Originally Posted by
meaganola /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Quote: Originally Posted by
DonnaJ /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Yeah they're making money. Remember they are quoting retail prices for your value, but they must be paying wholesale, and possibly well below wholesale. I think a bag as high as yours might be a loser for them, but there are few who get that much. I've seen lots of unboxing videos or blogs and the people are getting the usual 3/4 items and happy with that. That is where they make their money!
Also, everyone starts with approximately the same value. I like math, so it's actually an easy explanation: So let's say you have multiple people with $100 value per bag. Person A swaps stuff worth $70 with person B for a $50 item. PA now has a bag worth $80, and PB has a bag worth $120. Now person C swaps $70 worth of stuff with with PB for a $50 item. Now PC has an $80 bag, and PB's bag is worth $140. Enter person D, who swaps a $70 item with PB for a $50 item. PD's bag is worth $80, and PB's bag is worth $160. Rinse and repeat, and PB's bag goes up $100 for every five $70-for-$50 swaps. It's probably not likely that someone could repeatedly bump their bag's value up like this, but in let's-pretend-it-happened-land, after ten swaps like this, PB's bag would be worth $300, and that would leave ten people with bags worth $80 each, but it works out to an average of $100 per person even though one person managed to triple their starting value. It's also basically a variation of gambling: Everyone puts in a hundred dollars, and some people might walk away with $300, some might walk away with $80, but it will all average out to $100 per person. I don't think LBB really cares what each individual person gets (as long as they're playing by the rules) because it's an average value thing.
And there *will* be people willing to "lose" money to get something they want. I know that if I ended up with a $50 bracelet, chances are I would be willing to get desperate towards the end and swap it for a $16 nail polish because I don't wear bracelets (or earrings, necklaces, sunglasses…), but I am obsessed with nail polish. I would rather go down in value than get stuck with something I won't use (and I won't open a bag unless I see something I consider worth $60 -- because I take shipping into consideration as well -- to pick as my first item, so it's not a big deal to me if I "lose" $40 in bag value if I would be getting a $40 item I don't want if I didn't trade down. I did that this month, as a matter of fact, although then I ended up with a nasty body salve from Truth Art Beauty that resulted in a $25 credit for my next bag *plus* a $50 coupon code from TAB that I used for another shot at what I hope is a different and *better* body salve plus some custom-blended bath salts that I might end up putting on my swap list since I don't take baths).
Ahh this makes a lot of sense. Thank you for explaining all of this!!
/emoticons/
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I already miss trading now that my bag is closed : ( The countdown to May 1st has begun...
