Current Rule

Under the current trading system, if a seller and buyer do not complete their trade within 7 days, the trade will be automatically forced.

While this rule may help ensure trades are eventually completed, the 7-day waiting period can create problems for both sides.

Problems with the Current System

For Sellers:

• Once an item/Pokémon is involved in a trade, the seller has to wait 7 days if the buyer does not complete the trade.

• This means the seller cannot list the item/Pokémon in the forum again during this period which can be especially frustrating when a buyer makes a false bid, changes their mind, or simply stops responding.

For Buyers:

• If a trade is stuck, the buyer may have to wait up to 7 days before the trade is resolved.

• During this time, they cannot properly obtain the item/Pokémon they need.

• This can be inconvenient when the item/Pokémon is needed immediately for other purposes.

Suggested Change

I suggest reducing the normal waiting period from 7 days to 3 days.

After 3 days, if both parties have not completed the trade, the trade would be automatically forced as it currently is.

However, there could be an option to extend the waiting period to 7 days when both parties agree that they need more time.

For example:

• Normal trade: Automatically forced after 3 days.

• Extended trade: Can be extended to 7 days if the buyer or seller requests additional time through DM and the other party agrees.

• Alternatively, the trading system could allow players to set their preferred trade date when making or accepting a trade.

Why This Would Be Better

This change would make the trading system more flexible while still preventing trades from remaining unresolved indefinitely.

A 3-day default would:

• Reduce the impact of false or abandoned bids.

• Allow sellers to relist their Pokémon/items sooner.

• Allow buyers to obtain their desired Pokémon/items sooner.

• Encourage players to communicate and complete trades promptly.

• Still give players the option to take more time when there is a legitimate reason.

At the same time, allowing an agreed 7-day extension would prevent the shorter deadline from negatively affecting players who genuinely need more time.

Example

Current system:

Day 1: Buyer bids → Seller accepts
Day 2–6: Trade cannot be completed because the buyer is unavailable
Day 7: Trade is forced

Suggested system:

Day 1: Buyer bids → Seller accepts
Day 2: Buyer/seller does not respond
Day 3: Trade is legitimately forced by Mods

OR

Buyer and seller agree to wait longer → Trade deadline is extended to Day 7.

Overall, I believe changing the default waiting period from 7 days to 3 days, while allowing mutually agreed extensions, would make the trading system faster, more flexible, and less frustrating for both buyers and sellers.

+1

-1 sometimes buyer or seller may not be able and do the transaction for some reason, especially during working days. Having 7 days it's secured that there is a weekend included for players to find the time to complete the trade.

Otherwise when that period is like 3 days and the trade may not be able to be completed because it's too short, it wouldn't be fair to have to pay 10%/10k for the forced trade due to the small window.

Also it would increase the workload of Trade Moderators by a lot but staff members are volunteering in their free time.

It's the player's responsibility to try and complete the trade since they were interested in that transaction.

Having a hard time giving this a straight +1 or -1.

The suggestion is reducing the current 7-day period down to 3 days. In practice though, that means asking Trade Moderators to step in sooner. I can understand the argument that this would get sellers their Pokédollars faster, but at the same time, what if another seller simply isn't ready within those 3 days for whatever reason? The current 7 days gives both sides a decent amount of breathing room without anyone having to get involved (vice versa, whether it's the buyer or the seller, I think 7 days is a reasonable amount of time for either side to get things figured out).

The other part I'm unsure about is allowing the buyer and seller to mutually agree to extend it from 3 days back to 7. I understand the idea behind it and why that sounds more flexible, but I don't really think the players should be the ones making that call. If both sides agree to an extension, now the Trade Moderators have another thing to deal with. They may have to verify that both people agreed, check Discord or in-game messages, deal with disagreements over what was said, etc.

That's my concern with the suggestion. It may sound easier or more convenient, and I understand the benefits pointed out, but it also introduces extra work/potentially more situations for moderators to sort out.

I also think going from 7 days to 3 days could end up benefiting one side more than the other depending on the situation (under a lot of circumstances). Then adding a mutual extension system on top of that feels like we're creating another process just to compensate for shortening the original one.

So I can't really say it's a definite -1 because I understand why some would want it, but I'm not convinced it's worth changing the current system either. If I had to lean one way, I'd probably lean against it. The 7-day period might be slower, but it's simple, gives everyone enough breathing room, and doesn't create another headache for Trade Moderators to deal with.

Edited 3 hours ago3 hr by Lacomus

+1