Shian's Guide to Successful Trading
I've been seeing a trend on the trade board. People that want trades, post that they are trying to get trades, but for some reason, people just aren't trading with them. Why?
Well, sometimes it can just be a few little things that make the difference. Here are some tips to Successful Trading that will help you attract and get trades. These tips are based on a combination of the Trade Rant thread and my own experiences. If you see something that you think would be a helpful thing to add, feel free to post it here.
1. Have simple rules.
Do:
- Try to make them as short as possible. If there's a place to use one word instead of two, do that. If you have trouble wording your trade rules, the users at The Trade Rules Review thread can help you make them shorter. People click on you to trade, not read a really long story.
- Have as few rules as possible. The average person's short term memory is seven. If you have more than seven rules, there's a greater chance of someone reading your rules, but they forget one in the process of trying to remember the others. It's not that they have not read your rules, it's that there are just too many to keep track of!
- Have a small sized picture in your trade rules somewhere. Having an icon or something that makes your rules stand out makes it easier for other traders to spot if they've traded with you before. It's very helpful when someone is trading with many, many people and having something instantly recognizable helps the both of you out so that people don't accidentally send you a repeat trade.
Don't:
- Use pictures to write up your trade rules. The character limit for rules was shortened for a reason. People don't want to read a novel or a short essay just to try to trade with you. There are other negatives to this like people not being able to read the font used, some computers block images so it would look like there is nothing there etc.
- Use small or overly large font size. Eyestrain is not a good way to attract new traders. Many users can't read rules in this font.
In addition, keep in mind there are different themes to CS. Do your rules show up clearly using CS green and CS business? Try changing your theme around temporarily to see if they can be seen or not. You'd be surprised at what colors are hard to see. - Make your rules confusing in order to "deter bad traders". Bad trades are going to happen anyways, so why scare away good traders?
2. Lock the groups you are not trading.
I know this sounds simple, but it's really important.
A relatively new feature was put in to "find pets on your/your partner's wishlist". This helps you find pets you really want and it helps others give you pets you really want. It's an awesome tool, but it will not work if you don't lock not for trade groups.
Additionally, people don't like being threatened, so if you have "Offer on _____ and be foed!", just lock the group. It saves yourself and your trade partner the headache. You get the added bonus of being more approachable and people are more willing to trade with you.
Last, there are thousands of pets on CS. It's difficult to sift through those thousands if you're having to sort through someone else's collection of pets. Do your fellow traders a favor and lock your collection up. This prevents any accidental trading of a pet you only had one of and let's be honest, No one is going to throw a joker in your lap for those "precious" commons that are kept unlocked for an amazing offer.
3. Be positive.
I'm guilty of this too and this is quite possibly the hardest bit of advice to follow.
I know that whenever you get a bad trade, the first thing you want to do is write in your trade rules what you don't want to have happen so you don't get another trade like that again.
But like having threats of foeing or complaining about all the bad trades you've gotten can make you sound mean or too picky to try and make a deal with.
Try and try again to word your rules in a positive light.
Instead of writing, "I don't want rats" write, "I like dogs and cats, so offer me those." There's always exceptions like if you're scared of spiders.
Try not to demand things. Whether it's a code word, a message or something else, people don't like being forced to do something and demanding things just sounds mean and pushy. Why not give the other user a chance to show off that they want to try to follow your rules by making a message an optional thing? It really does not hurt you in any way if you receive a nice or fair trade that does not have a code word in it. A good trade is always more important that trying to make someone leave a message or type a codeword.
To sum up, which of these two users would you rather trade with?
Player 1 wrote:1. I hate rats! Don't trade them to me.
2. Don't offer on Julie. I will foe you!
3. Don't ask for pets in my favorites folder.
4. STOP ASKING FOR JULIE!
5. I will foe you if you don't leave a message.
NFT means Not for trade! Why is that so hard?Player 2 wrote:1. I love dogs. Try to trade me those.
