How do I get the league to start trading?

[UPS 0]

You got it. 6th week and nobody has made a trade yet. Ive made several fair trade offers onlly to be rejected and upon further review, I discovered no one yet, has made a trade. Im assuming other owners have made similar trade offers to others.

 

I think owners are stupid or in love with loser players. Ive made offers for Moss, L Jordan, and Culpepper just to spice things up but with no avail.

 

My team sucks (2-3) and I see the 4-1 teams running away with it all because trades are always being dissaproved or rejected by owners.

 

Ive had more fun in free leagues

[mobb_deep 919]

My keeper league just entered our 4th year and I'm the only one that's made a trade the ENTIRE time.

 

I made 2 trades this year and 1 each of the previous 3 seasons. Everyone in my league "talks" about trading but none of them have the testicular fortitude to actually pull the trigger.

[gvn2fly 0]

My keeper league just entered our 4th year and I'm the only one that's made a trade the ENTIRE time.

 

I made 2 trades this year and 1 each of the previous 3 seasons. Everyone in my league "talks" about trading but none of them have the testicular fortitude to actually pull the trigger.

 

Technically speaking, that is impossible

 

You got it. 6th week and nobody has made a trade yet. Ive made several fair trade offers onlly to be rejected and upon further review, I discovered no one yet, has made a trade. Im assuming other owners have made similar trade offers to others.

 

I think owners are stupid or in love with loser players. Ive made offers for Moss, L Jordan, and Culpepper just to spice things up but with no avail.

 

My team sucks (2-3) and I see the 4-1 teams running away with it all because trades are always being dissaproved or rejected by owners.

 

Ive had more fun in free leagues

 

Most of the coaches in my league seem to be worried about losing face by being taken advantage of in a trade. Most seem to lack the self-confidence to evaluate a trade. They just assume that if I'm offering it to them, that I'm trying to screw them over in the process. Kind of makes things boring, but I keep trying.

[mambokings 0]

I hate leagues where trades aren't frequent. It's the spice of FF. Wheeling and dealing is what I enjoy most about FF, aside from draft day. I've been in leagues where trades don't occur, and I've noticed some similarities among the types of people in them. They're either full of people who don't know **** about FF and therefore too afraid of making a mistake or you've got the types who think their team is full of all stars and demand nothing less in return. Or you've got the type who thinks that Ron Dayne for Shaun Alexander is an even swap, and sends you constant IM messages saying "wtf is wrong with you? Alexander's not even playing!".

[DanXIII 8]

You won't.

 

My $$$ league is in its 11th season and I can count on one hand the TOTAL number of trades for all 11 years. Everyone is either too paranoid or too greedy (or both) to make a deal that is anything close to fair. They all assume that the person offering the deal knows something they don't know so they try to up the ante to the point that the deals always die.

 

Sad but true.

[joesmith 0]

One question I would ask is how large are your rosters? In my league we used to have very small rosters and there was never any trading because very good players could be had from the waiver wire. Now we have 9 active positions and 8 reserve for a total of 17. With rosters of this size in a 12-team league there is absolutely nothing available on the wire. We have had a TON of trading this year, in both my redraft and my keeper leagues.

 

However, I do think that trading comes down to the personalities in your league. We may have a ton of trading, but almost always it is initiated by or includes one of a few key people. What this has done though, is get more people thinking about, offering, and completing trades.

 

Try large rosters and give your league members time (my leagues are 6 and 8 years old now).

 

My 2 cents.

[mobb_deep 919]

Technically speaking, that is impossible

 

 

Haha, yah true. To rephrase, I'm the only one that has pursued or offered a trade that has actually been accepted in the history of our league. Obviously another manager would have to be involved in order for a trade to happen.

[typhus 13]

One question I would ask is how large are your rosters? In my league we used to have very small rosters and there was never any trading because very good players could be had from the waiver wire. Now we have 9 active positions and 8 reserve for a total of 17. With rosters of this size in a 12-team league there is absolutely nothing available on the wire. We have had a TON of trading this year, in both my redraft and my keeper leagues.

