virtual vs snail mail trains

[healingsage]

I was wondering what peoples preferences are to either virtual trains or snail mail trains. I have just recently joined 2 virtual trains and found that, although you get to ask for what you wish, most everyone wants the same things and it is difficult to find the high value coupons people are asking for.

I am also finding that most trains now are of the virtual kind.

I think I prefer to take my chances with the snail mail and hope to find something I could use and trade off some coupons than to stress about finding the exact coupon with exact upc codes etc.

Just my thoughts.....any other thoughts

[JumboShrimp]

I am a newbie and have only been on one virtual train so far. My preference is for the virtual trains.

A lot of the regular trains have rules that say you can't have any multiples in the train, take out what you put in, no save.ca, etc.

As a newbie, these rules kind of put me off of wanting to join the regular trains. I'm always worried that the only coupons I have are already in the train and therefore I will not be able to replace what I want to take from the train. Or I won't be able to take from the train at all and will be stuck with just adding my boarding pass and then sending the train along.

At least with the virtual trains, I can wait until a few people sign up and see what their wishlists are so that I can then decide whether I have the coupons the riders are looking for and whether I should join the train or not.

Just my 2 cents.

[rhiannon1891]

I LOVE virtual trains. IMO they're the best. I think though, its really up to the conductor to make sure that people make their wishlists long and varied so there is a better chance of other riders having coupons to fulfill wishes.

Examples of this would be
-limiting HV and FPC requests to 3
-Minimum 20-25 coupons on your list
-3 general "catagory requests" in addition to specific coupon requests (eg. paper towels, kids snacks, cereal... etc)

Of course if you don't have anything on the persons list you can send a stamp for them, which I think is a great thing. Even though I have LOTS of coupons, including HV and most desired, even I can't fulfill some peoples wishlists, so sending a stamp is great.

Don't be scared of trying one of these trains. Often you'll find people are INCREDIBLY generous and you'll get lots of coupons you can use!

A few conductors even offer incentives for people to send coupons. I did one a few months ago where I offered a contest package with a few fpc's and hv coupons. The 5 riders with the highest total value of coupons sent got extra entries, fpcs sent got extra entries etc. It was great, lots of people sent $150+ in coupons for other riders!

[freebiehunter]

I LOVE virtual trains! It's fun sending things I know someone wants and it's great to know you'll get something you can use in return.

I tried regular trains twice and will probably never do it again. The few coupons I found to take out were barely worth the postage.

[healingsage]

I have been on 2 virtual at this point. The first one, I received the same low value coupons from my wishlist from almost every rider...which is a risk you take when on a virtual train.
So now I understand why people don't put any low value coupons on their list. But I find that very exclusive. Unless you have tons of time to coupon hunt and email companies for fpc's it seems a risky venture to join because then you have to potentially send a ton of stamps which in my opinion are worth a lot more than some coupons. Coupons are free. Stamps and gc etc. are not.

Perhaps I just don't have enough coupons right now to participate fully. Or being single just don't need tons of the same kind of coupon?? I don't know.
Coupons have been fun for me.

Maybe trades will work better?? For now...

[daisybear]

I don't really like Virtual trains (VT) anymore; I got screwed on a VT I was on...over 80% of my coupons were expired by the time they got to me and yes I agree you get swamped with the low value coupons you add to your wishlist...I'm overloaded with $1 eggo and $0.50 degree coupons which takes all the fun out of the VT's arrival

I have taken so much time putting my coupons into these virtual trains to get crap back out...I have alway included small unsused notecard and often extra stamps/Canadian Tire money/Lotto tickets and even GC's!!! (anyone who has been on a VT train can back me on this)
Plus almost everyone is looking for items that I have in my own personal coupons so I end up giving coupons I would use myself to not know what to expect back in return.

Now, after ranting and ranting I did just get a great VT on friday that impressed me!!! The ladies on this train really went out of the way to make this train great.

So my personal choice would be regular trains without a boarding pass, or regular trains with perks in exchange for a boarding pass. Lizzyurb is great for these.