2. My rares list are in a separate folder.
If you offer on those, please do some research on their values.
3. Trade rarity for rarity.
4. I'm afraid of spiders, so no spiders please.
5. I like it if you leave a message.
In the first one, the user just sounds like they are angry all the time which might not be true at all. This is especially true when it is about something they can fix themselves by locking the group with Julie in it. Threats are also well, threatening and some users might just close the page before they even get a chance to look at the user's pets.
In the second one, it highlights the rules of thumb that the trader wants without being too wordy.
Less is more and 5 rules are much easier to keep track of. Finally by making a message optional, it makes it easier to spot those players that really do want to make an effort to trade with you. In short, it's a codeword that can tell you who the good people are because you're not forcing someone to write a codeword.
4. Have patience and try haggling!
Before you click that "cancel button" on a bad trade, try hitting the "edit" button.
See if they have other pets or items you might want. Some of the best trades I've had was when we went back and fourth a few times until we settled on something we were both happy with.
It's much easier to try and make a deal with someone that is interested in your pets already than to try and find a new trading partner that may or may not have the pets you have for trade on their wishlist.
5. Examine yourself to see if you can make a fair trade
Check what is in your trade fodder. Try to think of pets that would be a fair trade or even a slight advantage to you.
Often I've found people on the trade boards wanting trades but they have only commons in trade folders but store or other super rare pets on their wishlist. You're not going to find any trader that will take that kind of deal.
So instead, try to find pets slightly more valuable than the pets you have to put on your wishlist. Once those are traded, do it again, aiming for something slightly more valuable. Moving your wishlist up to the pets you really want in a more realistic manner.
Other Tips
1. Have a marked trade folder.
It can be intimidating to trade with someone if they don't have a marked trade folder.
Sometimes, people will get angry if someone offered on their favorite pet. Wouldn't you feel the same? If nothing is labeled, it's impossible to tell the difference between a favorite pet and one that can be traded given the right offer. Or even one that can be traded for very little. No one likes it when it happens to them, so most decent traders will try to avoid this situation because it's something they would not want to have happen to them. You may be missing out on some good trades.
2. Don't use codewords.
I know it is really frustrating when people do not remember your rules, but if someone is trying to track down a codeword, then that's all they are doing- tracking down a codeword, not reading the actual rules. Codewords are essentially useless and here's why:
Atwood wrote:So far as codewords go, it might be worth pointing out that the human short term memory has an extremely limited capacity and can only store about seven pieces of immediate information at a time. If someone has less than seven (simple) rules, the average person should be able to remember those while trading with them and the rules are thus more likely to be followed. If the rules include a codeword though, you're making the person devote more memory to keeping that codeword in their mind than they do to remembering your other rules. If it's a multi-part codeword, there's very little chance of a person remembering both the codeword and the rules. For example, something like this:
Rule 3: The codeword is apple.
Rule 5: Ignore Rule 3 - the codeword is banana.
Rule 7: If you really read my rules, the real codeword is swordfish.
takes up pretty much all of the memory 'slots' because people can't just dump the previous codeword from the short term memory and each 'command' takes another slot, so in your memory it goes something like:
1. Type codeword
2. Codeword is apple
3. Ignore apple
4. Type banana
5. Ignore banana
6. Still ignore apple
7. Type swordfish
Your trading partner has now had every one of your real trade rules pushed out of their immediate memory and will only remember that they're supposed to type swordfish. The people who actually remember your rules will likely forget what codeword they're supposed to type or that there is one at all. I've done some experimentation with this and found that the people who put the codeword in were most likely to have missed some or all of the actual rules while those who missed the codeword were far more likely to actually be following the rules. ^^
The same kind of goes for stories in trade rules - you want people to remember that you don't want trades of VCs, not that they've seen a huge winged black wolf named Raven stepping out of a dark wood. :b Stories just make it harder for people to find and remember the relevant information.
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I guess I could add in a section on sending trades as well.