 

However, I do think that trading comes down to the personalities in your league. We may have a ton of trading, but almost always it is initiated by or includes one of a few key people. What this has done though, is get more people thinking about, offering, and completing trades.

 

Try large rosters and give your league members time (my leagues are 6 and 8 years old now).

 

My 2 cents.

 

You nailed it head on ,,

 

If you want to increase trading than increase roster sizes and starting posistions, adding starting posistions kind of plays hand in hand with increasing roster sizes since it keeps teams from hoarding players as a "defensive" move in a league.

 

Trades are spawned often through desperation in leagues in which waiver wire gems are few and far between.

 

When owners are desperate for starters in these type of leagues, you would be amazed at the amount of trades/proposals that are made on a daily basis.

[Mephisto 15]

It's a tough proposition. Not only is it "love" for certain players... too many times people prefer to revel in the struggles of others and not make offers to people in need to get things moving.

 

I have a good, long-time crew and trades don't happen too often and I'm usually the one who does most. Sometimes, just convincing another guy in the league to do a "nothing for nothing" trade to try and get things moving.

 

I started two weeks ago by swapping tight-ends with another owner. George Wrighster for Randy McMichael.

 

Didn't spark much from others, but at least yesterday I pulled off two additional trades. Maybe that will get owners chatting amongst each other.

[FantasyChick 0]

You'd guys love one of the leagues I am in..............3 trades just today. Bye weeks make people crazy or could it be that today is Friday the 13th?

[mobb_deep 919]

You'd guys love one of the leagues I am in..............3 trades just today. Bye weeks make people crazy or could it be that today is Friday the 13th?

 

Can I be in your league?

[Phurfur 70]

You got it. 6th week and nobody has made a trade yet. Ive made several fair trade offers onlly to be rejected and upon further review, I discovered no one yet, has made a trade. Im assuming other owners have made similar trade offers to others.

 

I think owners are stupid or in love with loser players. Ive made offers for Moss, L Jordan, and Culpepper just to spice things up but with no avail.

 

My team sucks (2-3) and I see the 4-1 teams running away with it all because trades are always being dissaproved or rejected by owners.

 

Ive had more fun in free leagues

 

 

The problem with trades are 1) People making ridiculous offers. Ex. People picking someone up off waivers and trying to trade him. If I wanted him I would have picked him up. 2) league approval, many leagues have so many trades rejected people stop trying.

 

I have made 3 proposals and have received 1 but they have all been rejected. I am not upset, I try to improve my team and if trades don't work I use the waiver wire. Life goes on.

[drasgear 0]

Same here. We had 1 trade our first 4 years. Then we added 2 teams to make a 12 man league and upped the roster to 8 starters and 7 reserves (from 6 reserves). That got trading moving along as there are not many decent ww pickups. We've had 8 trades this year already.

[IN$TANT REPAY 8]

You nailed it head on ,,

 

If you want to increase trading than increase roster sizes and starting posistions, adding starting posistions kind of plays hand in hand with increasing roster sizes since it keeps teams from hoarding players as a "defensive" move in a league.

 

Trades are spawned often through desperation in leagues in which waiver wire gems are few and far between.

 

When owners are desperate for starters in these type of leagues, you would be amazed at the amount of trades/proposals that are made on a daily basis.

 

 

Not necessarily.

 

There has been more trading in my 10 team league than my 12 team league. In my 10 team league we have a smaller bench. There are always players on the waiver wire once the bye weeks fire up. There is only a shortage of QBs in that league because we start two. And it is better to have a quality QB inorder to win.

 

In my 10 team league we have 22 players on the roster and we start 17 which leaves us with 5 bench. In my 12 team league we have a roster full of 16 players/positons and we only start 8. There is hardly anything on the waiver wire in that league...and we have only had one trade so far. In the 12 team league there are only 6 teams that are at .500 or above. That is half of the league. In the 10 team league there are only 5 teams that are at .500 or above. That is half of the league.

 

To me, IT ALL DEPENDS ON THE ATTITUDES OF THE OWNERS. If some are content with losing, then they might not see the point or have the urge to shake of the rosters. Smart owners know that FF is like the stock market. A player that is hot today, might be cold tomorrow.....and vice-versa. And the regular season and the playoffs are two different seasons.

