If you've got a book, CD, DVD or video game that you no longer need, check out Swaptree, where you can trade any of these items for one of thousands of others. Right in time for the back-to-school textbook rush, the Boston-based company has released a Facebook application that lets your friends see the items you've put up for trade and the items you want.
There are a few companies, like TitleTrader, Peerflix, Switchplanet and BarterBee that exist around the item-exchange concept, but none of them have pulled it off as well as Swaptree. Swaptree has an Amazon-esque interface that is clean, familiar and easy to navigate -- even if not particularly elegant. More significant is its matching system. In real-time, this matching system searches two degrees deep, enabling you to make three-way trades to get the item you seek. For example: if Joe Schmoe doesn't have the item you want, but David Schmoe does, and Joe Shmoe has an item that David Schmoe wants, the system instantly connects the three of you and makes executing the trade a matter of clicks. All trades are currently one-for-one, and you can trade across categories, allowing you to trade a DVD for a book, a video game for a CD, etc.
The site generates revenue with advertising, and the company believes that the data it will collect from its users will be valuable down the road -- but that is is a big if, and making money with this model could prove a major challenge.
Swaptree knows the weight of each item, and lets you print out correctly-priced shipping labels for the US Postal Service (support for UPS and FedEx are in the works). At the end of every month, you get a bill for all the shipping costs you've incurred.
The company has also built a FireFox plugin that lets you check if the item you're looking at on Amazon is available to trade on Swaptree's exchange.
To get started, you enter in the UPC code of an item you'd like to trade and add a few lines about it. Instantly, Swaptree displays a number of books, CDs, movies, and video games you can get for it. If you want something specific, you can search for it and get a list of the items you'll have to put up.
Like eBay, Swaptree relies on a trust and a reputation system, so people who cheat get weeded out but, like so many start-ups with solid concepts, this one faces a big chicken and egg problem. eBay's catalog of reputation ratings is one of its biggest competitive advantages, and until there is some sort of universal, portable reputation system, Swaptree will have to rely on the kindness of strangers.
The chicken and egg problem extends into its Facebook application, as well. For example, I wanted to unload one of the most popular Corporate Finance textbooks, but no one wanted it. Until the company has attracted a big enough user base, this will be a recurring issue.
However, there are good things to be found. When I put the popular book, Freakonimcs, up for trade, there were 4,553 items I could get for it. The database of books was the most extensive and had the best options, but the recent Marquez novel I wanted wasn't among them. The CDs were good as well -- movies and video games, not so much.
The company says it has a number of patents pending, but if eBay or Amazon decided to go the free exchange route, Swaptree might not be able to compete. That said, it could just as easily get acquired.
The company has raised approximately $500,000 in angel money from undisclosed sources.
