Recently we enlisted the help of a veteran beer trader, Howard, in educating readers on the ins-and-outs of beer trading.  After a fantastic five part series, we thought it fitting to host our own first annual (or semi-annual) Thank Heaven for Beer swap.  In actuality, this is not going to be a typical beer swap in which participants will compare beers they are stocked up on and make decisive trades; rather, it will be a Secret Santa event.

Basically all those who decide to participate in the event will sign up (click HERE or on the picture on our home page).  Upon signing up for the event, your name will be put in a pot.  Through random drawing, your name will be paired with another participant.  You will send a beer or two to whomever you are paired with and vice versa.  This is no different from the secret santa shindigs you participated in during grade school or at the office last December.  Of course, you will not know who had you until you get your secret brew in the mail.

We felt doing a secret Santa type beer exchange would be better for our purposes than a typical got/wants trade for a few reasons.  First, not everyone who subscribes or follows this blog has an account with a site that accommodates beer trading, and we don’t quite have the resources yet to adequately set it up on the site.  Second, the mystery of not knowing what is arriving in the mail is fun.  Third, it offers a great opportunity for first time traders to learn the ropes of beer swapping.

A few rules and disclaimers:

1)  Don’t send home brew as your secret brew.  It can be sent to accompany a your gift, but cannot be the gift alone.

2)  Don’t send crap.  I, for one, will not be excited if I receive a lone bottle of Mickey’s in the mail.

3)  While the principal of BIF (beer it forward) is the way to go, try not to be extremely upset if you get a slightly less fantastic brew than you sent (although we are hoping everyone is satisfied).

4) Sending more than one beer is acceptable, but keep #3 in mind.

5) While you can technically send any brew, try for something unique:  Locally specific, limited release beer, or even something that has been cellared for a few years.

Beer Trading Neophyte?

Try Howard’s series to get a grip on what’s to come:
The Suds Swap Meet (1 of 5)

Beer Value and Ettiquette (2 of 5)

Getting Started (3 of 5)

Beer It Forward (4 of 5)

Packing, Shipping, and Wrapping Up (5 of 5)

Basically, we really just want to take our blog to a higher level and create a little community interaction beyond the comment boxes.  We hope more than a few sign up, and are anxious to see what every (and ourselves!) are able to enjoy as a result.

CLICK TO SIGN UP!!!

SIGN-UP DEADLINE IS JULY 25, 2009!

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Packaging

For my shipping, I buy the Duck brand bubble wrap at Wal-Mart for $10-$11. It’s 100 square feet, perforated every 12”, and I wrap each bottle with one sheet and tape it in the middle. When I have a 22 oz or 750 ml bottle, I use two sheets, one for the bottom half and one for the top. I typically fold the loose ends at the top and bottom and secure them with tape. I buy boxes at Office Depot in the $2-$4 range.

I’ve seen people line the ends and sides of the box with foam rubber, bubble wrap, and/or crumpled up newspaper, either will work fine. I also wedge crumpled up newspaper in between bottles so nothing moves when the box is shook. I also use the 4- and 6-pack holders to separate the beers so they’re not knocking into each other. I’ve seen people use all kinds of stuff to ship beer, but remember that you’re liable if anything breaks, so it’s in your best interest to pack securely.

Shipping

Now for a little legal disclaimer: shipping beer may or may not be illegal. It is a violation of the terms of service for both UPS and FedEx, and it has been claimed that it is illegal to use USPS for shipping beer. I am not a lawyer, so if you’re worried about it, you might want to call one. That being said, I don’t know of any instance of a trader being prosecuted for trading beer.

You’ll want to open an online account with Fed Ex and/or UPS. Every trader has their preference, and there are horror stories for both. I go with the one that gives me the cheapest quote, which is usually FedEx. You want to use the online shipping service with a credit card, because it’s cheaper than going to a FedEx or UPS shipping center, and there’s nobody to ask any questions about the contents of the box online. They’ll even pick up the package from your house, but I drop mine off at a nearby hub.

Most people ship out on Mondays, because they don’t want to leave the beer sitting in a warehouse over the weekend. There’s no climate control in the trucks or the warehouses, so this argument is debatable. Many people avoid trading in the winter due to the risk that beer can freeze, and many avoid the summer because they believe the heat will damage the beer.

In the event of a broken bottle, there are three common responses from the shipping companies:

1. Deliver the soggy box as is. This is the one I’ve seen happen the most.
2. Repackage everything in a new box and send it back to you. You can expect a letter from their legal department afterwards, warning you that shipping beer is against their terms of service.
3. Repackage everything in a new box and send it to the original destination.

