Is it just me?

[Luv2Roam]

Can't imagine it is.
I have been noticing lately that MANY of my traders appear to not be sending me their pin (I am guessing) until they receive mine.
For example, many I receive are postmarked 3 - 7 days after I have mailed mine.
Occasionally I experience this. But seems lately it happens more often than not.
I have read of a rash of recent bad trades from a few. Luckily, I have been okay, so far.
I am wondering what these traders would do if I didn't mail my pin, or for some reason they didn't receive it.
It's beginning to make me a little leery too.
It's not like I don't have references. I have LOTS, and many recent ones too.
Just wondering if anyone else is experiencing the same.

 

[Dizneypinz27]

Hey your not alone... In fact in a few cases recently I have sent out my pin and never received the pins from the other people after weeks of waiting. Its unfortunate, but if thats what it comes down to I guess I dont care all that much im not going to drive myself crazy for someone who does not want to live up to their end of the deal.

Ryan

 

[Swamp_Fox]

This may be a reach but possibly there are a few nervous postal workers out there especially with the past Anthrax scare and the mailbox bombs which may cause some delay.

Then you could be right with your guess of waiting to receive theirs before sending yours out.

Larry

 

[Luv2Roam]

I don't think the USPS is the hold up. I have found pretty consistently others mailing out their pins 5 - 7 days after I mail mine. (Postmark)
I am figuring they rec'd mine, THEN mailed thiers.
I am use to this happening occasionally. And I can understand if life gets in the way. (As has happened a few times and the traders just kept me updated.)
But this is getting to be quite common, almost the norm. And I have to say it's starting to turn me off.
If they aren't trusting enough, maybe they should back away for awhile.
JMHO

 

[3kids4me]

I had one pin lost that I sent to someone and I mailed another...no big deal. Also, once something being mailed to me never arrived. Also, no big deal.

But something that happened not too long ago was that I made an "easy trade" (one pin for one pin....mine was HTF though and so was hers, although I was able to find another) and neither of us received our pins. I just thought that was particularly strange, and I posted about it on dizpins to see if anyone else had had that experience. I think there were one or two people that had, but it seemed really bizarre to me.

As far as when people send their pins, I don't really pay attention. People get caught up with things in their family and sometimes can't mail on time. As long as it gets here, I don't mind. If it was because of a trust issue (as you think may be happening with people waiting to send their pins), then at least you would know that there would be more trust the next time on their part! I wouldn't worry about it too much, as long as things are getting to you.

 

[Mainepinpal]

Luv2Roam,
To try to avoid the problem of pins being sent at unequal times, I try reach a mutual agreement as to when we will "send pins", and then email each other when the pin is sent. As more and more new traders join the Boards and Pinpics, I find that many of them are not aware of some of the pin trading etiquette that more experienced traders have always used ( or used to).
Even more discouraging to me in pin trading this year has been the low return of responses to TA offers from Pinpics. How hard is it to send a reply with the original request and say "no, thanks"? This increasing lack of any response has gotten me discouraged at times to the point where I turn off the TA for a while. Fortunately, I have a network of friends in the pin trading community with whom I can trade on a regular basis.
Good luck and happy trading!
Penny

 

[cathy1140]

I noticed this when the state pins came out the last set of 12 months of magic..

One pin didn't come for nearly a month and I reported it... Like Mainepinpal says people don't response to their e-mail.. A note to explain what happened would make it much easier..

I always tell the person that I'm trading with when I send the package.. There were time that I couldn't get to the post office and several times I had so many trades that the one little package fell out of the bag and was in the trunk for a week!!... I emailed the person right away and mail it out the next day.

Mistakes happen.. But being rude is no excuse.

 

[Luv2Roam]

Oh what the hey -- I'll get back on my soapbox.
What gets me are the TA requests I get where I respond with a Yes to their request -- and hear nothing more. Not one word.
Now THAT is rude, IMHO.
Next...

 

[Mainepinpal]

Luv2Roam,
I'll join you on the soap box! I'm usually very quiet here on the boards - just a shy lurker, you know. But not responding when a trade has been agreed upon is rude. Yes, people can be busy, and I have occassionally been out of touch on a trip or something, and not everyone checks their email while traveling, so I usually cut people a lot of slack on this.
But... there have been a lot more non-responses, late responses, and incomplete trade discussions recently. What can we do?
I'm getting discouraged. I can't get to Disney for lots of events , and I have to rely on these boards and Pinpcs for trading for new pins. It is more frustrating and less fun that it used to be... except for, of course , all the good friends I have made over the years.
By the way, Cathy, welcome back for your trip to WDW! I can't wait to hear all about your first big pin event and all the great pins you got ( I hope)!
Penny

 

[Michigander]

I am amazed to read this because I just sent the same type of email to a friend just venting about this. The first time I experienced it, I just thought the person was not trusting me. I made a 2nd trade with the same guy and he did it again. Both times, he SWORE to me that he mailed the pins at a certain time. They both arrived with a date on them much later than he said but the KICKER here is ... both pins arrived in the LBEs that I sent his pins in. Yes, I couldn't believe how a person wouldn't think I might figure that out ... duh! It happend again last week with a trader using my return address label as the address label on the LBE she said she sent a few days before. I've never corresponded with her before so she couldn't have my label without getting my pin first. If we both wait for the other to send it, neither will get the pin and both of us will sit around thinking the other is a crook! To me ... the person who says they are mailing the pin on such and such a day ... and doesn't but also doesn't tell you this, is the crook.

