IOU - Breeding Promises

[Ifni]

I'm generally happy to accept IOUs: I've never had any bad experiences. (Well, there are the people who PM me offering to give me a 2nd gen Holly when they don't own a Holly, but they're SURE they'll manage to catch one next Christmas, if I just give them a CB metallic right now - but those are pretty easy to avoid.) My Holly is the result of a kinda-IOU, in exchange for a Neglected: the person I gave the ND to was on my gifting list anyway (for being awesome), when she offered me a Holly IOU it just moved her up the order. If she hadn't bred any Holly eggs, I still wouldn't have regretted giving her the ND.

 

I accept, of course, that if I do a deal for an IOU Holiday, the breeding may produce no eggs - the trade agreement is that they'll give me an egg if they get one, and the risk that they'll try and get nothing is entirely mine.

 

I also recently promised an IOU, of the next gold/silver I bred with a lineage the other person liked - so they could ask for a 2nd gen, but it might take a while, or they could ask for something easier and get it quicker. They ended up with an even 3rd gen gold in less than a week, so we were both pretty happy.

 

I know IOU trading has risks, but I just don't trade if I'll be devastated if the trade fails - most people around here are pretty trustworthy.

 

(speaking of which, if you have CB holly or CB gold/silver prizedragon and would be interested in trading breeding IOUs for (not-IOU) cb silvers, PM me please?)

[Drakrono]

I take IOUs for hatchies for metallic eggs. I don't get into debt very often, but when it do it's usually for a metal.

[HotIce80]

I made an IOU for a 3rd gen Even silver, a looooooong time ago. I unfortunately don't remember who it was. But at the same time, my 2nd Gen silvers haven't given me a silver egg in months and months.

[Twyro]

Well, speaking of this, I only promise dragons that I know I have enough of, and if the eggs would be auto-abandoned anyway.

I did take/give IOUs, but never tried to get anyone's hopes up because of the possibility of failed breeding.

[arlymaye]

There seems to be quite a number of IOU trades being made off late. Therefore, I take the liberty to resurrect this thread so members can discuss this practice.

 

_Z_ : Is this OK?

[_Z_]

We will allow this topic for now, I will discuss it with rubyshoes.

 

Reminder:

 

The best way to avoid being scammed is to not accept or give IOU's.

 

Trading Subforum, Section Guidelines

http://forums.dragcave.net/index.php?showtopic=113928

Members accept IOU's at their own risk, we at DC are not responsible for any agreements made between members.

 

[SlowHornpipe172]

I accept and offer IOUs. Two days ago I finished paying off my IOU for a tinsel I received a week ago. It was an excellent trading arrangement. I currently have two mutual IOUs in progress as well.

[Banuk]

I never offer IOUs, because I never have anything to breed that anyone would want. I also no longer take IOUs, after I accepted two that were never given. The fact that it's an Internet honor system just puts me off even more.

[WraithZephyr]

Before Teleport.. I generally avoided IOUs not because of the risk of someone not honoring their end, but because of the risk of not being able to safely get respective eggs/hatchlings to each others scrolls. Any trade that I did were those where I was fully comfortable in losing my share of the deal in the event of a cave lag or AP sniper (stuff happens). I've also gifted rares to people and sometimes one will offer to return the favor by gifting other rares to me sometime in the future, but I honestly would never hold them to it since mine was a gift from the beginning and I never expected anything in return.

 

Now that teleport is finally here.. I am more comfortable in branching out with IOUs, but I am keeping things reasonable and I am also not offering more in trade than I am willing to risk.

 

I currently have 2 IOUs pending where I was able to meet my end of the bargain immediately and just have to hope that the other people have excellent breeding success eventually so they can complete their end. Both are known forum members so I feel safe with our agreements. I have a 3rd IOU in progress where the other person has met their part immediately and I've put a "good faith down payment" on my portion and am currently working on paying off the rest within the next week or so.