In order to avoid this, people will either wrap the bottles in bubble wrap, and then put them in zip-lock baggies, or line the entire box with a contractor grade trash bag and seal it shut. I don’t bother with either, because I’ve only had one broken bottle in a package that I’ve sent, and they still delivered the package. I’ve had broken bottles in about half of the trades I’ve received, and they were still delivered as well.

Wrapping Up

Trading is a fun and rewarding hobby, with plenty of reasons NOT to do it. It’s expensive, risky (broken bottles), and time consuming, but there’s no better feeling than cracking open a beer that you’ve wanted for a long time, and having it exceed your expectations. My only recommendation is to start small and work your way up. Don’t go for the white whales right off the bat, there’s plenty of regular beer that’s worthy of your attention. You’re guaranteed to make new friends, try new beer, and have a lot of fun.

Howard’s other articles in this series:

The Suds Swap Meet (1 of 5)

Beer Value and Ettiquette (2 of 5)

Getting Started (3 of 5)

Beer It Forward (4 of 5)

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BIF stands for Beer It Forward, which is just like the movie “Pay it Forward”, but with beer instead of good deeds. Sometimes they’ll allow new traders, but they usually require you have at least a little bit of trading history. The way these trades work is:

1. A user posts that they’re starting a new BIF. They will either lay out the rules, or they’ll look for other people’s input on what the rules should be. There is usually a minimum or maximum amount of beer per package, plus a theme like local beer only, >10% ABV beer only, beeradvocate.com Top 100 only, etc. Sometimes there are extras, like X number of beers and X number of cigars, or a T-shirt, or glassware, you get the idea.
2. Users sign up for the BIF by replying to the thread and asking if you can join in, or by sending a private message to the original poster.
3. A master list is compiled of all of the participants, including their user names, real names, addresses and phone numbers.
4. The person who started the BIF picks one person on the list and builds and ships a package within the constraints of the rules. You usually try to hit as many of their Wants as you can. They might give hints about where the package is going, but nobody knows for sure.
5. When that person receives the package, they pick a target from who is left on the list, and build and ship their package.
6. This continues until the last recipient gets their package, then they build and ship a package for the originator of the BIF.

All of the hops of the BIF are usually recorded on a website, so everybody can see who got what, and who’s left on the list to receive. There is also a sense of competition with these, because nobody wants to be outdone by the other participants, so the boxes keep getting bigger or loaded with more rare beer. These are the most fun for me; it’s like Christmas morning wondering if you’re the next stop, and what will be in the box when you open it!

You’ll see other types of trading opportunities in this forum as well. LIF stands for Lotto it Forward, which is where somebody is setting up a game with beer as the prize. The usual rules are that you’ve never had the beer they’re offering before, don’t have access to it, agree to review it, and will hold your own LIF in the future. I’ve seen stuff like “guess my daughter’s middle name”, “guess my favorite guitarist”, “guess how many miles I drove to Dark Lord Day”, and others.

GIF stands for Growler it Forward, which is exactly like BIF, but with growlers. They usually run these trades with assigned targets, so you know who you’re supposed to ship to and everybody ships around the same time.

There will also be Secret Santa and Secret Bunny opportunities, which are exactly like any other Secret Santa you may have been a part of, but with beer. You’ll be assigned a target, and have a shopping and shipping window to get your package out to your recipient.

Howard’s other articles in this series:

The Suds Swap Meet (1 of 5)

Beer Value and Ettiquette (2 of 5)

Getting Started (3 of 5)

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Wants/Gots

When you’re browsing for beer on the site, there are a few links in the upper right portion of the page that relate to trading:

Clicking “+ Add to your Wants” will add this beer to the list of beers you’re looking for. Clicking “+ Add to your Gots” will add this beer to the list of beers you currently have. Keep in mind that you don’t actually have to have the beer you add to your Gots, it can be any beer that you can buy at your local liquor store. If you click on the “44 wants” link it will show you all of the users looking for this beer, and the “16 gots link” will show you the users who have this beer. Once you have added a few wants and gots, you can click on the “My Profile” at the top, and view your Wants and Gots lists.

This view is my Wants list, and there is a little + next to every beer I’ve added, that expands to show users who have matching Wants and Gots. After you have everything setup that you’re looking for and have to offer, you can either wait for somebody to contact you, or start sending messages to people that you have matches with. You have to follow the Beer Trading – ISO/FT group if you want people to be able to see your matches, so don’t forget to join. If you’re not the patient type, you can move on to option two.

Beer Trading – ISO/FT

This section of their forums is setup for people to initiate trades by posting what they’re looking for (ISO = in search of), and what they have to offer in return (FT = for trade). In order to start a post like this, you just navigate to the group and click the Start New Topic button. My first trade looked like this:

The subject states that I’m looking for Oskar Blues, and I’m pretty open about what I have to trade. I also included a link to a store that has their inventory online so people could look through and hunt for what they wanted in trade. I was specific about being dollar for dollar, but that’s implied for trading. I had about five hits on this offer in about 15 minutes, with several more coming in after. General etiquette is that you take the first reasonable offer to come in, but it’s your beer, and you can do what you want with it.

