Pushy Traders

[Vendetta]

Thought I'd get people's thoughts on trading tactics. In one of my leagues there's a couple of guys who come across as extremely pushy when offering trades. Does this tactic actually work? I'll get bombarded by emails and messages with questions like "Well?????" If I say something like "interesting offer, let me sleep on it and I'll get back to you tomorrow," they'll fire back by "How can we get this done tonight?!" I hate that. Don't try to bully me into making a trade with you, you came to me with this, I'm not the one that's desperately looking to deal, I was happy with my team and I need to figure out if what you've got on the table is going to help me out any. Maybe I'm just conservative but I don't like to just fly by the seat of my pants and trade recklessly.

I've also had more than a few people come to me saying "oh, but that guy will never start for you." This one makes me laugh. Do you think I'm stupid? I've been playing this for more than a few years and I've come to see what happens when a team has poor depth. For example, one guy came to me last night and threw in Isaac Redman into a deal we were discussing, almost like he was trying to sneak him into the deal thinking I wouldn't notice. I called him on it and said "Giving Redman plus Stafford and Lynch is overkill, no thanks." He fires back with the "he'll never start for your argument" Sorry, not falling for that one. It's one thing if I had guys like Foster, McCoy, Rice and Matthews, but Redman is likely going to be my RB3 for the majority of the season. Injuries, bye weeks etc. these things can be major issues if you don't have yourself covered, if that was the case then everybody would just roster enough players to fill our their starting lineup and then forget about the rest. How stupid is this argument?

[Warren]

I think you can sometimes get more from the pushy trader if his offers are fair. They can come off as desperate and may be willing to add too much in order to get the deal done ASAP. These types may also wake up with a trade hangover if the initial excitement has wore off after they realize they gave up too much for their mancrush. I say to find a way to take advantage of every situation possible and I'd do it by sending a counter that's more heavily weighted in your favor. I wouldn't settle for a merely fair offer from this type. Milk 'em for all they are worth!

[TommyL31]

Agree. I absolutely hate pushy traders. I think it's reasonable to expect a response back within two days (even if it's just a rejection) but any emails to check in on the status of the offer should be more inquisitive IMO like "wondering if you've had a chance to look at the trade I sent you and what your thoughts are on it." That doesn't presume anything. Because not hearing back could mean anything from the guy has been busy and hasn't looked at it to he's thinking real hard about it.

REALLY hate the 'he'll never start for you' argument or any argument that presumes to tell me how to run my team. Different owners value different levels of depth etc. There are some guys I play with that I know they like being stacked with depth at RB so I try to adjust my thoughts about who might be tradeable on their team but I would never say to them "well you're never going to start them anyway."

[MucBuc]

I'm only doing deals with those kind of owners if they make an inital offer that's strong enough to take it. Other than that, I just ignore them or counter with a floorball-offer to show them that I'm not interested. The longer you talk to them the more you get the feeling to negotiate with a 5 year old. "I NEED...I WANT...BUT..."

I once dealt with an owner that made a good starting offer (but not good enough for me) for a premium pick, then went on to actually LOWER his offer with each email. As if I absolutely had to get rid of that pick. Needless to say, the trade never happened and we didn't deal again.

I prefer honest and direct proposals, and also enjoy some "mock" trade talks with other friendly owners, even if no deal is struck in the end.

[seahawks506]

Anything is better than some dimwit who keeps trying to trade you a mediocre WR and a 3rd rounder for your WR3...

[joeday]

I will say in defense of pushy owners that I actually hate owners that drag their feet on deals. In my mind I can usually tell if I am going to make a deal almost as soon as its offered. I hate people that don't respond at all, or have no clue on if they plan to do it or not.

[derekwillet]

I don't know why you'd get upset with someone for asking "what do I have to do to make this trade happen tonight". That's basically opening the door for you to make the deal more beneficial to you.

Obviously the pushy owners who check in with status updates almost immediately after making the offer is annoying, but like Joeday said, so are the people who drag their feet.

Typically I I will check in once after about two days if I haven't heard anything, and I typically set an automatic time-out on the deal after 3-4. I'm not sure if putting that limit is considered pushy, but everyday I wait on someone to twiddle their thumbs, it's a day that I'm preventing myself from making another deal with someone who is willing to work with me on something (I am an extremely active trader).