At least on the heirloom tomato forums, each year there seems to be a few fad tomatoes, generally new "designer" varieties that somebody hypes out of proportion to quality.

I'm surprised by your results. Black Krim is possibly my favorite variety, but it has been around and people don't seem to get as excited about it on the forums as they do Cherokee Purple (which has a cool name and gets a lot of press) or whatever this year's fad black is (Paul Robeson, JDs Special C Tex, Brad's Black Heart etc). Brandywine Sudduth Strain (pink potatoleaf) is probably king of the heirloom tomatoes in name, unfortunately it is an inconsistent producer and there are alot of different tomatoes with the name Brandywine attached to them so I don't know how well it trades.

Black Cherry is one of the best cherry tomatoes out there and you probably won't find it on the seed rack so it might be a good one for trading. You'll want to grow it anyways if you don't already. Other than that recommendation I would just be listing my favorites without any idea of how they might trade.

As a side note: I can't predict people's biases. My neighbors won't take certain colors of tomatoes regardless of flavor (yellow/gold/orange are not popular) and the radio garden expert said that he just couldn't get over the look of "black" tomatoes, which I'm sure turned off a good proportion of Ohio gardeners to them sight unseen.

I agree about Cherokee purple and Brandywine tomatoes. They do seem in high demand. Other popular veggies: County Fair cucumbers, Jack-o-lantern type pumpkins (popular with people who have kids), Rattlesnake pole beans, Dragon Tongue bush beans, Habaneros and killer hot peppers like Lemon Drop, Datil or Bhut Jolokia.

I'm not much of a "flower child," but zinnias, particularly Profusion Zinnias or Zowie Zinnias are always in high demand.

I just shake my head when people want Bhut Jolokai. You can't eat it safely. The only reason to grow it is for industrial purposes (extract for pepper spray etc) or to say that you have the world's hottest pepper (which is why it will probably trade well). If some kid got ahold of it and took a bite or got some juice in his eye..... I guess I can't talk, I've kept poisonous animals for pets before.

I've seen numerous folks with Cherokee Purple this year and noone that I traded with that had Black Krim (that I noticed) on their list as it's one of my wants. So, it surely can change from year to year or maybe even month to month based on what others have available. I do have to say, though, in general heirloom tomatoes will trade as those who like them usually want several varieties and start huge collections sometimes wanting a lot of different kinds.

I've done numerous trades, even though I'm new, and not one person requested my Jack O' Lantern Pumpkins. I agree about that any unusual colors or varieties will trade well. They're usually the ones that you can't just pick up at the seed rack locally usually.

What I'm considering is buying from places like SSE and growing them out for myself several things that aren't usually on others' trade pages (which you can search through here at GW to see if your pick is on many lists). Then, when I save seed from them, I'll have some good bargaining power. LOL

But, I think overall that the cheap seeds I bought tons of have traded nicely. I felt I had two choices. One, buy a bunch of cheap seeds for the big variety I could offer hoping to find something that others would be willing to trade for. Or, Two, buy expensive, unusual varieties and not have much to trade. It's not like people trade 3 varieties of a common variety for 1 variety that's unusual, so for this year (and my first season growing or trading seeds), I think that it was the way to go.

Next year, though, I will have all the common stuff as well as a bunch of unusual stuff, so I'll have the best of both worlds. I hope to be able to bless tons of traders next year and just blow their socks off when they trade with me. I think we have some majorly generous and caring traders here.

Blessings,
Angela

I have to also ditto that about zinnias... Actually, I've nearly been wiped clean of almost all the flower varieties I bought up, which was way more than veggies/fruits I bought, and I still have plenty of veggies left. Some people seem weird about trading flowers for veggies and vice versa. Most of my trades they didn't seem to care and usually picked some veggies/fruit and a lot of flowers. I don't think there's near as many veggie/fruit seed swappers here as there are flower or ornamental seed swappers.

Blessings,
Angela

I've found that just about any heirloom tomato seed will get snatched up eventually. And for some reason, every time I have black hollyhock seed available, it's claimed almost as soon as I can post it.

I to was wondering this. I have only been trading for about a month but have had every bit of 100 or so kentucky coffee tree seeds snatched up. Every trade I did I had at least one package of them in it.

Who knew? I wish I knew why so many people want it though. It really is kind of an ackward ugly tree, that often can look dead when it's not.
O well though, I now have over 50 kinds of seeds, and 10 kinds of heirloom tomatoes to show for it.

I to was wondering this. I have only been trading for about a month but have had every bit of 100 or so kentucky coffee tree seeds snatched up. Every trade I did I had at least one package of them in it.

Who knew? I wish I knew why so many people want it though. It really is kind of an ackward ugly tree, that often can look dead when it's not.
O well though, I now have over 50 kinds of seeds, and 10 kinds of heirloom tomatoes to show for it.