Fed up with trading at this point

We all knew as soon as this feature released that it sucked, but after using it for awhile now, I have to say that the depth and breadth at which it sucks cannot be understated.

Before I begin; I am willing to acknowledge that this game has been very generous up to this point. The fact that I have only spent $20 on this game and have 2-copy completed both Genetic Apex and Mystical Island is testament to that. So don't take my whining about this to mean that I am ungrateful for that. I am merely just venting about how this particular feature just sucks in every conceivable way.

#1. The token exchange rate

It costs 120 trade tokens to trade rares, yet you only get 25 from converting them. It's 500 trade tokens to trade EX pokemon, but you only get 100 from converting them. On top of that, you have to have an extra of that rarity for each trade in the first place. So that's 6 cards for 1.

I started playing the third day after launch and had an excess of rares & EX when trading was implemented. I no longer do. I converted all of the cards that I can afford to and now I'm out of trading tokens before I've even completed STS (1-card deep). I have three rares left to grab, but it's disheartening to realize that getting 2 of every card from each set from this point on will not be feasible without lagging behind on new sets. I likely wont even get to do that with STS.

Now, that may sound a bit entitled to some, but my concern is really this: If someone like me, who has been active every single day since launch, is already "broke" on tokens about a month into trading... I can't imagine how greedy this system feels for the players who are newer and less active. I imagine a guy who started playing three weeks ago wanting to build the Mewtwo EX + Gardevior deck because he pulled one of each, but realizing that he'll need to get and give up 6 extra rare and 6 extra EX cards to make it happen. If I were in that position, I'd just not even bother trading for rares & EX at all. It's an absolute ripoff.

#2. The in-game system is designed in the most inconvenient way possible.

Why are we limited to one active trade at a time? Why aren't there in-game wishlists and trade-lists to help arrange trades? Why isn't there any way in-game to communicate to other players about trades? Why do I have to be friends with someone to trade with them, if I can just unfriend them after the trade?

It's almost as though they purposely made it as inconvenient as possible out of fear for a trading black-market.

#3. Arranging trades in general has been hair-pulling infuriating

I have been using a certain mobile app to trade and it fixes a couple issues outlined in #2 by helping match each player based on what cards they have and what cards they need.

Even with that help, actually getting these trades to happen is still a nightmare. To get one specific card, I end up having to message 20 different people (No exaggeration) over the course of an hour to finally encounter one that is active and will respond. Then, 3 times out of 4, the trade doesn't go through for whatever reason.

What is getting really really frustrating is that oftentimes someone will respond, send me their friend code, I'll send the request, they accept, then I set up the trade, and then... nothing. My trade just gets stuck on "Waiting for player to accept" for hours.

Just last night, I was arranging trades for both Luxray and Heatran. I got responses on both at the same time. I initiated the trade for Heatran. The player did what I described above. It only took 2 minutes to get to the point of setting up the trade, but after that, I was waiting indefinitely. I gave them 30 minutes and decided to cancel the trade in favor of the guy who had Luxray, who then told me that he no longer needed the card I had to offer him, as he made a trade for it while he was waiting.

If this was a rare occurence, I'd just stomach it and move on, but quite seriously, at least HALF of my trade initiations go like this. I don't know why so many people have no problem becoming friends in a timely manner, but as soon as you lock that trade in, they disappear.

This would be half as much of a problem if we weren't restricted to one trade at a time. At least then I'd have gotten the Luxray (For the record, I eventually did get a trade for Luxray to happen, but no luck on Heatran [STS] or Leafeon [STS] yet).

Between the 6 for 1 exchange rate, the inconvient system, and people not folowing through on trades, I am ready to just be done with collecting full sets in general... which, of course, is a slippery slope into not playing the game at all anymore.