Help! Advice about trading grab bags!

Trading is up to the person who owns the piece, really. No one who wants to trade is obligated to do so publicly. It’s not a secret club, it’s just how things go. Personally, if I like what you’re offering up for trade, I’ll contact you about it, whether you’re new or an old-timer like me.

Some people make arrangements even before they get their grab bag and know what they’re going to get. Some people only offer to trade once they see something they like and only do so privately. Some people end up trading totally by happenstance – that’s happened to me.

The whole grab bag thing is a chance you take. You take the chance of getting something you like, you take the chance that someone has a piece you like and that they don’t like!

And some people don’t post their collection, period, either because they’ve been harassed before, know someone who has or are simply very private. So that’s why sometimes, you don’t see pieces until they’ve been traded: the GB comes from a non-picture-posting collector and goes to a picture-posting collector.

Kim, I certainly know what you mean. 🙂 As a relative newbie here myself I have wondered the same things you are.

I think the main thing is that this is a wonderful community that builds a lot of solid relationships. Members who have had former dealings with each other, or just know what someone else is looking for, private message each other and work out trades, etc. that way.

It does leave some of us out in the cold, but the longer we are around, the more relationships we form! 🙂

I, for one, have been so thankful I posted a “Wanted” ad. Through my ad I have had wonderful members contact me to give me the opportunity to own the pieces I love. In this way I have acquired three pieces I never probably would have gotten otherwise.

So, in short, just throw your interest out there! And, like etruscan said, patience is the key! I know my tastes change, or the piece wasn’t quite what I thought it would be in person, and I have let something go that I actively fought for!

In short, don’t give up hope. Melody keeps painting more and more incredible pieces and GBs, so there will be many, many more opportunities to get more of what you want. I will keep my fingers crossed for you.

Don’t give up! 🙂 If there’s little interest now, the next batch might have people trading up more pieces that they didn’t want to let go of before. I think some of the older batches may be harder to get as many might have a “forever” home.

As for the secret trading group, I absolutely thought there must be one too! I think it’s probably some people trading amongst friends though. I think the options are better trading publically (?), and the only “private” trades I’ve done is when I’ve offered a piece I usually wouldn’t for an item someone has up in trades, those kind of trades could appear private.

For the record, you’ve been around more than enough that I don’t consider you new. People who have never posted, rarely posted, or just made an account to use the classifieds–those people, yes, I would hesitate to trade with unless someone I know can vouch for them. But honestly, if someone’s been around for a few months and is active on the boards, I don’t think they’re necessarily considered a risk by most traders.

While I do understand being sad over missing out–because it happens to everyone–I have to say that comments about “tracking anything down” make me uneasy, and that’s as someone whose collection *is* pictured publicly. Imagine how someone more private feels about it. My philosophy on that is simple–if it’s not pictured recently in someone’s collection, there’s a reason, and it’s none of my business who has it. If I want something badly enough and there’s no current record of where it might be, I’ll post a want ad. Someone may privately tell me they know that that particular piece is with someone who isn’t willing to give it up, and I have to respect that. Or perhaps I hear nothing, and I just have to live with that as well. When a piece is posted in the forum, most members feel that a single, polite “if you ever consider trading/selling, I’d be interested” (public or via PM) is totally fair–and that’s where a lot of trades come from. But hunting someone who has chosen not to make their acquisition public may very well be considered harassment, no matter how innocent the intention.

As others have said, trades happen behind the scenes in a number of ways. Most people aren’t trying to shut anyone out. As one example, I know I’m not the only one who keeps an eye on what people have said they’re looking for, and a list of who wants something I own, even if I never intend to trade it. You just never know, and people generally are going to go for the quick trade where possible over having to field a bunch of offers.

