Bartertown.com

It seems a lot of members are preferring $ over trading these days. The majority of ads are for cash only. Kinda sad to see the art of the trade slowly decline.

Anyone else notice this trend? Do you prefer to sell outright or sell/trade? Is it folks getting out of the wargaming?

I've noticed it, too. I actually think it is at least partially because of the amount of variety in our hobby, now. What once were constant GW-for-GW trades with lots of Warmahordes mixed in after a bit, has turned into a smorgasbord. This leads to people wanting money so they can buy the things they want, since they're harder to trade for overall.

Also, I think people are less patient than in time's past. Quick cash equals a quick turnaround and purchase of new toys.

Just my thought on the matter, though.

I've got 2 different agendas when I'm getting rid of stuff: thinning my collection without just throwing out or boxing things up, and getting new stuff. For me, the thing is that, with the continually expanding number of games out there, it's harder and harder to match stuff, especially if some on either side are less well-known games. So, the other, simpler option is to sell and then buy.

I play a bunch of different games, but even then, matching once you get away from WFB, 40k and WM/H gets hard. I can probably trade for 15mm WWII, but if I am looking for ACW or Nappies, or modern microarmor, it is a lot harder. So, while I list a bunch of possible trades, the reality is that most of my stuff is probably going to go for cash.

Byte wrote:It seems a lot of members are preferring $ over trading these days. The majority of ads are for cash only. Kinda sad to see the art of the trade slowly decline.

Anyone else notice this trend? Do you prefer to sell outright or sell/trade? Is it folks getting out of the wargaming?

I have the majority of what I need and what is left is pretty particular. I think indiscriminate trades or vague trades are down (i.e. I'll trade these SW for another army...) but not trading in general.

A very large % of ads are just for $. Enough that its noticeable. I suppose that's what prompted me to post about it.

Byte wrote:A very large % of ads are just for $. Enough that its noticeable. I suppose that's what prompted me to post about it.

Well, I'll say that I also tend to not put what I'm trading for in my Ad title, just because of space.

Nope. It is true. It's a trend that has been increasing every year. I only visit one other site (Dakka), and I see it there, too. More people are just looking for money.
Frankly, I see a couple things in it. First, they want the new shinies. Nobody wants to trade new shinies for older stuff. So, they get the cash grab, instead, then use that for their shinies. Secondly, the art of trading is in decline. In years past, it was a seriously honor-bound system. As time has gone by, more people have become focused on dumping their stuff and getting money than hanging out, making friends, joining the community, and increasing their reputation. There xeems to be a lot of "get in and get out" behavior that I see in trading.
Frankly, I'm not concerned. Like everything else, trading's going to change. It's going to adapt. There will always be people looking to TRADE for their models.

Eric

So, this thread got me to thinking.
Input is MORE THAN welcome:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=284866&p=512584#p512584

Eric

MagickalMemories wrote:Nope. It is true. It's a trend that has been increasing every year. I only visit one other site (Dakka), and I see it there, too. More people are just looking for money.
Frankly, I see a couple things in it. First, they want the new shinies. Nobody wants to trade new shinies for older stuff. So, they get the cash grab, instead, then use that for their shinies. Secondly, the art of trading is in decline. In years past, it was a seriously honor-bound system. As time has gone by, more people have become focused on dumping their stuff and getting money than hanging out, making friends, joining the community, and increasing their reputation. There xeems to be a lot of "get in and get out" behavior that I see in trading.
Frankly, I'm not concerned. Like everything else, trading's going to change. It's going to adapt. There will always be people looking to TRADE for their models.

Eric

I dunno. Let's test this theory that less people want cash. Hard to do with BT since we don't keep threads. Let's check dakka:

Today's Front Page (Page 1):
19 Posts with some element of trade in them on the want end
19 Posts with cash only on either the H or W side

Page 940 of Dakka's Swap Shop (2006):
~10 Posts with some element of trade in them on the want end
28 Posts with cash only on either side of the H or W side

God it sucked before they went to a standardized header. So many e-bay auctions there as well. Seems like things are more tradey than they were 10 years ago.

Aha! Internet Archive to the rescue. Here's BT in 2007 or at least the 40k forum:
https://web.archive.org/web/20071013194 ... um.php?f=8
Trades: 33
Sales: 14

Today (40k Forum)
Trades: 28
Sales: 15

Seems pretty even. Is this a case of 'get off my lawn' and nothing has changed or is something else going on? Looking at the actual pages, Dakka seems to be more trade friendly than it was 10 years ago. BT seems about the same.

pretre wrote:Aha! Internet Archive to the rescue. Here's BT in 2007 or at least the 40k forum:
https://web.archive.org/web/20071013194 ... um.php?f=8
Trades: 33
Sales: 14

Today (40k Forum)
Trades: 28
Sales: 15

Seems pretty even. Is this a case of 'get off my lawn' and nothing has changed or is something else going on? Looking at the actual pages, Dakka seems to be more trade friendly than it was 10 years ago. BT seems about the same.

Well isn't that interesting!

SCIENCE!

Hmm. Maybe it's perception, then. I know that, in the early days, asking for cash was rare (this was pre-phpbb, when it was a scrolling forum). I can remember coming here to SELL stuff, and some people were surprised that all I wanted was cash (Hey. I had bills to pay! LOL).

Eric

Personally speaking, I had a 30 year collection wiped out in a divorce so I'm mainly in the camp of buying these days as I try to regulate what I pick up. So for me not much in the way to trade and I don't really do much with GW anymore so there's that as well.