Social Graces: When Swapping is More Than Just Mail

Swapping is a form of commerce that has gone on since the dawn of time. People had needs – other people had things. With no currencies the swap was the exchange, and this still exists today across the globe. The root of swapping is to fulfill a need or want. Generally, the enabler for swapping is a social connection. This connection can come in many forms: family, friend, book club, mother’s group, youth sports league, ski organizations and more.

Sites like Swaptree are enabling swapping activities that tap into the scale of the Internet from a networking and geographic perspective. The John Grisham lover in Seattle can now be easily connected to another Grisham fan in Miami. The mother in St. Louis can swap dvds or books she has long enjoyed for video games for her kids. So, Swaptree is efficiently forming the connection and the swap between what were disparate parties. This is very cool.

At Swaptree we see every day the social elements of this swapping activity…beyond the exchange.

Just last week my colleague, Carl Schwartz, posted about a swapping experience with his family where the person they swapped with included a nice note about the book he was receiving. What a nice social gesture.

Yesterday, another colleague gave me an envelope that he had received from one of his trades that had arrived over the weekend. At first glance it was a standard yellow bubble wrap envelope that was addressed to him and the book he wanted was inside. Turn over the envelope and the swapper had created a very original and cool social gesture…a sketch of a tree with the message: “Happy Trading!”

Another social expression that was delivered with the book. What a cool gesture.

Creating an efficient exchange is very powerful for swapping. It is not enough, though. Remember – the root of swapping is a social experience. We sit in an interesting time where the Internet can not only enable the scalable network but the social experience, too. Swaptree is working to address this and lead the swap movement on the Internet. Today we allow our users to rate their swapping partner, and connect with their swapping partners through messaging during and after a swap. We allow swappers to invite their friends and track their “have” and “want” lists to learn about their preferences. We also enable rating of the books, cds, dvds and games. We will continue to expand upon all of this to enable more and more social activities around the swap because after all, Swapping is social!

We need no further proof than these two very cool gestures in the last week that demonstrate what a social activity swapping really is. Tell me your cool “social” experiences using Swaptree in the comments, on Facebook or connect to me through my profile on Swaptree – I am “SwapChief.”

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Best,
Jeff Bennett