 

Another potential reason for the lack of trades in one of my leagues takes me back to the "scoring is down this season" thread. Some owners think that their guys might turn it around soon. So why would they move potential early to middle round studs like LT2, Chad Johnson, TO, Carson Palmer, Peyton Manning, Shaun Alexander (when healthy), Portis (when injured) or Caddy? And then there are plyers like Moss or Edge, who might not command what their owners might wish for in return.

 

So far there have been about 6 trades in the league with the smaller bench (just added Berrian, Furrey and Bryant Johnson in the past 10 days) and only 1 trade in my league with nothing on the WW. My last pick up was Herron in that league.

 

Like I said, to me it has little to do with benches or roster size....and more to do with the individuals and their philosophies.

[Nichee 0]

I usually will trade once or twice a season in my league. I'm usually the first to do it. Once I do, it usually spurs a few other teams to try to get something going.

 

I usually get stuff done because I'll analyze another team's roster for weak spots or surpluses of talent and make a fair offer. It might mean that I only look at 2 or 3 teams that I can deal with but so be it. Then, I don't lowball. I send a legitimate offer.

 

Just this week, I traded Lav. Coles and Rex Grossman to a QB-starved team for Chad Johnson. I'm banking that he'll return to stud form and I'm giving the other team 2 guys that will immediately go into his starting lineup. If things go as planned, it'll be a win-win for both sides, but obviously either of us could end being the loser in this.

[Journeymen 0]

In the league I'm in (for the fifth out of six years) we hadn't had much action at all. There were maybe three or four of the 12 owners making any noise through preseason changing out bench players and making pickups after the season had started. To me, that's unacceptable. For one, it doesn't make the league competitive. Secondly, it lowers the pot. Thirdly, It doesn't allow for the bad owners to make bad drops and bad adds and bad trades with any frequency (can almost always count on some weird drop or weird trade).

 

After a couple of weeks of two total trades, and many of my offers going unnoticed or unnegotiated (I probably toss out about ten feeler trade proposals a week just to see what talks I can get going while I always make a pickup every week if someone interests me and I have someone with little long-term value on my bench) I had to do something I normally wouldn't do -- I called every team out and ran down their roster (it was easier since I was then and still am undefeated) and gave them props for their depth/strengths, but tore into their weaknesses or bad players. It seemed to help jumpstart activity, and there have been a few biggish trades, and a few chipshot kind of trades (Buckhalter to the Westbrook owner for Maurice Jones-Drew for example). This is a good sign, though the players I have the most interest in acquiring are on the teams of the two owners who are the least attentive and active in the league. Still trying there. Been trying to get Tatum Bell for three weeks now from one of them and almost got something worked out. Then he disappeared.

 

But it does help to dilute the waiver wire pool by adding roster spots and starting a 3rd receiver instead of just 2. That's something I think I'll pitch before our draft next year, since it's a good idea. (If Roddy White's the best WR on the wire, you HAVE to make a trade...)

[Patriotsfatboy1 1,432]

You cannot change the personality of the league.

 

Some leagues trash talk. Some don't.

 

Some leagues interact outside of the season. Some don't

 

Some leagues trade and some don't.

 

My main league is a league where there are at most 4 trades a season. I am usually part of 3 of those. Most of the other guys think that working the waiver wire is their best bet.

 

You have to get into leagues where the personality of the league is social and fun. If guys are going to interact, there are going to be trades. Most of our trades are initiated over beers at the neighborhood campfire. If you don't speak during the season, your trades will be infrequent.

[Nichee 0]

You have to get into leagues where the personality of the league is social and fun. If guys are going to interact, there are going to be trades. Most of our trades are initiated over beers at the neighborhood campfire. If you don't speak during the season, your trades will be infrequent.

 

Good point, same experience here.

[hotgumbo1 12]

You got it. 6th week and nobody has made a trade yet. Ive made several fair trade offers onlly to be rejected and upon further review, I discovered no one yet, has made a trade. Im assuming other owners have made similar trade offers to others.

