Check out iRent2u.com - we do just that. No worries about trying to find the perfect swap, just lend out your things and then get them back afterwards. Everyone wins. We use money for what is was made for, to extract value that is lying latent in possessions.

We provide a 100% local utility for finding items to borrow or lend. We have integrated maps and you search by proximity, user ratings, or whatever features you desire.

Items have no limits whatsoever, beyond being legal. Borrow or lend anything from a DVD to a Leer Jet.

Really, I have never understood these barter sites. Why spend a bunch of time trying to find perfect matches. Let money account for the difference. That’s why they call it “money”.

Great, check out iLetYou.

Do swap sites have utility? Yes, absolutely - when you also don’t care about marginal value differences, swap sites are great. However, the difference does have to be marginal: you won’t trade a car that you’re sick of for a movie you haven’t seen.

Barter is older than commerce itself. But commerce eventually replaced barter as the main way of acquiring goods and services.

A key point is that “these items are essentially worthless to me” hints that stuff on swapping sites amounts to other people’s junk. If you value everything equally, the demand side will always outweigh the supply side. Currency is just the equalizer to balance the two sides out, which then allows you to exchange things of all value.

I mentioned BagBorrowOrSteal as a new vertical using the rental model on the other Swaptree post: a couture purse is the far from worthless!

Like you say, it’s just another way of looking at things. Rental lets you purchase the experience instead of the good and it fill a completely different need than buy/sell/trade. We rent everything from DVDs to clothing to cars to homes and it fills the need for when you need/want something but can’t or don’t want to buy it outright.

I’d love to hear anyone’s feedback on iLetYou - we’re looking forward to it!

I will have to check out iLetYou.

I do disagree with your assertion about lack of currency and assigning values. For me, if I’ve already read a book, or watched a movie, or listened to a CD (and/or added it to my Ipod), these items are essentially worthless to me, so provided I can get another DVD, CD, or book that I want (for free no less) by trading them to someone else, I’m a happy camper. And I can do that again and again and again with each item progressive item as I use them.

With media like this, once it’s used, it has low intrinsic value to me so I’m willing to trade. I don’t care if I trade a hardcopy of Freakanomics ($25) which I’ve already read for a paperback of The Long Tail ($10) which I haven’t read (but really want to).

Similarly, I don’t care if I trade a newly purchased CD that I’ve listened to for an old CD that I haven’t listened to, or a current run DVD that I’ve already seen for a 1996 movie that I haven’t seen (but really want to see). For me it’s all about marginal utility, not market pricing.

With used items like this, relative acquisition cost doesn’t matter to me.

Good discussion.

I like the extra liquidity of multi-way swaps introduced to swapping with Swaptree, probably a large part of their complexity leading to a longer Private Beta period. The lack of currency to assign true values doesn’t go away though as a limiting issue when your items are valued the same. Related is the eventual game of arbitrage to continually trade up when the traded item and associated costs make sense to do so, leading to decreased quality of items ‘available for trade’ on a swap site.

Both of these things limit overall liquidity, which is the key to success (and usefulness) of any marketplace.

Thanks,

Rodger
Founder, iLetYou

As Bemmu pointed out, I COULD sell my used stuff on EBay, at a local store, etc, but I don’t have time to do so and it’s not worth it to me to sell a used CD or a used book for a couple of bucks. Not worth the hassle, and I’ll never do it. Not ever. Not even once. I just know I won’t - some of my CDS are 15 years old and haven’t been played for that long.

It IS worth it to me to trade those items for other items I want, because the net value is greater to me when I do so (I immediately get something I want).

Even with the limited users in the Beta, I’ve been able to get a large number of items that I want but haven’t gotten around to buying. I’m pretty convinced that I’ll be able to get most of the music, books and DVDs that I want in exchange for similar items that I’ve already used for free.

One thing about my preferences bears noting: I’m not time sensitive about when I get things: I know I want to read a list of book titles, but I don’t care what order I read them in or if I do this week or next week or a month from now. I know I want to watch a bunch of movies that I didn’t see in the theatre, but I don’t really care when I do or what order I get them in (I just want to have one of the movies available when I actually get a break from the kids). So I add them to my want list and then they show up in my mailbox and I can use them when I’m able.

This works for me.

I guess next time I will sit in private beta for over a year!

SwitchPlanet.com has been going strong with a non-funded business model.

With an Alexa rating close to 30,000 we’re pretty close to reaching that critical mass point to really help us take off. I’m confident we’ll get there.

Thanks,
Chris

Thanks for mentioning us Jon Bon! It gave us all a warm and/or fuzzy feeling here at the SwapSimple office.

For those who have caught the swapping bug - If anyone wants to come check us out, after they’re done registering for Swaptree’s great service of course, I’ll create a referral code for you to use. It’ll give you a “founders” account, with some free swaps to help with your evaluation.

Just enter “Techcrunch”

I’ll keep the code active until tomorrow morning. Also, any feedback on our service would be much appreciated, either in our forums, or via customer service. We respond to all custserv messages within ~one hour

Talk soon,

Elliot
Co-Founder, SwapSimple.com

They are basically a barter site for “stuff”.

One man’s junk is another man’s treasure?

Don’t you think its time to forget the episode and move on?

Leave Arrington alone man.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong if somebody does what he loves and earns some money from it.

If you got problems with it, then you should better keep it with yourself or stop posting stupid comments.

Just enjoy the awesome startup stories that he posts dude.

Question: If Swaptree is not returning investor calls or PR calls, what happens if you are a consumer with a problem? Will they return your emails or calls?

Maybe something to consider for one of the swap start ups. It’s definitely an active and probably underserved niche.

I wonder how long this post will survive…

For example, take a look at switchplanet:

http://techfold.com/2007/04/30.....onscience/

They offer completely free trading, with a social twist:

“SwitchPlanet differentiates itself by offering free trades coupled with a charity component: instead of paying for trades, users can opt to donate any amount whenever they trade (or zero) to SwitchFunds - a donation fund that is regularly gifted to a number of charities.”

Also consider iLetYou - which opts for a decentralized NetFlix rental model, instead of straight swapping:

http://techfold.com/2007/06/11.....e-rentals/

Anyway, its a crowded market, with a commoditized feature set. What does Swaptree do to differentiate?