What the heck is up with trading?

[dogish]

Trading feels like such a waste of time now. 9 times out of 10 when I visit somebody's trading forum, and they're asking for trades, they cancel my trade without a single message. I understand messages aren't required, but I do my best to make trades fair, and if not I politely ask for them to edit it. I just would like some feedback on why I get a cancel. A simple 'no thanks' feels better than nothing. This goes for not as in demand pets as well, simple swaps do not seem as simple anymore unless it's monthlies or events.

Don't get me wrong, I love trading and I want to try to do it more, I just feel like even trying to do simple trades with random commons-uncommons is so hard now ;-; It can get pretty discouraging, never mind trying to trade up for dream pets.

Plus the math is a lot to understand. I'm learning a lot observing the fair trading thread and pet worth thread, but past MA it gets really confusing :?

Adding- overpay is a problem too I feel. Everybody wants overpay for their pets, even when they have no extra demand. It's a little absurd. Definitely makes it harder to get trades that way. I don't necessarily want to overpay for a single uncommon. I don't mind sometimes, if it's say a pet I really like/hoard, but I feel like it's extremely prevalent and it's just causing demand to sky-rocket even higher than it already has.

[everestwhite]

trading is hard because i just dont know what anything is worth anymore. i dont wanna get yelled at for accidentally offering something thats unfair, so i tend to just.....not trade at all. o_o

[FauxFeather]

For me since I've never been as active as I am now and have taken many hiatuses I find it hard to get into really trading. Especially since when I originally joined I was younger and never got into the forum side of CS. I never knew of the existence of Nons and MAs until like last year or so and I still don't understand worths. And now "The List" is retired or something?? I find it all confusing and just don't know what anything is worth anymore. (Not that I ever really knew)
So now all I do is trade art for C$; and unknown event pets for c$, uncommons or other (unknown) event pets of the same year/3-6 month difference that I missed out on. And then I use up my c$ on pets I like or want for trading further.
I try to actually trade older accounts as I have little interest in newer accounts unless they're from/have pets from 2017-2021, but even then I seem to get cancelled rather than edited with trades with older accounts. Or they rot.

[plecostomus enjoyer]

I've seen the discussion in this thread about suggestions and wanted to chime in about that, I will be honest as an older player (I started playing in time for the 2015 summer event. I quit, then eventually decided to came back) with a fair amount of pets, I just don't like editing trades that much, especially if they're one sided. I find that a big chunk of the time, the other person doesn't have anything I want or that's on my wishlist, and since my pets are wl locked, that's why it's a suggestion. I'm also not a mind reader and would rather someone sending me a trade have an idea of what they want from me first, which is why I personally cancel one sided suggestions.
I don't send out a whole lot of trades in general anymore since the pets I'm currently focusing on trying to obtain are rare+ or hoards. (Last month I finally got the last of a set of store pets I wanted!) And I prefer items. Which are trickier in terms of value since they don't have rarities like pets, people are picky with them (I am too, I love playing dressup with my pets.) and again since I've been playing awhile, pets that would be considered more valuable or desirable for trading are locked and a part of my collection I'm not going to part with any time soon.

Most times if I go to trade with someone and I have a huge number of pets on their wishlist I close the page or send a small gift instead, since I check if I even have any pets my potential trading partner would be interested in before browsing theirs. I bump my trade thread throughout the day and let people come my way instead, trading is more fun for me when I refresh the page and see I have a new offer.

I think what have stunned me the most, is that rats, horses and ponies, even the rare 2009 ones are almost worthless. I have a hard time trading them for even recent hoardpets, or recent rares

I give my rare ponies and horses away every so often when I see someone has one on their wishlist since nobody really wants the ones I have in my trade groups, and someone who has a pet wishlisted will probably enjoy having it more c: I had the ur rat a few months ago and traded it for .25 ish nons less than it's perceived value because there was no way I was going to get an offer at it's technical worth unless a rat collection completionist came along. I like the rats we get and save a lot of the monthlies I adopt, this site has wonderfully talented artists who work hard to make cute pets for us and I don't have some strong dislike for the lines and designs, cs pets are all very unique! But I don't for example care to trade most of my dogs for them, since I have so many I want, because it would be harder to get a different dog in return if I decide not to keep the rat in my collection anymore.

[Drive Like Jehu]

I give my rare ponies and horses away every so often when I see someone has one on their wishlist since nobody really wants the ones I have in my trade groups, and someone who has a pet wishlisted will probably enjoy having it more c: I had the ur rat a few months ago and traded it for .25 ish nons less than it's perceived value because there was no way I was going to get an offer at it's technical worth unless a rat collection completionist came along. I like the rats we get and save a lot of the monthlies I adopt, this site has wonderfully talented artists who work hard to make cute pets for us and I don't have some strong dislike for the lines and designs, cs pets are all very unique! But I don't for example care to trade most of my dogs for them, since I have so many I want, because it would be harder to get a different dog in return if I decide not to keep the rat in my collection anymore.

this! i really wish i didn't have to decline any trades with rats and horses, because i honestly can love any pet of any lineart, but i'm very fickle with my pets and rats/horses/etc just take forever to trade away. it's just not worth it :( i don't mind that some species have really high demand, like lions, but i really don't like how rats, equines, even chickens and chameleons, are basically a big no for so many traders.
i get that people have reasons to dislike them. i don't blame people for declining trades with low demand species, because i do that, not because i dislike them - but because they're just so hard to get rid of :')

[Papilio Ulysses]

Adding- overpay is a problem too I feel. Everybody wants overpay for their pets, even when they have no extra demand. It's a little absurd. Definitely makes it harder to get trades that way. I don't necessarily want to overpay for a single uncommon. I don't mind sometimes, if it's say a pet I really like/hoard, but I feel like it's extremely prevalent and it's just causing demand to sky-rocket even higher than it already has.

