50 Best Bartering Sites For The Frugal

If you think you can’t afford to get nice things, think again. Through the magic of bartering, you can offer your services or even old stuff you don’t want anymore, and in return, get items and services that you do want. In most cases, money never even exchanges hands, and you can get the things you want without ever spending a dime — a perfect idea for frugal students and others. Read on, and we’ll highlight 50 different bartering sites that frugal people can put to work for just about any trade you can imagine.
General

Plenty of specialty bartering sites exist, but some of the best allow you to trade anything and everything, from cars to games and clothing. Check out these to give and get just about anything.

Freecycle
Freecycle allows you to donate items, as well as get stuff for free in your town.

Tradeaway
Create ads and make offers to swap with others based on actual values for items.

Swap@Home
Post items you don’t want anymore, get coupons in return, and use the coupons to get items from other members on Swap@Home.

SwapAce
Swap anything, for anything, with both bartering, free, and money-only trades available on SwapAce.

U-Exchange
Using U-Exchange, you can “trade anything, pay nothing” in just about any type of trade, including services, home exchanges, and even vehicles.

Rehash
Trade your clothing, accessories, books, and more on Rehash, where you can join groups, socialize, and perhaps best of all, get new stuff!

Craigslist
An incredibly popular site for everything from hookups to free baby food, Craigslist also has a very active bartering section where you can trade just about anything for no money at all.
Stuff Pal
Lend, borrow, and swap stuff with people you already know through Facebook using Stuff Pal.

Barter Bucks Banc
Traders in the UK can barter any product or service on this online bank.

ReUseIt Network
Become a part of the ReUseIt Network to find ways to make use of items that would otherwise be discarded.

iOffer
iOffer’s want ads offers a great place to buy, sell, and trade clothing, movies, jewelry, and more.
Swap-Online

Swap-Online is a great venue to do a swap meet online, trading items for other things people are looking for.

BarterQuest
Trade goods, services, and real estate on this site that allows you to post and trade absolutely free. Trades include dental work, vintage clothes, services, and more.

TradeAttic
Dig out some stuff from your attic and use the TradeAttic to buy, list, and trade just about anything for free.

Trashbank

Trashbank encourages users, “don’t trash it, bank it!” on a site where you can barter, swap, trade, buy, and sell online for free.

Junk For You
Junk For You believes that one person’s junk is another person’s treasure, and offers a great way to clear out spaces of junk in return for something you can put to use.

SwapDen
The SwapDen is a 100% free online swap meet where you can even create your own personal wish list to get notified when the items you want are available for swapping.
SwapTreasures

Give and get stuff for free with no fees, and no hassle on this bartering platform that rewards you with points.

Zaarly

It’s not exactly a swap site, but Zaarly makes it possible for you to name your price for anything and buy it from your neighbors.

WhiteWilly
In the spirit of white elephant trades, White Willy allows you to list items and make offers on other peoples’ items, getting a fair trade every time.

Listia
Get rid of old stuff, and get new stuff for free through Listia, a popular site with more than 2 million trades in their marketplace.

Trade Stuff

On this simple trading site, you can trade your stuff for other people’s stuff, including video games, antiques, and even boats.

Zilok
You can rent anything online from businesses and individuals, making it easy to use expensive items just for a short amount of time without spending a fortune.

NeighborGoods
NeighborGoods allows you to share stuff with your neighbors, like a neighbor who needs to borrow a ladder. You can save money by not having to buy items you only need temporarily, and make friends with your neighbors at the same time.
Media

Books, CDs, movies, video games, and more are on the table at these trading websites.

TitleTrader
This site offers a great place to swap your stuff, including used books, DVDs, and CDs.

Swap a CD
Trade used CDs, albums, and more on this exchange site that offers a music club and CD exchange.

BookMooch

Give books away, and get the books you want through the BookMooch site.

Bookins

You can easily swap books with other readers on this site that’s lauded for its simplicity, and “more available books than the largest Barnes & Noble.”

Swap.com
On Swap.com, you can list books, CDs, movies, video games, and more that you want to trade, and you’ll get credit to buy other items in return.

Swap a DVD
Join this movie club to swap, trade, and exchange DVDs for free, listing your used movies and choosing from thousands of available DVDs.

Swap Simple

Exchange used textbooks, DVDs, video games, and other hot items on Swap Simple, and put together a wishlist for items you’d like to see available for swapping.

GameTZ
Game Trading Zone is a community of traders where you can exchange things for other things, especially video games. Even better, this site has been around for more than 10 years with plenty of experienced traders.

Paperback Swap
Swap paperbacks and more with this free online book swap site, just by listing books you’d like to swap, sending them out, and choosing from millions of available books.

