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I doubbt the site will even be used much f at all if trading isn't allowed - it's pretty much what most people used it for
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What a shame - barter made the trading/matching process way easier than other sites.. (not to mention having a visual representation for your trade inventory was neat) I'll miss it..
Anyone know of any alternatives?
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steamtrades, reddit(IindieGameSwap(primarily this one since it has a required rep system and still takes new peeps), gametrade and steamgameswap, r/gamebundles is good for new trading extras/for stuff in new current bundles(just be extra vigilant for scams/bad deals) and lestrades(seems to be a barter clone) are the ones that currently exist, I think there are a couple in development to that might get extra development effort since barter is closing.
I suspect lestrades will get a bit of traction once barter closes on xmas day since it has a matching system in place, but likely reddit/steamtrades.
also fanaticals discord has trading
not looking forward to trading in 2025, I liked how I could use barter pretty much passively.
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you can use lestrades in the same way you used barter, and it should improve over time as barter's userbase migrates there. they already have functionality to import your tradables and wishlist from barter which makes the transition easier
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Isn't lestrades the one that was infamous for technical issues, management issues, and scamming instances when it first launched?
Or am I confusing it with another of the many other terrible trading sites out there (ie, basically all the ones that are not Barter, SteamTrades and its abysmal UI very much included)?
If I am confusing it, could you maybe note what standout elements you know to be similar or different with lestrades, compared to Barter trading? 'cause it'd definitely not be my first choice for "migration" at the moment. :P
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Similar: Matches section compares your wishlist/tradables with the rest of the community allowing for easy trade offers. Game lists have banner images so it's not just a bunch of text.
Different: No bundles pages, no offers to multiple users (or I couldn't figure it out.) Does have forums on the site and ability to sort by Have/Want ratios.
These are just quick examples from my limited time trying the site years ago and looking at it again today. I don't know about the issues you mentioned, but every trading site has scammers and most websites in general have technical issues when they launch and throughout their existence.
Can you list some of the other trading sites you were talking about? In my mind there's Barter and Lestrades that always seemed similar with wishlist and tradables comparisons, then plain forum style sites like SteamTrades and the various trading subreddits, and then IndieGala has trade functionality that I hated when I tried it. Groupees I think also allows for trading but I believe that's only for items purchased from that site.
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Edit: For search purposes, I’m talking about Lestrade’s.
Still is. It’s buggy as all hell and barely functional. And in the forums, the owner spends his days arguing with users about suggestions they might have. As an example, insists “total copies” is a legitimately useful concept, when the entire site disagrees. And he’ll argue to no end.
He also banned me because he thought I ripped someone off two weeks ago, even with my rep on Steamtrades and 1000+ trades on Barter he could look through. But, as with user suggestions, he’s always right. The site definitely seems doomed,and the policing is already worse than Barter was.
I have a feeling I’ll have a lot of giveaways coming here soon.
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That sucks to hear. I have had less trades than on Barter because of some missing features that as you said, were recommended but not taken into account. I wish Barter didn't have to end up like the way it did. It wasn't perfect, but better than Steamtrades for me and many others. I wonder, can't Steamtrades take the same approach like Barter? The audience flocked to Barter because it was hard to match and do stuff the way on Barter and also trading was so much better. You could find the items right on the trade section, with information about each game, how much it costs, how many bundles etc.
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It’s too bad, because the bones are there, and it has potential. But the owner:
1) doesn’t seem to have the same skillset as the Barter people did, and the site can often just be a mess. Sometimes it just won’t even connect via wifi, the menus don’t work right on mobile, so many bugs and some things are just broken.
2) can’t move on from the bad ideas that kept people preferring Barter for years. Even though it’s a copy, it’s his baby, which is more important than improving it.
3) is an ***hole.
With those obstacles in the way, I'm not seeing how it’s going to take off soon, even with the traffic coming from Barter. Now that the honeymoon is over, people see how inactive it actually is, and banning people with 2000+ tradables and impeccable rep sure won’t help it grow. Very short-sighted.
So I would love if Steamtrades could work out something similar. The OG being on top again, taking community suggestions seriously could be a great thing, and well within reach.
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I didn't have a bad experience with the admin. I am sorry you have. I don't know what is his/her intent in this. I understand if he/she doesn't want to do things the way I do or others. It's after all his/her website. He/She can do whatever they want to be honest. It's just not gonna make a lot of people go there from Barter and that's sad, because this is an amazing opportunity to get as many new in.
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I use barter to manage my spare keys list and wishlist, so I'm very glad that only the trade portion will be going away.
That said, it's a real shame since I feel it's also the best way to trade spare games overall.
I've never tried using lestrades , but I guess it's the closest alternative atm?
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I'm not saddened by this.
Barter is from what I've seen, the most commonly used site outside of Discord for people selling/trading curator licenses, with nobody really cracking down on it. At least said traders will have to work a bit harder to do what they shouldn't be doing.