The growing necessity of overpay is certainly a concern. It also goes in hand with "HTTF" groups that blatantly require people to offer more than what the pets within are worth.

It's also sad to see pets like the Non-Swirl/Jewel/Coon/Tag, Mid Advents, and 2009 rare pets get treated more like currency rather than designs that people enjoy and want to collect. This "Non" and "MA" system just makes trading even more convoluted. Having to account for demand as well is already a task in itself.

[Frostseraph]

I wasn't actually ranting so much as confused so I'll much more generally reword. I accepted a trade for an ex-list pet that in C$ value was perfectly fair(I compared the general value for pets in my pet's tier to the combined value of the pets in the offer), but was told I'd been severely ripped off and my pet was worth much more. I'm guessing my pet had more value in pets/demand than in C$ or something. I was and still am very happy with my trade since I got a bunch of pets I wanted, and I'm glad when good trades happen, but I definitely agree it has gotten much harder to trade here and something should be done.

[Linsang]

This is an interesting topic with a lot of interesting points, and as someone who was active way back in late 2009/early 2010, my thoughts are that yeah, trading has gotten harder, because of course it has.

When I started, ultimately, there were really only so many pets one could aspire to or trade for. Everyone wanted a sunjewel, or other July/early 08 pets, and the few URs that existed, but ultimately, you didn't have to work as long or as hard to get them, and as the community was much younger, established value systems didn't really exist- a rare was a rare, an uncommon was an uncommon, etcetera. I managed to get pets I really wanted back then just by offering several pets I had on me and leaving a polite message.

Obviously, comparing 2009 to now is really extreme. That was 14 years ago (I feel old now...) but it speaks to a bigger principle- everything gradually got more difficult over time as many more pets entered the picture and many more users who wanted to trade for those older, more valuable pets. Inevitably, older users would go inactive, making their pets impossible to trade for, and user-created value systems like the rares list came into play, creating a learning curve for newer players. This kind of thing is sort of inevitable- of course as a community grows, some pets are going to naturally have more demand and people are going to try and figure out a system of value.

When I came back to this site after going on a large hiatus that started in ~2016 or so, it was kind of jarring and more noticeable how these systems had evolved over time. I didn't know what an MA or LA or non was (though I was able to figure out non pretty fast because of the name, lol) and rarity math was both new and baffling. And that's for someone who had already spent multiple years on the site to gain context for these- I can't imagine how hard it must be as a new user coming onto this site who doesn't know any of these terms and needs to read up and talk to older members to find out why their 2022 rabbit that says "rare" is a horribly unfair trade for the 2013 dog they want that also says "rare". It's easy when you get used to it but a learning curve nontheless- and getting those first few rares is probably really hard when for a while you can only adopt monthlies that aren't worth very much to the site's populace at large.

When a site exists for a long time like this one has, it's ultimately going be really skewed towards older players and those who are willing to spend real money to get ahead. There are ways that can be combated- for example, CS does rereleases that make sure even newbies have a chance to earn old and valuable pets (old store pet values are a good example of what the whole site would look like without this, lol) - but there's only so much you can do, especially if you still want to reward those veterans for the years they spent on the site. It kind of makes it one of those problems it's hard to find a good answer to.

I feel for newer players given all this, it's discouraging and daunting and a full collection feels nigh unobtainable even for me- but I guess it's an instance of growing pains. I'm kind of rambling I guess, but it's been interesting reading people's takes on how this could be improved on, especially in some of the threads going on in the suggestions board.

My biggest takeaway right now is that a site's only as good as its community. Be kind to others and patient with newer players, and you make a community that's worth sticking around in. I know if it weren't for some of the wonderful encounters I've had with others here, I probably wouldn't still be playing CS now.

[Cloverstream]

Another part of the problem is people extreme overpaying or accepting overpays and then /broadcasting/ it. In a trade When I know or later learn one of us is paying more than a pet is really worth, personally I don’t post it. Once one person gets an MA for a brand new rare or recent store, suddenly that’s what it’s worth! I swear in the past few weeks I’ve watched several pets jump up from 0.5 non to one non and beyond…

[XxFlamepoolxX]

Another part of the problem is people extreme overpaying or accepting overpays and then /broadcasting/ it. In a trade When I know or later learn one of us is paying more than a pet is really worth, personally I don’t post it. Once one person gets an MA for a brand new rare or recent store, suddenly that’s what it’s worth! I swear in the past few weeks I’ve watched several pets jump up from 0.5 non to one non and beyond…

This. I really wish people kept their overpay trades more private. It really destroys the trade economy