I have two issues...

Sometimes trades don't sell quickly not because people aren't interested or won't possibly buy, but simply because the lion/item owner needs to do the advertising work. I've had plenty of lions that I repeatedly posted about in sales and didn't get a nibble for 4-5 days...and then the sixth day, suddenly I've got three offers. There are a lot of offers in trades, and I don't just mean the old offers...a freshly posted offer will get pushed off the front page *quick* So the trade owner has to do a lot of sales work to get offers, but doesn't mean the trade itself is bad. I just had a massive trade for bones sell after two weeks because I always keep an eye on chat and saw someone looking for them.

The other thing is that the staff are encouraging users now to post proof of prizes for raffles and contests in the TC, and not all of those contests end in one week.

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1. If the trade has no offers, then apparently you will need to change something to make it more desirable. I guess an auto cancel will open your eyes to it. But then again, the trade limit would be one-two weeks, so you surely will get offers by the time it auto cancels.

Advertising should be done BEFORE putting up a trade, seeing we have a whole Stockpile section for lion/item advertisements. Once you have enough interest or you think it caught the attention of enough people, then you can put up a trade. It should be accepted in time or you still need to change something, or chase the lion.

2. I believe there should be an option for a 'raffle mode' where the advertisement board and the TC would be connected and raffles can be held to a max of 1 month. But no longer. Where you have to link the thread of the raffle itself to the trade, this way activating it.

Of course there will be people who will try to extend their trade time by linking threads irrelevant to raffles, but those trades could be reported and removed.

Or there could be a completely different system for raffles.

But we DO need a trade time limit, seeing the vast amount of inactive, ancient trades around.

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I actually agree we need a limit, I just think one week is too short and two would be better. Frankly, I don't advertise before putting a lion in the TC, and that's because I myself only check out lions in the sales chat that are linked to the TC. I prefer it over posting in the forums, which are also chaotic, overwhelmed, and even harder to get attention in. I also don't tend to buy from the forums. The forums are an *alternative* to the trading center, not a place to float the idea of selling first. And I myself and I think most members would get annoyed with people posting in chat things like "would anyone be interested in this lion?" without a way to actually buy it if they are.

A separate raffle section is an idea I can get behind.

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But this is how a trade should be processed...
Advertising first, putting up trade second. Otherwise it is up to luck if you will get an offer fast enough. The forum section was made for this reason.

I believe TC is way too much overcrowded by lions at the moment. Lions that have no interest. The Trade Limit should guide people to advertise first, causing less lions to appear in TC daily.

Trades are supposed to be accepted fast, and they are not supposed to serve as 'advertisement' for the lion itself. I believe 1 week is plenty for an advertised lion to be bought. Or perhaps the lion is not desired, or the price is too high.

Maybe the forum section could have further sections and subforums where it can become more organized. But that is an idea maybe for another thread.

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Granted, I haven't been playing long, but I've never heard that the TC was for lions that had been 'pre-advertised', so to speak. Are you selling that trades should only be set up once the lion is sold through the forums? That's an honest question.

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There are no rules regarding how to advertise and how to set up trades. I am saying that this is the most logical way to do it. You will have less luck in selling if you dont advertise beforehand. See, it took you 6 days to get your lion noticed. If you would have advertised it... then it would have been offered on max at day 3-4 after you set up the trade.

I dont say it has to be sold. Just that at least a time beforehand it should be advertised to check the interest. It gives you an idea of how popular it would be.

If the trade autocancels after the time period, then it means that it is not desired in its current form and you need to change the trade.

But yes, TC is supposed to be a place of fast trades.

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If I'm pitching the trade in the sales chat, then I *am* advertising, no? Whether or not the lion is already in the TC, I'm still doing the same thing. I'm also not convinced that advertising before posting said lion would result in a faster sale, because again most people will ignore advertisements without a link to the TC. I certainly do. I've only very rarely seen people just checking for interest...they're all just trying to sell.

In any case, I would agreed with a two week time span, but not a one week.