 

I think owners are stupid or in love with loser players. Ive made offers for Moss, L Jordan, and Culpepper just to spice things up but with no avail.

 

My team sucks (2-3) and I see the 4-1 teams running away with it all because trades are always being dissaproved or rejected by owners.

 

Ive had more fun in free leagues

Yoo offered those players to "spice things up?"

No wonder there aren't any trades.

[waterwolves 0]

We have had very few trades. I think the owners in my money league all want to rob you for your talent. Example: I have 4 stud backs on my team. Portis, Jackson, T. Jones, and C. Taylor. I took a chance and a big hit at QB to draft these guys. I took Warner with my first pick. So I could use a QB right? Well there is this guy who has Grossmen, Bulger, and Brees. You would think we could make a deal right? He keeps offering me Brees for Jones!! I have A. Smith ,who has outscored Brees so far, and Brunell. Give me a break man. If he wants a RB he is going to have to part with Grossmen or screw off. I told him this and he gave a line of crap that I wouldn't find anything better on the WW. If the offers are always rob jobs or studs for duds they can suck my A$$!!!!!!!!!!1

[madd futher mucker 36]

We have had very few trades. I think the owners in my money league all want to rob you for your talent. Example: I have 4 stud backs on my team. Portis, Jackson, T. Jones, and C. Taylor. I took a chance and a big hit at QB to draft these guys. I took Warner with my first pick. So I could use a QB right? Well there is this guy who has Grossmen, Bulger, and Brees. You would think we could make a deal right? He keeps offering me Brees for Jones!! I have A. Smith ,who has outscored Brees so far, and Brunell. Give me a break man. If he wants a RB he is going to have to part with Grossmen or screw off. I told him this and he gave a line of crap that I wouldn't find anything better on the WW. If the offers are always rob jobs or studs for duds they can suck my A$$!!!!!!!!!!1

 

Brees for T.Jones wouldn't be a bad trade for you at all! You are hurting at QB and stacked at RB. Part of the problem in your league may be people with attitudes like yours........you will cut off your nose to spite your face, ie not improve your team unless you feel sure you got the better of the trade. And then telling a guy to screw off is definitely gonna encourage him to trade with you, right? Rob jobs? T.Jones isn't exactly god's gifft to fantasy football and Brees aint exactly chopped liver. Wake up. Nobody will ever trade with you.

[madd futher mucker 36]

The main reasons that many leagues have trouble making trades have been revealed here:

1. Leagues where too many trades get vetoed or rejected based on 'league balance', especially when other owners get to vote.

2. Arrogant owners who overvalue their own players, won't trade unless they can feel that they screwed the other guy, and then tell the person that proposed the trade "do you think I'm a complete idiot? Go f()ck yourself."

3. Owners who constantly pitch lowball trades, and don't consider the other owners team needs are not going to make very many trades either.

 

The key to makling trades is offering trades THAT YOU YOURSELF WOULD ACCEPT IF YOU HAD HIS TEAM, but that also help your own team.

[waterwolves 0]

Brees for T.Jones wouldn't be a bad trade for you at all! You are hurting at QB and stacked at RB. Part of the problem in your league may be people with attitudes like yours........you will cut off your nose to spite your face, ie not improve your team unless you feel sure you got the better of the trade. And then telling a guy to screw off is definitely gonna encourage him to trade with you, right? Rob jobs? T.Jones isn't exactly god's gifft to fantasy football and Brees aint exactly chopped liver. Wake up. Nobody will ever trade with you.

 

 

Oh I understand so I'm suppose to give him a top RB. Have you seen T. Jones lately? Oh he is tied for 5th in the league in rushing!!!!!! and he is suppose to give me a QB like Bree's when I have a better QB on my team. So How does that help me? I would start A. Smith before Brees almost everytime. The way I look at it is this. Even with Portis and Jackson I feel I could start Jones if one has a bad match up. So I will use Jones but I don't need Brees at all. He is hurting at RB worse then I am hurting at QB. Hell Smith has out preformed Brees to date. You must be the dumba$$ that proposed the trade. Nice try buddy. Jones is an emerging Stud RB. I think I will wait for something better or I will keep my RB's and go to war with smith before I give a STUD (Jones) for a dud (Bree's).

