Another Point of Singularity

I've come down pretty hard on the Trading Utility on Boardgamegeek in the past, mostly because I was so disappointed with it. I'm not a huge presence on BGG because I consider boardgaming sort of secondary to gaming with miniatures, which has its own little community that doesn't often intersect. Still, I love the idea of the marketplace/swapping on the 'Geek. It appeals to my sense of symmetry: Here's a game I don't want, going to a guy that wants it, and I'm getting something from him that I want in return, with no money exchanging hands. We're both happy in theory-- the unused games going to the homes that need them, as it were, and no ebay in the equation.

Unfortunately it hasn't worked out that way for me, and for a solid year every offer I tendered got either turned down with extreme prejudice (sometimes with an insult or sneer) or no answer at all. I was at the point where I just decided to give up on the whole thing (and I started the thread you see above) when someone solicited a trade from me via email (A Dog's Life for B-17-- A Dog's Life probably costs more but I'll play B-17 to death before I'll even take A Dog's Life off of the shelf). Then, a trade I made in a moment of idle speculation (my extra copy of ROMMEL IN THE DESERT for an almost new MERCHANTS OF VENUS) went through! Today, this pops up in my "geekmail" inbox:

BoardGameGeek Trade - Trade Accepted!

Your trade proposal has been accepted! You should now ship the games to the other user in this transaction.

Game(s) From hotspur
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1. Battlemist

Game(s) From terryble
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1. Throneworld

This is my second bona fide trade offer via BGG that was succesful, and I'm very happy with it so far.

Reasons:

Dunno what Battlemist's relative value is (it might be higher for all I know) but I never played it once, so its personal value to me was pretty low. Throneworld on the other hand, is a game I've sought after for quite a long time-- I like galactic build and explore themes and I've never heard anything but praise for it.. So even though it's an old game and much of its appeal has been superceded by the Fantasy Flight giant TWILIGHT IMPERIUM exercise in wretched excess, it looks like a game I actually MIGHT play some time.

For me, a good deal. For terryble, I hope so as well. He's getting agame that hasn't been punched and has ridden a shelf for many years.