Perci (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} perci) wrote,@ 2008-05-10 08:50:00 |
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I've been using Swaptree, a book/cd/dvd trading site.
Also! Update about my Mother's Day show: Not only will you get my special Mother's Day themed set, which I probably won't be reusing any time soon; you'll also see Saddle Dodgers, two excellent comics who taste funny together, and ImproTop, here all the way from Mexico City, Mexico--you're not going to see them just any old night. That's 7:00 p.m. Mother's Day, ImprovBoston, 40 Prospect Street, Cambridge.
Swaptree lets you swap books, cds, and dvds with other people. You arrange a trade via the site and then they tell you where to ship your item. They arrange three-way as well as direct swaps, which gives you a lot more ways to get things you want. All you pay for is shipping, which isn't all that bad if you use media mail. You can even buy and print a shipping label on the site, so you can just leave your item in your mailbox for your letter carrier to pick up. (Unless you have the letter carrier we have, who might pick it up and then drop it off at the next door neighbor for no reason you can figure out, especially since he left all their actual mail in your box, but I digress.)
The site has worked out so that trades are pretty fair, like you can't swap one music CD and get a boxed set. But you can trade a book for a cd or whatever. You have to rate the condition of the stuff you're trading, and they also have an eBay-like ratings system for you to rate the people you trade with.
I think some people use it like a library, which seems kind of spendy to me. But I use it to trade things I don't want anymore for things that I'm pretty sure I'll want to keep for awhile, and then it's like getting those items for the $2.00 that it cost me to mail away something in exchange, which is now out of the house.
Drawbacks: If you have a question, you're screwed. They have a little "tour" of the site, which answers zero questions that people really have, and they have a "Contact Us" form, which is a black hole. They have discussion forums where you can ask questions, but since no one can get any info, they can't give you any. Fortunately, you can figure out the main bits if you're persistent. This also means there are probably not actually any repercussions for not completing your end of a trade, so I probably wouldn't do this if I was going to be super upset about having someone not send what I traded for. Also, their UI is one long trip through the land of "what the hell were they thinking." They've learned just enough from eBay and Netflix to create a borderline acceptable customer experience, but soon someone is really going to do this right, and then they'll be screwed and I'll be really excited.
The site has worked out so that trades are pretty fair, like you can't swap one music CD and get a boxed set. But you can trade a book for a cd or whatever. You have to rate the condition of the stuff you're trading, and they also have an eBay-like ratings system for you to rate the people you trade with.
I think some people use it like a library, which seems kind of spendy to me. But I use it to trade things I don't want anymore for things that I'm pretty sure I'll want to keep for awhile, and then it's like getting those items for the $2.00 that it cost me to mail away something in exchange, which is now out of the house.
Drawbacks: If you have a question, you're screwed. They have a little "tour" of the site, which answers zero questions that people really have, and they have a "Contact Us" form, which is a black hole. They have discussion forums where you can ask questions, but since no one can get any info, they can't give you any. Fortunately, you can figure out the main bits if you're persistent. This also means there are probably not actually any repercussions for not completing your end of a trade, so I probably wouldn't do this if I was going to be super upset about having someone not send what I traded for. Also, their UI is one long trip through the land of "what the hell were they thinking." They've learned just enough from eBay and Netflix to create a borderline acceptable customer experience, but soon someone is really going to do this right, and then they'll be screwed and I'll be really excited.
Also! Update about my Mother's Day show: Not only will you get my special Mother's Day themed set, which I probably won't be reusing any time soon; you'll also see Saddle Dodgers, two excellent comics who taste funny together, and ImproTop, here all the way from Mexico City, Mexico--you're not going to see them just any old night. That's 7:00 p.m. Mother's Day, ImprovBoston, 40 Prospect Street, Cambridge.
