Could we create an incredibly elaborate trading system?

[Anthony1]

Here is an idea. Let's say that we create a trading system for people that are well respected in trading on these forums.

What happens, is that games are assigned a point value by a twelve man jury. Then based on that games point value, you could trade that game for other games with an equal point value, or you can add different games together, with their different trade values, and then these games can be traded.

The point value, would basically mean, that one point, would equal 1 dollar. So if somebody was trading a game that had a value of 8, and the other guy was trading a game with a value of 15, then the guy with the 8 would have to also pay 7 bucks cash as well to make the trade go down.

Basically, what would happen, is that everybody would submit their "games available for trade lists, to a 12 man jury, and that 12 man jury would each vote on how many points each item should recieve in trade value. Then those total points are added up, and divided by 12, to reach a average point value. Then that person would have such and such game, with a value of X. Then on his available for trade list, he would also show his point value for trading next to the game.

This makes it very easy for people who are looking at other peoples trade lists, to know how much either cash, or game in return, they are going to have to cough over to get it.

Now, of course there would be a lot of other little issues, but I think we could iron it out pretty easily. We just come up with 12 guys that are very experienced, that have a really good feeling for the value of gaming items for the various systems. Then what you do, is you submit your games available for trade list to these 12 guys, and then they would forward back their findings to that person, and to another individual, that would double check the value rating.

I know this sounds somewhat complex and unnecessary, but hey, what the F. We love this shit.

[Quintracker]

Probably the biggest problem would be people agreeing on how much a game is worth. Also, instead of the whole 12 man jury thing, it would be much simpler to go by a guide, say the DP guide :P but again, not all people go by those prices.

[maxlords]

I have to say... BLEAH. Why ruin an already good system by making it needlessly complex. I doubt any 10 people would agree on the exact dollar value of a game either. I mean, what if I won't take less than 20 dollars for game X, but the jury says it's worth $12? Then I can't sell it here. I get less than I want. All this would do is drive more people to eBay or other forums for their trading. A bad idea all around.

No reason to get rid of the system we have, which works QUITE well for everyone.

[Anthony1]

Ok, first of all, there are going to be 12 people that will give point values to your games that are available for trade, and they DON'T NEED TO AGREE!!!!!

I don't expect the 12 people to agree. Maybe one guy out of the 12 says that a game is worth 20 bucks, another guy says it's worth 10. Then the other 10 guys says that it's worth 15. Well you add it all up, and divide by 12. Then you get an AVERAGE. The average point value of the 12 people then becomes the official point value for that game.

Now, you have to understand that the 12 people that are going to value the games, are going to be 12 very experienced people, that have a very, very good understanding to a games current value. Will they be absolutely perfect? NO. That is why, we go with an average. But they will be 12 respected individuals, that will do their best to give a fair and honest assesment of a particular games value. Yes, their valuations will probably differ slightly, but it will be relatively accurate. I'm sure that all 12 of them will take the DP Guides valuations into consideration. As well as whether or not the game is loose, the case is cracked, the instructions water damaged, etc, etc,. 12 very experienced retro gamers, is a pretty good jury to have, and you are going to get the average valuation, so even if two of them are somewhat off base, it won't skew the valuation too much.


The other thing that you aren't understanding, is that this point system doesn't mean anything other than what it states. It's something to go by, something to base trades on, but not the deciding factor. You can take it or leave it. It's just a helpfull tool, to help better facilitate trades, and to better guide people in terms of making fair deals.

It's not the "be all, end all".

For example, if I have a trade list, and I have Knuckles Chaotix, and let's say that it ended up get a point value of 13. Well, that doesn't mean that somebody has to give me 13 bucks. Or that somebody has to trade me games that have a value that equals 13. All it means is that 13 is somewhat of a starting point to the negotiations.

Some traders may think that the jury of 12 is extremely fair, and extremely accurate, and they will go with the point system as the Bible. Other traders will just look at it as a generalization to the value of the item, and use it to help craft their trade to an even level.

You can take it or leave it. It's not iron clad.

I understand how it could be somewhat scarry to have 12 strangers put values on the games and accessories that you have available for trade. You might worry that they will value something at 10 bucks, when you aren't going to accept any less than 17. Well if that is the case, then you don't have to go with the valuation. You don't have to put the point value next to that game on the trade list.

Or you can have that value there, but put a plus sign next to it. And if you think they dramatically overvalued something, and you are willing to take less, then you can put a minus symbol there.

