The Limits of Trade Value

by Crazy Ivan

Last year, we unveiled the "Sackthology" in the Hall of Fame section of our website.  This index represented almost 5 years of painstaking compilation and calculation.  Endless days were spent digging through old receipts, invoices and payment records.  Hundreds of hours were spent checking and rechecking the numbers.  Whole years were spent tracking down paperwork and cross referencing the findings.

The end result is a compendium of every Myachi ever made along with all the particulars.  The Sackthology lists the series, year, number made, fabric, sister sack and more.  But the most important figure for each sack was a number that we assigned as we were compiling the list; the Trade Value.

The Trade Value was included in an attempt to keep newer collectors from getting ripped off in trades.  The Sackthology gives the relative value of every Myachi ever made so that a collector can quickly judge the value of their Myachis and decide whether or not a given trade is fair.

But the Trade Value can tell you only so much.  There are clear weaknesses to the system and no matter how specific we get, it will never be perfect.

The reason is that the value of a given Myachi can bounce around quite a bit between collectors.  The Trade Value was calculated using 5 variables: How long ago the sack was made, how many were made, how widely distributed they were, how long were they available in stores and "relative coolness".

I'll admit that the "coolness" factor was pretty arbitrary, but it was also necessary.  It primarily effected custom sacks, though it did enter into a few series Myachis such as the Beards, the Blue Dragon and the Fireball.  Mostly it served to distinguish between a promotional sack from a company everyone knows (like Dunkin Donuts, Sobe, PS2, etc.) and one that few people would care about (like a Bar Mitzvah sack or customized birthday party sack).

The end result is a number between 5 and 500.  If a sack has a Trade value of 20, it's worth twice as much as a sack with a Trade Value of 10.  That would mean that in a trade, a 20 would be worth two 10s.  In the real world, it works out more like this:

I have a Bubbalicious (TV=24) and my buddy's trying to get it from me in a trade.  At first he offers a Dreamcoat, but when I check the Sackthology I see that it only has a TV of 12.  He ups the offer to add a GridIron Blue, which has a Trade Value of 11.  This makes it a pretty even trade since the Dreamcoat and the GridIron Blue have a combined value of 23 and my Bubbalicious has a 24.

This was a huge improvement over the previous method of determining the fairness of a trade, which was to e-mail me or Pinky or Kid and say "Hey, is a Bubbalicious fair for a Dreamcoat?"

That being said, the Trade Value system is far from perfect.  One thing that it does not and cannot figure in is how much a Myachi might mean to someone personally.

For example, if that Bubbalicious was the first Myachi you ever got or it was a prize you won in a contest or it was a personal gift from Animal, it might be way more valuable to you.  The Trade Value on the Sackthology would still be 24, but for you personally, it would be worth a lot more.

The reason I bring it up is because I've been getting a lot of Trade offers that are fair by the TV system, but aren't trades I'd want to make.  For example, people can technically assemble a fair trade, for a Black Belt (TV=84) just by putting together an offer of 17 commons.  The commons are valued at 5 per, so if somebody offered me the whole 5.0 series and 5 4.5s, the value would come out to 85 and it would technically be a fair trade for my Black Belt.

But, of course, nobody in their right mind would trade away a Black Belt for any number of commons.  Not only is the Black Belt really hard to come by these days, but my personal Black Belt is one of my best jammers and it's set a few records in it's day.  It's definitely not something I'd want to trade away at any price.

So keep in mind when you're making trades that Trade Value is not the only factor you need to consider.  It offers you a good starting point and it's really helpful for newbs that are trading with unscrupulous veterans, but it's not the final word on a trade.  The final word is yours.  You can use the TV system to calculate and make sure you wouldn't be getting ripped off in a trade, but it can't tell you if you want to make the trade or not.

By all means, use the Sackthology.  Figure out the value of the trade and decided who is getting the better end of it, but don't let that be the whole process.  The final word has to come from the inside.  Once you've found a "fair" trade, look at the sack(s) you'd be giving up and the sack(s) you'd be getting and ask yourself, "do I want to make this trade?"

If you don't, you don't owe anybody an explanation or an apology.  If they point out that you would actually be getting the better deal or that the Trade Value is even, tell them you know, but you'd still rather not trade.  Ultimately, it's all up to you.