Swap DVDs, Swap CDs, Swap Video Games and Swap Books. It's been tried so many times on the internet but I don't think ever as simply and cleanly as this site.
It has two things that make it stand out for me.
1. It's free to swap. It is, really, completely free to list the items you want to get rid of and to request items you want. There are no charges. I spent a day or two checking this out and having used and tested the system, there are no charges.
2. You don't have to find a matching swap when you want to swap something. You don't offer to swap a Harry Potter DVD for an X-Men DVD. You just list your Harry Potter DVD and when someone requests it, you get Swap Points. You can then use these swap points to request anything else you want from the SwapShop site.
These two things are what make the difference. There are other advantages too and I'll speak about them below but a really good site that does what it says and is free is very refreshing, hence this post to tell you about it.
Some of the other stuff that makes the site work is:
- It's really easy to list your items. They concentrate on DVDs, CDs, Video Games and Books, and they have a database of all the barcodes, so, you just tap in the barcode of the back of the item you want to swap and the system has all of its details already. It shows you a copy of the packshot so you can see it's got the right item and you hit the "Offer As A Swap" button. Easy.
- They suggest the number of points you should list your item for based on what the item is available for at other online retailers. As you are getting rid of your used DVDs and you used CDs, books and Video Games, it suggests a swap point value just less than it can be easily bought for new. If you item is particularly damaged or worn, you can reduce the swap point value accordingly. I compared these guys to hitflip who also do online swapping but HitFlip force the point value so you cannot change it and they charge you 79p every time you swap something.
- They have a referral scheme that earns you points if you refer friends. Now, I know that this makes it sound all commercial, but, the more people that are looking for items on the SwapShop site, the more requests you are going to receive. More people on the site also means more products to choose from when you spend the Swap Points you have received, so, referrals seem absolutely necessary. They already seem to have over 14,000 people swapping and something like 30,000 items listed for swapping on the site.
- You can buy points. I think this is a great bonus to the site. It makes the site two sites in one, a site for swapping items but also a site for buying used items and if you've got a games console then you'll know that used games are a great way to get new different games for the kids, or for yourself. Each SwapShop Swap Point is worth £1 and there are PS2 and XBox games listed for only a couple of points in some cases. If you can't wait to collect points by swapping, or if you just want to pick up cheap used games, you can buy Swap Points using PayPal and request the items straight away.
- They have a Trading Guarantee that states they will sort out any problems that you have swapping on the site and applies if you are sent an item that is not what you requested, is counterfeit or is not reasonably fit for purpose. That sounds like it will cover pretty much everything I might worry about if I'm using the site for swapping.
Has anyone else used them? Has anyone used a similar site and have a comparison? Let me know in the comments.
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