Why Is Finding A Trading Partner So Difficult?

I have been advertising a willingness to trade stamps in the "trade" section of this forum for a couple of weeks with very little success. I have had one trade and it worked out very well. Everyone has duplicates. I have been reading posts in this forum about people having trouble selling stamps. We are all collectors... it is about getting rid of duplicates and adding stamps to your collection. Seems to me that trading would be a perfect way to do that. Why am I having no success? Is there a better way to advertise. Looking for advice.

ronv,

I understand where you are coming from. I have been collecting my entire life and never actually traded stamps with another collector. Tried to once, just didn't work out.

My feeling is that you need to have a very good inventory with condition, price, Cat Value, etc. in order to have an "equal" trade?

Maybe that's part of the problem?

Well you have gotten further than I have in trading. I have one potential trade in the offing.

I find myself wondering the same thing as you. In my case I think it might be because I am a new collector and most people here are more established in their collecting. Also it might be hard for people to find a match in terms of what they have and what someone else needs. For example I collect used worldwide stamps, but only have significant duplication in a few countries, and these may be countries people are not interested in.

I have already started setting aside some of my more common duplicates to do a giveaway for a new collector, since a couple of people here have been kind enough to send me stamps.

I have only been collecting a few months, but I imagine for people collecting for a few years this could be a real issue.

ronv,

I know we tried doing business but it didn't work out. I suspect it was an "inventory" issue.

Jack Kelley

Jack you are probable right. The offer probable needs to be as general as possible. My offer is for British empire KGVI and before. That is pretty general. As I remember, you were looking for something a little more specialized. You are probably a much more advanced collector that I am.

My limited experience is that folks who will gladly give you their duplicates (and unwanteds) get competitive when it comes to a trade.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

That is a very interesting point. I wonder if a psychology experiment was every carried out with that hypothesis. It certainly would point out a dichotomy between a gracious and giving society, and a selfish one. I guess the US is going to experiment with this on a grand scale, such that we are going to get very tired of constantly winning everything for the next four years.

In any case, I have stock books full of stamps that are both duplicates and unwanteds. I will eventually bring them down to our local stamp club and dump them in the big bin so that people can pick and choose what they want.

One of the great trades I came across, was of "Aussie Al" of this forum.

He gave away a ginormous box of unwanted stamps and covers, all I had to do was pay postage (hazy memory suggests around $28)
I still have the big red box, and only half way through it.

Trades can become subject to subtle "judgement" by the parties, depending on the class of the parties.
I take anything, ripped , torn, thins, whatever. Thus I never get disappointed.
I give most of my "unwanteds" to the Local Red Cross Stamp Shop.

There are stamp trading clubs one can join where you send in your duplicates and get stamps from others in return. They normally work like circuits, where you'll receive a shipment of stamps, take what you need and then send it back. Trades in this fashion are normally done by catalog value, you send in $10 in CV, you can pick $10 in CV (regardless of the number of stamps) back.

If you click on the link below and then pick "trading posthorn" in the drop-down box, it'll pop up a few results that may be useful.

http://www.linns.com/marketplace/classifieds.html

Hi Ronv,

One thing to consider about this forum for orchestrating trades is that only people with more than 50 posts can respond to your offer. As I write this post there are 90 active forum members and 1066 lurkers. That means there is a silent majority that uses this board but can't respond to your offer. In fact, even new members like myself can not and it will probably take me a year to get to 50 posts because I don't post that often. The 50 post rule is wise, but it does make forums a less than ideal place for orchestrating trades.

I will share with you what I found helpful for finding a trading partners. I collect ww used, so having a broad interest like this is helpful. I have joined a stamp club called the ISWSC (International Society for Worldwide stamp Collectors). The reason I joined this club and am not an APS member is precisely because of the stamp trading programs they offer. In the ISWSC I participate in a large and a small circuit. Basically someone sends you 100 large or 100 small stamps, and you take what you want and replace them with similar stamps. I also participate in the Omni exchange which lets you trade stamps on a catalog value basis and helps trade more in the $1-$20 range although I have offered some stamps worth over $200 on this exchange. Lastly, I participate in something called the premium exchange which lets me trade 50 stamps with > 50 cents CV for 50 other stamps > 50 cents. I have been delighted with all these services.

In addition to ISWSC, I have joined the local stamp club. This is only helpful if there is one near you, and I am fortunate enough to live in a large enough city to have one. There I found people willing to trade as well, and this has also worked out for me.

Great comment! I'm sure the behavioral economists have a fancy explanation but suspect it is related to expectations and motivations for the transaction. If I'm giving something away, I don't anticipate anything in return (other than perhaps a "thank you, " good karma or space to put the new stamps I just bought). However, if I'm trading, I'm expecting an equitable exchange of goods which is subject to opinion and potential hard feelings.

Partime, RK1468:

This is easy to figure out.

Buying, you pay with money.

Trading, you pay with stamps.

Q/ With which will you be stingy?

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

The difficulty is in finding a trade partner that can provide what you need, and at the same who has interest in stuff that you can provide. Essentially you are looking for a collector that is an image of yourself.

You might easily think that 'worldwide collector' is as generic as you can get. Trust me - it is not. The minute you narrow down to 'used only', you have eliminated at least 30% of worldwide collectors. The minute you narrow down to specific era (say 1840-1940, or modern for modern, or for heavens sake - from 1840 to date), you have eliminated another 30%. And if you start adding up specific wants, catalog values etc.... Well, the more narrow your audience gets.

The thing where services such as ISWSCs exchange or my stamp exchange excel is in connecting collectors with specific interests, and providing certain elements of trust on top of it all.

I've been running my stamp exchange for about six years. To date well over 30,000 collectors (bots etc. excluded) have seen and visited my exchange page and watched through the presentation on TOS. The result? I've done about 700 successful exchanges with about 100 exchangers. If you start counting the 'activity', it becomes just 0.3%... And the situations where it has evolved into much deeper and long term 'exchange relationship' - out of those hundred, maybe a dozen (or 0.04% of total) qualifies.

So yes, finding a good trade partner is difficult. But it is definitely worth it :)

-k-

I'm the potential trading partner oceanguy mentioned, and I'll agree: it's not easy to find trading partners. I haven't actually traded with anyone in years. Hopefully what we are working on will be beneficial for both of us. I've such a surplus of U.S. stamps, I've offer to give them away. I'd asked around my circle to see if anyone had a kid that might be interested in starting collecting. All I heard was crickets.

#127932; "That'll be the day, that I die ... #127932;

DaveG28,

I'm a new younger collector (but not a child) and I would really appreciate some of your duplicates which you haven't been able to find a home for yet.

Thank you