[madd futher mucker 36]

I am involved in 3 leagues with two different scoring formats. With both formats, Brees is about 12th among QB's and T.Jones is about 16th among RBs. They are both 2nd tier players at their respective positions - solid starters, neither studs nor duds.

 

You may argue that Jones is worth more than Brees and I would respect that argument. But you won't convince me that Brunell or Smith are better than Brees. Smith is outperforming Brees by about 2 whole FP for the year, and Brunell is several places behind both. IMO having an additional 2nd tier QB to allow you to play better weekly match-ups is a better strategy than keeping T.Jones on your bench as 4th RB. But suit yourself.

 

I don't take issue with your decision not to make this trade. I take issue with your ATTITUDE toward the trade proposal and the manner in which you rejected it. You will find that very few other owners will ever WANT to do business with you, and in the long run your teams will suffer because of both your arrogance and your inability to analyze trades, or make reasonable counter-offers.

[waterwolves 0]

I am involved in 3 leagues with two different scoring formats. With both formats, Brees is about 12th among QB's and T.Jones is about 16th among RBs. They are both 2nd tier players at their respective positions - solid starters, neither studs nor duds.

 

You may argue that Jones is worth more than Brees and I would respect that argument. But you won't convince me that Brunell or Smith are better than Brees. Smith is outperforming Brees by about 2 whole FP for the year, and Brunell is several places behind both. IMO having an additional 2nd tier QB to allow you to play better weekly match-ups is a better strategy than keeping T.Jones on your bench as 4th RB. But suit yourself.

 

I don't take issue with your decision not to make this trade. I take issue with your ATTITUDE toward the trade proposal and the manner in which you rejected it. You will find that very few other owners will ever WANT to do business with you, and in the long run your teams will suffer because of both your arrogance and your inability to analyze trades, or make reasonable counter-offers.

 

 

You are assuming that I freaked out on him when I reject his offer which is not the case. I told him That I was not interested in any of his QB's and this is why.

 

Brees- He is his worst QB. I think we can agree on that much. I have Smith which IMO is a QB on the same level as Bree's so if I was to trade for Bree's I don't feel I am improving my team at all. (You mentioned playing match ups and that is what I do with Brunell and Smith) Point is I don't need Brees.

 

Bulger- He is the level of QB I am looking for but the there is a major problem. I have S. Jackson and I don't want Bulger because it will cap my team.

 

Grossman- I don't want Grossman because IMO he has a high chance of getting injured and I am not a believer. Not that he would offer Grossman but still I am not interested in him.

 

I gave him the same explanation. I then proceeded to thank him for the offer. (even though it did not even remotely make my team better and it gave him a solid #2 RB borderline Stud that he can plug in to his line up for the rest of the year) To me it doesn't matter if I am not using Jones I won't lose my A$$ on a trade for anything.

 

Oh yeah he is project to lose by double digits this week because he is starting Jamal Lewis and B. Jacobs at RB. LMAO and next week everyone of his QB's is on a bye. I do believe that he is up ShiiTTTEEEEssss creek. If I was him I would have came to me and offered Grossman and Lewis to me for Smith and Jones. I would have looked at that as a fair trade and most likely would have pulled the trigger. Oh well it's not me that is going to lose the next 2 weeks to fall to 2- 5 and be out of the playoff picture.

[madd futher mucker 36]

We have had very few trades. I think the owners in my money league all want to rob you for your talent.

 

If he wants a RB he is going to have to part with Grossmen or screw off. I told him this...

 

Go back and read your original post. Now you tell me that you gave him a polite explanation of your thinking and then proceded to thank him for his offer? Do you have multiple personality disorder or are you merely schitzophrenic?

[waterwolves 0]

Go back and read your original post. Now you tell me that you gave him a polite explanation of your thinking and then proceded to thank him for his offer? Do you have multiple personality disorder or are you merely schitzophrenic?