For example, take the Knuckles Chaotix example. I get a valuation of 13, but I think it's really worth 15. And let's say that I have Blackthorne for the 32X, and I end up getting a valuation of 19, but I'm willing to part with it for 14 bucks. Here is how you would list it on your trade list:

Knuckles Chaotix (Point Value = 13) +2
Blackthorne 32X (Point Value = 19) -5


What that tells people, is that Knuckles was valued at 13 bucks, but you are requiring 15, and that Blackthorne was valued at 19, but you are willing to accept 14. And if the valuation is spot on, in your opinion, then you don't have to put a +2 or -5 or whatever.

[Qixmaster]

way, way too confusing. The buy/sell/trade forum is a beautiful and simple minded place. How 'bout we keep it how it is? I don't want to have to deal with "point values" and other BS, i just simply want to trade buy or sell whatever to whomever whenever without a consent from anyone. Values for trading should only be a concern of who is trading or selling.

[Anthony1]

way, way too confusing. The buy/sell/trade forum is a beautiful and simple minded place. How 'bout we keep it how it is? I don't want to have to deal with "point values" and other BS, i just simply want to trade buy or sell whatever to whomever whenever without a consent from anyone. Values for trading should only be a concern of who is trading or selling.


Look, this is just an idea to float out there. If you aren't interested in it, then you don't need to participate. It's not like anybody would be required to participate in this.

It's a voluntary thing. And it really isn't that complicated. It just sounds complicated at first.

Explain to me, which part of this is complicated. I will break it down step by step.

1. If you are so inclined, you submit your "games available for trade list", to a jury of 12 people. Nothing to complicated about that. Actually, all you will have to do, is email your list to one person, who will then forward it on, to the other 11 people by already having all their email address in their email. Extremely simple. Just emailing your games available for trade list, nothing more.

2. Then these 12 individual people, will give each of your items a point ranking. With 1 point basically equaling one dollar. None of these 12 people need to agree. They will seperately come up with their point values for the game, and a third party, will then take the lowest value and the highest value and throw them out of the equation. Then the 10 other values will be added up, and divided by 10. Extremely easy.

3. This averaged value, will then be given to the item. Eventually your list will be emailed back to you, with all the corresponding values. Nothing hard about that.

4. Then you can either choose to use these values, when you post about your "games available for trade on these forums", or choose not to use them. It's completely up to you. You can use some of the values, and forget about some of the other ones. It's all up to you to decide.

5. Then when people are looking at your post, and they see the values next to the items, then they have a basis from where to start negotiations. They can either take the valuations as the actual price of the item, or just a starting point, or general idea. If they decide to make an offer for the item, the point valuation can help them to determine what to offer in return.

6. When you recieve an offer, based on the point value for your item, you can accept or deny or counteroffer or whatever, just like you are doing now. Nothing has changed. You still have total control in your trades.


Basically, the only thing that this point value system does, is help people that are brousing at "available for trade lists", to have a somewhat accurate idea, of what a person is expecting in terms of compensation for that item. That's all that it does.

So If I'm looking at a guys available for trade list, and I see that he has Bonks Revenge listed like this:

Bonks Revenge - loose Hu Card - (point value = 8) +2


Then he knows that this guy has a loose Bonks Revenge Hu card, that was valued by the Jury of 12 at 8 bucks, but this guy won't accept anything less than 10 bucks.

What that does, is it gives the shopper a starting basis to determine what to offer up in return.

If the guy just has this on his list:

Bonk's Revenge - loose Hu Card

All he knows, is that the guy has a loose Bonk's Revenge Hu card available. He doesn't know anything other than that. So he has to then try to guess what the value is. Go to the DP guide, and see what the value is for a complete Bonks' Revenge, or go to Ebay and try to get an average idea of what the value is, or just simply guesstimate the value. Then he has to try to guess what the guy would be willing to accept in return.

Sure, we do it all the time, and it works, and if it ain't broke don't fix it, ya da ya da ya da.

But I personally think that there is a helluva lot more information for the shopper, when he sees the point system and the - or + after it. He knows exactly what the percieved value of the item is, and he knows exactly what the seller is willing to accept in return.

I think that this would dramatically increase the number of trades that took place.

I know that I would personally do more trades if everybodies trade list was done like this. It would save me tons of time of trying to research the value of an item, and guesstimating what somebody wants in return.

[Half Japanese]

Why overcomplicate an already simple process? Why fix what certainly isn't broken?

[Quintracker]

way, way too confusing. The buy/sell/trade forum is a beautiful and simple minded place. How 'bout we keep it how it is? I don't want to have to deal with "point values" and other BS, i just simply want to trade buy or sell whatever to whomever whenever without a consent from anyone. Values for trading should only be a concern of who is trading or selling.


Look, this is just an idea to float out there. If you aren't interested in it, then you don't need to participate. It's not like anybody would be required to participate in this.