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Not in chat of course. I myself have mixed feelings about it and never visit it myself.

But in the forum.

If you look around there, you are able to see that people set up threads where they link their lions and set a price or auction them off. I see those threads replied to and successfully selling lions. Trades are set up once they are sold and the trade is offered on fast.

It does not mean that you will certainly sell them sooner. Just that you can.

You might need to advertise for 6 days either way, but at least so far the lion is not chilling in TC.

It is not really about making trading shorter in time, but about the lion spending smaller time periods in TC itself. And to open your eyes and call for your attention if it auto-cancels in 7 days then you need to change it or chase the lion.

I keep myself to the one week waiting period. It is plenty. Advertise first, then put up trade second after some time.

Two weeks is half a month. Usually nobody will get offers nearly 2 weeks later.

Or perhaps 10 days max. A trade really doesnt need to last longer. If we leave too great limit, then we will not improve anything in the TC's state.

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Posting in the forum isn't advertising though; it's selling. The trade in the TC is just facilitating the sale.

I'm confused because you're basically saying trades should be in the TC for shorter periods for two reason: to make it easier to browse and for server space.

Per yourself, trades should ideally only be set up in the TC once the lion has been sold via the forums. Because again, 'advertising' in the forums as you just described isn't advertising, it's selling. No one simply starts a thread to advertise a lion without trying to start an auction or flat sale. If people *were* just advertising and using the TC to facilitate sales, they wouldn't be posting lions to the TC with the hopes a browsing person would find them.

On the second manner, you're just shifting the server problem from the TC to the forums. You're saying that instead of posting directly to the TC and trying to sell their lion via chat, that members should make a thread in the forums. So the sales pitch for that lion still exists, it's just moved from TC to the forums and still takes up server space.

While you might not sell directly in the sales chat, many members, including myself, do. I've had far more luck that way than in the forums. And I've described several instances where I've gotten sales in this manner after some time...I'd like evidence that very few sales in the TC sell after a week. I believe whether or not they do is down to *both* the quality of their lion and the persistence of their attempts in sales chat. Since you don't use sales chat yourself, you wouldn't be aware of how successful it is or is not.

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Selling in the forums is also combined with advertising. You put up a few or all for-sale lions, but at least they are in one bunch and people can browse for what they like.

Which brings us to the next part where you say that I would shift the server space trouble onto the forums. Wrong. When you make a thread to advertise and sell, then you make a single thread for your lions. It does not claim more space than a single trade. Whereas if you have ten lions you want to sell you will create 10 trades, which claim space in TC itself, shoving the rest behind, and keeping 10x more server space than if you would have made a single thread.

Putting lions in stack for sale in TC and telling people that you are selling them separated is advertising and against the rules. You have to put them up the way you want them bought.

This is why advertising in the forums is easier on both the people and the server.
a) less virtual space in the page
b) Less server space claimed

All I know is that forum sales and advertising works for most and I see lions successfully sold with tiny server space claimed and fast trades in TC. TC needs a little relieving of the number of trades, and a trade limit of 10 days is just what will solve the problem.

All that matters is that everyone is aware of the problem and indeed a significant % of trades get completed in basically 5 days or a week. So 10 days is a nice compromise.

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I will keep this bumped because 30 days is enormous. Trades will still stack up and people will still use TC as storage. 30 days is a lot.

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I would support but only if it was like what mid had said Mid [V.V] (#8680) you get to choose your time limit. maybe after a a 10 day period tho the trade still gets canceled but only if you haven't logged on ect

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I dont think that would be effective at all.
Think about it...

People would want to set their time limit as high as they can anyway to make sure they dont have to put up their trades again even though nobody offers on them. And people who still want to use TC as a storage would set it at max time too. We would be back at square one.

And even if people who have a trade up log in every day, they might still forget about their trades or simply dont care to cancel and modify them, even though nobody offered for weeks.

I believe max 10 days is plenty of time for a desired trade to be offered on and completed.

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Support! I thought a month was too long as well, so I'm glad you posted this! :D

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