Comments on: The Valuable Art of Media Swapping

By: DDFD at DivorcedDadFrugalDad

DDFD at DivorcedDadFrugalDad — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:31:26 +0000

My favorite media swapping place is the public library . . .

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 21:51:56 +0000

A good website for this is http://www.list2lend.com,

it lets you list your movies, books, video games and CD’s you can then Add friends, browser through their list, request items. And it will keep track of everything for you.

Its really easy to add stuff to, you just select the media type and enter the name, it will try to find the rest of the information for you in their database.

I strong recommend it.

By: Peter Bang

Peter Bang — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 08:39:11 +0000

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By: FFB

FFB — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 13:04:52 +0000

I love the fact that you mention the social aspect of swapping DVD’s and such. In this day with Twitter and Facebook and whatnot it’s nice to have a reason to meet up with your friends and family and talk. And we get to stretch our dollars a little further too? Awesome!

By: DaveW

DaveW — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 22:00:41 +0000

I wonder what RIAA would think of this? Isn’t the point of RIAA’s lawsuits is to stop people sharing movies, etc.? If you loan a DVD, that’s no royalties for the artist. (and yes, I’m playing the devil’s advocate here – I borrow and loan movies a fair bit).

By: Lou

Lou — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 21:34:29 +0000

When i borrow a book from a friend, I ask – is your name in it? When I lend anything I want back, I stick one of those freebie address labels on it.

By: Lise

Lise — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 21:19:29 +0000

Sad to hear that so many people had bad experiences with Paperbackswap! I guess it depends on what kind of books you’re looking for. It’s probably not good if you’re looking for new fiction books; for me, I read a lot of nonfiction, and pick up recommendations just about everywhere. If a book’s not in stock, I add it to my wish list and it usually finds its way to me eventually.

There’s also a carousel you can browse of books available in your favorite categories; I don’t remember if you have to set that up or if it picks them based on what you’ve received before. But mine is almost always personal finance books, and there are a lot of good picks on there.

By: Erin

Erin — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 16:02:33 +0000

Netflix would solve this problem. I never ever rent DVDs from a store and only buy one if it a favorite that I know I’d want to watch a lot. I’ve been rewatching The Office on my computer through Netflix as part of my monthly fee and it is great.

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 13:25:42 +0000

Hi Trent, I might also suggest mailing any DVDs that you no longer need/want/watch(TV series are very appreciated) to some of our soldiers abroad. We do this through http://www.anysoldier.com. Lots of our servicemen and women have moments of downtime where catching up on popular series gives them a sense of home. We have found the soldiers to be really appreciative of this gesture and have received some very special responses from this.

By: Gigi

Gigi — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 12:52:13 +0000

Like many here, I love books. But I’m the type that once I get a book in my hands I (unconsciously) consider it mine. I tell my friends not to loan me things because I’m so bad at giving them back. I do pay a lot of fines to the library, but I consider that ‘rental’ to a good cause. What I don’t like is when friends insist that I borrow something because ‘I’ll love it’ and even after repeated refusals, still shove it in my hands or purse or something. Then I’m stuck with something that I really wasn’t that interested in (yes, I’m sure it is very good, but my time is limited and I can barely fit in what I’ve been planning to see/read) and then have to somehow remember to give it back and then they want to know how I liked it, so if I haven’t read/watched it they’re disappointed. Plus, I find collecting DVD’s and books, other than very old classics (a strong interest of mine), and favorites, merely expensive and space consuming,(I’ve got the library and Redbox! Even with fees, much cheaper) and I’m not into the latest releases, so I have very little to lend back, and what I do have to lend I treasure or it was hard to come by, so I don’t want to lend it.

By: Caroline

Caroline — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 12:08:53 +0000

My b/f and I use Delicious Library to keep track of our stuff. Sure, it’s $40, but when if you have a good sized collection, it’s worth it (maybe it helps for insurance purposes too?). Only problem we kept having with lending (to some people) is that they wouldn’t give the item back in the condition we loaned it in. That’s one of our pet peeves.

By: David/Yourfinances101

David/Yourfinances101 — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 11:07:12 +0000

One of the best things I like about this blog is that first, the content is always fresh and second, it is not limited to simply ways to save money or impact your personal financial situation.

Trent very well could have said to re-sell these DVDs and make some money back.

One thing I never lost sight of during my financial recovery was to not become consumed by it.

We still need to live our lives, we stilll need to have fun, we still need to laugh, we still need to connect with friends.

Thanks again Trent for keeping it all in perspective.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 05:17:30 +0000

As for branding you media for return, a friend of my was great about lending CD. What she did was take the free return address labels charities send you in hopes that you will donate and stuck those on her CD. I picked up the habit and it works great.

By: Shirl

Shirl — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:50:11 +0000

I swap books within a circle of friends. Each time we read a book we lightly pencil our initials on the inside front cover. They get passed along until all of us have read it and then returned to the original owner (top initials on the list). If you don’t want it back you put DNR after your intials and the last person in the circle donates it to the library or passes it outside the circle.

If I loan to someone else outside our circle I put a post it on the front to return to me along with the date it was loaned.I also put a post it on the wall calendar’s back page with what I loaned out and what date. I also put a post it with the date I borrowed a book and set up a due date so I don’t procrastinate in watching or reading something I borrowed. It works well for the most part.

By: Walt

Walt — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 23:55:38 +0000

If you do a lot of swapping, there’s a great iphone app called “Circulator” that tracks all of the stuff you lend and borrow. Love it.

By: Marsha

Marsha — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 22:05:02 +0000

If this works for you, great. Swapping dvds is too much trouble for me – besides, I don’t have enough in-town friends with the same tastes that there’s that much swapping to do. Easier to rent from Netflix.

As for books: I strive to sell used/read books at a used bookstore. Sometimes I just give them away. Other times, I’ll donate to a local library fundraiser sale.

By: rosdj

rosdj — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 21:15:18 +0000

I definitely agree with this article. It would be great to establish a network like this among friends. The site Emily suggested seems good, but would require getting all of your friends to sign up to work.

I’ve often thought it would be great to have a similar app built into Facebook. I’ve searched, though, and there doesn’t appear to be any.

By: prufock

prufock — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 20:41:31 +0000

This was pretty in-depth for something we all know implicitly. An odd little article.

Like other commenters, I remember the days of trading video games, books, movies, etc when I was a kid. I still do it to some extent.

These are still valuable practices, even if we’ve gotten a little more sophisticated with our methods. Now we have websites devoted to this sort of thing, which lets us trade all over the world.

By: J

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 20:17:17 +0000

@Jules — we take the kids to the public library about once or twice a month. They can pick whatever they want to read, and we don’t have to keep a bunch of books on hand. They also have access to far more books than we ever can afford on our own.

I recall when I was growing up I’d devour 3-5 novels a week in the summer from the library. No way my parents could have supported that habit other than with their tax dollars! :)

By: Technophile

Technophile — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 20:08:27 +0000

Me and my friends swap stuff all the time. Movies, video games, etc. In our apartment we put all our games and movies in the living room so we can all watch/play them. If I lend things I usually put a sticker on the inside with my name.