Bartertown.com

I don't know if it is just me but whenever I see someones rating is above a certain number I just try to avoid the trade because in my experience they are the least enjoyable people to trade with. There is this level of not quite arrogant but it feels more demanding, the language feels harsher, condescending if you will. I apologize if I am over generalizing but when I read posts it just feels hostile. I find that people in their 50-200s to be pretty decent and willing to work with you but beyond that everything is very cut and dry. Seem to forget that the name of the site is bartertown

I am just wondering if it is just me and my perspective is being colored by pass negative interactions? Or is this seem like a trend. Anyways sorry if I offend anyone I did not mean to if I did

It seems to me, that your interpretation of barter, is like that of another poster.
His statement was that there is no more 'barter' in b-town.
His understanding of barter means haggling.

Whereas mine, and others here, I don't know if we are a majority or minority; use barter as meaning trading for other than money.

If I want best offer, I'll say it. But If I post I want $25 +shipping, that's what I want. Not $10, not other minis. $25 +shipping. I've already decided what my lowest acceptable value is.

After being here for several years, and having a couple hundred trades, I, and probably most of the other 'higher' traders, we know what we want, and have been the routine many times.

I don't know.
I mean, I find myself in the group you describe -being in the 300's, but I regularly get thanks and compliments on how smooth and easy I am to trade and even haggle with (when I am haggling).

What I don't understand is your precise issue. I can't tell if your problem is that those traders are kind of 'cut & dried' on their trades or that they're stand-offish, or...?

Eric

Hi Leth!

I feel pretty close to what KT and MM have stated as well.

Personally, I like to barter when trading for my terrain services although the most common occurrence is a cash deal. If there is something I want or need in particular for my personal use in an army or whatnot, I usually focus on a cash sale. With other times, it's a barter with cash and trade. Fortunately, I haven't encountered something like this yet.


Is there something in particular that you've seen in an offer or thread that makes you feel this way * ? Do you find this happening moreso in any particular range (WM, GW fantasy, etc.) or within any particular forum?


*Quote only would work fine, as I'm not out to point a finger at any one person or group...

I myself am offended!

I dunno. Was I hard to work with leth? Could this be over-generalizing or was it just a couple of specific individuals that left a bad taste in your mouth? We've all had those. Heck, I could probably list them for you.

I can only speak for myself, obviously, but 7 of the 17 trades for which I have feedbacks have been with 300+ rep traders. While it's been a while since I've dealt with any of them, having largely been out of minis gaming for the past couple years, I don't recall interacting with any of them to have been particularly unpleasant or condescending by comparison to lower rated members.

The only less than ideal interaction I've had with a high-rep trader was my fault, and he was willing to work with me to fix the snag. Which has generally been my experience with these traders. They've been polite, helpful, and usually willing to work a fair deal with me, even when it was just a trade for/sale of random bits or miniatures I picked up as part of another trade and then said "I have absolutely no use for these things."

Well I am on the other side of the equation. Sometimes, a higher rated trader may come off that way. And if I do...it's generally because I have read a bunch of posts from relatively new traders making all kinds of demands about their trading rules. The higher rated ones have been here for a while, and as such have a lot of time and money invested. When I read someone that says "I won't send first because I have been screwed before" or "Paypal protects you, not me" it just makes me think you are being outrageous in your demands. Not saying that I come across as a jerk, but I am sure I have to some in my time here. It's not intended, but I can see it happening. A high rating doesn't give you the right to do so (come off like a jerk), but I do believe it should give some of us "old-timers" a little respect. This accusation is far from the respect I am talking about. I have had my feuds with new and old traders alike. Looking back at it, I am sorry for doing so. I admittedly have a temper, and sometimes it gets the best of me. Left to simmer, it goes away over time, but that's not what we are talking about right now.

It's your stuff, I guess you can do what you want. But as a relative new guy(in general, not you particularly), I think you are shooting yourself in the foot by doing so. What I mean is that the general Bartertown norms are fine and make adjustments as you see fit, but they do seem to work. No trading site is without peril, but this one has some outstanding mods and admins that keep the occurrences isolated.

My point is, if you don't like dealing with higher rated traders...then don't. Put in your ad that you only want to deal with traders with a rating from 50-200 and see what happens

I dread seeing the new guy shouting about he doesn't care what the usual "conventions" are and thinks he can walk in here and get things done exactly the way "he" thinks they should be. I usually just ignore their posts.

