Personal Finance | SwapTree As A Frugal Alternative To Buying New

Do you have any books, CD’s, DVD’s, or video games laying around that you won’t use anymore? I know I do! So what to do with them? One option is a site I was just introduced to call SwapTree. The idea here is that you can trade the books, CD’s, DVD’s, or video games you have with other people for media items you want. There’s no fee for the service. All you have to do is pay for postage and even that is easy since SwapTree will provide you with a shipping label to use (you can use shipping outside of their site as well but you won’t get to use their shipping labels).

Here’s how it works: You list items you want to trade away on the site by listing the UPC or ISBN code on the item. You can then search the site for items you want (you can also let the site show you what you could get for you item). SwapTree will work it’s magic to match up items you have for items you want. If you accept a trade you print out their mailing label (or provide shipping yourself) and mail out your item. The item you are trading for will arrive through the mail.

My concern would be trusting that I get an item in return. Well, what the sites does is it uses a rating system similar to what E-Bay uses. You can check out the rating of the person you would be receiving the item from.

Here’s a tip - If you’re like me you’re a lazy mailer. I tend to pay most of my bills online nowadays and don’t mail much out anymore. So here’s what to do: Go out and get mailing envelopes before you agree to any trades. This way all you have to do is slap the label on it and send it out once a trade is confirmed. If you wait until a trade is approved to get an envelope then you have to rush to get one and mail it out. (Remember the ratings system? Part of your rating will be how long it takes to get an item). You can go to Wal-Mart or Target and buy envelopes in bulk to save money. And as you trade try to save the envelopes and re-use them.

If you sign up in the next week to SwapTree using this link or use the code swapfrugal when you sign up you will get free postage on your first trade! That should be incentive enough to try one trade. And if you refer friends to SwapTree you can earn additional free postage.

Like I mentioned before, I have a ton of CD’s I’ll probably never listen to again as well as a bunch of books and DVD’s. Next time I go to Target I’m gonna pick up some bubble envelopes and try this out! This will be a great way to enjoy some new movies, books, or music without adding any clutter to the house. This is also a great way to trade away movies your kids don’t watch for ones they haven’t. Sounds like a frugal alternative to buying items new.

Have you used SwapTree? Let me know you’re thoughts!

2 Responses to “SwapTree As A Frugal Alternative To Buying New”

1. living in a frugal way (2 comments) on July 10th, 2008 10:10 am

   That is really cool, have you been using it much recently?

   Sounds like an advanced version of Yahoo’s Free Cycle (not sure if it is still going).

2. ffb (219 comments) on July 10th, 2008 11:35 am

   I’ll be honest with you, I put up a bunch of items and I got a couple of offers but I didn’t move on them. It took a couple of weeks to get an offer. Maybe my tastes don’t match up with a lot of other items on the site. Hate to say it but I’ve been a little too pre-occupied to follow up. Maybe I’ll try them again at some future point. It does seem like a useful site if you can keep up with the offers.

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