Goozex
On Goozex, you can play games, trade games and movies, and save money while playing video games.
Clothing

Need to clean out your closet and refresh your wardrobe? Get them both done at the same time by swapping clothes on these sites.


Clothing Swap
Declutter, find a Clothing Swap event through the website, and have fun while you get pampered as you find awesome new clothes and get rid of your old ones.

Dig N’ Swap
Swap fashionable clothes by sharing pictures of clothes you don’t want or need anymore, and dig for stuff you really do want on Dig N’ Swap.

Swapstyle
Shop for clothes and accessories guilt-free on Swapstyle, the world’s original and No. 1 fashion swap site.

Travel & Real Estate

Whether you want a place to stay for the night or forever, you can find an absolutely free deal through these bartering sites.

Airbnb
Rent out your extra space, and find cheap places to stay on Airbnb.

SharedEarth
Have a family farm that’s just sitting dormant? Bring it back to life and get free farm produce when you share it with a gardener that needs the extra land. Or, if you’re a budding gardener, make use of land that’s just waiting for a fresh crop, totally free.

CouchSurfing
Offer your couch up to others on CouchSurfing, and you can find a couch to crash on wherever you’d like to go, free.

HomeExchange
Use HomeExchange to find a place to travel and stay for free anywhere in the world. All you have to do is trade your home (or dorm room) that someone else can use in exchange.

Goswap
If you’re lucky enough to own a home in college, you can swap it out for a new one anywhere in the world, provided you can find the right buddy to trade with. Check out Goswap to find out what’s available for a permanent house swap.
Services

If you’ve got a skill you can trade, and need some help in return, you can turn your services into free help for the things you can’t do.

Care to Trade
Trade what you want for what you’ve got by swapping items, bartering services, and even real estate.

Skills 2 Barter

Trade skills and swap services in a cashless economy on Skills 2 Barter.

Trade School
Can’t pay for tuition? At Trade School, that’s not a problem. You can actually barter for instruction at this NYC institution.

Badabud

Badabud takes the bartering idea one step further and adds a social network for creative people and experts to not just barter, but collaborate, trade, and get rewarded.

Trade a Favor
Find out about a life outside of using cash, trading with friends and others in your network for goods, services, and more, even taking advantage of assisted negotiations if needed.

BabysitterExchange
Most students probably don’t have a need for babysitters, but if you’re a student with kids, this site is amazingly valuable, offering a way to trade babysitting and other tasks within your community.

FavorPals
Need a favor? Have a favor to offer? Swap favors and services with others using the FavorPals site.

BizXchange
If you’ve got a dorm room business, use the BizXchange site to grow and get value from your spare capacity and downtime.

Contacts and sources:
Jasmine Hall
www.onlinecolleges.net/2011/11/16/50-bartering-sites-frugal-student/

The Ultimate New Normal Stock: BA

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Boeing Company (BA) is the ultimate New Normal company and stock. Remember, the New Normal is characterized by slow to negative growth in the US and Europe, reduced government spending in both regions and much more robust growth in emerging economies. (See my article on the New Frugal Stock).

You all know Boeing, have sat in the company’s planes, watched their Dreamliner be late, be late again and be late yet again, and again. It is late no longer. That is at the core of the company’s fundamentals – a new product that will generate real world, positive cash flow immediately and positive cash flow and profits in several quarters.

The backlog is 495 units and the company has publicly committed to keeping it at that size – putting a new order in once a plane comes off the line. This stabilizes costs.

Wall Street knows this – but it is also afraid of the impact of a failure of the Super Committee on defense spending including the funds that flow towards Boeing. That worry is overblown.

And Wall Street is ignoring the potential upside impact of two revamped versions of the company workhorse, the 737. Well, not ignore – undervalue is a better term. The company announced today a deal to sell more than 200 of these planes to Lion Air of Indonesia, worth more than $20 billion. They will sell thousands, not hundreds of these plans, to emerging airlines and economies in Asia, Latin and South America and Africa.

Do you want to play New Normal emerging markets?

Boeing is one way to do so. They have competitors in this market – Airbus, now struggling a bit as their offerings are not as competitive as Boeing’s except due to state subsidies that may erode with the euro crisis and Embraer-Empresa Brasileira De Aeronautica (ERJ), a Brazilian outfit that announced last week they are not going after that market after all, finding it too expensive to develop a new plane to compete.

About Airbus – they are the only real competitor to Boeing in the Dreamliner and the 737 market – no insult to Bombardier (BDRBF), I like your planes, was just on one, but you need more overhead space in the next generation. And they are directly and indirectly subsidized by European governments. And these subsidies, at their very best, will not grow and in reality will probably be reduced due to the euro crisis and the austerity packages being put in place everywhere. This gives Boeing more opportunities to sell – and sell profitably – more airplanes.