 

 

[spyro76]

I've made several IOU agreements recently. Now if my dragons would be nice I could pay them off. I also have one going the other way, and my end is soon to be done, pending someone getting unlocked. I've only ever "broken" an IOU agreement because the person who I owed a vampire got their scroll burned, so it was unavoidable.

[Naughtrish]

I prefer not to give/take IOUs but lately I did and my lazy critters are refusing to give me the egg I need to fulfill my part of the trade. Makes me feel bad to be in debt

 

I did take a couple IOUs from people that I can't say I know, but they did keep their promise

[rebelgoddess19]

I do offer IOU's and let others give me IOU's if the offers are good

[buckskinmist]

I've made a few IOU's recently. 3 from me, and 4 to me. The first was for my first Tinsel egg. I was able to pass it immediately, but it took 3 weeks to get one back. I ended up getting a different Tinsel since the original wouldn't produce one.

 

This past Sunday, I was able to pass off my 2nd IOU, and I still have 2 more left to breed. 3 of the people I have never talked to and 1 I have known quite a while.

 

Before Teleport, I have never done many IOU's. Being one of the Mods for TGT, I have mostly gifted or bred for certain lineages. My connection wasn't always that great, so I didn't feel comfortable trying to catch what others have wanted to trade.

 

I don't know if I like doing IOU's. I feel bad when my dragons don't produce, and it bugs me knowing I owe someone something that is at the whim of these little pixels.

 

I think in the future I will hold IOU's to maybe 1 or 2 at the most.

[siliconrose]

I dislike giving IOUs, but I will accept IOUs.

 

It took me nine months to fulfill an IOU for someone, and after that, I very, very rarely give IOUs. I've given out two recently, and I'm regretting that I did -- I just don't like the pressure of waiting on my dragons to successfully produce.

 

As for receiving, I got bitten last year when I made a trade with someone for a holly and they disappeared before Christmas came around. However, I've had two people fulfill IOUs for me on very rare trades, so overall my experience has been reasonably positive.

 

Unfortunately, I have several IOUs outstanding right now, and none of them are coming through. I know the people involved are good for their promises, but that's the risk of accepting an IOU for something bred from a rare... sometimes the rare just won't cooperate.

 

These days, I only accept IOUs from people who I have seen around extensively, or people who are ARK listed.

[tjekan]

I don't see any problem with IOU's. The chance of somebody blowing it off is smaller than the chance of having an egg lost in trade was, and that didn't stop any of us from using the abandoned page to trade.

 

The only bad thing about IOU's is when you promise one and then your dragons don't cooperate, so fulfilling the promise just sits there on your to-do list for weeks. I still owe somebody a stripe, and I have so many productive stripes I didn't think twice about it, but then stripe breeding hit a brick wall that very week. :-o Because of that, I definitely wouldn't want to keep an IOU list more than one person deep. It would start to feel less like a game and more like being at work!

[Mustangs44]

I take and give IOUs. Normally though, my taking of an IOU consists of 'you raise the hatchies I need, I keep the egg for you until the hatchies are raised'. That way I can't really be scammed. :3

I'm always good on my word for fulfilling IOUs. Even if it takes months for my dragons to cooperate. >n>

[Pink]

Recently I've begun accepting them for either very small things from people I don't know (such as hatchies in return for my trios) or larger things from people I know, or have seen around extensively.

However, at the moment because I have so many of them, I've been rather loathe to trade eggs I have now for eggs that I could get months from now.

It just takes a bit of the excitement of trading out for me.

 

On the other hand, I hate giving out IOUs, although I have done it on occasion.

I still have two I have yet to fulfill, and I'm working on it, but I'd much rather not get any more.

D:

[Fiona]

I hadn't done any IOU's until recently. So far they've all turned out fairly well, though I ended up complicating the first one a great deal because I was having trouble filling my end. I just couldn't seem to get the eggs I needed, so I made a few IOU trades to get what I needed to finish what I owed. All but one of those is paid off now too.

