Shian's Guide to Successful Trading

[~Winnie the pooh~]

Thanks so much this is very helpful:D

[betelgeuse]

Thanks for posting this, Shian! It really helps the new people (like me)!

[Leonard]

Since we're allowed to add ideas, I'd like to list a huge pet peeve of mine.

If you have a pet that you want to trade off and decide to put their link in your trade thread, do not add items onto it. A lot of users have pets for trade shown off in their trade threads, but some people clutter them with items so much it's impossible to tell what pet is actually behind the items.

If you have a pet you want to trade, even if it's high in rarity, people will want to see what it actually is. Not everyone knows them by name, and names often aren't listed at all which makes things harder. This site is wonderful, it gives us many ways to decorate our pets. We have fake eyes to add on our pets, hairstyles, suits, dresses, wings, and even additions to the scenery such as bathtubs, clouds, backgrounds, trees, and plushies... But your pet will not be visible if you add all those things.

A pet that is going to be traded doesn't need a fistful of items covering it. People who want it want the pet, not many will really care about the owner's creative expression if they can't see which pet is being offered. Imagine someone trying to sell you a TV, and now you're getting excited to see how the picture looks. But the person selling you the TV has covered the screen in stickers, and placed it in a glass case so that you can not remove any of them. You will not buy a TV if you don't know what's being offered to you, and not many will want to trade for a pet if they don't know what you have to offer to them.

Of course, this should probably be reworded by someone less stingy than me, and someone with better knowledge of the english language... But I think it would be useful to add.

[Shian]

All you'd have to do is click on the pet, then click "trade for this pet" and you can see what animal it is without the items. Two clicks, that's it.

[Leonard]

I sincerely wasn't aware that would remove the items to reveal the pets. How ever, I would still adress it as bad adveriting for trading the pet. It's kind of like a code word in the sense that while it's easy to do (as reading a codeword would be), it's still unnecessary work for a potential trading partner.At the same time, the person could have two pets adopted on the same date, and have them in the same tradinggroup. How am I to know which one they posted about in their thread? Both have the same "birth" date, both are in the same group, and both are up for trade but the user's not looking to trade them for the same things. I feel it's just unnecessary, and if you post a question, the pet might already be traded away by the time you get any kind of answer. I don't know about others, but it pushes me away from trading with people. It seems impolite at best.

That's all I will say on the subject though. I don't want to spam your thread. >w<
The first post said we should mention if we think anything should be added, so this came to mind. ^^;

[Shian]

How ever, I would still adress it as bad adveriting for trading the pet. [...] it's still unnecessary work for a potential trading partner.

I disagree. It's not unnecessary work if you're going to trade for it anyways. Personally, I do tend to trade (especially inauctions) with people who take the time to dress a pet up nicely. There's some very well done dress ups that make me like a pet more. Are there not ones in the dress up thread that you've been sincerely impressed with?
Yes, you will get some people that over do it and cover the pet with everything, but for the most part, it's basic advertising making the pet look more valuable by dressing it up so to me, that's more up to personal interpretation.
In addition, I've never seen anyone in the rant threads complaining about dressed up pets like this before, so this does not seem like a common issue. At least not enough to add it to the guide.

At the same time, the person could have two pets adopted on the same date, and have them in the same trading group.

Again, if you click on the pet, it will take you directly to the pet they're talking about... If there's more than one, most traders will tell you which one. If you're worried about asking a question, then just send a trade and ask the question after. The worst they could say is, "No, that's the wrong pet."

Could you PM me links to some of these threads where this issue is happening often?

[vencrypt]

Wow this is awesome! Thank you it helped SOOO much! <3

[Leonard]

There's some very well done dress ups that make me like a pet more. Are there not ones in the dress up thread that you've been sincerely impressed with?

I'm not saying people should not dress their pets up at all. A pet that is dressed well can look really, really pretty. I was not talking about that, how ever. But about people covering the pet so much that it's impossible to tell what is beneath the dress up, unless you know the pets appearence by heart. (You could argue that those people that really care will recognize the pet, but some people just want to complete their collection. In addition, if you happen to suffer from colorblindness or similar visual impairment, the pet isn't always easy to tell from beneath the decoration.)

In addition, I've never seen anyone in the rant threads complaining about dressed up pets like this before, so this does not seem like a common issue. At least not enough to add it to the guide.

That's up to you entirely. ^^ My intention was just to share a pet peeve, so that if it is common, it may be added. If you feel it's not common enough, I wont press for it.

Again, if you click on the pet, it will take you directly to the pet they're talking about...

This is assuming the picture was made into a clickable link that leads to the pet. I enocuntered a few threads where this wasn't done (whether the pets had any items on them or not). Not sure why exactly people removed the url part of the code. o.o;

Could you PM me links to some of these threads where this issue is happening often?

I'm honestly a little reluctant to because it seems a bit like... bullying? Perhaps that's not the right term, but my vocabulary is limited when it comes to the english language. It seems somewhat cruel to make an example out of a specific individual (or few).

I could, if you want me to, stalk the trading forums for a bit to see if I can find those threads again. I don't tend to subscribe to nor bookmark threads of users who do this, as I avoid trading with them. Unfortunately, it might take a while. I'm afraid I'm spending more time at the hospital than at home lately, so my time on Chicken Smoothie is limited. I can't really promise fast responces. I'm sorry you had to wait for this one for so long; I came out of the hospital to see the advent event going on and got too absorbed in trying to get all the pets I missed when I was away.

Thanks for taking the time to respond to all of that earlier. ^^

[account inactive]

this is really helpful, thank you! I have an example of a time when I was on cs free adoptions, and the person had a code word, and I got the code word right, but I traded too many pets, and the person cancelled and left a rude message, and I felt really bad afterward.

[Licorice.]

Thank You Shian! After I red this I went back and changed my trade rules to make them more friendly.