Trade Etiquette Questions Thread

[Dynasty_Analyst]

I personally beileve that putting people on the block and announcing it to your whole league puts you at a disadvantage in negotiations. Why should I pay you a lot for this player you don't want?
Best way is probably through messaging either with a straight out offer or asking how they feel about player x or if there willing to trade player y. It's tough sending straight offers because I've gotten so many steals on trades but you send can't send out bush league offers to everyone or they won't want to talk to you.

[ckrumm24]

I'm going to be a dissenting opinion again. Saying you are "trying to move someone" or even saying "I will take best offer" (if you are moving an asset most people should be interested in) shouldn't devalue that player. If anything it creates urgency. Owners THINK you are going to move him and don't want to miss out just because they didn't inquire (I guess this doesn't apply if your league isn't very active). It's highly likely this would result in more offers and an opportunity to negotiate than if you tip toed around. If all of the offers suck, just decline them all. You don't have to move the player if they are all bad.
I'm assuming our difference in opinions is partially coming from the type of owners that you have in your league so I think that might be the biggest take away from this discussion... try to get an understand of each team owner, but also the group dynamic as well. For what its worth, I put my players on block, announce I'm trying to move them in our league chat and then go make my own inquiries to specific owners and go from there.

[clarion contrarion]

I don't know if my post rebutting "pinning owners against each others" got deleted or i just didn't post it, but I strongly disagree with that sentiment. You are just eBaying players, it is not Bush league. There's a way to do it tastefully and in a less obvious/public way.

agree 100% it is not bush league what is bush league is spilling specifics about offers as that undermines a current or future trade partners ability to manage his or her team. When dealing with owners I will absolutely say I am shopping this player or I am sorting offers for play X I have an offer of say a wr 2 or a late 1st - early 2nd round pick .... whatever but no names or specific picks get mentioned as that will be a tip off as to with whom I am negotiating. It is a market economy and someone is worth what you can get - just be assured the whiners in your league will whine and usually after a big deal or a nice get happens people always cry I would have given more . Yet they don't when presented with that opportunity. I have seen it a 100 times many by alleged dynasty veterans or big time managers .
Just gather as much information as you can process think about and make your best call . Know you will make mistakes and learn from them and tune out the whiners -
whiners whine
winners win
rarely are they related

[Ray Finkle]

don't be that guy that sends offers saying "what do you want for x?", those are the worst when they're never willing to make the first move. don't send long paragraphs how it's a great trade for the other guy, those are generally lies.

Yes! These two things are pretty much my only pet peeves in fantasy football and they equally jerk my chain. I don’t want to build a trade offer for you to obtain the guy you want and you don’t need to fill me in on how your player helps my team or spit roto blurbs at me.

There isn’t a lowball offer in the world that bothers me and any other shenanigans are all part of the fun imo.

[Ice]

I don't know if my post rebutting "pinning owners against each others" got deleted or i just didn't post it, but I strongly disagree with that sentiment. You are just eBaying players, it is not Bush league. There's a way to do it tastefully and in a less obvious/public way.

agree 100% it is not bush league what is bush league is spilling specifics about offers as that undermines a current or future trade partners ability to manage his or her team. When dealing with owners I will absolutely say I am shopping this player or I am sorting offers for play X I have an offer of say a wr 2 or a late 1st - early 2nd round pick .... whatever but no names or specific picks get mentioned as that will be a tip off as to with whom I am negotiating. It is a market economy and someone is worth what you can get - just be assured the whiners in your league will whine and usually after a big deal or a nice get happens people always cry I would have given more . Yet they don't when presented with that opportunity. I have seen it a 100 times many by alleged dynasty veterans or big time managers .
Just gather as much information as you can process think about and make your best call . Know you will make mistakes and learn from them and tune out the whiners -
whiners whine
winners win
rarely are they related

Agree 100% My post referenced "Openly" playing owners against each other. Integrity is an important component to trades if you ever hope to trade with that owner again.

[ckrumm24]

Agree 100% My post referenced "Openly" playing owners against each other. Integrity is an important component to trades if you ever hope to trade with that owner again.

I don't want to stray too far from the purpose of this thread for the the use of my own philosophical point of view, but I would challenge those who think openly playing owners against each other "lacks integrity". I DON'T do it and wouldn't recommend anyone else do it because there is a LARGE amount of fantasy owners who think it's bad form, leading to unnecessary tension or teams not wanting to trade with you. In reality, it's no different than auctioning anything else in life.....

[Ice]

Agree 100% My post referenced "Openly" playing owners against each other. Integrity is an important component to trades if you ever hope to trade with that owner again.

I don't want to stray too far from the purpose of this thread for the the use of my own philosophical point of view, but I would challenge those who think openly playing owners against each other "lacks integrity". I DON'T do it and wouldn't recommend anyone else do it because there is a LARGE amount of fantasy owners who think it's bad form, leading to unnecessary tension or teams not wanting to trade with you. In reality, it's no different than auctioning anything else in life.....

I attend many fundraisers annually. "Silent Auctions" are Good Form......Just saying...

[Bronco Billy]

Agree 100% My post referenced "Openly" playing owners against each other. Integrity is an important component to trades if you ever hope to trade with that owner again.

I think this comes down to knowing your league and what the other owners’ expectations are.

