I was wondering about trading

[SpecialAgentKato]

Maybe this should be elsewhere seeing tradeing is done in the games as well, but I am mainly thinking about the machine it shows in the Anime. What exactly does the machine do to the pokeballs? Did it take for example Ashes Aipom out of Ashes pokeball and replace it with Dawn's buizel, and the same for Dawn, buizel out of her Pokeball, replaced with Aipom.

Is it anything like that? Basically asking, what the difference between using the machine is, and just swapping the two pokeballs by hand.

 

[Casual_Furi]

I think the pokeballs are put on 2 conveyor belts and it transfers them. The pokemon don't actually leave the balls.

 

[Every Breaking Wave]

In transferring from one trainer to another, it acts pretty much identically to the machines used to transfer Pokemon from on hand to a holding location (Oak's, for example).

One thing that the trade-machine also likely does is change the OT of the Poke Ball.

 

[PDL]

One thing that the trade-machine also likely does is change the OT of the Poke Ball.

I don't think the OT changes, but it probably changes the registry of the Pokéballs involved in the trade to the new current trainer.

Every occupied Pokéball owned by an offical trainer is probably registered on some database. The Pokéballs are then allowed to be transfered to anywhere the trainer wants them to be (Say Ash obtained Buizel's ball and wanted to send it to Professor Oak's lab. He wouldn't be able to do that since Buizel's Pokéball isn't registered with Ash.)