I'm not a highly rated trader, and only trade intermittently, but my experience with the higher rated traders has been much better than those with lower ratings. I don't particularly find language used by this bunch particularly offensive - rather, I find it more comprehensive. If they say they're looking for a particular value or a particular type of trade, then that's it. It's clearly stated, and I'm more than happy to work with that, rather than some fluffy comments along the lines of 'I'd like this, but I'll consider that'.

Must be a carry over from my job, where I've been told I can be horribly, horribly *edit* and inflexible.

Ultimately, though, the power to begin a trade is with you. If you do not wish to deal with someone, simply avoid it.

Well I am glad that it was just soured by one or two trades. Youngwolf you were just fine and I was grateful that you were one of my first trades. I just have this bad feeling whenever I see the high numbers. Glad it is just me and I will work on the problem as I see that it is a personal experience

I have seen what Leth is talking about. It is not a matter of the pure definition of barter vs haggling. I have seen through reading the forums that many (but by no means all or even most) of the high ranking members act as though they form some sort of aristocracy that is above "lesser people" (those with ratings lower then themselves). Using their high ranking to force others to accept trades that are slanted towards the high rankers to a silly degree and also just being snooty in general and lording over lesser mortals putting them down. It just seems to me that Leth has had dealings with some of these and has not had the pleasure of dealing with the many (majority thankfully) who are not like that.
I'd suggest doing what many others I have seen do and make your own personal do not trade list for yourself.

Bartertown is like everywhere else, you are always going to run into people who you don't see eye to eye with. Just not dealing with them is a simple answer. I have been lucky overall, the majority of high and low rated traders I have dealt with have been very good. Just going with your instincts usually works for most people. We all started at zero, so should understand some of the feeling involved.

No not really dread. Usually its easier since they've danced the dance before. Although there was one that still wanted me to ship before him since I had lower(as in the 300's), which was a tad annoying. But you figure I might have earned they roughly simo shipping.....

EVIL INC wrote:I have seen what Leth is talking about. It is not a matter of the pure definition of barter vs haggling. I have seen through reading the forums that many (but by no means all or even most) of the high ranking members act as though they form some sort of aristocracy that is above "lesser people" (those with ratings lower then themselves). Using their high ranking to force others to accept trades that are slanted towards the high rankers to a silly degree and also just being snooty in general and lording over lesser mortals putting them down. It just seems to me that Leth has had dealings with some of these and has not had the pleasure of dealing with the many (majority thankfully) who are not like that.
I'd suggest doing what many others I have seen do and make your own personal do not trade list for yourself.

Emphasis- mine
I'm just wondering if you're reading a little too much into someone driving a hard bargain. The high ranking traders are generally experienced in the art of haggling, and there's no shame in driving a hard deal. That said, there's no shame in walking away from a trade you don't want to make (except, of course, once the deal is struck but that's not the topic here)- there's not really anything anyone can do to force you into a trade you don't want to do.
If you believe someone is trying to intimidate you or is threatening you in some way that you believe could be legitimately damaging to either your personal safety, or to your trading experiences here, the first thing you should do (and this is my opinion, if someone else knows better, please jump in) is contact one of the Moderators or Watchmen- they may be able to step in, or at least offer you suggestions on what other steps to take.

Personally, if someone thought I was using my higher trade rating to try and squeeze them, or if I was acting as you described above, the first thing I'd want is for someone to call me on it. Tell me if I sound like a jerk; it could be that we don't agree on the interpretation of good haggling, or maybe I said something that came across as mean -it happens!

Well what did it for me was when I first started trading, naturally I shipped first. After he received them he said something about the models being wrong(even though they were not) and tried to renegotiate the deal while he already had my models. Very stressful. As long as they got like 10-20 with no neg rating I will ship at the same time. Now that my trade rating is decent I don't have to ship first as much but when I deal with higher ratings that trade sort of comes back to me. Unfortunately I did not know better or I would have talked to the mods, but I was new.

I don't particularly care for the "Your rating is lower, you ship first clause" If a person has a rating of 50 or better without any bad refs, I usually go simultaneous even though mine is a hundred. I trade, maybe 10 times a year, another may trade that many times in a month.