Fantasy Football Trade Tips - Part 2 By
Brandon Anderson
8/25/07
A Sports Outlaw Exclusive [Part
1] [Part2] [Part
3] Welcome back, my aspiring traders. First things first –
this series is not going to be complete unless you start from the beginning
and read all 25 tips toward becoming the Trade Guy in your league. The 8
rules in the first article deal mostly with the attitude of you as a trader.
And attitude is a good place to start. If you don’t have the right mindset
going in, you’re not going to do a good job getting trades to work out.
Let’s quickly review those first eight rules: - Be aggressive.
- Be persistent.
- Be creative.
- Be businesslike but congenial.
- Know your league mates.
- Take the little steps to become the Trade Guy at the
beginning of a league.
- Be patient.
- Sometimes the best trade is the one you don’t make.
Today we will focus on the nuts and bolts of trade talks.
You’ve got the right attitude and mentality toward dealing, but now it’s
time to actually call up or email your fellow league mates and get the trade
engine rolling. How do you start talking trade? How do you seal the deal
once you can tell you are close? It’s time to talk about the actual process
of making a trade… 9. Always make sure you are in control of the trade
talks.
Control and power are a very important thing in trading, in fantasy
football, and with life in general. Everyone wants to know that they are in
control, because it is a comfortable place to be. When you begin trade
talks, you need to word things carefully and make offers wisely so that you
direct the talks in the direction of the end you wish to achieve. If you let
things get out of your control, you may soon be considering a trade
involving a player on your team you were hoping remained untouched, and you
may also be forced into giving more than you were willing to give up. On the
other hand, keeping things in your control will let you slowly direct the
trade talks toward their finish, including the players you want involved
along the way. Timing is important, for example. You should never appear
overeager, but you also should not leave your trade partner waiting a few
days for a response. You are not trading with a robot or a computer but with
another human, perhaps even a friend. 10. Always make your trade partner feel like they are
in control.
Although it is important for you to stay in control with your trade talks
and direct them in the path you desire, it may be equally as important to
make sure that your trade partner feels that they are the one in
control. Why? Well the answer is easy, just read the beginning of the #9
paragraph above. Everyone wants to feel that they are in control. If the
person you are trying to trade with starts to feel as if they are losing
control of the situation, they are likely to pull quickly out of the trade
talks. Just like you, they don’t want to feel like they don’t know where the
trade talks are heading, and they too don’t want to feel like they are being
conned into a trade they do not want to make. If you are so power happy that
you have to do things exactly your way, you’re not going to make many deals.
By getting to know your league mates (rule #5), you can learn how to
carefully direct trade discussions while still letting them feel that they
are comfortably in control of the deal making. 11. Try to let the other person offer first when
possible.
There are two reasons to let the other person make the first offer. The
first reason relates to rule #10 – the person who makes the first trade
offer is sure to feel that they are in control of the situation. After all,
they are the one asking you for the players they want and offering as much
as they want to give up. And therein lies the second reason for letting the
other person make the first offer – you can learn so very much about what
direction a trade can go by seeing that first offer. So what do you know
now? First, you know exactly who they like from your team. And it’s not
necessarily just the main guy either; you also know what lesser player or
players they hope to be thrown in. Maybe now if you don’t get the bigger
deal, you can still get them to give you something good for that lesser
player you now know they like. Secondly, you now know what they are willing
to give up. And make no mistake about it – they are always willing to
give up more than that first offer. It’s just common logic. No one makes a
first offer unless they are sure they would like the deal. Therefore they
like the players they are receiving enough that they will give at least a
little bit more to make it happen. You also now know they players your
opponent is happy to give up. By nature they will try not to involve the
guys they really want to keep, and you can built your trade talks around
this knowledge. And finally, you just never know when letting someone else
make the first offer might just drop that perfect trade right into your lap. 12. Know what you want before you begin trade talks.
