Okay, almost free. You do have to pay postage when you send something, but you just use credits from swapping to get new DVDs sent to you for no cost.
Here’s how it works according to the Swap a DVD web site:
- You have original, playable DVDs that you do not want to keep.
- You post those DVDs to your “DVD Tower” to offer to other members.
- After you have posted the first 10 DVDs to your DVD Tower, you get 1 “gift” credit from SwapaDVD to get you started swapping (limit one per household). After that, you earn credits by sending out DVDs to others.
- You may order available DVDs for 1 credit per disc (some DVDs do cost more than 1 credit)
- If you want a DVD that is not currently available, you can place it on your Wish List and we will notify you by email when it is available for you to order. You can even have it sent to you automatically when it becomes available, with no email necessary.
- When a DVD is requested from you, we notify you by email, provide the address for you to send it out, and even provide a wrapper with postage printed on it if desired!
- Wrap and mail your DVD.
- When the requestor receives it, you earn 1 credit per disc mailed. Yes, you pay the postage to send out your DVDs, but when you request a DVD, the sender ships it to you and you pay 1 DVD credit (some DVDs do cost more than 1 credit)!
- The DVDs you receive from SwapaDVD are yours. We hope that you will repost them to share with other members when you have viewed them, but you can certainly keep them, or give them away. Similarly, the DVDs you send out to others belong to their new owners.
Hmmm. Maybe I should look through our movies and see what we can move along. One problem I will have is that I don’t have the cases for some of my DVDs, so that takes a lot of them out of the running for swapping. Anyway, have any of you heard of this site? I googled and didn’t find anyone complaining about it, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get shafted. Every system can be worked by a crook. (As I well know. If you want to read about how I got scammed on eBay, you can find that here).
Let me know if you know of the same thing for VCR tapes. They have slowly taken over my entire house! DVDs, on the other hand, make me nervous because I am unsure of their actual condition. For example, have you ever rented a RedBox DVD and found it to be in watchable condition? I’d hate to send one to a person who then finds that it is scratched 3/4 of the way through. But, oh, to dump them…oh, to dump them ALL!
Thanks for the comment, I’m glad I’m not alone! My house is swarming with VHS tapes, too. I didn’t think that would be the case in 2010 for me, but it totally is. They are cheap, less distructible than DVDs and very easy for little kids to handle. Have you thought about taking your unwanted tapes to the used book store to swap for other stuff? We have a store called McKays that I frequent. If there’s a store like that near you, you should totally check it out. Although – fair warning- if you are looking to unload, you might end up loading up instead. You can get so much for your money there. As for scratched DVDs, most of the kid ones have been sorely abused, but the non-kid movies we have (I would say adult, but it sends the wrong impression) would be candidates for swapping.