For everybody else, you still get to maintain your lists but will just have to be more diligent when finding a trade partner and vetting them.
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While I've been mostly using SteamTrades instead of Barter, won't closing Barter trading change nothing? Said traders won't have to work harder at all, they will just move on to the other trading places where everyone goes to. Due to the nature of these digital tradeable items, nobody will be able to crack down on it unless changes are made directly from Steam for how Steam keys can be tracked. And even then, there's nobody stopping others from joining a curator to pick up a license unless Steam makes the curator system like the Steam families with the 1 year joining cooldown.
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Here's another part of their announcement which wasn't mentioned:
On 1 January 2025, offers will be read-only (except for revoked game disputes) and collection pages will switch to private like it is now with Reserve and Watchlist.
So while you'll still be able to maintain your lists, they will be forced to private which means that you won't be able to see the supply / demand for games anymore or match against other traders. Those were the two most useful functions of the site for me as far as trading goes.
I don't understand why they couldn't keep that aspect of the site operational and simply disable the Create Offer button if they don't want the added work of moderating offers and resolving disputes.
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That is the second paragraph of this post, I copied the whole announcement and only added links and bold text to match the original announcement. As for what collections they are referring to, I went to the my data page and it says: 6 collections (wishlist, library, blacklist, tradable, traded, fulfilled) and if you use other collections on the site they likely will also become private. If you want to share your collections (which is the entire fucking point of maintaining the collections in the first place) they can be exported in multiple formats in order to share with others or import into Lestrades
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I guess it's the only way bart-ee could defeat his biggest enemy - resellers - once and for all.
R.I.P. in Pieces.
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its a terrible news for me. Enjoy using the barter.
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That's very sad news. One of the only Steam-related places with genuinely good people in charge of maintenance and moderation. I understand the reasons: the scammer / reseller onslaught forcing increased moderation, and the multiplication of bundles that mean more site updates. Since the bundles will still be available on the site, I guess the scammers won in the end: they forced trade to stop on Barter :(
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I just noticed something strange: For some reason whenever a trade is done on barter steamtrades rep is left automatically? It's always the same message:
"＋REP NAME is an amazing trader, recommended! We successfully completed this trade: https://barter.vg/u/... Thanks a lot for the trade!"
Is this something new that was added recently to transfer trade rep over from barter before the shutdown?
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Wait, so anyone who runs the script has reviews generated automatically on Steamtrades for any trade they complete on barter, and don't have to create them manually? That's wild.
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Has anyone used let's trade to trade I would like to have a place to still trade some old keys - I wonder how good it is or not
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it's ok, it also has email notifications on new offers and comments
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It's decent. It has almost similar features as barter. Plus a decent amount of barter users have moved to lestrades
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a lot of the barter users have moved to lestrades
the site was kind of abandoned until the barter news. Since then the owner has been doing a lot of updates.
It is much faster than barter for me and the site owner will eventually add multi user offers.
You can trade inside of the offer comments since they are private but most people still do it via Steam.
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I'm a barter refugee and I had my first two trades on lestrades-- with somebody I had traded with on barter. It can be done.
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The site will remain online with bundle, giveaway, and game updates, but the offer section will close. After 25 December 2024, offer creation will be disabled. Anyone with pending offers will have until the end of the year to complete or fail all offers. Therefore, exchanges and activation of keys should be completed before the end of the year.
On 1 January 2025, offers will be read-only (except for revoked game disputes) and collection pages will switch to private like it is now with Reserve and Watchlist.
The offer expiration maximum is reduced to 7 days from 15 days. Trades that require more time or have a higher likelihood of mediation should be initiated elsewhere.
This is unrelated to the domain renewal lapse. See this topic for an explanation of why a failed domain renewal led to a security warning.
Why? Barter.vg was started as a get-it-working-quickly experiment over ten years ago. Thanks to help of volunteers and motivated users, the site helped 11k users exchange around 1.7 million games and Steam items. Yet, given that get-it-working-quickly foundation, it's difficult to maintain and the underlying systems are already past EOL. There is volunteer fatigue also. There have been requests to volunteer and replenish the site's human capital, but at this point, those effort are best directed at other sites or new projects. Rather than wait for an unexpected yet inevitable disaster to end things, there's this planned ending. The timing seems sudden because I took a long time to post this.
What's the purpose of Barter.vg now? Although it had far fewer users, the original site did not have offers. The idea was to trade elsewhere and merely manage tradable lists. Hopefully, the non-offer parts of the site such as bundles and giveaways will remain useful.
What happens to Discord or Steam forum? Like the rest of Barter.vg, there is no plan to shutdown. The end-of-life announcement affects the offer section.
Will events still happen? There's an event on Saturday (7 December 2024).
Edit
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