 

 

I was polite. That is what I told him just not in not so many words. I then told him I was not interested in any of his QB's.

[Thornton Melon 549]

Same here. We had 1 trade our first 4 years. Then we added 2 teams to make a 12 man league and upped the roster to 8 starters and 7 reserves (from 6 reserves). That got trading moving along as there are not many decent ww pickups. We've had 8 trades this year already.

 

My league has 8 starters and only 5 reserves. Every year, I plead for just 1 more bench spot to stimulate trades, and to reduce the need to drop decent players for bye week and injury fill ins. I get shot down every year. In 11 years, there have been maybe a dozen trades, and I've been involved in most of them. I don't mind, though, 'cuz we're all crotchety old focks who fear change....

[mozzy84 0]

You have to get into leagues where the personality of the league is social and fun. If guys are going to interact, there are going to be trades. Most of our trades are initiated over beers at the neighborhood campfire. If you don't speak during the season, your trades will be infrequent.

this is true, I am in 3 money leagues and the one where we go to the bar for pickup night every couple weeks, trades go down every night because everyone is there face to face, sending offers and counter offers, its pretty fun..

[RollingThunder 0]

Well I guess I should feel better after seeing im not the only in the slow trading league boat (misery supposedly likes company im told)But I guess while I feel some relief, I also am starting to think its hopeless.

 

I am in a 10 owner dynasty league(10th year) with 30man rosters.No, it has not really helped trading even with unrestricted trading.Here are the common trading struggles I have encountered....despite having built a solid team with surpluses to trade.

 

1) You make an offer and they never get back to you

 

2) You make and offer and they seem intrigued but need to think on it, wich entails a long protracted wait whilst they talk it over with one of their buddies in the league who convinces them not to do it(serious concerns that the advice has more to do with themselves then the owner you made the offer to)or to demand much more.(despite whether you made a slight under offer, solid equal offer, or immensly over offer)

 

3) Long wait takes too long and you finally give up on it or the needed timing has expired.

 

4) Long wait continues on and on as they still have not figured out what color the sky is in thier world

 

5) You make an offer but are strongly rejected with detailed nastiness at what idiot you are and how all their players you are interested in are superstars and all your players even if its peyton manning or tomlinson are either crap or risky average joe players.

 

6) You make an offer and they reject despite you offering a package that they need or express interest in....but they never counter offer or even explore that option.

 

7) You wait patiently but no offers come in, and if you are on cbs sportsline you begin to wonder if anyone even looks at the trade block page.

 

8) You reciever offers but only on your hot prospects as in the player who just had big write up in the media and or had big outing etc...and then its a lowball offer on carson palmer..that you would expect to recieve instead on raiders andrew walter.

 

9) You recieve offers on cbssportline trade block players but find yourself searching thru the site and that tradeblock page wondering where does it say instead of players on the trade block "my teams fire sale...all these players must go any offer accepted" as all the offers you get seem to be following this line of thinking.

 

10) You attempt to thoughtfully counter offer proposed offers you recieved, with offers that would legitimately work for you and the other owner...but are flatly refused or....see 5

 

11) You find any trade talk beyond its initial stage always turns quickly to them getting important pieces of your starting lineup but always quickly stops once any of their top players are mentioned.

 

12) You find much trade interest in your superstar (Tomlinson) and while you dont want to deal him you consider it some since you might have the depth the pull it off, especially if you get the value your looking for in return so you give a price that it would take to move him...you get laughed at for being an idiot and how no player is worth that and you are crazy and too greedy...so you turn around the very next week and offer them the same and more of what you were asking for him to get Cadillac Williams and are told "No Way!"

 

 

I clearly dont have the answers to solving the trade riddle. I know this, that its as frustrating as all hell when you have a weakness on your team you would like to fix and you cant because you simply cannot get anything close to a fair deal...many times cant even get an unfair deal(and i mean unfair to you) that atleast would help your team.Doesnt matter if the team that has what you need and in abundance has a weakness that is your strength with depth...still many times its no deal. Its like everyone is sitting back just waiting for the big rape/deal steal of the century instead of dealing in good faith and trying to build good trade relations for future needs.

