Bartering is an old, old idea. It worked for hundreds of years before we came up with this cash idea. I’ve got a chicken, you’ve got this pottery bowl. Let’s trade. Stuff isn’t all that works in the bartering system, either: services, skills, and benefits can be traded. You hunt, I’ll gather. (Or vice versa, depending on who is better with a spear.)
Bring back the benefits of bartering to your life. We all have stuff we don’t need, or professional services and special skills we can trade. Other people have stuff we do need. It’s just a matter of finding a good swap.
Swapping rather than shopping means that you get rid of your unwanted stuff without sending it to the landfill or processing it through a recycling center. It goes straight to someone else who wants it and will use it, without the extra packaging. Swapping means you get the stuff you need without purchasing new, packaged goods. You can also avoid that drive to the store, if you swap small stuff through the mail or choose a meet-and-swap location that is close to home.
The internet has made swapping so easy. (Read: you have no excuse.) Gather your stuff and get to it.
- Craigslist is great for swapping bigger stuff locally. Think couch, chair, lawnmower, firewood, a big painting. You can also barter for (and with) local, professional services. Take the usual precautions to avoid scams: local, plain and simple terms, a physical address, tangible items to trade or references for trading professional services.
- Title Trader is a great way to swap your books, music, and movies.It’s free and simple. You register, put up a list of what you have to swap, and wait for someone to say, “OH, wow! Just what I’ve always wanted!” or something along those lines. Then you mail off your book (or dvd or cd, as the case may be) and you get a Credit when it is received. You use your credit to get something that someone else has up on the site to swap. Using this kind of system is nice, because you don’t have to bother with finding someone who wants exactly what you have and has exactly what you want as well. Another similar website is SwapNStuff.com.
- SwapThing.com is big, friendly, and has everything from a pair of Nikes to a Mercedes up for a good swappin’ deal. SwapThing charges per $1.00 per swap, or you can pay $3.00 per month for unlimited swapping.
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Time to go dig around in my basement…
Image Credits:Meanest Indian.
