Trade Talks: The Good, The Bad, but mostly The Ugly
Posted: Mon May 02, 2016 10:27 am
With Trade Deadline looming, your team is on the brink of something. Brink of playoff push, brink of division title, brink of top seed, brink of trying to fall in the lotto, brink of being the worst record. Each and every one of the teams in this league is on that cusp. And when you feel you are close to something, the temptation of making a move that can make a difference manifests itself. You start overanalyzing your team on the index, looking at each of your Yellow/Yellow players and thinking to yourself:
Next thing you know, after you finish hyping yourself up that this yellow yellow player is a game changer, you frantically typing up a PM in one of the following 2 formats:
You've just spent anywhere from 10 seconds to 10 hours composing your trade proposal, convincing yourself that this is something that your potential trade partner has the biggest need. Your player will be his game changer. The time is NOW, John Cena. The time is NOWWWW. You press send, and it begins: the anxiety of the trade reply waiting game. Your trigger finger is itchy, making the F5 key or the Loopy Arrow button your bitch:
You check out your "Who's Online" hoping to see the person you PM'd, but instead you see this:
You check your Outbox to see if the message has been read (FYI - when you send a PM it sits in your outbox until read... in case you didn't know that... it's basically your Trade PM stalker read receipt):
Finally, after HOURS (probably minutes) of waiting, you see the GM you sent the proposal to sign on... FINALLY!!! You click on "Who's Online" and creep on your vict-- potential trade partner even more. You get excited when you see this:
You refresh and refresh more waiting for the word "viewing" to change to the word "composing". But instead you get punched in the face with something much worse. The user is now offline.
But wait, it's ok. Maybe his Internet Explorer crashed; I mean, it is Internet Explorer after all. So you wait. And wait. And wait. And nothing ever comes. This happens in this league often, and honestly, sometimes, people just get check their PMs on Tapatalk when they come in, and forget to reply. We all have done it before; I know I have. So you wait a little longer, giving the benefit of the doubt. But what is the rule? Is it like teenage dating with the 3-day rule? I don't want to get labeled as the desperate girl with braces and hairy armpits.
That forbidden zone depends on the person, I suppose. But generally, I feel 24 hours is plenty of time to let something sit before taking action. I mean, maybe the person is interested, but legit forgot and wouldn't check their PMs until the next PM came. You have to take it upon yourself to remind him. So you send that follow-up reply. Apologize for being a little ambitious in sending 2 PMs in a row, as it breaks Internet "double posting" code and PELICANFAN may send you an angry warning. Phew, follow-up sent. Wasn't that hard, was it?! And then the waiting game begins again. And once again, the user pops on, views PMs, and goes off-line. (SEE ABOVE PICS TO RELIVE THE NIGHTMARE) But now, at this point, the anxiety of not getting the response turns to anger... and we know where that may go:
But honestly, all this anger and anxiety can be avoided... if we all just follow proper PM etiquette. If you receive a PM (or a follow-up PM) for a trade that you don't like, there's a quick resolution:
But seriously, a simple "No thanks" would suffice. At that point, many a GM may counter with a more reasonable offer (or less of a trape, if you are NOLa) or hell, they might just leave you alone and walk away. It's just proper etiquette in general. And how a GM carries himself in one negotiations could legitimately impact how future negotiations (or lack there of) could go. So let's just remember that when engaging in trade talks this Trade Deadline. Don't be a dick and ignore; Just say "no".
A) Subject line "Trade?", Body of PM:
OR
B) JNR's signature:
B) JNR's signature:
