My tips on completing trades

Not an expert but am very happy with how my trades have gone the past few years and have noticed a couple big trends and tricks I’ve picked up.

This is NOT a guide on how to “win” a trade aka make sure you come out better than the other person. It’s about how to make trades happen that you feel like are good for you and ideally the other person also leaves happy with the trade.

This is also not a guide of how to evaluate players. You have to do that on your own or atleast use a guide better than me lol

Target Players you value higher than average

This is my biggest tip. When I want to buy a player, I try and pick players I like more than everyone else likes them. This means that when I pay the fair market value, I actually think I am getting a good deal.

Pay attention to how they value players

Different people value players differently. One really common one is people valuing players on teams they like higher. Some people won’t make a trade unless KTC says it’s even or better. There are some more subtle ones too you will learn the longer you play with people such as some people value youth over production disproportionately even when they arnt rebuilding

Take account of sentimental player attachment

A lot of times if someone has been on a team for a while the owner values them more than their fair market value. Notice this in yourself too. Is the player on your team really that good or do you just love them cause you’ve been cheering for them the past 3 years? Recognize where other people have these attachments and are inflating the cost of their players.

A good way to utilize this is through picks. They don’t have that attachment cause it’s not a real player yet. The closer you get to draft day the more they become someone real and the more attachment people get to them

Utilize picks in general

Picks are the best way to get a trade through imo. Their value has the most variance. A second round pick can be a top 10 player at their position or someone you drop by the end of the year. People often like to believe they are going to draft well which can inflate the value.

It also leads to variety in how much different people value their picks. You can use this arbitrage to your advantage.

Communicate!

Figured this one out in leagues with friends and have made an extra effort to carry it into every league but when doing trades don’t just propose stuff back and forth talk to them.

One time I had a trade we seemed gridlocked on was about to give up until after chatting for a bit I realized he really wanted to keep the throw in player I added to even it out but wasn’t that attached to who I actually wanted. We then easily reached an agreement

Just talk and see what people actually want to gain, how they are thinking, and what you can do to make them happy

Prioritize their ideas over yours*

This is a common negotiation tactic but people like their own ideas or plans better than other people’s inherently as just a blanket statement. Knowing they thought of it makes them view it as more likely to be right.

How you can use this is if they don’t like what you proposed, ask them to counter instead of you proposing a new idea.

This has the double benefit of also giving you insight into how they are thinking and what they want but mainly it means they created this idea.

Now you can either take them up on it or if you want to counter still utilize this principal. Instead of phrasing it like here’s a new idea, phrase it like that’s a good idea I like where your heads at this little tweak would help me feel better about it does this still accomplish the goals of what you proposed? It gives them ownership over this trade idea AND keeps it in the realm of what they consider reasonable

Tell them why they should take the trade

Honestly the biggest benefit of this is reframing how you think of trades. Now you have to actually make sure that there is a real benefit for them. Keeps you from wasting time trying to push trades through that only help you.

The other big part is it helps them see your vision of how it can help them. Just lay it out in a sentence or two, nobody wants to really be sold to but just make it so they don’t overlook a major benefit for them. It’s pretty simple but most people don’t do it in my experience. Keep it to a sentence or two

Be ready to pay to make it happen

If the trade really is a true 50/50 completely even, they probably won’t want to do it. Goes back to the sentimental part but in general people don’t want to make a trade to be in the same spot they were before. Sometimes you have to pay a little extra to make it happen if you really think it’ll benefit you. It’s often just throwing in a 4th or something but can be what it takes to go through.

I personally like to add it at the end instead of in the initial offer so once they are on the fence it pushes them over the edge and they feel like they got a little extra and out negotiated you instead of it just being part of the offer

Make sure everyone’s happy!

In general the best trades are where everyone leaves satisfied. Focus on trades that accomplish this. It’s pretty rare a 24 yo rb for a 24 yo rb will accomplish this so instead focus on teams that have different needs from you and given them different types of players.

Not only will it make the trade easier to make happen and you’ll waste less time, but it will leave a good taste in their mouth so that next time you want to trade they will meet you with open arms. It’s dynasty, there’s lots more trading filled years to come lol

Hope this can help! Nothing groundbreaking but just some tips I’ve picked up on over the years. Trading is my favorite and imo the most important part of dynasty so I like to use whatever I can to do it the best I can!