 

My trade approach is that i research what im looking for, what the teams that have what i need should be looking for, and what I can offer thats attractive and of equal or more value.My hope is if i do get a trade that the next trade with them will be easier(still waiting on that one) On the bright side many of the best trades I have made...actually were many of the multitude of offers I have thrown out there over the years that never were accepted or blatantly refused.Good luck to all of you out there in your trade endeavors sometimes they do actually happen.

[yanko 11]

You won't.

 

My $$$ league is in its 11th season and I can count on one hand the TOTAL number of trades for all 11 years. Everyone is either too paranoid or too greedy (or both) to make a deal that is anything close to fair. They all assume that the person offering the deal knows something they don't know so they try to up the ante to the point that the deals always die.

 

Sad but true.

 

That's true but I've made deals in leagues like that. You just have to be a good salesman and not be afraid to sweeten the pot to get the deal done. The only time deals don't get done is when both sides are too afraid to make a deal.

[davidbostonisgood 2]

We have had very few trades. I think the owners in my money league all want to rob you for your talent. Example: I have 4 stud backs on my team. Portis, Jackson, T. Jones, and C. Taylor. I took a chance and a big hit at QB to draft these guys. I took Warner with my first pick. So I could use a QB right? Well there is this guy who has Grossmen, Bulger, and Brees. You would think we could make a deal right? He keeps offering me Brees for Jones!! I have A. Smith ,who has outscored Brees so far, and Brunell. Give me a break man. If he wants a RB he is going to have to part with Grossmen or screw off. I told him this and he gave a line of crap that I wouldn't find anything better on the WW. If the offers are always rob jobs or studs for duds they can suck my A$$!!!!!!!!!!1

I take it this is your first year of playing fantasy football?

[madd futher mucker 36]

I sympathize and can relate with all the points you made. (I also hate sportsline as a ff site.)

 

I think I've lead every league I've been in in # of trades over the last 4 years. Only about 1 of 8 or 10 trade offers I've made results in a trade. That doesn't stop me from averaging about 3 trade offers per week per league throughout the season. Like my mom once told my sister, you have to kiss a lot of frogs to get a prince - or something like that.

 

This year I was invited into an existing keeper league by the commishioner who is a friend of mine. He said the reason he asked me to take over a team there, is because he wanted to get more trading going in that league. I arrived early before the supplemental draft party, got a round of beers for the other early birds, and told them that I was known in my other leagues as the MADD TRADER - no reasonable offers will be refused! 1/2 hour later, by the time we started the draft, I had already moved 3 of my 8 keepers.

 

The first post-draft deal that I made was vetoed by league vote. I gave a very good and tactful argument for why the veto was more harmful to the league than approving the trade would have been, and I told them not to expect that I would waste any more of my time proposing trades to them. The weekend of week 3, two of the vetoers emailed me and told me they wish they hadn't vetoed, and encouraged me to start trading again, and promised to take up the league vote rule after the season is over. I've completed 3 more trades in that league since then. My commish is amazed. Some guys that never made a trade proposal before are starting to make 'em - not everyone, of course. There has only been 1 trade in this league that I haven't been involved in, but there was only one trade made in the league all of last year.

 

I do a lot of trades because I make a lot of reasonable offers, and I let the league know that I am willing to consider all offers. Also I do not try to win every trade! In some cases, I KNOW that the other guy got the best of the deal, but if it also improved my team, so what? I love giving reasonable 2 for 1 trades, even if I only upgrade slightly and may have given up more total value, because I am quick to teh free agent pool and use it as an extended roster. Trading takes a lot of effort, but if you learn how to trade well, you can really improve your team.

