Any feedback on "swapacd.com"???

I have quite a few CDs that have not been pulled out of the case for years, so last Friday, I joined swapacd.com and listed several CDs that I would not miss. So far I have received requests for 8 of the listed CDs, and I will be mailing them off in exchange for "swap" credits.

Does anyone here use this service? I noticed that almost everything listed can be purchased used on Amazon for $5 or less. It bothers me that they do not require that the condition of the CD be posted, as I do not like scratches on my discs, even if they play fine.

My "wish list" includes a number of items that are rare and OOP in hopes that someone might post one of these items without realizing it's value. We'll see.

 

I'm a member, and it's OK, but don't count on getting anything rare, or even anything moderately sought-after.

When you request a title, you're put in a queue behind every other member who's asked for it. The titles that are most readily available tend to be dollar-bin fare. In a year or so, I think I've ended up getting only a couple things I wanted from Swapacd.

 

These sites fascinate me because they have a flawed business model.

Think about it. You pay the site $5.00. Someone else then sends you a CD. (I realise you can also earn CD credits by trading, but purchase of credits is also an option). In this case, none of your money went to the person who sent you the CD. In effect, the site sold goods that belonged to someone else.

I tried modeling this and worked out that every time someone purchases a credit, it devalues the pool of CDs available for trade. If it continues indefinitely, one of two things can happen:

1. Members will hold lots of CD credits but there will be no CDs available for them to acquire.

2. The site will have to use its funds to purchase CDs in order to replenish the "stock".

Everything will be fine for a while though...

Tim

 

Sounds like a Bernie Madoff business model.

 

I have used it in the past.

I have received some decent stuff from there, but condition of both the disc and artwork can vary greatly. You also tend to get a lot of broken discs, as the lowest standards to how they are shipped (essentially wrapped in paper without the case) are pretty bad.

There are other sites that use the same principles. LaLa was the big one, but has gone down a ton and cares less and less about trading physical discs.

I know the owner of www.musicboomerang.com, which is another one, and is much better in terms of actual trading. A lot of the disgruntled LaLa users ended up there.

None of these sites are ultimately set-up for a collector, but are really great for those that like to try new music at a relatively low-risk cost.

 

Musicboomerang.com may be fine; the key thing (from a theoretical pov) is whether the site lets you purchase credits instead of earning them by trading a CD.

Tim

 

I've had good success so far with Swapa and actually got a few decent higher profile CDs. I am currently sitting on about 12 credits as I did it intentionally to bulk up my numbers a bit hoping some more stuff would come in. I think I received maybe one disc in the last few weeks. The best thing about these services is that you can get rid of some lower profile CDs that you'd never be able to trade in at the local record store. You'd find a larger audience for them on these sites. I'm amazed at a few of the discs I've sent out.

The problem with the Swapa system and the Lala system is that a user #1 can get a credit for a CD that arrives at user #2 that is broken, while user #2 retains a credit for an additional CD later on down the line to replace said CD. As you can see, over time, there were be a lot of outstanding credits that will never be fulfilled. This is exactly what happens at Lala as their mailers don't have enough postage for them to be kept out of the USPS's automatic mail sorters.

Speaking of Lala, what ruined that entire site over there was direct trading. Both Lala and Swapa essentially reduce the value (or increase the value) of all CDs to the exact same price. When trading with a specific user instead of sending it into "the pool," the other users no longer want to trade that Pink Floyd "Dark Side of the Moon" CD for Vanilla Ice's "Greatest Hits," which is essentially what as happening. All of a sudden, Pink Floyd is worth far more (which of course in the real world it is). Add to that, the people you trade directly with you have all kinds of demands. I had sent CDs off to another user in the Lala-provided envelopes, whereas he was kind enough to ship them in padded mailers. Well, one of mine arrived cracked and he actually thought I should send his CDs back because I didn't use padded mailers. I understand his concern, but we'd both be out money on shipping and he would still retain a credit to receive that disc later on. There were also no provisions for using anything other than the Lala-provided mailers. It was never discussed between us.

EDIT: Also, the other MAJOR problem is that Lala users were encouraged to post their entire CD collections online as way of fostering some kind of friendship between like-minded music fans. These are CDs that were never intended to be traded. You can sit there salivating over someone's Led Zeppelin and Metallica catalog wondering why, although it's on your Want list, it's never arrived in your mailbox. People were using the system as a way to archive their CD collections for insurance purposes, etc.

 

No, you can't purchase credits there (at least you can't the last time I checked, I have not been doing much there for the last few months while I prepare to move).

I was a Beta tester there and it was one of the big debates. You allow purchase of credits and then CDs are not being added into pool. You don't allow credits to be purchased and users end up leaving the site if they are unwilling to replenish their "inventory". There is a happy median, but it involves pricing the credit high enough to offset the negatives and encourage people to still trade actual CDs for credits. When this was being discussed I also suggested that should credits be offered, that the site should essentially seed the inventory with a portion of those dollars.

 

This sounds like an interesting site. Is it easy to get rid of CDs here? I've got a lot of CDs that are ready to go which I wouldn't be able to sell here because everybody knows how bad they sound.

