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June 28, 2007

TechCrunch Readers Can Join Swaptree Now

Michael Arrington

41 comments »

I just posted on the Swaptree private beta and upcoming launch. You can actually join right now, and there are no limits on signups. Just go to swaptree.com/techcrunch.htm and follow the instructions. Let me know what you think.

  • Sphere It

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 28th, 2007 at 9:32 am and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  1. aw

    June 28th, 2007 at 9:58 am

    Follow what instructions?

  2. nothing new

    June 28th, 2007 at 10:13 am

    how much did swaptree pay you michael?

  3. Kris

    June 28th, 2007 at 10:23 am

    Keep drinking the haterade, everyone!

    But seriously, the page keeps dipslaying nothing or an error when I go to it.

  4. Daniel

    June 28th, 2007 at 10:25 am

    …and life goes on….

  5. trade cds

    June 28th, 2007 at 10:28 am

    I’m not hating…I’m jealous!

  6. Bogdan

    June 28th, 2007 at 10:34 am

    aw, it is about the login instructions I think.

  7. OnkelSchark

    June 28th, 2007 at 10:38 am

    Worked like a charm, thanks Mike.

  8. eursds

    June 28th, 2007 at 10:40 am

    hey are all these sites like swaptree and swapsimple and the other only for usa and ( may be ) the bigger european countries ??

  9. Kathryn

    June 28th, 2007 at 10:42 am

    DVDs, books..? yawn. Can’t they do it for womens’ shoes and bags — automate the gals clothing swap. That would be interesting.

  10. Rodger

    June 28th, 2007 at 10:51 am

    Kathryn,

    Have you seen BagBorrowOrSteal ( http://www.bagborroworsteal.com )?

    Check it out and you’ll see why we’re big fans of the rental model in general.

  11. what?

    June 28th, 2007 at 11:08 am

    Damn it takes four years to open swaptree and I can’t go by wasting time… some handbag company trying to mock me. I click there.

    Hey Rodger… As guys, Do I need handbag?

    I bet men would beat that sh*t out me for carry ladies handbag.

  12. Choch

    June 28th, 2007 at 11:08 am

    I don’t know how great this will end up. First, as with all barter, the problem of the double coincidence of wants. Apparently they have an algorithm that will somewhat solve this though. But even still, until there are many, MANY goods available, there will be problems. Next, this idea is nothing new. There are multiple sites that offer barter services for the same goods. Also, the trades are one for one, meaning that your $50 dollar xbox game holds the same value as a $3 book. As Michael said, the only way this and any barter can be successful is to have a particularly large user base. Good luck to them anyway.

  13. Rodger

    June 28th, 2007 at 11:22 am

    I have no connection to BagBorrowOrSteal, just think it’s a great vertical for the rental model (which is what my company, iLetYou, is about).

  14. Sameer

    June 28th, 2007 at 11:27 am

    Wow that works great.

  15. Warning: Dangers of trading.

    June 28th, 2007 at 11:32 am

    Warning: trading junk to junk is inflection. Believe me. people will to take revenege. For example, If I send Ocean Eleven DVD to swaptree. Another idiot would give me 10,000 DVDs. Hell no, I will ship 50,000 DVDs back to them.

    I need more rooms in Apartment. I can’t put anything in home. Even if your poor or rich…. There is no way you are going to keep. you need larger Cisco or Walmart warehouse to try stuff you want.

    Trying trade for one computer. I bet you will get 13,000 or more computers. There is no way to fight it back. You are going to ship back more computer to swaptree. Swaptree are going to give you another free 100,000 free items.

    It’s freak nuts.

  16. Liam

    June 28th, 2007 at 11:32 am

    Is it just me or does the link not send you to a sign up/instructions page?

  17. Deja Vu

    June 28th, 2007 at 11:36 am

    From a January 2000 CNET article:
    Consumer Sites Adopt Barter Model
    http://news.com.com/Consumer+s.....35886.html
    Where are they today?
    http://www.Swap.com
    http://www.WebSwap.com
    http://www.Intellibarter.com
    http://www.MrSwap.com
    http://www.SwapRat.com

  18. reno

    June 28th, 2007 at 11:37 am

    Yes Liam.

    Me too.

    Reno
    http://yellowshare.blogspot.com

  19. Also

    June 28th, 2007 at 11:39 am

    You need empty or large warehouse to do this.

    Any traders will get mad and take Revenage. I sign up and I’m planning to ship more junks to idiots. Swithch IDs and walk away with free items.

    :) sounds like fun. I’ll to it for real. I don’t have time to watch 10,000 DVDs.

  20. basket

    June 28th, 2007 at 11:50 am

    invite worked fine for me. and so far im impressed.

  21. Indian giver

    June 28th, 2007 at 11:57 am

    I have question….

    Does indian giver work?

