Please explain trades

[SitcomLaughTrack]

I feel like I'm missing something because I don't really understand trades. A lot of the pets I'd like to get are NOT super rare or anything so how do you usually trade for those? Do people just trade pets for other pets? Is there a list of trade guidelines? I'm really lost haha.

[strawberry_dolly]

Hi! You're completely right - the best way to get new pets is to just swap with other users. When you click to a user's profile, you'll see a button labelled "send trade" or underneath their profile on forums there's a link as well! This takes you to the trades page, where you can read their rules and add pets on your side and theirs that you want to swap. Also, you can look through the archives and add pets that you like to your Wishlist. When you trade with someone, you can scroll through their groups to find "Pets on your Wishlist" - this makes it easy to see if they have any pets that you want. Similarly, you can see if any pets that you have are on their Wishlist, which might make them more inclined to trade with you!
Most people prefer fair trades, where the pets being exchanged are of equivalent rarity and date (or, for example, 2 2020 commons for 1 2020 uncommon or 1 2019 common etc.) This means to get older pets, you might have to pay with a lot of newer ones. More information about successful trading can be found on the trading forum, and you can create your own thread there to ask for trades from other users (or similarly, find users there that are looking for trades).
Also, a very useful resource is the Is this a fair trade? thread, where you can look at other users successful trades (to get a sense of what constitutes a "fair" trade) or ask if a trade offer sent to you is fair.
There's also the monthly swap thread. Users who want to get certain monthly outcomes can post there to look for swaps. Since this months pets don't have rarities yet, people will often ask to "litter swap". For example, they may exchange a dog that they have multiple of for another dog that comes from the same "blanket" which they didn't get.
This thread also gives a lot of helpful links to threads that explain how the site works and how to navigate it!
I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any more specific questions!

(I apologise: I can't add images on my computer but I hope this makes sense regardless!

[SitcomLaughTrack]

Thank you! It does help, and another user also sent me a guide so between the two of you, I think I finally get it.

[SitcomLaughTrack]

I'm back because I've got more questions!

- I've seen people on the trades forum ask to "trade up" or "trade down", what does this mean?
- When people in the trade forum just ask for trades, what do they mean? Are they just looking for WL pets or any fair trades?
- I don't have a lot of rare pets yet and I want to keep the ones I have, what's the best way to find people who want to trade common pets?

Thanks!

[miraphoenix]

Trading up is when a user is looking to trade for a pet of a greater rarity (so they go up in rarity). This usually, but not always, includes trading multiple less-rare pets for one of greater rarity.
Trading down is the exact opposite! These tend to be a user wanting to trade their one rarer pet for multiple less-rare pets.
Both trade-ups and trade-downs tend to involve pets that are rare and above (very rare and OMGSo Rare), but can occur at any rarity tier.

From what I've seen, people who are just asking for trades want any fair trade, but wishlist is always a nice thing to offer, especially if you're asking for wishlist in return!

If you're meaning trading common pets for rarer pets, there are various metrics of trading multiple commons for uncommons, and multiple uncommons for rares. This generally gets termed "rarity math", and also takes into account that a common from this year is going to be proportionally more common than a common from 2013.
There are multiple ways of calculating rarity math, and I would absolutely second strawbaby-jam in recommending the Is This A Fair Trade? thread to help with figuring that out. I also like reading through that thread to see what pets are generally being traded for what.

If you're meaning trading commons for commons, setting up a trade thread where you specifically state that you're looking for commons will likely get you some takers!

[Xireh]

Trading up or trading down simply means someone is attempting to trade for a pet either more valuable than what they currently own (use to be a very common term when the Rares' List was around, as people would attempt to trade up tiers so they could have a more valuable collection), or they're attempting to trade for a pet worth less, which could mean getting multiple lower valuable pets then what they own.

When you're looking at the trade forums, definitely have a read of people's topics. Most of the time, people explain what they're looking for. If they don't have any information, check their trade rules, and their trade groups. They may only have wishlist locked groups for wishlist only trades, or might just have an open group for anything.

