understand.

[jplcom]

SO.....If you inventory was more like COMC.com or more picture based for trades (let's say like a photobucket, but with info about the card), would you use it? Would you pay for it, like a subscription? How much $1 a month, $5 a year? $1 a year??? What is it worth?

That's actually a really cool idea. The interface for comc.com lends itself really nicely for trading. Moreso than flickr or photobucket. Even if a scan wasn't available, being able to have a list with a broken image link would be incredibly handy. That would be something I'd be willing to try out for $.

When I first got back into collecting in 2010 I put all of my cards into Beckett's Organizer... It was free and seemed like a real easy way to connect with other traders. One day they started to charge for it. Why should I pay for something that I can do freely at other trade sites. I've made my own MS Access database that I'm comfortable with and can customize to my liking. Personally I do not want to lock my self into one trading site...

Yeah, completely soured me on the Beckett experience. I used to trade a ton over there and when they started charging for the organizer/trader, activity just about died on the football forums. Now's it's pretty much half a dozen people (myself including) irregularly posting updates.

[rmenabeast55]

Most people trading on Facebook For traders only is a great trade group