Silicon Valley Entrepreneur's Online Swap Meet SwapThing Pins Hopes on Bartering

[mandy]

Being flat broke gave Jessica Hardwick the inspiration to launch a business that encourages consumers to swap before they shop.

Hardwick is the CEO of SwapThing, a 15-month-old Internet start-up that is playing David to eBay's Goliath by giving its 40,000 members a new way to buy and sell online.

SwapThing lets member post items they want to sell, or to barter. The proprietary software developed for the site helps someone who wants, for example, to trade baby furniture for size 6 business suits, find someone with business suits who is looking for baby furniture. The site charges $1 for each swap or sale conducted through the site....

The start-up costs for the company were $150,000...

full article: http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr...WVlRUV5eTI=

[amy]

my thing for your thing

3.5 million items
less traffic than Bidville
$1 fee

I don't have enough time to spend it listing items that will sit for the next 10 years.

[bargainbloodhound]

Not everything has a $1 FVF.  Swapping/Selling services has a $10 FVF.

http://www.swapthing.com/corporate/pricing.jsp

The transaction fee for service swaps is higher than that for item swaps based on the assumption that after contact information has been exchanged, a relationship will be formed between both parties and they will no longer need SwapThing for future transactions. Basically, you are acquiring a new customer for $10.

As a seller I prefer fixed price where the buyer pays at the time of purchase with a credit card.  As a buyer, I found this site's listing pages to be annoying last year and they're just as annoying this year.