Internet swap site brings barter into 21st century

With two young children in her Sherman Oaks, Calif. home, Jessica Gottlieb has no shortage of kid's books and DVDs. When she discovered swaptree.com, a Web site that lets users trade unwanted books, DVDs, CDs and video games at no cost, she was eager to trade her kids' Barney books for books without pictures.

Gottlieb said since her first swap more than a year ago, she's become addicted.

"I got $200 worth of stuff for six dollars this year," said Gottlieb, a stay-at-home mother.

The swaptree.com Web site, which launched in July 2007, has users look for items they no longer want, then enter the items' UPC or ISBN numbers on a "have list." Users then build a "want list" of items and swaptree.com finds matches for free.

A unique feature to swaptree.com is an algorithm developed by co-founder and president Greg Boesel that allows three-way trades. With this system, a man in Chicago, for instance, can trade his copy of the "The Da Vinci Code" to someone in Cincinnati, who in turn gives his copy of the new Jonas Brothers CD to a mother in Cheyenne, Wyo. That woman then gives her copy of "Angels and Demons" to the man in Chicago. Through two other people, the Chicago man has swapped one Dan Brown novel for another.

Users can build their want lists on swaptree.com through, among other sites, Amazon.com. Users can also check to see if an item is available for a free swap.

Boesel said he and fellow Boston College Law School alumnus Mark Hexamer came up with the idea after realizing how often they got rid of their own books.

"It all started because Mark came back from visiting his mother in Florida with a suitcase full of books and he called me up to get some of them," he said.

Swaptree.com is not the first such swapping Web site. Lala.com and Peerflix.com swap only CDs and DVDs, respectively. Swaptree.com, however, does not have listing or transaction fees, charging users only for shipping labels they may purchase and print directly from the site. Peerflix.com and Lala.com charge $.99 and $1.75 transaction fees, respectively.

Swaptree.com site is also popular for ecological reasons.

Gottlieb was first introduced to swaptree.com via Celsias.com, which is devoted to combating global climate change. Swaptree.com's method of reusing unwanted items appealed to Gottlieb, who blogs about green-conscious parenting.

Boesel said swaptree.com currently has nearly 50,000 users, up from about 20,000 in January. He added that the site has about 10,000 unique page views a day. The idea is to generate all revenue solely through targeted advertising. The hope is to be profitable by the next quarter.

"We know so much about our users, it's incredible," Boesel said. "If you come in and you add to your want list 'Let's go Europe,' then we can instantly have something like British Airways advertising on your page."

Not everyone is high on the concept. The potential for trading items of unequal value turned off users like Laura Gyre, a Web content writer living in Pittsburgh, Pa. Gyre said she also found swaptree.com's system of trading person-to-person frustrating.

"I had a hard time doing that," she said.

Since most items on swaptree.com are low-priced, Gottlieb said there is little danger of fraudulent trading. She can also speak from experience that protections do exist; Gottlieb's account was temporarily frozen after she waited too long to mail her first swap. Users rate their experiences swapping and can reject any proposed trade.

"Users only receive e-mail from us because we found something on their want list," Boesel said.

(E-mail Daniel Collins at sintern(at)shns.com. Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)