Trade Etiquette Questions Thread

[Mjvb5]

I've definitely let owners know that I've got better offers from other leaguemates in trying to use that to drive up the price and see who will send the best offer. If you've got multiple offers or even interest from other owners, your not in the wrong for trying to use that to see who can give you the best offer.
Now if you make up this other interest then I don't condone that as you can destroy your credibility.

[clarion contrarion]

context does matter but absolutely i will work simultaneous deals for the same player , what I will not do EVER is agree to a deal and then back out if I get a better offer before the deal is posted . I will let my potential trade partner know " hey I working on multiple deals for player A" and even agree to a conditional deal in principle ( eg... I agree to this deal if X doesn't happen or if it does happen) .
Once I say deal with no strings or caveats , if the player gets abducted by aliens or in a plane crash I still own them period .
wording matters and being forthright not about specific details but hey team X is offering a mid 1st and a wr 2 for corey coleman what will you do ? that is one thing , I do my best to (edit) NOT mention team names or specific players although shrewd owners can do a little home work and figure such things out.

[Vcize]

I don't see any problem with negotiating with multiple teams involving the same player regardless of whether or not you make that fact transparent to each of them.

I can understand how someone could get a little frustrated if they thought they were getting close to an agreement on a player only to be blindsided by that player being traded to a different team, but it was their decision to try and inch their way to what they were really willing to give up instead of just making that offer outright.

[slaughterrt]

Nothing wrong with fielding multiple offers on one player...and nothing wrong with using one offer as leverage to potentially get better offers. NFL teams/owners do it all the time.

I can see how a fantasy team owner might get a little butt hurt if terms of a potential deal are made public. However, I don't it's fair for an owner to expect confidentiality when discussing deals.

Trades are about trying to get the most value in the deal, and if you can use other offers to enhance your return, then you gotta go for it.

[Monkey]

I can understand how someone could get a little frustrated if they thought they were getting close to an agreement on a player only to be blindsided by that player being traded to a different team, but it was their decision to try and inch their way to what they were really willing to give up instead of just making that offer outright.

I think this is essentially what happened though it wasn't my intention.

Context for those that care:

Following NFL FA, I put a number of players on the block

Team A offers a late 4th for Woodhead
I counter asking for their late 2nd
Team A counters offering their late 3rd
I let them know I was thinking on it

I wasn't thrilled about the offer, but I thought if I couldn't find better I might take it.
In addition, I send an offer to Team B asking for their mid-late 2nd for Woodhead plus mid 4th
Team B lets me know he wants to minimize his risk so counters with his mid-late 2nd for my Woodhead plus 2018 3rd
I let him know I'd like to get at least a third for him, but Team B doesn't have any thirds.
Team B tells me my value is probably about right and sends me 4 different offers to choose from, one of them is JStew+TommyLee Lewis+mid-late 2nd for my Woodhead+Chris Thompson+mid 4th
I counter with Woodhead+Chris Thompson+mid 4th for his JStew+McKinnon(included in one of the 4 other offers)+Mid 2nd, he accepts.

I get a message from Team A saying I didn't give them a chance at Woodhead.

Looking back perhaps I should've told Team A I was going to pursue other offers instead of just saying I was thinking about it? I guess I was concerned that they might pull their offer and if I didn't find any other interest I'd be left with nothing.

[lukkynumber13]

You turned down a 3rd rounder for Woodhead?????

[Mjvb5]

You turned down a 3rd rounder for Woodhead?????

In his defense, what's the chance a third does something?
While Woody had the rb4? I believe a year ago and just signed on a team without a good short pass catcher other than him that just lost their #2 back for four games and who's #1 almost everyone I see on here hates.
I'd risk it with Woody going for an rb2 ppr season or two left.

[Novacane]

I can understand how someone could get a little frustrated if they thought they were getting close to an agreement on a player only to be blindsided by that player being traded to a different team, but it was their decision to try and inch their way to what they were really willing to give up instead of just making that offer outright.

I think this is essentially what happened though it wasn't my intention.

Context for those that care:

Following NFL FA, I put a number of players on the block

Team A offers a late 4th for Woodhead
I counter asking for their late 2nd
Team A counters offering their late 3rd
I let them know I was thinking on it

I wasn't thrilled about the offer, but I thought if I couldn't find better I might take it.
In addition, I send an offer to Team B asking for their mid-late 2nd for Woodhead plus mid 4th
Team B lets me know he wants to minimize his risk so counters with his mid-late 2nd for my Woodhead plus 2018 3rd
I let him know I'd like to get at least a third for him, but Team B doesn't have any thirds.
Team B tells me my value is probably about right and sends me 4 different offers to choose from, one of them is JStew+TommyLee Lewis+mid-late 2nd for my Woodhead+Chris Thompson+mid 4th
I counter with Woodhead+Chris Thompson+mid 4th for his JStew+McKinnon(included in one of the 4 other offers)+Mid 2nd, he accepts.

I get a message from Team A saying I didn't give them a chance at Woodhead.

Looking back perhaps I should've told Team A I was going to pursue other offers instead of just saying I was thinking about it? I guess I was concerned that they might pull their offer and if I didn't find any other interest I'd be left with nothing.

