Swaptree

Someone once suggested I join Swaptree so about a year ago or longer, I set up an account and it basically went unused until the last couple of weeks when I was actually able to try it out and can now write a review.

The idea of Swaptree is that you have books, CDs, DVDs, or video games sitting around your house that you have used and no longer need and so do tons of other people, so why not swap them with each other? You set up an account and make a list of what you "have" - things that you would be willing to part with - and another list of what you "want" and then the trades begin. I guess you can initiate your own trade (for every item in your "have" list, you get a list of items available for trade for that item) or the site has some sort of system in place where it can figure out trades for you. The latter is what happened to me.

Once you get notification of a trade, you can choose to accept or reject it and then all you have to do is pay the mailing costs, which you can do right through the website, too. You drop it in a mailbox and get a new item from someone else within a few days.

It's pretty simple and I seem to consistently have a pile of books sitting around that I'm either planning to donate somewhere or sell online or something so why not put them up on Swaptree and see if I can get something in return? The shipping costs are media mail so therefore the cheapest. Really my only problem with the site is that they only give you like 24 hours to accept or reject a trade, which is difficult if you happen to be out of town or just not checking email. And I guess if you don't respond, it's a mark against you.