Trading is often part luck, part making your wants generally known, and part patience. In general, if you’re not getting a whole lot of responses to your ads, it’s time to look at the wording, the trade bait you’re offering, and perhaps just the timing of it all. I’ll say this: the more specific you are about what you want for an item you have for trade, the more likely you are to be eliminating trade possibilities. If I look at your ad and don’t have EXACTLY what you have listed (I.e. “rainbow tiger”), I’m extremely unlikely to offer you something else like a half tiger-half Appaloosa, and I know I’m not alone in that. It doesn’t matter how gorgeous I think that poad of yours is. And I do! 🙂 To me, if someone says “I want X”, they’re not interested in anything else–which may or may not be true, but I’m not going to waste either of our time trying to find out. (Personally, I equally dislike totally open-ended ads that give me no clue at all what someone wants, because I don’t like hearing the word “no” any more than your average toddler does! But that’s just me–others may disagree.) Perhaps that’s exactly how you want it–it’s a rainbow tiger and nothing else. But if you’re more flexible than that, it’s something to consider, anyway.

I also tend to think that ads get “stale” after a while–if you’ve renewed it more than once and the item is still available, something is wrong. For a sale ad, it’s almost always the asking price that’s a problem (This goes triple for eBay listings.) For a trade ad, it’s harder to tell, so try changing a few different things. If all else fails, take it down for a short time, or try again just before the next GB release, and run it through that prime trading period about a week to ten days after the GB’s first start arriving in the mail. People generally seem to be more likely to trade during those times, even when what they’re trading has nothing to do with the GBs!

I guess I consider myself new compared to people who have been on here for years and I have been a little intimidated to talk to many I know already have a big network of friends they trade with after the response I have had in trying to message anyone. It’s not that I have been hunting down anything. I just sent polite messages inquiring about 2 pieces I really liked and no one seemed to know where they ended up or at least wouldn’t tell me. I was just told they had had been traded or re-traded. I just figured maybe if something went to someone who isn’t that active anymore that they may consider trading again if they knew what new pieces were available. From what I was told about the ones I asked about, it looks like they may have been traded multiple times so my thought was if it is a piece that tends to be traded over and over, how do you find who has it now to see if they would trade again? Especially if they are not active on the forum now my thought was just asking the original owners? But that didn’t work unfortunately. I guess there are lots that go to people that aren’t active on here unfortunately so maybe there are some pieces we will never find out who has them but I guess I will keep my hopes up. There are some I would give a permanent home to if people wanted to trade them again.

I wouldn’t give up hope, because even well loved pieces do change hands as people find something they want more–but again, tracking down specific owners when a piece hasn’t been posted as part of their collection is pretty much viewed as akin to stalking by many people here. Asking around is not going to produce the results you’re looking for even if those owners are still on the forum. I know that’s not what you intend and your heart is in the right place–I always feel a little sorry for GB’s who’ve been repeatedly traded myself, and more so when it’s a baby I’d love to have on my shelf! But if there are pieces you specifically would like to own, I strongly urge you to put up want ads for those exact pieces (Amy Jane has a good example of how to do this in the classifieds right now, with clear pics to identify the ones she’s looking for). Let the new owners come to you once they see your public interest in their pieces. Honestly, I don’t know of anyone on here who passes on the names of those they’ve traded to unless that person has already posted up the new baby as part of their collection. It’s likely that anyone who didn’t respect the new owner’s right to privacy on that front would find themselves running low on potential trading partners. If someone asks me for the whereabouts of a traded item, I’ll pass their interest on to the new owner myself, but that’s about it–and that’s assuming I remember who I traded with. 😉

But making your desires and willingness to trade for (or purchase) specific pieces DOES work sometimes. It took 3 months of want ads, a lucky GB catch, flexibility in what I offered, and most of all, PATIENCE! (Which I suck at, LOL), but I got my copper lap that way–and they’re not a common piece by a long shot. So get your ad up, with pictures of the specific babies who’ve caught your eye, and let’s see what turns up. It certainly won’t hurt, and perhaps you’ll at least get some answers on whether or not certain pieces are in forever homes.

I agree that luck has a big role to play – sometimes I’ve been very lucky, sometimes the opposite. I will say ‘never give up’. Grab Bags that I swore I was never going to give up, I sometimes lose interest in and put up for trade or sale. This latest batch I think Melody really outdid herself. I had to trade two grab bags for one to get a couple of the ones I wanted, but they were worth it.