It's a voluntary thing. And it really isn't that complicated. It just sounds complicated at first.

Explain to me, which part of this is complicated. I will break it down step by step.

1. If you are so inclined, you submit your "games available for trade list", to a jury of 12 people. Nothing to complicated about that. Actually, all you will have to do, is email your list to one person, who will then forward it on, to the other 11 people by already having all their email address in their email. Extremely simple. Just emailing your games available for trade list, nothing more.

2. Then these 12 individual people, will give each of your items a point ranking. With 1 point basically equaling one dollar. None of these 12 people need to agree. They will seperately come up with their point values for the game, and a third party, will then take the lowest value and the highest value and throw them out of the equation. Then the 10 other values will be added up, and divided by 10. Extremely easy.

3. This averaged value, will then be given to the item. Eventually your list will be emailed back to you, with all the corresponding values. Nothing hard about that.

4. Then you can either choose to use these values, when you post about your "games available for trade on these forums", or choose not to use them. It's completely up to you. You can use some of the values, and forget about some of the other ones. It's all up to you to decide.

5. Then when people are looking at your post, and they see the values next to the items, then they have a basis from where to start negotiations. They can either take the valuations as the actual price of the item, or just a starting point, or general idea. If they decide to make an offer for the item, the point valuation can help them to determine what to offer in return.

6. When you recieve an offer, based on the point value for your item, you can accept or deny or counteroffer or whatever, just like you are doing now. Nothing has changed. You still have total control in your trades.


Basically, the only thing that this point value system does, is help people that are brousing at "available for trade lists", to have a somewhat accurate idea, of what a person is expecting in terms of compensation for that item. That's all that it does.

So If I'm looking at a guys available for trade list, and I see that he has Bonks Revenge listed like this:

Bonks Revenge - loose Hu Card - (point value = 8) +2


Then he knows that this guy has a loose Bonks Revenge Hu card, that was valued by the Jury of 12 at 8 bucks, but this guy won't accept anything less than 10 bucks.

What that does, is it gives the shopper a starting basis to determine what to offer up in return.

If the guy just has this on his list:

Bonk's Revenge - loose Hu Card

All he knows, is that the guy has a loose Bonk's Revenge Hu card available. He doesn't know anything other than that. So he has to then try to guess what the value is. Go to the DP guide, and see what the value is for a complete Bonks' Revenge, or go to Ebay and try to get an average idea of what the value is, or just simply guesstimate the value. Then he has to try to guess what the guy would be willing to accept in return.

Sure, we do it all the time, and it works, and if it ain't broke don't fix it, ya da ya da ya da.

But I personally think that there is a helluva lot more information for the shopper, when he sees the point system and the - or + after it. He knows exactly what the percieved value of the item is, and he knows exactly what the seller is willing to accept in return.

I think that this would dramatically increase the number of trades that took place.

I know that I would personally do more trades if everybodies trade list was done like this. It would save me tons of time of trying to research the value of an item, and guesstimating what somebody wants in return.

All of that can be simplified to "Post your asking price next to everything you list". At least, that's the way i see it.

[Achika]

I want to pick my prices for my games, I don't want anyone telling me what I should get. Because I know people are thrifty here, the prices I want sometimes will be much higher than what this 'jury' would decide I'm sure. Plus, there on some on here that need money right away wether to pay for a car repair, an eBay auction, surgery, what-have-you. I don't think thjey would want to wait around a day for 12 people to get together, agree, and reply.

[maxlords]

Yeah, looking at your argument, this just isn't the sort of idea that will fly in a forum like this. I don't like it, I don't think hardly anyone else would like it. If you're REALLY gung ho about it, I'd recommend starting a website of your own to try it out. If it goes well...then cool for you :)

But for an official DP format (or sanctioned format)...I think it's flat out not going to work. I'm not trying to upset you man, as you sound a bit miffed, but it's just not the way things will ever be done here, and I'm sure that there are a lot of people who will agree with me.

[suppafly]

I agree with the people that think that having a jury would make the deals too problematic.


HOWEVER i would love to see a rating (just like ebay´s) besides everybody´s nickname, that way we would know who are the best sellers, without having to browse 20 pages from the "good sellers" list

;)

[Quintracker]

I agree with the people that think that having a jury would make the deals too problematic.


HOWEVER i would love to see a rating (just like ebay´s) besides everybody´s nickname, that way we would know who are the best sellers, without having to browse 20 pages from the "good sellers" list

;)

Agreed. # of good trades (and bad trades) for a member would be very helpful.

[NESCollector75]

I agree with the people that think that having a jury would make the deals too problematic.


