Alternative trading option
So I've had this idea for years and years, but I've never posted it because I wasn't sure how well it would work with pins. But since there has been some frustration and disappointment with trading yesterday, I thought I would put it out there and see if anyone else has ever done something like this and if we could figure out how to make it work with pins.
My husband participates in something called a "Math Trade" on his board game forum (Board Game Geek in case anyone is familiar). They got it from record album trading, I think. How it works is that people post, usually 3-5 items that they want to trade. After the thread has been open for about a week, it is closed to new additions. Then people send an email (results usually are #of your item followed with the #of each item you are willing to accept in trade), use a web based form, however the person running it has it set up which lists the item they offered, and then the items others offered that they would be willing to trade their item for. Sometimes, if you have a rare item there might not be an item offered you would accept so then you just list the #of your item, with nothing following it. Or you just don't submit a list. The computer, uses an algorithm to match up the trades, and then return the results. The programming, I think, allows for maximum trades or for maximum quality (people rank their favorites and the algorithm tries to make those happen). Simply, posting an item does not require you trade it. However, if you submit that you would trade it for a specific item, and the results work out, then you are obligated.
The problems that I always had, and why I never posted was
1. I don't have the programming knowledge to set it up, but I think there are programming oriented people here.
2. These math trades can end up with 20, 40, 60 people "chains," if one person does not send as promised it causes a MAJOR problem, because you can't simply reverse the trade. Since we have a feedback system, maybe this would help because we could require minimum feedback?
3. Pin Trading has a unique issue with scrappers. If someone sends a fake pin, then what happens? You could make a rule that no Hidden Mickeys, pins with scrapper warnings must come with original card. But some pins don't have warnings on Pinpics, and some people just don't care.
4. Are there just so many pins out there, that the number of matches is still going to be on the small side? Would most people not see something acceptable and then submit an empty list?
The positives are that it's way too hard to figure out multi-person trades any other way. Sometimes, you might manage a 3-person trade, but certainly not 20, 30, 40 people trade. My husband also likes it because it allows for "trading up." The extreme case, is that in order to close the loop, the person with the best item, ends up sending to the person with lowest. But remember, two things had to have happened in this process. The person with the best pin HAD to have found something he was willing to trade, and the same for all the other people down the chain. AND the person on the bottom's pin HAD to have been wanted by someone else. Also, because of the different ways people value their items, and you have a choice over what you submit in your final list, most people end up feeling like they are trading up. If you aren't satisfied, then you made a mistake with which pins you submitted that you would accept for your pin.
Here's the blog of the person who wrote the TradeMaximizer program, http://okasaki.blogspot.com/2008/03/what-heck-is-math-trade.html
Link to download the program, in case there is someone who wants to play around with it http://sourceforge.net/projects/trademax/
Link to BoardGameGeek Wiki about TradeMaximizer http://boardgamegeek.com/wiki/page/TradeMaximizer?
My husband participates in something called a "Math Trade" on his board game forum (Board Game Geek in case anyone is familiar). They got it from record album trading, I think. How it works is that people post, usually 3-5 items that they want to trade. After the thread has been open for about a week, it is closed to new additions. Then people send an email (results usually are #of your item followed with the #of each item you are willing to accept in trade), use a web based form, however the person running it has it set up which lists the item they offered, and then the items others offered that they would be willing to trade their item for. Sometimes, if you have a rare item there might not be an item offered you would accept so then you just list the #of your item, with nothing following it. Or you just don't submit a list. The computer, uses an algorithm to match up the trades, and then return the results. The programming, I think, allows for maximum trades or for maximum quality (people rank their favorites and the algorithm tries to make those happen). Simply, posting an item does not require you trade it. However, if you submit that you would trade it for a specific item, and the results work out, then you are obligated.
The problems that I always had, and why I never posted was
1. I don't have the programming knowledge to set it up, but I think there are programming oriented people here.
2. These math trades can end up with 20, 40, 60 people "chains," if one person does not send as promised it causes a MAJOR problem, because you can't simply reverse the trade. Since we have a feedback system, maybe this would help because we could require minimum feedback?
3. Pin Trading has a unique issue with scrappers. If someone sends a fake pin, then what happens? You could make a rule that no Hidden Mickeys, pins with scrapper warnings must come with original card. But some pins don't have warnings on Pinpics, and some people just don't care.
4. Are there just so many pins out there, that the number of matches is still going to be on the small side? Would most people not see something acceptable and then submit an empty list?
The positives are that it's way too hard to figure out multi-person trades any other way. Sometimes, you might manage a 3-person trade, but certainly not 20, 30, 40 people trade. My husband also likes it because it allows for "trading up." The extreme case, is that in order to close the loop, the person with the best item, ends up sending to the person with lowest. But remember, two things had to have happened in this process. The person with the best pin HAD to have found something he was willing to trade, and the same for all the other people down the chain. AND the person on the bottom's pin HAD to have been wanted by someone else. Also, because of the different ways people value their items, and you have a choice over what you submit in your final list, most people end up feeling like they are trading up. If you aren't satisfied, then you made a mistake with which pins you submitted that you would accept for your pin.
Here's the blog of the person who wrote the TradeMaximizer program, http://okasaki.blogspot.com/2008/03/what-heck-is-math-trade.html
Link to download the program, in case there is someone who wants to play around with it http://sourceforge.net/projects/trademax/
Link to BoardGameGeek Wiki about TradeMaximizer http://boardgamegeek.com/wiki/page/TradeMaximizer?
