Small is Beautiful: Memoirs of Tiny Trader on the WI Gift Exchange

[Hmm]

Please Read This First

1. Open Trading is not allowed anywhere on WI but the Gift Exchange! If you post trades here, the mods have told me they will close this thread.
2. Want to know how to become gifted? Read the Official Webkinz Insider Gift Exchange Information thread.
3. Want to know the trade values of the stuff you already have? Check the WI GEV!

Official Gift Exchange Information:
http://www.webkinzinsider.com/forum/...t-t219641.html

WI GEV:
http://www.webkinzinsider.com/forum/...r-t141017.html

And now for how the GE works for Small Traders

There have been a lot of questions about being Gifted, and the Gift Exchange in general in the general forums lately. Because of this, I want to post about my experiences in the GE as a new and rather small trader.

You don't have to have a storage room full of fabulous rares and exclusives to trade in the Gift Exchange. I started out with a cash cow trophy, a few Winterfest items and a bunch of Wheel of Yum stuff and have done 49 trades with 35 different people.

I want to give encouragement to those who might be hesitant to become gifted because they think they have nothing to offer. You can trade the little stuff, and get a lot of value out of it.

My trades so far have included:
52 Wacky Bats
10 Cash Cow Trophies
5 Goobers Lab Trophies
An Assortment of oddball coupons, PSFs, Winterfest
An absolutely absurd number of Wheel of Yum Dummies and T-shirts

What I've gotten in return has been furniture for my house (the pirate ship that you see linked in my signature was almost entirely furnished via the Gift Exchange) and the occasional rare or exclusive. I've also made a lot of friends and had a lot of fun doing it.

The Gift Exchange has a place for everyone who is friendly and flexible, from the high end boutiques filled with POTM items to little Mom and Pop shops with nothing but Click to Win stuff.

So go ahead. Work towards being a Gift Trainee and save up all your cheap trophies, Wheel prizes and Click to Win items. You'll find that the hard work will be worth it. Hope to see you in the Gift Exchange!

Hmm
Purveyor of Common Trophies and Cheap Click to Win Stuff!

[MissGnomie]

It's very popular now to trade for room themes and I think it's a great idea.

With all the members in the gift exchange, it's great ot keep in mind that *someone* out there is most likely looking for that item, and will offer you something you like!

[webkinzluver101]

Thank you! I think alot of people think that no one visits their thread because they don't have the shunauzer PSI or the year 1 print, dragster, red lava, etc. You know the list... Great post!

[Hmm]

Originally Posted by MissGnomie

It's very popular now to trade for room themes and I think it's a great idea.

With all the members in the gift exchange, it's great ot keep in mind that *someone* out there is most likely looking for that item, and will offer you something you like!

Trading for room themes is very helpful. It is difficult to see how large stuff actually is in the W shop until you buy it first. Often, I find that something I've bought simply won't work after I've bought it. You can get more value from a trade than you can from selling it back to the W-Shop!

Hmm

I just wanted to second or third my encouragement for people who feel like they have nothing to offer to try it out... you never know... I feel like people are afraid to come to my ge because it looks like I have so much... i trade because i think its fun... i love to help people get the stuff they really want... i will go out of my way especially for new people to try to help them. You have to be reasonable of course, hehe.... i'm not giving up a charm forest tiara for 3 chocolate eggs, lol.. but you know what I mean, I will always try to work with people and that usually means taking a lot of small things for one big thing and thats why I have so much on my ge. I hope - if your gifted - and you feel like you have nothing to offer, that you will visit the GEs of the people who offer encouragement here, so you can have some fun

[pugsloy]

Thanks Hmm this is a very helpful post.

[Hmm]

Originally Posted by The Grandpa

One piece of advice I would offere, is to make the haves and wants values match up. I have seen many GEs with mid value items that we would be interested in but the only things listed on the want list is the super expensive priceless items. I had no idea what to offer for the items we wanted.

I agree with not needing much to start your GE. I started ours with a small wants list and offered to buy items from the W-Shop of someone’s choice. A lot of people weren’t interested in trading for W-Shop items but enough were to get many items from our list.

Oh I agree completely!

I like GEs best that have lists of small wants along with the big ones.

Hmm

[komoda2000]

Thanks for all the tips! I used to be a small trader but my GE got closed because I didn't have enough to offer and I was on vacation so I couldn't go on the PC... so that didn't work out for me.

komoda you can always ask to have it opened again They close automatically if nothing has been posted on it for 2 weeks...

[komoda2000]

Originally Posted by legalcat

komoda you can always ask to have it opened again They close automatically if nothing has been posted on it for 2 weeks...

Really? I didn't know that! Well maybe I will open it when I get a good stock of items!