With all of the success that has happened with the Pay it Forward activity in this community I had an idea for something a little different. So if you’re unfamiliar with exactly what the Pay it Forwards are, I encourage you to find out. Ask here even, I’d be glad to explain, but for the sake of keeping the idea of this thread simple, I’ll avoid explaining it right now. So the idea is simple. I’m calling it Prisoner Exchange. Or maybe Foreign Exchange Student. Something like that. The idea is this. Instead of a PIF that’s open to the entire community, this is an agreement between 2 individuals. You have this particular yo-yo…for whatever reason (no longer available, high cost…) I can’t get one but I would love to try it out. Maybe I have something you would be willing to exchange with me for an agreed upon period of time so we can both try something different. After the period is over each individual returns the exchanged items back to the original owner. It’s as simple as that.
With the integrity that has been displayed by the community thus far with the PIFs, I feel like this is something that could be a very enjoyable new activity between us. Of course there are risks involved but I think if everything is done out in the open and we all look out for each other, we could totally do this. I would love to open this thread up to ideas and discussions. I imagined a BST add along the lines of…I will never have the opportunity to try a whatever throw, I have this or that to exchange…any takers?
Or maybe…LF prisoner exchange for whatever throw. The details could then be hashed out privately but the members involved are known from the BST.
This could help us be on the lookout for people who signed up yesterday and today are wanting to trade for the most unobtainable throw in the world. So there it is in a nutshell. What do you think??
Great idea for community engagement! The only issue that immediately jumps to mind is what happens if someone damages a throw in their care? It could be a standard set for all of these trades or worked out between the traders, but it could potentially get outta hand. Love the idea, though, and it could also be used to help ppl decide on new throws without commiting to purchase. A “try before you buy” if you will
I did consider this. There could be some sort of loose community standard that could be further specialized per agreement. I would never envision people sharing their ultra collectibles but more like, as an example. Alleycat 650 b. There are many that people cherish as collectibles but there have to be some beaters out there. I do agree that there are issues to be hammered out and I also can imagine the possibility of negative outcomes. I appreciate you bringing that up right out of the gate. Because there has been one very negative outcome with one of the Pay it Forwards on the forum. So negatives should certainly be considered. The community as a whole may even decide it’s a bad idea all together. I felt like it was at least worth considering. Pleas keep the thoughts rolling in.
What was the “Negative” Pay it Forward?
It was the Inception
Someone literally created an account the day prior to accepting the PIF and then disappeared from existence
I’ve borrowed/loaned out quite a few yoyos.
I’d highly encourage people to give temporary trades like this a shot. Because it’s not really even just about the yoyos, but it’s also a good avenue for making friends and feeling like you’re getting a bit of a deeper social engagement with the community.
With a normal BST transaction, once the trade/sale has been completed, you really don’t have much of a reason to keep talking to each other. But if you’re just doing a temporary trade you’re gonna stay in contact, keep talking, discuss what you each like/dislike about the yoyos. And now you have somebody you’ll potentially wanna send other throws to in the future, so they can try out stuff you like.
I think pay it forwards tend to operate a little bit more like a regular BST transaction where you just get the yoyo in the mail, maybe don’t even say any words beyond posting your address or typing up something vague, and then mailing the yoyo forward. Pay it forwards feel fairly impersonal, they’re a bit more pragmatic and just kinda happen. People just try yoyo, and then move on once they mail it to the next in the chain. With temporary trades there’s so much more to discuss or talk about since you’re staying in contact with the person, and once you get your fill of the current yoyo, maybe you wanna try something else. Temporary trades don’t really feel like much of a one and done thing.
I think there’s only really fear with doing something like a temporary trade if you’re trying to treat it like a pay it forward type thing, instead of just making friends and sharing your yoyos with each other. Just use reasonable judgement and interact with people on a personal level, rather than trying to imitate the impersonal nature of most BST transactions or PiF stuff.
Through doing temporary trades I’ve gotten to try multiple titanium yoyos, some weird bimetals, old collector models, and I’ve just met some super cool people and made new friends.
I actually just got a package of yoyos in the mail today that I’m borrowing, and I loaned them out some stuff to try out as well! Temporary trades are just a fun way to try more without buying, and to meet people and make new friends.
Someone also stole a TiDream before this from another pif and was a well known community member prior to this, making sure the person has some good feedback goes a long way but isn’t full proof, personally I lend my stuff out to people I feel comfortable with after some conversation but I’m not sure I’d just send it to anyone who asked
Yeah I really think this is the best way to view it. If a stranger just outright asked to borrow one of my yoyos I’d be very hesitant. But if somebody messaged me wanting to borrow a yoyo, and we just started talking for a while, got to know each other a bit, and we were sorta vibing, at that point I’d be willing to lend them some stuff.
Having good feedback or hanging around in the community as a somewhat known person goes a long way, but I still feel like lending is something that more encourages you to make friends and get to know people. If somebody well known in the community wanted to borrow something from me, but truly just wanted to borrow it, and weren’t really interesting in just hanging out and talking about yoyo stuff, honestly that’s sorta unappealing.
I don’t have any yoyo clubs or players local to me, so doing stuff like this is the closest I get to having yoyo club type interactions.
I have an inception I’m happy to restart this with
Honestly if you are sincere in this I feel like the member who started the Inception thread would be very touched by the gesture. You should reach out to them. 
I’m 100% down. Let me see if I can find it
@mable @bcorliss3 I truly appreciate what you’re both saying there. It was personal interactions and the friendships that have developed as a result that made me think of this idea to begin with. I feel like we really have a community of exceptionally decent people here. The positive interactions that could result from exchanges like this really outweigh the possible risks…scary though they are.
I do this already so I wasn’t trying to speak to anything like that I was just adding some of what I do as well to protect myself and the throws, building rapport with someone goes a long way to not only knowing it’s safe but also most likely being taken good care of, I think this is a great idea personally it not only helps players but also smaller brands who some may not have had a chance to try yet and could lead to sales for them in the future
There are people on this forum I trust implicitly and if they asked to borrow anything I wouldn’t hesitate. Trust is earned and over time some people have earned it
Look… I told you…all that stuff that happened was an accident…you can trust me…you can trust me!!!