    I send something and I want it back. I don’t want extra free stuff. I’ll trade a book for one washing machine. No, I don’t want 3-100 washing machines.

  22. Smith288

    June 28th, 2007 at 12:04 pm

    On paper, i like the idea. Until its populated with real goods rather than just filler, my want list is going to be there for a while.

    I also apparently need to know every UPC/ISDN number for any game or DVD i want to say I have. No fun populating my list.

  23. Ahem

    June 28th, 2007 at 12:15 pm

    To the guy with really bad grammar: #15, 18, 20

    You do not send your stuff to the company.

  24. Concrete Stain

    June 28th, 2007 at 12:25 pm

    - Micheal what I think about the company -

    - I think it probably cost them some money, and you some users; posting about this copy cat company back to back -

    -RB

  25. Bong Loader

    June 28th, 2007 at 12:45 pm

    This is dumb - like me after some serious hits off the BONG.

  26. Jon Bon

    June 28th, 2007 at 12:45 pm

    I love that TechCrunch’s overhyped revenues lead the management now with it’s wonderful “CEO” to stoop as low as doing really unprofessional things like this post. What a joke.

    TechCrunch gives shining reviews to almost everything and given that 90% of Web 2.0 sites are totally worthless, TechCrunch needs to be renamed TechCrap.

  27. Anon E Mouse

    June 28th, 2007 at 12:49 pm

    I just logged on to Swaptree, but am disappointed because the site doesn’t seem people-ready enough to me.

  28. Drama 2.0

    June 28th, 2007 at 1:05 pm

    Any idea when we’ll be able to swap our spouses or significant others on the site?

  29. gilltots

    June 28th, 2007 at 1:10 pm

    ugh…can i swap this crappy techcrunch post for a good one?

    rhetorical follow up answer:

    NO! cuz nobody wants it!

  30. Sambay Reviews

    June 28th, 2007 at 1:24 pm

    Watching 20 movies a month via SwapTree will cost you $16.40 (postage for both ways at $0.42 each) plus the the envelopes, plus the hassle of mailing.

    Via Neflix, Blockbuster etc, it will cost you $17 and none of the hassle.

    And we will “wonder” why swaptree has failed.

  31. Shelly

    June 28th, 2007 at 1:48 pm

    I had a gander around the site but quickly got bored. I think the concept of an online barter site is interesting although I am dubious about the success a business model like this can achieve.

  32. Dominic

    June 28th, 2007 at 2:15 pm

    Bartering has been in the cross hair of the IRS for years. Just as the infamous eBay now allows IRS thugs to jump on sellers backs, you can bet all the barter and swap sites located in the U.S. will become targets. Face it, the web is a great venue in the underground economy. Pretty soon one will have to have the upcoming National ID card to do business on the web. Can you say BIG BROTHER?

  33. basket

    June 28th, 2007 at 2:27 pm

    IRS? I give you a book, you give me a book back? Wheres the taxable gain?

  34. Kris

    June 28th, 2007 at 2:49 pm

    I think it’s funny people laugh and are frustrated at this post because it took time from their life, but then they take the time to post about.

    Seriously, just keep giving complaining and give TechCrunch your traffic and stop complaining and stop coming.

    I for one enjoy NEWS. And not every news story from newsvine.com, cnn.com, etc., I want to hear, so… you figure out the metaphore.

  35. Liam

    June 28th, 2007 at 3:37 pm

    Ahh, never mind it is now working weird :S

    Thanks

  36. DW

    June 28th, 2007 at 4:26 pm

    Okay, so while I am getting ready to dump all the crap that I’ve collected over the years I take on someone else’s.

    Umm….I don’t think so.

  37. bdb

    June 28th, 2007 at 4:28 pm

    MICHAEL ARRINGTON ! If this commentary continues I will remain reading via RSS.

    Now your page views are up, but please quit using DIGG to drive traffic!

    I couldn’t figure out why the vitriolic, uniformed, unsubstantiated, and illiterate commentary, and then I realized………

    June 28, 2007- The day DIGG invaded TC!

    Good thing their memories are so short; if you are a DIGGER, “Leave now and never come back”!

  38. Jakob

    June 28th, 2007 at 10:03 pm

    This is exactly what I expected to find out after reading the title o.us poetry. Thanks for informative article

  39. John

    June 28th, 2007 at 10:40 pm

    To #28 regarding spouses.

    Try here http://www.u-exchange.com/member/11063

  40. Nick Tan

    June 29th, 2007 at 2:52 am

    Nice site. Should do well in Africa. Wait, there’s nobody online there yet. Hmmm…

  41. Dr Fence

    June 29th, 2007 at 6:16 am

    It’s not easy to add things to your queue. For example I wanted to add the firefly series. I have to type in the ISBN even though it knows the product. If there are multiple products for this same name just let me pick.

    I also found it hard to navigate. I like the concept but don’t know how much dvd / book trading I’ll be doing.

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