Football Traders...Need Your Thoughts?

[hagansp]

I look at the trade levels/activity levels in the football forums, and I think were slow because of the offseason and what not, but here is your chance to speak your opinion.

Any and all thoughts or potential improvements would be appreciatted any reasonable/constructive criticism will be permitted..flamming will not...so, let me know your thoughts of the football forums and just football trading in general, how do we pick it up, what can be added/changed...Thoughts?

Feedback is appreciatted, Thanks guys!
Sean

[randallcards]

I Think that Dumb Eagles Avatar that the "Football Manager" has scares off potential Traders!

[hagansp]

somehow i doubt it...but ill take it into consideration Yoda

[Bondsaway]

Sean with it being the offseason and that time of year where players are traded like football cards. People slow down till they see who ends up where plus the draft is in 2 more weeks. there should be a turn around after that.

Just have to check posts and contact members about their cards to spark interest again! AFL is in full swing!!! lol

[skadsem]

Actually Sean, in my opinion, I think the football boards have always been slow here, no offense because I am to blame just like the other football traders here.
I see threads on different sights all the time by traders from here but the same threads not posted here. Some dont post here because they say it is slow.....um well it is slow because some dont post here. LOL. Hope I am not offending anyone but it is the truth.
I have slowed down on trading myself because of the whole trade methods that started happening. People no longer trade for guys they collect, just for guys that can make them money. Yes there are still some player collectors out there, but few and far in between it seems. Next you have the whole sell value, book value conflicts. Personally, I stick by bv and follow it; a lot of people dont any longer, unless it is more in there favor to go by book value. I think it is pretty funny to see how some people want sell value, until your card sells for more then theirs but theirs books for more than yours. Watch them renig on their sell values because it is no longer in thier favor. I have a few examples that I have kept in my email, because what goes around, comes around!
Ok, one more thing then I have to get back to work, Postage! Wow, what a change. I knew after going to the class, that trading would change because of the increase in shipping. If you wanna send a bubble envelope with delivery confirmation, expect to pay over $1.80 unless you can get it off paypal for $1.31. Used to be a time when I traded online, you didnt need Delivery confirmation, I miss those days. These are just my personal feelings on why trading is slowing down.

I have a couple ideas Sean. Contact all the Members and have a trade war. Contests always bring out the best is most, and if they are going to snag a nice prize, might be willing to step up the trading a bit. (boxes of cards are always nice prizes. My trading was so slow, I contemplated doing this for myself, but you can share my idea.)

[hagansp]

Don-

I agree 100% with your post, I have been using STC as my only sports trading forum lately, I will on occasion check out TR, but other then that Ive been spending all my time, the problem for me, is my narrow collecting interests...Now while I think a lot of others are in the same spot, there are plenty of others out there that collect different things...I look at other boards on other sites and think why arent these same guys posting this same list on STC, I know they are members here...Matt and I have a trading war/contest/raffle planned but are waiting till the season gets closer...maybe with newer products coming out now would be a better time.

I agree contests are always a good way to bring people out, but then will they stay/comeback after the contest....ultimatly theres noway to make STC the biggest and best if some of the more veteran traders who came here, and I will also say team members who are on board here, dont make it their priority. After all...if they don't why would others.

As for your other points so I dont leave anything...I dont forsee the postage increase affecting it too much...yes its drastic now...and if anything maybe discourages lower end/set collectors even more which is a con...but speaking for myself it won't affect how I trade.

The BV/Ebay value and Collecting to profit/Collecting to collect is an interestring one...because this is what is making collecting so highend...Speaking for myself...ive always collected for fun but to see my cards go up too...collecting guys who wont do well in my opinion isnt fun...I stick to BV as well...but will also say if I have a card of a young prospect who I know will go up in a little bit, will hesitate to deal it at a low BV. Im not sure if this is just discouraging the merge of profit collectors with collector collectors or why this would hurt the hobby, I guess if everyone collects the same person...

[NiteWolf777]

We always had slow spells over on SCS....You gotta take into consideration that we've just recently hit the 1,000 member mark, the draft is over, training camp is still 2 months away and the first football issues are just starting to trickle out...throw in the end of the school year for the younger collectors, our older ones getting ready to take vacations and what not, and it all adds up to a slow down. It'll pick up after the 4th of july...

[gotter1312]

how about a trade night say wednesdays only because scf holds theres thursday. also i think its harder to trade today because everyone only wants autos aor game used it seams and always of the same player well you only have so many of those to go around and then what. but if we can encourage other traders to realize that theres more then those items to collect maybe we can carve a nitch out in the online forums.

[Bondsaway]

OK 07 Press pass and sage are out. Also Topps DPP and Playoff Prestige. As more people bust these few products you should see an increase of growth in the football forums. Also don't forget to get people to place the STC banner on their websites for even more exposure!!!!

[ufgator12279]

I personally haven't traded much the past year since the move from SCS, and that includes none on these boards...so I'm not even familiar w/ our new trading policies/feedback lol. I've been really busy, and I'm usually a buyer off Ebay and the STC "store".

The first thing that hit me about this site, was how so few people came over from SCS. Too bad we couldn't inform everyone (I know, against policy at the time) about STC before SCS went under, which was very sudden. That hurt a lot, as we had one of the best trading communities over there.

Any one notice that TCC is taking over SCS's domain?

I don't know what else to say that would help. I'll keep buying from the store. Oh, usually posts that include what a trader is looking for helps, instead of us guessing. I also get turned off when I see new rookies and scrubs being traded off for star players (i.e. I don't know...Mario Williams auto jersey...I need Brett Favre autos!...come on!).