The only cost associated with swapping is the cost to ship your item to your swap partner. This typically averages around $3.20. That's it. No other costs are involved.

There are two ways to get involved in a trade.

First, add items to your have list. Once you do, swap.com will generate a tally of all the items available for you to receive in exchange for your item. This number can be found in the upper right hand corner of the page. Browse the items by media type or via search and choose an item you want for one of the items you have.

To initiate a trade for any available item, simply click on the "GET NOW" link and you will be shown the condition of the item, as well as information about the user who has the item. A couple clicks later and the item will be on its way to you.

You might also find yourself involved in a trade if you have items on both your have list AND your want list. As other users initiate trades amongst each other, swap.com will be on the lookout for three-way trade possibilities. When this happens, we will notify you via an email that a trade is available and you can then login to review and accept that trade.

Absolutely not.

Much like every 'legal' person has a social security number, every 'legal' item has a UPC or ISBN number that identifies its legitimacy. All you have to do is locate that number and enter it into the system. Each number is associated with a list of qualities (edition, release date, version, paperback, widescreen, etc.) so you can be sure what you're swapping is exactly what you want.

Yes, you can! Take the CDs you never listen to and trade them for movies you want to see or games you want to play. Need a new book? No problem - trade one of your media items for a book and when you're done, just swap that book out for something else. Easy, eh?

Trade requests will be e-mailed directly to you. You can also log on to your swap.com account and view any pending trades by clicking "My Trades" in the upper-right part of the screen.

You are responsible for paying the shipping for the item that you are sending. You can use our automatic shipping label feature and print out a label from your home without having to go to the post office. We'll just charge your account the applicable shipping amount based on the weight of your item, then you just drop the envelope in the mail and you're done! Swap.com labels also come with built-in delivery confirmation tracking. This not only lets you know when your item arrives, but also protects you in case your swap partner tries to claim that they never received their item.

If you don't want to use our label printing feature no problem. However, we recommend that you ship all of your items first class (regular mail rates) so you can track your package to ensure it arrived. (FYI: because books are significantly heavier, we recommend that you ship all books using Media Mail, which is a special class of service the USPS provides which is significantly less expensive than first class.) We still recommend you purchase delivery confirmation to be able to prove you shipped your item.

Similar to eBay and other used item selling sites, after every transaction the users involved provide feedback on each other. Factors that are considered when rating another member include how fast they shipped the item, the quality of the item shipped and whether the condition of the item was as they described.

When we notify you that a trade is available, we show you the other user's rating before you accept the trade. If a user has a lot of trades under their belt and comes with good feedback, that's a good sign.

If you ever don't receive an item that you were promised, swap.com provides the ability to report the missing item, and we will follow up with the other user to figure out what happened.

We want you to know that swap.com will do everything possible to work with your swap partner to ensure you get the item you wanted…even if it means sending you a replacement item at their expense. Yes, you read that correctly. As of October 1, 2010, swap.com is thrilled to offer our SafeSwap program.



For any trade initiated after October 1, 2010, under our swap.com's SafeSwap program, if you do not receive your item after 27 days and your swap partner does not have valid proof of shipment (either by using swap.com labels or buying delivery confirmation through the USPS), swap.com will purchase the item you wanted from one of our retail partners and charge your swap partner's account for the expense. Under this program, we can now guarantee that you will get the item you wanted. If, for some reason, the item you want is no longer available, we will send you a similar item of equal value.

After 10 business days, if you have tried to contact your swap partner without a response and you have reason to believe that your swap partner does not intend to ship your item and they cannot offer proof of shipment, simply click on the "contact this user" link on you're My Swaps page. On the next page you will see the link "formally report this missing item to swap.com". Click on this link and fill in the appropriate information. That's it. After you report the item not received, we will try to contact your swap partner over the following 10 business days and, if there is still no resolution, we will send you the item you wanted and charge the other swapper's account.

If your swap partner does provide valid shipping confirmation (not just that they printed a label, but that your item is scanned in route), you will not be eligible for the SafeSwap program.

Once you have formally reported an item to swap.com, the item is placed in an "Item Not Received" status and the other user's account will be suspended until the issue is resolved.

If you do receive the item from the user, please login to your account go to your "my trades" page and under the image of the item you have not received, click on the link "report item received".

On the next page, verify that you received your item by clicking "Yes - I received my item, and swap.com can therefore close my Item Not Received complaint." You will then be asked to rate your trade partner. Your INR complaint will then be closed, and we will look into reinstating your trade partner's account.

Lastly, if you had been in contact with the user via swap.com, you might also want to let them know it arrived. You do not need to contact Swap.com Support. If you followed the steps mentioned above, the rest will happen automatically.

Read our story on "the case of the missing item" for more information on the item not received process.

No, never. Your personal information is safe with us. Read the full privacy policy