Friday, October 3, 2008

Free Books, DVD & Music


Free Books, DVD & Music
Originally uploaded by
FrugalThis

There are a couple of media swapping sites that seem like a great concept. You list the items (books, DVD or Cd's) you have that you want to get rid of. When someone wants the item, you get an email and you send it out. When they receive it, they mark it as received and now you have a free credit that you can use to request something. Obviously it cost to mail out your item but then you get the ones you want for free. Cheaper than buying used on Amazon! They all start you off with 2-3 credits if you list a certain number of items. Below are three that I have used and love.

Frugalreader.com- This site is for books only. List 5 items get one credit, List 9 get two credits. So far I have sent out over 20 books and requested almost as many. This site is clean, easy to navigate and you can rate the condition of your book and choose what condition book you want to have. You can hide that reader's copy of "Reckless Abandonment" while showing the like new copy of "The Great Gatsby".

It started with
Paperbackswap and soon SwapaCD showed up followed by SwapaDVD. List 10 books to get 2 credits (DVDs and CD have similar setups). They also have a forum where people can discuss and review items. The only thing I don't like about this site is you have no idea what kind of condition the book that you request is in. It can't be an Advance Readers copy or anything like that but it could still be in poor condition. But I guess that's okay if I just wanted to read it and then list it again. And you can leave feedback so you can read other people experiences with the trader. What makes this site the best is you can put an item on your wish-list you fall in line behind other wishers and when it's your turn, they will email you and hold the item for 48 hours while you decide if you want it our not. This also seems the busiest so there are more books available.

Titletrader - You don't get any credit until you ship out your first book. But then you get 3 credits which you can use to request books, Cd's, magazine, DVDs and games. Actually they have everything you can exchange for credits, I even saw candles and ornaments. It has similar features of the other two. You can list the condition of the item and you can give feedback to the sender. They require a fee to use some of their 'premium services' ($19.95 / year) which I don't find useful, but you get 30 days free to try it out. After that I can still use the site I just can't create buddylists and save my searches. Which is no big deal.

Take what you want use what you need and get rid of what you don't. Keep a steady flow of entertainment in your house without paying retail. And no one is the wiser.


Please who is going to know where you got your Harry Potter from Barnes and Noble or Paperbackswap.com

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