 

If your locations is right (Netherlands), I don't believe any of the options are set-up for trading with foreign countries except maybe Canada.

 

Getting rid of them seems pretty easy, finding good stuff to replace them with is the challenge!

 

I've had great luck with the site, although you have to be very patient. I've gotten my trade credits primarily through sending out unwanted books (through their sister site Paperback Swap). I have not had a lot of luck getting rid of cd's, but that's not surprising considering how few I have to offer. Over the past 2 or so years I've received some great and sometimes rare cd's (about 35 total).

 

You still can't (which is just fine).

As far as the OP is concerned, I've received some good stuff from SACD. I would say to try it and see if you like it, but since you say you don't like scratched discs, you may not like it at all. A good portion of the discs I get from there are somewhat scratched up.

 

Nearly everything I've received from SwapaCD has been in great to mint condition. I've never once had to report a disc as unplayable or lost. Lala on the other hand, if I'd swear people intentionally sent out crappy condition CDs knowing they would never have to meet me face to face. And I've reported at least half a dozen as broken, as well as a handful as unplayable. I've had coffee-stained booklets, ridiculously scratched CDs and even a booklet that had some kind of red candy stuck inside of it.

 

Fortunately, I've never had to report a disc to SACD as unplayable either. I haven't received anything trashed beyond belief, but the majority (60% or so) are a bit more scratched than I would like to see (my discs that I bought new in the late 80s are still in mint condition).

Yeah, I've gotten some real ***** from lala, too. Several cracked, broken, and some so trashed that there's no way the shipper could honestly say they thought it would play fine. I'm not a total mint freak, but it amazes me how badly some people treat their discs. That's why the majority of my trading is now done at SACD and MusicBoomerang.

 

SwapTree is also worthwhile for mainly run of the mill stuff and is 100% free, you only need to pay postage to send stuff.

 

They have to be listed titles though, and as I said, you get mostly run of the mill stuff.

 

So far I have mailed off 9 titles, and I'm waiting for the credits to roll in. I have found a few titles that interest me, but I am going to save my credits in hopes that some of my 40+ wishlist items pop up.

 

Since joining swapacd.com last May, I have added 16 CDs to my collection through that service:

Megadeth - So Far, So Good...So What (original issue)
Megadeth - Peace Sells...But Who's Buying? (original issue)
Pantera - Cowboys from Hell
The Who - Who's Next (original issue)
Iron Butterfly - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (original issue)
Pat Benatar - Get Nervous (original issue)
Duran Duran - Rio (reissue)
Bob Seger - Greatest Hits
Dazed and Confused soundtrack
Even More Dazed and Confused
Redd Foxx - Spice Can Be Nice
Dukes of Hazzard TV Soundtrack (reissue)
Charlie Parker - Compact Jazz Charlie Parker Plays the Blues
Scandal - The Warrior
Course of Empire (self titled)
Brutal Juice - Mutilation Makes Identification Difficult

Four more are being mailed to me:
Rush - All the World's a Stage
Grand Funk Railroad - Capitol Collectors Series
Pantera - Vulgar Display of Power
Pantera - Far Beyond Driven

None of these titles are rare, but they are all welcome additions to my collection. So far all the CDs I have received were in VG condition. I have 414 CDs listed on my "Wish List" and titles from my wish list have been showing up for swap pretty regularly. So overall, I am happy with this service.

 

Swapa has been consistently good (although things have slowed up a bit for me) compared to what Lala was even in it's heyday. Provided people aren't allowed to directly trade with each other, thereby adding value to each individual CD, it should stay pretty consistent.

 

I had heard about Lala, but when I visited the site, it looks like another "download" site. . . I couldn't find anything about CD exchange.

There does seem to be some direct trade through the "CD Bazaar" on swapacd. It is supposed to be limited to CDs not listed in the database, but I've seen some listed ones there too.

I have been purchasing cheap CDs at pawn shops and dollar stores to post for exchange and credits, but I stopped doing that when I saw that people are selling credits for as little as $2.75 each.

 

I didn't realize you could sell credits on there.

As far as Lala goes, over time, the site evolved into a streaming/download site, which seemed to be their ultimate goal over time. I think I'm still owed a couple CDs from there, but I just sort of gave up. I'm sitting on 10-12 credits on SwapaCD as it is.

 

I would say these early Megadeth (original issue) titles are getting increasingly harder to find (at least in my experience). I rarely come across them in used CD stores and I ALWAYS check Megadeth and Metallica...

 

It still exists, but boy have the de-emphasized it. To find out how to trade CD's, here's what I had to do.

1) Go to lala.com.
2) Go to FAQ's at bottom of page.
3) Click on "Buying Music".

From there, there's a short paragraph 2/3 of the way down stating the following:

Does Lala offer a CD trading service?
Yes! Lala originated as a CD trading website and still facilitates the trade of physical CDs across our membership. To enable yourself for trading, visit your Settings page.

I still use the trading service at lala (have never used swapacd...yet). I probably end up getting and shipping about one CD a month. This is fine for my needs, but I probably wouldn't bother starting this service as a new user since there are others around.

 

I would REALLY love to find an original copy of "Killing Is My Business...", so far no luck there.

Metallica hasn't "remastered" any of their titles, have they???