The bolded and highlighted portion is key to me on how you evaluate these types of sutuations. If there is no rule on this (some leagues do have trade etiquette rules), then I believe it is all fair game. Much like in life, when you are not violating the rules in dynasty, it all comes down to the following: what type of player you want to be, how do you want others to perceive you, and most importantly, how best to win th game. As Denny Green would say, "Hello?! You play to win the game." Opinions on what is ethical and what is not in each situation are going to vary from person to person and you are rarely going to please everyone.

There is a lot of lattitude on what is the right play here. Some would go back to Team A to get the best deal possible and some would not. Your concerns were completely reasonable and I have no issue with your decision to not respond to leverage the offer. If you did go back to Team A and he beat the offee, then Team B would be upset that you shopped his offer. I do not believe either would be justified.

You don't owe anything to anyone beyond playing within the rules and at least adhering to the onesided ethical debates (like tanking or colluding). If an owner has a problem with it and threatens to not trade with you in the future (not saying he did but I know this is a common reaction to situations like this), then so be it. He would only be hurting himself. As long as you have an asset that others want, then business will eventually go on as usual.

Just be respectul to the people and the process and don't let others' opinions get you off your game!

[Monkey]

Thanks Novacane, that's a well thought out point. Perhaps I should've bounced it back to Team A to attempt to up the offer, but I might've upset Team B by doing so. Ultimately I suppose someone was probably going to be unhappy. Fwiw, I also floated an offer to a Team C for their early-mid 3rd but they didn't get back to me by the time the trade had been done. They congratulated me on the trade and sent me a new offer for a different piece. So that was a nice offset.

End of the day I'm just trying to do some trading while trying not to burn any bridges with any league mates.

You turned down a 3rd rounder for Woodhead?????

Ha! That's another part of why I left out the details of the trade originally, didn't want to get into a trade evaluation as much as advice on trade etiquette. But when I started to type it out as Player 1 and Player 2 and whatnot it was just too annoying to follow.

[Easy Breesy]

Hey guys I had a quick question about trading. I noticed that sometimes when i sent a trade offer to start a trade convo owners seem to get annoyed quickly. I might just be sending offer that are too low even for an initiating offer but I always assumed that you shouldn't send your best offer right away. A trade that I had sent that owner declined told me that I was asking for too much back considering what I wanted. I offered Prosise for Curtis Samuel thinking that they both came off of injury but are young with lots of potential. Another trade I sent the same owner was doctson Jaylon Smith (Dallas LB) and ASJ for Cooks. This owner has interest in Smith and is rebuilding. For team 1 i sig start 3 LBs. Do you think my offer is way too little even for a starting offer?
League is 2qb TE premium

[ManhattanProject]

The prosise/samuels trade is perfectly fine. The jaylon trade may be light but shouldn't be annoyed by it though. How do you know he was annoyed ny the way?

Also while you may not always send your best offer first. I like to send strong offers that let the other person know I am serious about getting something done. Maybe they just don't think you're serious about getting cooks.

[Easy Breesy]

The prosise/samuels trade is perfectly fine. The jaylon trade may be light but shouldn't be annoyed by it though. How do you know he was annoyed ny the way?

Also while you may not always send your best offer first. I like to send strong offers that let the other person know I am serious about getting something done. Maybe they just don't think you're serious about getting cooks.

Well for the Samuel Prosise trade I don't know if the other owner was annoyed neccesarily, he kind of explained to me how if I wanted Samuel I needed to give up someone with lots of potential as well and he asked for Jaylen Smith. He kind of told me why the offer was bad by saying that Prosise wasn't worth the same value as Samuel. Maybe he wasn't annoyed but seemed to be very strong with his values.

And when it comes to sending offers I understand what you mean that you should send strong offers even if it is the first offer. Maybe he didn't see me as serious thanks for the feedback I will try and improve that.

[FiremanEd]

Speaking in generalities, always go with a legitimate offer. You can leave room for wiggle room to your ceiling, but nothing ends conversations quicker than giving an owner the vibe you’re trying to rip him off and think he’s uninformed. Values will always differ, so this can happen inadvertently, but some do take the lowball approach, which IMO is not good business and not how I try to win.

[Easy Breesy]

Speaking in generalities, always go with a legitimate offer. You can leave room for wiggle room to your ceiling, but nothing ends conversations quicker than giving an owner the vibe you’re trying to rip him off and think he’s uninformed. Values will always differ, so this can happen inadvertently, but some do take the lowball approach, which IMO is not good business and not how I try to win.

That's a fair point. Maybe my initial offers are just too low. Personally it doesn't annoy me if someone lowballs as long as they offera mofe fair trade after or take my counter seriously

[Bad News Barrett]

I always ignore lowball offers, will never counter because I assume the other guy/girls value is way off of mine

If it’s at least close and I’m interested, I’ll counter

Your second offer would have been declined/no countered

First offer I would have countered Samuel for something I was interested in. In fact, I just threw him out to a few owners because I was about to drop him, got a free late round pick instead of having to outright drop