 

FYI, here are the 8 Keepers I started with, and here Is my 4-1 team 5 weeks later:

Keepers: R.Brown, C.Brown, Vick, Wayne, Driver, Jones, H.Miller, Stevens

Present team 12 teamer):

Grossman, Favre, Gradkowski, C.Taylor, F.Taylor, McAllister, Washington, Driver, Wayne, Roy Will, R.Moss, Jennings, Bry.Johnson, Colston(dual elig), Gould, DEN

[kcBlitzkrieg 18]

This is only year two of my main $$ keeper league & there has been a total of ONE trade during that period, involving myself and my co-trader. We are the only two who even talk about making trades. I agree from what several of the early posters in this thread stated about "self confidence" and the "fear" of getting taken advantage of. I think this is the main reason that trades don't get done in many leagues...one view of that is that those teams are only hurting themselves and you are at an advantage because the others won't try to improve their teams, the other is that you have trouble making improvements to your own team because of the lack of involvement. Another league Im in for the first time this season I have made three trades and there have been at least 6 trades.....personally I like the possibility to make a trade & improve your team if need be, Id rather play in a "trade friendly" league but if you're not then that makes the draft all that much important....and challenging, which I also enjoy.

[davidbostonisgood 2]

Reflecting on most of the leagues I've been a part of, it seems like most of the trading goes on between teams that are in the lowest quartile of the league. Since I've been playing, the top teams rarely trade, and they do their work on the waiver wire.

[urmother 0]

well, when you come yup with yoru league rules, don't do anything that could dissuade trasding/ ie. make waiverpickups add $2 to thepot, but make trades free. create a system that encourages everyone to shuffle players.

[RollingThunder 0]

Reflecting on most of the leagues I've been a part of, it seems like most of the trading goes on between teams that are in the lowest quartile of the league. Since I've been playing, the top teams rarely trade, and they do their work on the waiver wire.

 

In the leagues I have been in, the stronger teams tend to be the ones more open to trades and more sucessful at getting them.The the weaker quarter sometimes do as well but usually they are the trades you look at and ask why?Unfortunately, you can only trade with the same teams so much(especially when they become your toughest competitors and or their needs mirror yours)

 

My take on the biggest obstacle to trades is how people value players and what resources they use to decide or help supplement their opinion. That coupled with many owners approach trades like they are hunting for the deal of the century at the local garage sale! They are not very interested in any deal that involves risk.

 

Its been my experience that you can guarantee an owner to further overvalue his player by simply making offer on them.We have 30man rosters with the ability to protect 20 for next season and I tell you I have been sorely tempted to tender false offers just to fool them into protecting the wrong guys LOL. Lord knows that heaven forbid I actually express interest in a young project player(especially via tendering an offer) it almost guarantees that I will never get to own that player.

 

Its almost funny too because if I own a player like thomas jones...1000yd back on a winning team albeit second tier with Benson hovering, I cant trade him and get zero interest even from teams who currently dont have a runningback.However, Maurice Jones-Drew get lots of interest though nobody is willing to even match what it cost to draft him.Now say those two players were on another team and I wanted them....would cost me multiple years of 1st roundpicks probably just for starters.

 

My sucessful trades tend to come with me adding much sweetener to the pot...or me happen to having a current media darling that some owner just cant live with out.Sure there are other deals but like I said after awhile of trading with the same couple of teams that are also at the top you run out of deal options.Like another poster said you just have to exploit them via the draft...but it makes for some rough roads if you cant get to the players you need or if you experience draft duds at need posistions..can you say Enus,Dayne,Carruth,Terrell,C Rogers ouchies

[davidbostonisgood 2]

I agree with you.

 

Plus my comments on the leagues I've been in: it's only been about 18 money leagues over the last 7 years. And most of those leagues were with some sort of combination of 30 different guys, so I don't have that large of a sample size.

[ghouston 0]

I'm in a 10 team keeper league with 25 man rosters. I made three trades just this week and four overall this year.

 

This week:

 

I traded L Jordan for LJ Smith (I've got McNabb)

Ben Watson for Vinatieri (bye week issues next week)

Javon Walker for Tatum Bell

 

Previously:

 

Reggie Williams and Jamal Lewis for TJ Houshmanzadeh and Wes Welker

 

Overall, there have been six trades in my league this year. I tried to trade Michael Turner earlier in the year to the owner of LT for Deion Branch but he laughed at me. I guess that I may just have the last laugh, considering that I'm still undefeated.

[Magnum T&A 0]

I would start by putting a limit on waiver transactions making trades a valid option.