I’ve got some pretty good stuff in maths trades before: Splendor, Cyclades, Cacao, Quadropolis, Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig…
I’ve never had anyone not hold up their end of the deal either, which is more than I can say for trading on Facebook groups!
Yes, common misconception of trades is this.
You select what game you’re happy to trade for on each entry you have. That is to say unless you select your £60 game to trade for the £15 value one it isn’t happening. Now, human’s error so there is a grace period between the software running and the trades getting confirmed. The consequence of backing out the trade is to lose that item being available in future trades.
Oh, and ignore 90% of what a user enoon says in the discussion thread. With absolutely no apologies he’s a twat and knows it. His profile lists all his bans and why they were wrong. He’s more bothered about precise application of rules then getting the majority happy with trades.
I get the feeling there’s a much larger social pressure in a MT over a 1:1 trade.
And sometimes he makes a really good point, but by the time you know when that is you probably don’t need him to make it. I’ve had good conversations with him on other topics…
I’d add a refinement to this. Look at how many people/items wanted yours. If it’s 0 items just don’t list it again. However if there’s a reasonable number of items keep going. The algorithm has plenty of scope for not trading popular games just because they don’t fit in any loops. Took me 4 attempts to shift A Handful of Starts. Was popular each time. A friend recently took 3 attempts for Nusfjord. I put Herbalism in twice, no interest either time, I gave up.
I’ve actually had several games moved recently, both in and out, by looking at the untraded lists and contacting the relevant people with a money offer.
Protects you from getting two or more of the same game. I generally don’t care which of my games I trade for a specific game, so I’ll tick them all as valid trades for it, but if that game is offered by multiple people, and two of them wants some chain of trades that involves one of my games, I don’t want to end up with two copies of that game.
Unfortunately, math trades almost never happen here, there just isn’t enough interest. The one time I joined one, I traded my Japanese copy of Takenoko to someone, and got a meeple-upgraded English copy of Agricola from someone else. So, that worked out well, except for the fact that I don’t seem to enjoy Agricola much.
Which is why my 90% qualifier is in there.
I’m going to give the Maths trades a go.
Another question - to add the game (s) I’m willing to trade do I
A) add them to the geeklist directly on BGG
B) add them using OLWLGS - specifically saying I’d trade x for y
C) both?
Both. Add them to the geeklist. And they’ll be added automatically to OLWLG. For each item you want, you tick which game you’ll offer in return.
Hmm. Perhaps the UK Maths Trades are ran differently? I always use the OLWLG software to list my items for trade so I don’t have to worry about the formatting of the items
There is a way you can use the OWLG to add trades in to the geeklist. But as my trades are never the same I’ve never bothered to learn it
I’m trying to use to use the OLWLG software, but it sends me to the BGG login page (I’m already logged in).
Also, on my laptop earlier I could select which game I wanted to trade for what, but that isn’t happening on my phone.
I’m not giving up!!
I had an issue with the OLWLG providing links to add items last time I participated in a math trade… I think it worked on my phone and not on my PC (and the same issue you mention, i.e. sending me to a login page), so I completed that step on my phone and did the rest via PC browser.
It seems as though there is a known issue with Chrome, but using an incognito window seems to work.
Next question, how do I delete items from my ‘wants’?
The empty box hanging out near the item. Type delete in it and update your list.
You could also put nothing against the want and functionally it will work the same
Thanks
So, I’ve got this far (@Whistle_Pig note the interest)
Once I’ve saved these are there any other steps?
Note to others who may be interested in trades and my yammering makes it look impossible…once you know how it works it seems relatively simple.
The biggest problems I’ve had are
A) trying to use Chrome to add to the geeklist (apparently all other browsers are fine
B) the OLWLG doesn’t automatically update. When your own games are included it is very simple
Check for new entries periodically. Duplicate protection when cases arise. And, most importantly, click SUBMIT when the deadline for offers is done, and do it before the 2nd deadline. You are not in the trade if you didn’t submit.
How would I even find out if there is such a trade in Germany? I have had no success locating one so far. The search on BGG is 
