How do you feel about trading?

I read on one of the European forums a story of a member agreeing to a trade and sending off his items, then never receiving what the other fellow had promised, with the other guy giving endless excuses and finally even deactivating his account and reactivating under another name. I too was burned this way a few years ago, sending a vintage Somerset Simpson brush and receiving an empty box in return. So I have felt a little more skeptical about trades since then, and now my policy generally is to trade only with other long-standing forum members whom I know from previous buy-sell transactions and/or who have great reputations and feedback. What is your approach?

The way it would work in the video concert collecting (rock concert bootlegs) community is if you contact someone first for a trade, you would send media first and receive second. I used to trade items in shaving but it's been so long that I really don't remember details of how I did them.

I have always been skeptical of trading for the reasons the OP described. Until I fell in love with my Wolfman, I thought of trading it for some other piece of hard to obtain shaving gear. It never happened because I was just too worried about getting burned. I either sell something or buy because that is easy, you get your money right then and there and you can ship the item to the buyer.

I've never traded anything due to this fear.

Sooooo. You fellas are saying that if I buy gear it does not have to stay with me forever? I'm going to have to think about that for awhile. Do others know about this? Ha! Ok, so I like collecting stuff but I'm known to get rid of it too. Problem is I have lots of sons so none of it turns into money. That said, I would choose Johns style of handling things and only deal with cats I know on items with high value.

John, I believe your approach is the best. As always, it's the rotten apples who ruin it for the honest folks out there.

I do the same as you, John. I trade with individuals whom I know and have had good interactions and exchanges.

I think you have the right idea, John.  I think as long as you have some knowledge of the person you are trading with, you're pretty safe.  I've been pretty fortunate to not have any bad experiences with trades or purchases/sales on the BST.  

I did have someone complain about some things I PIF'd to them.    (the person in question is no longer active on the shave forums)  I thought that was really odd.  I didn't let that sour me though.  I still try to help out folks when I can.  Lord knows I have enough shave loot to share!  

So, John churchilllafemme , what do you want to trade?  

I agree with you.
only established members.
I traded one of my brushes for another.
I sent mine,the other party kept putting me off till i said i would talk to a Moderator.
Then the other paid my original price

I traded my game changer on a facebook group. I put it up and somebody responded. My next post was: "Who can vouch for this guy?" I got about 30-40 responses saying that the guy was great to trade/buy from. I would do the same thing here.

I'm honestly not sure if I've ever traded with anyone before, but if I do, I'd only trade with someone who has a lot of positive feedback from their past transactions. this is why we encourage everyone to use our trader feedback system when a transaction is complete so we can help people gauge whether something might go smoothly or not.

https://damnfineshave.com/thread-how-to-...r-feedback