The best way to find people who want to trade common pets is checking the trade forum! There are heaps of people wanting to fill in small gaps in their collections, and a lot of the time most of us have OMGSC-uncommon pets missing. Just keep looking around and you'll definitely find some really good trades for your lower value pets. (:

Edit: Ninja'd

[ahirked]

tacking on to the above, lots of users use the 3-month rule for trading pets (I.e. say your common pet was adopted in June, and my common pet was adopted within 3 months of that date - either Apr-May-Jun or Jun-July-Aug - then that would be a fair swap!).

furthermore, there is the 2:1 rule, meaning that e.g. 2 2012 uncommons = 1 2011 uncommon.
personally, I'd recommend using this helpful chart when trying to trade using "rarity math"! it's quite handy (:

[SitcomLaughTrack]

Thanks for the replies! I've been reading people's rules and guidelines, plus the various general guides, but I still feel kind of overwhelmed haha. Some people just seem to ask for trades but without any specific details -- I'm probably going to skip them for now since I have no idea what to do.

Trading up is when a user is looking to trade for a pet of a greater rarity (so they go up in rarity). This usually, but not always, includes trading multiple less-rare pets for one of greater rarity.
Trading down is the exact opposite! These tend to be a user wanting to trade their one rarer pet for multiple less-rare pets.
Both trade-ups and trade-downs tend to involve pets that are rare and above (very rare and OMGSo Rare), but can occur at any rarity tier.

From what I've seen, people who are just asking for trades want any fair trade, but wishlist is always a nice thing to offer, especially if you're asking for wishlist in return!

If you're meaning trading common pets for rarer pets, there are various metrics of trading multiple commons for uncommons, and multiple uncommons for rares. This generally gets termed "rarity math", and also takes into account that a common from this year is going to be proportionally more common than a common from 2013.
There are multiple ways of calculating rarity math, and I would absolutely second strawbaby-jam in recommending the Is This A Fair Trade? thread to help with figuring that out. I also like reading through that thread to see what pets are generally being traded for what.

If you're meaning trading commons for commons, setting up a trade thread where you specifically state that you're looking for commons will likely get you some takers!

To be clear, I don't want to trade commons for rares! Basically, I set up a thread where I explain I'm looking for trades for some of my pets and any fair trade's ok by me, etc. I'm just trying to diversify which pets I've got.

[SitcomLaughTrack]

I'm still struggling with this. I feel like I only ever get pets from giveaways and the pound and I feel bad! I'm also having a hard time finding people through their threads, because so many are mainly looking for rare and shop pets that I don't have. Here's my trade thread, if someone could give me some feedback on how to make it more appealing: Forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=4505069

[Eagle's Eye]

Hey there! Please don't feel bad about this, trading up is a challenge that we've all faced when we were new.

I looked at your trade thread and here are some things you could consider c:

-putting some information on what you're particularly looking for or looking to trade away in your trading rules. Not everyone would click on the first post of a trade thread. For example, you can put "really want old CS Birthday dogs; my free horse items are easy to trade for" in your rules (remember to save after editing!)
-it's quite important to keep your trading rules and trade thread as concise as possible, because most users would not want to read through many words just for a simple trade
-regarding "you can check in my signature or my elderly dogs group which ones I have/don't have" : many users would not take the time to dig through your groups and compare with their own pets to see what you would want. Adding missing pets to your wish list is a much faster way of indicating "I want this pet"

Aside from the textual aspect, it's important to be patient when trying to trade. I understand that it is hard for newbies to really immerge into trading more valuable pets, but in reality a lot of users are not interested in trading their old pets for some recent monthlies. If it's possible, you could consider buying C$ or doing some offsite trades.

One thing you could look out for are the events with token swaps (Easter, summer event, Halloween). You're much more likely to trade for older pets using token/token pets during the duration of these events.