Sometimes You Just Have to be Patient

So you’ve joined SwapaDVD, listed your initial 10 DVDs and have placed a few items on your wish list. Maybe you’re feeling a bit skeptical of the system because you haven’t yet received anything that you really wanted from the other members of the site. You aren’t alone. Some members are evidently feeling a bit impatient about the lack of movement of their wish lists and have voiced some dissatisfaction with the way the site operates, and even some suggestions for changing or improving it.

My personal feeling is that in order to get the most out of a swap system like SwapaDVD, one needs to be patient and flexible. While it is true that the newest members desiring titles that are in high demand may have to wait a significant period of time before being given the opportunity to swap for them, those same members have the exact same window of opportunity to put future hot releases onto their wish lists as any of the “established” members. Please keep in mind that those members who are in front of you on any given wish list have been waiting too – many of them since November of 2007 when the site first opened! No trading system can deliver immediate gratification in all cases. Unless you are willing to go out and purchase those items you want the most, you must resign yourself to waiting behind all those folks in line in front of you. If you filled the wishes of some members when you joined and posted your initial DVD tower, so too have all of the other members of this fine site. That’s where all the magic comes from.

When I peek at the wish lists of these new-but-vocal folks, I almost always find that they have less than 100 items on their wish lists (which may seem like a lot) and usually less than 40 (which really isn’t very many at all). If they truly aren’t interested in acquiring very many films, perhaps they would be better served elsewhere. However, I’m convinced that these same folks might actually be interested in swapping for many other titles if they opened themselves up to the possibilities. Not only could they develop their own interests but they could also locate items that their friends or family members might enjoy. I have given more than a dozen DVDs from the site as gifts, and as I mention elsewhere in my blog, one of the best of these was a copy of Tim Burton’s “Nightmare Before Christmas” that made my step-daughter’s Christmas morning very special last year.

What is the real cost of SwapaDVD?

Unlike other some other swap sites, SwapaDVD is free to use. The primary cost involved is the cost of postage to mail DVDs from your own collection when they are requested by other members. There is no cost to order DVDs from other members – as long as you have the credits on hand that you need to “pay” for all your orders. In cases where you may be new to the site or just don’t have enough credits on hand to get that 6 disk CSI box set (the site “charges” 1 credit per disk, so a 6 disk set “costs” 6 credits), you can always purchase credits in the kiosk at the cost of $4.95 each credit (or $29.70 for that 6 disk set I mentioned). I’ve found this to be an expensive way to acquire movies and we do have alternatives.I’ve mentioned before that there are sister sites that offer swap environments for books and music. These are: PaperBackSwap and SwapaCDThe site developers allow users to transfer credits from one site to the other. Credits transferred between the book and music sites transfer at a rate of 1 for 1. However, transfers from these sites to the DVD site only transfer at a rate of 3 for 2 (30 book or music credits equates to 20 DVD credits). Conversely this also means that 2 DVD credits are worth 3 book or music credits. If one has a plethora of DVDs that they no longer want but a large list of books or music titles that they would like, this is very good news, especially since the costs involved with earning those DVD credits are less than $2.00 for postage.

On the book site, PaperBackSwap, it costs $2.13 to mail a single (1 pound) book via media mail (or $2.31 if one used electronic Delivery Confirmation). This doesn’t include the cost of shipping supplies such as tape or any mailers you might elect to use. So to convert 2 book credits (if you mailed books that weighed less than a pound) the resulting SwapaDVD credit will have cost you $3.20. If one mailed 2 hardcover books weighing 1.5 pounds each, the cost increases to $3.70 (the standard 2 pound media mail rate is $2.47) Even at the 2 pound book rate you would save $1.25 per credit over buying them at the kiosk at SwapaDVD.