My latest piece for Money Crashers is about bartering and swapping websites. I'm personally a heavy user of Freecycle, which is technically not a swapping site but a sharing one; you can give stuff and receive stuff, but there's no this-for-that exchange. Bartering is a little tougher to pull off, because you have to have something another person wants and also want what that person has. But the Internet makes it easier by gathering together a big group of people all interested in swapping the same kind of thing, such as books or clothes, to improve your chances of finding a match.
This article is a roundup of 20 sites to help you do this. There are sites to exchange all kinds of things, from clothes to music to vacation housing. Some can only arrange direct one-for-one swaps; some can do three-way swaps, where you give A to someone who gives B to someone else who gives you C; and some use a points-based system, where you give an item to earn points you can cash in for someone else's item (so it's really more like an alternative form of money than like barter). There are even a few sharing sites like Freecycle thrown into the mix.
20 Bartering & Swapping Websites — Best Places to Trade Stuff Online
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2 comments:
hi do you sometimes find it discouraging how little these sites are used? i have a feeling they will become far more in demand soon when people won't be able to afford to buy things, i just put in a request to start freecycle in my area. I think people are stuck on the major social media platforms and are loathe to visit other sites i think is the problem. Keep up the good work.
I think the solution to that is to spread the word as much as possible. If your friends are all stuck on social media, use social media (e.g., Facebook Marketplace) to swap, or post regularly about all the cool stuff you're finding on Freecycle. Eventually they'll get the idea.
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