The first person to write me on this offer worked in a liquor store, so he knew the prices off the top of his head. In return for the 20 beers I requested, he wanted a 6-pack of Three Floyds Alpha King, a 6-pack of Thirsty Dog Siberian Night, and a 22 oz of Three Floyds Behemoth Barleywine. Because this was my first trade, it was expected that I ship first, and he didn’t ship in return until my package arrived. This is the way it goes until you’ve got a few trades under your belt, and then you usually ship simultaneously. It took about two weeks to buy the beer he wanted, get it shipped out, and have his return package shipped back.

Read the first two parts of the series HERE and HERE.

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Beer Value

Most traders like to trade dollar-for-dollar, meaning if they send you $40 worth of beer, then you send them $40 worth of beer in return. They also like to trade rarity-for-rarity, meaning if they are trading a hard to get, or brewery-only release, they expect to get an equally scarce beer in return. So if you really want to get a bottle of Dark Lord, you’re going to need a one day only, brewery released beer (Darkness, Sexual Chocolate, Kate the Great, etc.) to trade. Some people are incredibly strict about this and will only trade for equal rarity. Others are happy to share their beer, and are willing to trade for other stuff that they want that isn’t so hard to come by. Some people will not give up their rare beer at all without completely taking advantage of you.

When you’re trading up, meaning trading regular beer for rare beer, all bets are off. There are no guidelines for what’s fair anymore, and it’s really what you and your trading partner feel is a good deal. If you don’t like the terms, then either try to renegotiate, or just walk away. As a matter of courtesy, once your trading partner has spent money on beer specifically for a trade with you, it’s unacceptable to try to change or cancel the deal.

Etiquette

The most important rule about trading is this: until the beer is in the recipient’s hands unharmed, the sender is liable. If you ship to the wrong address, you’re responsible for making it right, unless you were given the wrong address. If the box disappears during shipping, you’re responsible to resend it. If a bottle gets broken, you have to replace it.

It’s customary to throw in an extra bottle (or several) of beer above and beyond what the trade was setup for. Most people send either local beer or something on the other person’s Wants (we’ll discuss Wants in the next article). My rule of thumb is: the bigger the deal, the bigger the extra(s).

After you complete a trade, you should update your profile to reflect that you traded with that person. People use the profiles to check references all the time, and if you say you’ve completed a trade with user X, they’ll check user X’s profile to see if they have you listed too. You should be checking people’s references before you ship beer too. I usually just check their profile for completed trades, then check those user’s profiles to make sure they list the person I’m trading with as well. You should also add a “+” or “*” to denote that they sent extras in their package. Here’s a shot of my profile so you can see what I’m talking about.

When you’re on the forums, keep your mouth shut about other people’s trades. If you see somebody asking too much (or not offering enough) for a beer, it’s none of your business, just move along and ignore the post. You don’t want to give people buyer’s remorse if they’re happy with their deal, so leave them be.

Written By Howard

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If you want to try something that’s not available at your local liquor stores, you have four options:

1. 1. 1. Online Retailers
      2. Ebay
      3. Traveling
      4. Trading

The first three are very straightforward transactions: you pay the money, and you get your beer. The fourth option is a little trickier, but also more rewarding.

When you trade beer, you set up a deal with another beer enthusiast where you ship them the beer that they want, and they ship you the beer that you want.

What kind of beer you trade is really up to you, because there are people out there willing to trade the most rare and hard to find beer, or the year-round beer from their local brewery. Just looking at the first page of the beeradvocate.com trading forum right now, the following beers are up for grabs: Kate the Great, Dark Lord, Firestone Walker 10, 11 and 12, Mirror Mirror, Sculpin, Hopslam, Double Crooked Tree, Barrel Aged Blackout, New Glarus Unplugged, Brute, Behemoth Blonde, and Barrel Aged Borris.

First, a word of warning: trading beer is expensive and addictive. The costs go up because once you start trading, pretty much everything you ever wanted is now at your fingertips, and because the weight of beer can lead to some very high shipping charges. Also, there is no guarantee that the person you’re trading with will ship your beer. People don’t get screwed often, but it does happen.

There is a ton of information to cover, so I’m going to break it up into smaller chunks. First I will start with some discussion on the value of beer and trading etiquette, followed by how to setup a trade. I’ll then move on to some more complicated trades. We’ll wrap things up with packing and shipping. If you have any questions along the way, post them in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer them.

Written by Howard.

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