It is never a good idea to just go into trade talks without a clear goal in
mind. Trading in fantasy sports is not just a recreational event. You should
always be trading with an end goal in sight. Actually in all of my trading,
the most dangerous talks I’ve gotten into were when I just aimlessly IMed or
emailed someone asking if they wanted to “talk trade.” Sure every now and
then you just happen into a nice deal, but those are also the times when you
make a deal and wake up the next morning wondering what exactly you were
thinking. When you start to talk trade with someone, you should know the
exact target on your opponent’s team. You should also know exactly who or
what you are willing to give up if it comes down to it. In essence, you
should know the deal you are targeting before you even start. Your goal then
is to outdo the deal in your head – see if you can get more and/or give up
less. But since you already know what you want, you will never end up giving
more than you’re comfortable with or getting less than you should have. 13. Always ask for more than what you want on your
first offer…
There’s not much to say here that hasn’t already been said in rule #11
above. There is no reason not to ask for more than what you want. If your
trading partner is savvy at all, they are sure to know that they can barter
with you and lower your asking price. A lot of times people think it would
be a courteous thing to just decide what you want and exactly what you’re
willing to give up and say it like it is. Unfortunately that almost never
works so well because, unless you happen to come across another courteous
and businesslike, they are sure to ask for – and get – more from you. And if
your trading partner isn’t as savvy – or if you’ve done your work and
offered them guys that they really do want – they may just accept that first
offer of yours. About one in every three trades I make are deals where I ask
for more than I intend to get and am then surprised by a premature
acceptance. It’s not that the deal wouldn’t have worked, but I just happened
to get more that way. 14. … But not too much more.
This is a necessary corollary to rule #13. It is important to ask for more
than what you want for the reasons stated above, but it is equally important
to make sure you do not go crazy with it. Sure it would be great if you
could get them to just throw DeAngelo Williams into the deal, but do you
really think that is realistic? A valuable 2nd RB is not a
throw-in. If you start with a deal you already like, say a one-for-one swap,
and then add in something huge as well, all you are really going to do is
offend or alienate your trading partner. Very rarely does making an offer
like this actually lead to a deal. Many times people will just blow you off
and not waste their time responding. Other times they will just say no and
not bother with a counter since you are clearly so far apart. And sometimes
they will be so insulted that you’re trying to take advantage of them that
they’ll be angry back at you and cost you a trade partner permanently. So
ask for a little more than what you really want, but don’t overdo it or you
will make enemies very quickly. 15. You knew what you want – make sure you get what you
want.
In rule #12, I implored you to know what you want before beginning trade
talks. Well as the kids used to say to G.I. Joe, knowing is half the battle.
It doesn’t help you to know exactly what you want if you end up wanting it
so badly that you give in a little too much at the end and trade too much
talent away for what you are getting. It’s great to know what you want. But
don’t be so in love with a particular player or trade idea that you end up
sacrificing more than what you should to make it happen. Know what you want…
and then get what you want too. 16. Try to add some “icing” on to the top of your
trade.
When I am nearing the end of trade talks with a partner, particularly a deal
that has prolonged over several emails or calls, I have an extra trick up my
sleeve that I often try to pull. Whenever you get extremely close to a deal
and you know that both sides are pretty much agreeing to a deal, many owners
often just want to put the deal through and go on with life. Here is where I
like to ask for just a little “icing on the cake” to finish things off. I’m
close… I like the deal… but I just need a little more. And it truly will be
a little more. Maybe if it’s during a draft, I et my 9th rounder
upgraded to an 8th. It’s not much, but those little amounts of
icing add up, and I very often use that extra last minute gain from one deal
as the cornerstone from which I begin building my next deal. 17. Always make sure your trade partner feels good
about the deal.
Some owners out there are sleazy and will just do whatever it takes to win.
If they can trick you into a deal or get you to agree too quickly, joke’s on
you and so be it – they’re better off for it and you are just a disposable
entity from which they have already extracted what they wanted, and you are
useless to them now. I strongly advice you not to treat your trade partners
in this fashion. First of all, it’s just plain mean and wrong. Once again,
you are not running a business here – you’re playing a game. And you’re
probably playing the game with a bunch of your buddies. So don’t be a tool.
And anyway, this is just a dumb way of doing trades. No matter how much you
got from this trade partner, they are always potentially useful to you in
the future. You never know who may blossom on their team or what player may
get injured and open up opportunity. If you and your trading partner both
feel good about the deal when you are done, you’ve already laid the
foundation for the next deal. Maybe that’s in a week, maybe not until later
in the season, and maybe not even until next season. If your trade partner
feels like you fleeced them, there’s no way they’re making another deal with
you, and they may make a stink about it so that others also do not want to
trade with you. If instead you are both happy with the deal, then no matter
how lopsided anyone else thinks it is, the two parties involved are happy
and that’s all that matters in the end. I’ve never seen someone just not
trade with another person out of principle because that person just plain
trades too well. It doesn’t happen. So just make sure your deal partner
feels right and you are good to go… Alright, enough trade tips for today. Check back soon for
the final installment to this series. You’ve already got the right attitude
for trading, and now you know the nuts and bolts of making a deal as well.
All that’s left is some good old fashioned trade theory… | |