Now, I have another trade that was agreed on back on June 24th. I sent my pin insured and was told that he would be sending mine. I have not received it yet and he's not replying to my email inquiries. So ... I have given him until Monday and will have to report him after that.

This is so discouraging and disheartening. I will not be wanting to make any trades with folks other than people I've already dealt with and trust. I will also need to look into third party trades with pins that are lower LE and hard to get such as this last trade that I'm still waiting on. Then, again, maybe I'll just forget the whole thing. Why do something that causes you anxiety? Stick with face to face trading.

Michigander

 

[Luv2Roam]

I have to say I am getting discouraged too. I even have a few old trades out. One at least responded and apologized. Which is no problem at all. I plan on being here. If I'm not, then I won't care anyway!
The other -- well it is heading south. I am hoping it will work out. But it's a newbie and I am not getting any response.
I have traded a lot lately and my repeats are sending as agreed. It the new traders (new to me) that aren't mailing as agreed. At least, except for the one, I did receive the pins.
The last one I just received, I decided to do as they did.
I normally e-mail to say I received their pin and leave a reference. This last one, I did as they did and didn't notify when I received it and didn't leave a reference.
Guess that's all I can think to do. I am anal rententive enough to fret and stew if I cannot mail a pin as agreed. I must be a minority in that aspect.
I have been finding it too odd also on the number of TA requests I respond Yes to, only never to hear from them again. Most lately have been Japan traders. Just when I had decided to stop responding to any Japan traders, one responded in a timely manner today. And usually Japan traders are so good in every area.
I have been keeping an e-mail folder of those I agree to only never to hear from again on it. Figure they are off my list.
Maybe it's just that time of year.
But if traders are that busy, why are they sending TA's?
Okay -- I am done griping for the evening. (maybe)

 

[3kids4me]

One quick thought that was inspired by the last post. Everyone always talks about how fair and polite the Japanese traders are. And many of the ones I have traded with are exactly that. But they are just people like us, and I have encountered some recently that are not as nice as many of the other traders I have dealt with.

Here was my worst experience: I had a big trade negotiation going with a Japanese woman once. Previously I had only traded pin for pin, but she really wanted to trade about 10 pins for 10 pins, which took a lot of back and forth. It took several days for her to respond each time, so we went slowly. She said she was very busy at work and expressed concern that I wouldn't keep her pins, and I told her not to worry, that I would hold all the pins she was interested in until we could figure everything out.

Anyway, in the course of getting them ready (we hadn't nailed down everything yet, but I wanted to wrap each one and put it away in a drawer), I noticed that one was broken. So I e-mailed her and told her. I only had the one (wasn't keeping one for myself) and since have learned that there have been a few manufacturing problems with that pin (April Fool's 2002 WDW). Anyway, after I e-mailed her, she got mad that I couldn't send her that pin. I was holding eight others for her, and she just said someting to the effect of "forget the whole thing". I was very upset about it, especially because I kept hearing how polite the Japanese traders are. Plus, I had set aside a lot of pins for her that weren't being traded!

So now, whenever I get ready to send out a TA request, I go in and delete any requests that are going to her.

Another Japanese trader did something similar but in a more polite way. He asked me to set aside about five pins for him, and then after a week or so he decided he really didn't need any of them but wanted to just trade for the original request.

I think there are sharks in every culture, and nice people of course too. It's hard, and there have been times I have been tempted to turn off the TA. But like you said, you can try to trade with the same people, or just trade one pin so you don't get angry when someone waits to send you theirs, and then you can take them off your list for the next trade. I have to admit that I have never looked at a postmark so I don't even know if this has been happening to me at all, but I do agree it was pretty tacky for that one trader to use your envelope to mail back to you...lol!!

 

[Michigander]

I agree. I can't think of anything else to do either except not respond when the pin FINALLY arrives and to not leave a reference. I don't think that helps us or does any damage to the poor sport pin trader but what else can we do?

I have always gone a little too overboard in communicating with my traderer. I tell them when I plan to mail it, then I email when I have mailed it, I email when I've received theirs and let them know I'm putting in a reference. Maybe some people don't like all the email traffice but I do ... I want to know where we stand at all times.

I'm getting burnt out by these latest incidents and I'm going to take a step back and look the situation over before making a decision on what I'm going to do in the future. On the whole, 95% of my traders have been great so it's crazy to dump the whole thing because of a few bad eggs. Problem is ... it's like a big thorn in my side and I can't let it go. Bah!

Anyway, thanks to all of you who have traded fairly and communicated well. That's very much appreciated.

Michigander

 

[JudithM]

"Stick with face to face trading."

I guess I have to laugh at this comment because the one & only time I have been "burned" so far is a face to face trade at a local pin meet . I didn't have pinpics in front of me, & I believed what the trader told me. I'm supposed to be trading back the pins, but I'll believe it when I see the pins again.

I've gotten to the point lately where most of my trades are with folks I "know" from previous trades. It is kind of like we watch out for one another .

I, too, try to keep the other trader up-to-date with where I am in the trade. Now there are times, when for whatever reason, there will be a delay. I usually email with an brief explanation. Like Luv2Roam, I try to keep track of each trader. Some traders I am more than willing to trade with again & others are on my do not trade again . Very personal & subjective ...

 

[Quasi123]

Hi everyone! I know these are probably dumb questions but I'm new here.
What is a TA request?
How do you leave a reference with someone?