Little Black Bag Trading Tips

Little Black Bag's big draw as a higher priced subscription program is the ability to trade items in your bag with other members on the site.  Once you pick your first item and they populate your bag with additional items, you open your bag and immediately see trade offers on each of your items.  You can also offer your items for other items in the gallery.  I, personally, don't jump on initial offers unless they are obviously very good (multiple decent items for my one, or an offer worth much more).  I'd rather make my own offers, even though its more work to trade that way.  When you pick your first item and you're new to trading, I highly recommend picking something you like so that you have at least one item you absolutely love.  If you're feeling more adventurous, then find out what people like (look at what is trading well, or ask on the chat) and then trade away!

The news feed is your new best friend.  By following the feed, you can see what items are going for better trades...it prevents you from wasting your time by underbidding on items that are going for very high, and it keeps you from accepting a trade that is too low if you happen to have that coveted item.  I also follow it to see when new bags are opened, since that means hopefully more items you like are being added to the trading gallery.  I follow the news even when I don't have a bag open.  Haha.

You have a full week to trade, which I always use.  In general, I try not to consolidate my items in the first few days, since I'd rather get more items and then work them up to something nice.  If you're a confident trader and are actively trading the whole week, I'd take anyyyyy somewhat decent multi-item offer in the first few days (providing the item you have isn't something you absolutely must keep or is limited in the gallery).  Decent is a relative term and to each his own, but in general, if I've seen those items trade up, then I'll take it.  If they don't trade up, then you need the time to work them to something decent, which leads me to my next point....

Yo-yo trading.  While slightly more work, since it requires putting out a LOT of trades, I find it to be worth it.  If your item doesn't trade up, then put out bids on items that aren't as popular but are worth more.  Then either trade up to another not so popular item that is worth more or down to something you like that is worth less.  Some items stay in the gallery for months because of this...no one actually ships their bags with these items in it.  I'd rather have a lot of faster moving trades than holding out for an item to trade for ONE specific item.  With a full week, you should never have to end up with something you don't really like....its much better to trade a higher priced item you don't like much for a lower priced item you love.

Which means, the value of any item is really dependent on what you like.  If you really love something and you trade down to get it, who cares if you gave up an expensive item that you hate?  Its better to end up with a few wonderful items you love than a dozen ones you are only "meh" about...which is why yo-yo trading is so great.  Don't get too attached to your things because you can almost always get them back later!  And once you have more than 5 items, you can afford to trade more wildly and then it gets really fun, haha.

The chat.  For new folks, just know that a lot of veterans do not like the chat...trading has slowed down because of this chat.  Proceed with caution when trying to arrange trades on there, people will definitely try to get you to trade VERY specific items for what they have to trade.  Or they only accept multi-item trades, even on $16 items.  Or they "embellish" the offers they are already receiving or the value of an item.  Or they just spam the chat with their garbage because they are too lazy to put out offers on their own.  In general, I find it useful to follow to see who's bags are closing soon (they might be trading down considerably for items they like), to let people know what is available for trade from my bag, to find out what offers are like on some items, and for people who are opening new bags, telling them what you would like them to open with to try and trade with them.  I also try to help new people on the chat, of course. :)  If you're new, PLEASE read the Help/FAQ section before going onto the chat with your questions!  Almost every night there are people asking the same questions that could be answered by reading over the Help section.

Finally, trade like you really want the item.  If you are whining on the chat that you want something, and then offer WAY lower than everyone else, you really can't complain that you're not getting the item.  It gets really annoying, no one is going to take your lowball offer when there are way nicer ones out there.  If you want it, make a good offer!

Hopefully people find this helpful and if anyone has anything else to add to this, please add in comments!  And if you do decide to join, here is my referral link!

Image: Little Black Bag