How do you develop a succesful trade offer?

[HaroldSeattle]

I'm someone who has always struggled with trades and because of this have been involved in very few in all the years(16 years) I've been involved in FFB. I think I've been involved in maybe 2-3 trades in all that time and all were offers made to me by desperate owners and were heavily in my favor. All I had to do was hit "accept". Not much thought was necessary. Unfortunately every time I've wanted to find a trade to improve my team it's failed to work, usually because I have been unable to come up with something anyone would accept. It's been the most frustrating aspect of FFB for me. I've come to dread seeing others make trades that help them because I usually feel like it's a means of improving their team that is unavailable to me even though I know that's not true in the literal sense. I am not someone who makes ridiculous trade offers that benefit only me. I always try to make "fair" offers when possible.

I am posting this now because I find myself in the following position for which a trade seems like the best way to address this problem:

I just had a draft(12 team) that went badly for me in a technical sense. Due to both connection & interface issues I ended up with a team that has two QBs(M.Ryan & J.Cutler) with the same bye week and then drafted a 3rd QB(A.Smith) to cover that bye week. I'm also very week in WR position with M.Floyd, M.Colston, R.Randle, & J.Maclin as my top 4 WR's. So the obvious thing to do, in my mind at least, is to find a team that's weak at QB and strong at WR with whom to attempt a trade. There is a team in said league that ended up with J.McCown & R.Fitzpatrick as their QBs and D.Thomas, V.Cruz, R.White, T.Smith, & R.Wayne as their top 5 WRs. I initially thought I could possibly offer Cutler for R.White or V.Cruz but all the analysis I've done says that trade would be heavily in my favor should be declined by the other team. So I'm back to the drawing board in trying to figure this out.

How do you go about coming up with successful trades??? What is wrong with my mindset in this regard?

I'm no expert, so take my advice for what it's worth. I find when I want to upgrade a position, it means coming up with a package deal, where you upgrade more then one of his positions. It can be painful, thus why some don't do trades. Some times you got to accept that you just don't have the ammo for some trade partners. Also you have to consider if the trade partner you have in mind, likes doing trades, if he doesn't ( like you) it would take a lopsided offer to make a trade happen. Better to find someone that loves trading, you can usually make a much fairer trade with those who enjoy making trades. My 2 cents.

 

[ZepTepi]

Alot of great replies everyone! Thank You!
My free time has been limited the last few days but i will digest it all soon and hopefully put it all to good use!

 

[MilkSpiller22]

If you draft with a particular strategy it could be very hard to make trades sometimes. For example in the mbbrl league I am in need for a qb, I looked at a couple good matches for me but they like having a good backup. Which then means I would have to go another route, but nobody wants to weaken some positions even in a fair trade. Generally speaking nobody wants to be weak at qb or RB even if you send good offers. Also preseason trades are tough because many owners take risks on sleeper players thinking that they will become starters, so they might not consider some weaknesses as urgent enough to improve.