 

I do currently owe a couple things. I don't particularly like owing people. I feel pressure to get that paid off as quickly as possible, though there has been no pressure at all from the people I owe eggs to.

 

I agree that IOU trading is risky. I glad the people I made agreements with trusted me to keep my end of the bargains. Not everyone will, and if one accepts an IOU one does accept that risk. I think overall I prefer looking at what I have to trade, and not what I might be able to get to trade.

 

I will say this too. It's easier for me to accept IOU's than to give them. I know if I accept an IOU and they never come through then I'm the only one out, and I knowingly made the choice. If I give an IOU I want them to know that whatever happens or how long it takes I will get them what I promised; that they can count on that. The idea that someone could look at me and think I might be a bad trading risk would make me sick inside. That's not the reputation I want to have.

[arula]

Ideally I'd prefer not to deal with IOUs, but I feel they're necessary-- if I have a nice tinsel and someone else has a nice tinsel and we want to swap offspring, the odds that they'll breed shiny eggs at the same time are just too low to count on.

 

So I both give and accept a fair number of IOUs. I used to be fine with even long-term IOUs, since everyone I dealt with was honest and happy to fulfill their part of the bargain. Then I got scammed (someone took my half of the IOU, produced her half, and then stopped answering my PMs), and now I try not to accept IOUs where I'm later than first or second on the list. I might still accept a long-term IOU if I felt I could "afford" to lose whatever it was I was trading, or if the person offering the IOU was someone who'd been playing for several years and was active on the forums. (Because they're probably obsessed with DC and wouldn't want to risk their scroll by scamming someone.)

 

I do have a long IOU list on one of my dragons that I'm regretting now, but it's just because blacks and stripes suddenly stopped breeding-- if they'd kept at their normal breeding levels, I would have been able to complete the list months ago. I feel bad that my listers have to wait so long for their dragons, and I won't keep a long list on that dragon again-- I'll be too relieved to have finally fulfilled the current list!

[GiratinaOF]

When I do IOUs: (eg when someone offers me an IOU)

If I should take an IOU for a trade of an egg already existing, then only for prize dragons or holidays. I'd rather not take rare or alt IOUs. Also I usually don't trade rare dragons (if I get some ) for common IOUs.

 

When I take IOUs: (eg when I IOU someone something)

If I know the person, it's ok. However, I rarely IOU someone rares or commons, but sometimes tinsels. That's OK for me.

[AlternateMew]

I gift now, so I'm a little backed up with cruddy breeding results. I have done an IOU, but it was for a hatchie, and I proved I had the egg before confirming the trade.

 

So yes, I'll offer IOUs. I've never been offered one before, however. I've just got nothing worth one, lol. I do try to keep people updated with breeding results, but try not to be annoying at the same time.

[LadyAmlaruil2]

I do give and accept IOU's - although I try to space them out a bit! Since I am not a veteran DC-er, I am still trying to collect some of the rare dragons that are hard to get, and of course, trying to acquire nice lineaged tinsels.

 

I have only one silver and one bronze tinsel at the moment, and I have given away all their offspring. I still have 2 outstanding IOU's to provide eggs for, and I have two that I am waiting on eggs for!

 

I always make sure to make good on my IOU's, and even if it takes a while - I haven't been burned yet, so... maybe I've just been lucky!

 

I just love the reaction when I PM someone with the news... Success! The screen almost seems to light up with their delight!

[ozys]

I dont really make IOU trades only some times.

[thewingeddragonofra]

My first two tinsels i made long IOUs for, im still paying off it all, but once the lists have gone, im never making a list again unless i really have to.

As with my other tinsels, im forcing myself to make the shortest or no list at all with them.

I want people to know im trustworthy with tinsels.

But unfortuantly im oweing people other stuff, but ive forgotten who they are... (oh if thats you PM me)

I know what i owe them but i forgotten who i owe which is soooo annoying >.<

-Ra

[wraith3895]

i did an iou for a christmas holiday egg...befor teleport was here...i sent the code...i dropped the egg...the person missed....and never paid