New Online Swap Sites Emerge
New web sites continue to pop up. Joseph Denton started SwapGiant in September 2008 and is now seeing close to 2,000 unique visitors a day. Many items bartered on the site are children’s toys, clothing and bikes.
At FavorPals, which launched in October 2008, most trades are service-oriented, like a cleaning lady who recently offered her services to a law firm in exchange for legal help fighting a traffic ticket. The site now attracts some 6,000 unique users a month.
And in January Scott Larsen and John Patton launched FriendlyFavor, a free “all-purpose request tool” that lets users ask favors of their trusted social network of family, friends and friends of friends. The site lets users post a variety of requests including charity contributions and advice, but the top-growing trend is barter requests, the founders say. “We anticipate that being half or more than half of our traffic by the end of the summer,” says Patton.
Select Sites Cater to Your Needs
Here are a few sites to consider if you have specific bartering plans in mind:
HomeExchange, Homeswap and HomesForSwap
Barter Bait: Homes for vacationers. (Use it if you’re interested in staying in Europe for a week but don’t to pay for housing. You can offer someone in Rome your place for theirs).
SwapAGift and Plastic Jungle
Barter Bait: Swap un unused gift card for another.
Swaptree
Barter Bait: Books, DVDs, music and video games. (Added bonus: Your only cost is shipping your item. The site advises you use the post office's Media Mail service which lets you send almost everything for less than $2.50.)