There are some leagues that are openly cutthroat where all owners know that anything and everything that the rules don’t expressly forbid is fair game. Owners enjoy taking advantage of each other and trying any tactics to get an upper hand, and can very good natured about pulling one over on another owner, or getting one pulled over on them.

Many other leagues have varying degrees of decorum and what is considered to be ethical/unethical behavior. If a FF lawyer or an owner out to screw anyone they can enter some of those leagues, they’ll find themselves getting blackballed or asked to leave quickly.

There’s nothing wrong with either setup, provided all owners understand what is/is not allowed and how owners are expected to treat each other up front. A lot of problems in leagues seem to occur when owners enter a league not understanding the moral makeup of the league and then expect others in the league to bend to their standards and level of behavior, or when rules are too vague or incomplete and then owners try to enforce their own expectations on others in the league - be it much looser or much tighter expectations of behavior.

Understanding your leaguemates and how they view different actions is at least half the battle in being successful in the league, as well as the success of the league itself. Like it is said, winning poker players get there by playing the other players more than by playing the cards.

[Ice]

Agree 100% My post referenced "Openly" playing owners against each other. Integrity is an important component to trades if you ever hope to trade with that owner again.

I think this comes down to knowing your league and what the other owners’ expectations are.

There are some leagues that are openly cutthroat where all owners know that anything and everything that the rules don’t expressly forbid is fair game. Owners enjoy taking advantage of each other and trying any tactics to get an upper hand, and can very good natured about pulling one over on another owner, or getting one pulled over on them.

Many other leagues have varying degrees of decorum and what is considered to be ethical/unethical behavior. If a FF lawyer or an owner out to screw anyone they can enter some of those leagues, they’ll find themselves getting blackballed or asked to leave quickly.

There’s nothing wrong with either setup, provided all owners understand what is/is not allowed and how owners are expected to treat each other up front. A lot of problems in leagues seem to occur when owners enter a league not understanding the moral makeup of the league and then expect others in the league to bend to their standards and level of behavior, or when rules are too vague or incomplete and then owners try to enforce their own expectations on others in the league - be it much looser or much tighter expectations of behavior.

Understanding your leaguemates and how they view different actions is at least half the battle in being successful in the league, as well as the success of the league itself. Like it is said, winning poker players get there by playing the other players more than by playing the cards.

[Cameron Giles]

I personally beileve that putting people on the block and announcing it to your whole league puts you at a disadvantage in negotiations. Why should I pay you a lot for this player you don't want?
Best way is probably through messaging either with a straight out offer or asking how they feel about player x or if there willing to trade player y. It's tough sending straight offers because I've gotten so many steals on trades but you send can't send out bush league offers to everyone or they won't want to talk to you.

Good post.

I think the trade block is fine when you're not shopping big-time pieces. You could put someone like Phillip Lindsay or Adam Thielen on the block and still get a fair offer.

But, if you put someone like Zeke or Michael Thomas on the block, then I'm going to assume you want an overpay and I'll be unlikely to do that. I'm not participating in bidding wars or going to be used as leverage. Also, some people use the block just to entertain offers and have no plans of actually moving the player. So, you're again at a point where you have to overpay.

I always find that I get the best deals when I don't broadcast who I want to move. I'll just quietly send offers to a few teams that have the players I'm targeting.

[never_punts]

When you send offers out about an asset you own do you inform the owners straight up "Player X is involved in other discussions"? Or do you not volunteer that info up front?

[Cameron Giles]

When you send offers out about an asset you own do you inform the owners straight up "Player X is involved in other discussions"? Or do you not volunteer that info up front?

I wouldn't say anything about those deals. Just send offers out and see who's going to offer what.

I think if you broadcast too much information, then you risk losing value and other owners backdooring your deals.

[Johnny B. Goode]

When you send offers out about an asset you own do you inform the owners straight up "Player X is involved in other discussions"? Or do you not volunteer that info up front?

I've had people tell me they are working on other deals with a guy in my trades.

I dont doubt they may have some proposed trades out there, but I felt like he was trying to make it sound like he had another buyer ready to go.

Both times this was used against me no other trade was completed, so I call BS.

There was a couple times I was working on multiple deals with the same player and the person I told that to called BS... within a couple hours I completed the trades I told him I had in my back pocket.

That being said, I dont think it's taken seriously if you do disclose that information

[Swids19]

In my leagues, guys will always say after a completed trade, "that I would have given you more IF you had made me an offer". So what I found that works best is if I decide I would be willing to trade a player or high draft pick (that everyone would want), I will post on our league's message board that said player/s or picks are available, that if you are interested please email me your best offer. I also include that if none of the offers are close to my liking then I will just hang onto my player/s or picks. I let the teams in the league bid against themselves. This has sometimes produced proposals that turned into completed traded or that I liked enough to send a counter-offer or let me see how the league values my player/s or picks.

If there is a particular player/s that I like from a team in the league, I would email the GM of that team first before going the route of the message board. But by using our league's message board, it gives all teams the same fair opportunity and no one can say they would have given more had they known.

[skinfanjon]

D9nt see this get talked about much, but...

If I send you an offer, I expect to see you reject before you send me a counter. Its BS to let an offer sit as active while you send me something else. Makes me assume that the initial offer was close but you want to see what else I'll agree to first. Not cool.