HOWEVER i would love to see a rating (just like ebay´s) besides everybody´s nickname, that way we would know who are the best sellers, without having to browse 20 pages from the "good sellers" list

;)

Agreed. # of good trades (and bad trades) for a member would be very helpful.

Or you could just post people you've traded with or sold to in your sig, that way if anybody wants to check out your refrences its easy for them to find.

[Anthony1]

Ok, no biggie.



I guess it was just a dumb idea on my part.


My bad.



Actually, I did have an idea a long time ago, for a website, where you get a certain number of points for games, and you actually send these games to a location, where they are held, and tested to make sure that they work, and then you can buy other games with your points.

It would basically be the same thing that GameStop and GameCrazy do, but instead of getting nothing for your trade ins, you would get decent credit. But after looking at it in more depth, I determined that it would be too expensive to maintain, and even with charging a small transaction fee, it wouldn't be able to sustain itself.

[suppafly]

You are right Anthony. However i think we value your ideas,,,as crazy as they may seem LOL

but how about my idea of having a "feedback" for every user? that would be cool!

By the way i sent you a PM about genny games...still sellin them?

[Quintracker]

I agree with the people that think that having a jury would make the deals too problematic.


HOWEVER i would love to see a rating (just like ebay´s) besides everybody´s nickname, that way we would know who are the best sellers, without having to browse 20 pages from the "good sellers" list

;)

Agreed. # of good trades (and bad trades) for a member would be very helpful.

Or you could just post people you've traded with or sold to in your sig, that way if anybody wants to check out your refrences its easy for them to find.

True, but for me that would get a little annoying, especially if a person has traded with lots of individuals. I don't want to see someone with 20 different names in their sig and have to scroll past all of that in every post.

Also, numbers mean something to me. Just because a person had 1 good trade 2 years ago (im exaggerating) doesn't necessarily mean they would be good on their word now.

[nesuser2]

I think several people have mentioned the feedback, and I don't think there is a better answer. You just hang out at this forum and get to know people for a while. You can see the people that are going to stick you, and the people that don't......well ya, you can just tell. IMO.....and the point system is a very bad idea. Some people sell things on here insanely cheap, some people try for high.....and some people have good deals. And that way it makes things fun, like when you got a good deal on something and somebody puts up a post for the same thing, much much cheaper very soon after that. But for the most part there are a lot of good deals here, and almost all deals here are haggled out atleast a little bit. Because I think all the big buyers, sellers, and traders are garage sale frequents and if somebody wants $10 for something, they always get it for less than $9......every penny saved goes for the next game. If you want a rating system and all that jargon, there are plenty of boards for that junk.....and they cost money LOL But those are just my personal opinions and some people already mentioned it, but it's a good thing that people get their ideas out. Now Anthony can sleep in peace, knowing that his ideas were heard, and while shot down, he got to hear pros and cons from other sources. Nobody is left wondering that way...so all ideas should be shared with others, unless you know it's a golden idea.....then you tell no one :P

[digitalpress]

I agree with the people that think that having a jury would make the deals too problematic.

I like ideas, but wasn't particularly fond of this one. It's not so much that it's complicated, just that it introduces complexity to a system that seems (at least to me) to work perfectly fine as it is. I dunno, maybe it's because I haven't had any problems personally.

Anthony, have you had a bad deal here that this would resolve? Please let me know.


HOWEVER i would love to see a rating (just like ebay´s) besides everybody´s nickname, that way we would know who are the best sellers, without having to browse 20 pages from the "good sellers" list

I have looked into this but haven't had any luck yet. The message board system doesn't have anything like this that I can find (where you'd give a star or +1 to a good member, for example), and the software to do it outside of the forum is very pricey. One possible solution would be to replace the current "fruit system" with a "trader rating" system, but it would have to be handled by admins. Not impossible but I wonder if the entire community would vote for a change like that ... ?

Food for thought. Keep the ideas coming!

[kainemaxwell]

Why not just use the DP Guide and let people pick the prices like they always have? We don't need an overly complicated system when we have a prime resource, the DP Guide, already. Not to mention at one point or another all of us have contributed to the Guide(s) so we've all had a say, big or small, in the price standards.

[liquidmetal]

well thought out idea though man, youd be a good buisness manager one day :)

[AB Positive]

The way I see it, this isn't a bad idea, in fact it's a great idea that just can't really be adopted in a group like us which is small. Say, IGN trading forums could not only use this but benefit from this! However you'd need a HUGE base for this to be implemented properly... IGN, GameTZ, and such might benefit from this, we just have too few people to make it work properly.

-AG

[Anthony1]

Like I said earlier... Bad Idea on my part. I must have been high. My fault. These things happen.