About defense spending – fears are overblown. Boeing has less exposure to the big weapons programs that will be hit the hardest, such as the F-35 made by Lockheed Martin (LMT). Last week Boeing’s CEO said the company’s cost structure is being revamped on the assumption the Pentagon is asked to cut a trillion bucks over the next ten year and I believe him.

Risks? To the company, few other than a worldwide Great Recession. I believe there will be a regular recession in the US and Europe. To the stock, the market – Boeing will trade with movements of the S&P 500 for extended periods of time.

A general downturn will push the stock down. The stock has been flirting around $65, this is a good entry point but take your time. I expect the stock to double in five years or so and if you sell calls and re-invest the cash plus Boeing’s dividends that doubling in value will happen a lot faster.

Conclusions: Boeing is not going to double sales in a year – it is a medium growth company with a medium sized dividend (2.5%). But it is facing excellent growth for an industrial company because its new products save money. And that is the key – airlines and airplane leasing companies can borrow at very low costs and are locking in capital commitments while rates are low.

Why? These new products save a lot of fuel per passenger mile. This gives them a once in a generation opportunity to access cheap capital – their balance sheet – to significantly reduce operating costs-their income statement.

Bottom line: I believe Wall Street is way too cautious about growth for the Dreamliner and the 737 product line. It is far too pessimistic about defense cuts. It’s time to build a new normal position in Boeing.

Sprott Goes For The Silver Fences

Eric Sprott’s PSLV filed a prospectus, as he is required to do, with the intent of purchasing $1,500,000,000 of physical silver for the PSLV. (Click to download the propectus.)

“Though there are a lot of factors at play, such as a volatile silver price, the recent movement could have something to do with Sprott’s recently filed prospectus for a new offering of up to $1.5-billion of new Physical Silver Trust units. For the longest time Eric Sprott had been holding off on such a filing, telling the Globe in May that “there will not be an offering that negatively impacts the premium on the PSLV.” (Source.)

While this is a very exciting development for physical silver holders, I remain very skeptical about if this will really come to fruition. I believe Mr. Sprott is well intentioned and really intends on doing the deed, there is just not enough metal to deliver and I am quite sure heavy pressure will be brought to bear on Mr. Sprott to stop this date with destiny. The counter party to physical silver is a group of criminal men who trade the paper form of it to control the world’s resources. When you read the true story about the Hunt Brothers, the Federal Reserve, SEC and Treasury had daily briefing on the Hunts and rigged the game to break their backs. Mr. Sprott has been very wise not to use debt or leverage to make this move, but I know these guys are not going to give up the ship without a dirty fight.

I would like to suggest to Mr. Sprott that he keep hitting singles instead of a huge spectacle buy. I know, I know, you are all saying he should just go for it. If you knew the kind of scum he was up against, and you cared about Mr. Sprott, you would encourage that too. If he goes for the gusto and stands for 50 million ounces when there is on 32 million in the Registered Vaults (if you believe that..) he runs the risk of being branded a “market manipulator” and bring the dog howls of bureaucrats, pundits, and politicians. If that does not work, I am sure other under handed efforts will be made to stop reality from setting into the world’s markets.

“You cannot solve a problem with the same consciousness that created the problem.” -Albert Einstein

I hope he does a great majority of his purchases outside of the CRIMEX and go right to the miners and refiners and even overseas. By Mr. Sprott simply participating in the rigged CRIMEX market, he gives it legitimacy. It is a crooked casino and should not be played in. Starve the beast of your time, attention and money. He would be much more effective and wise to do a majority of the purchases in the free market and deal with the miners themselves. (Many of which he already has interest in…)

Couple this silver development with the EU debt crisis, the super fail of the Super Congress, MF Global scandal and 2.7 million ounces leaving the Eligible CRIMEX vaults yesterday, does any one still doubt that one day the whole world will change like a thief in the night?

This is also timed with the largest cup and handle bull market chart I have ever seen. 30+ years in the making for silver to finally break $50 an ounce. We only probably need to break $36 or $40 for the rockets to start roaring again, this time for good.

If you are behind the curve on why you should sell every paper asset you have, right now and buy physical silver, I have create The Ultimate Silver Investor guide with 18 FREE reports. This is for you to have total confidence to take massive action to secure your generational wealth. (Click here for the reports.)

An example of a Cup and Handle chart

Can you name me any asset that is still 30% below what it was in 1980???

Break that handle and let's get this party started!

More Bang for the Buck with Silver

What has happened to gold?

Have you ever held a basketball underwater in a swimming pool and let go? It flies to the upside and pops you in the nose. That is exactly what gold is doing now. After the barbarous relic peaked at $1,922 on August 24, it traded like an absolute pig, giving up 20% in a matter of weeks. I managed to coin it with a couple of quick in and out trades in SPDR Gold ETF (GLD) puts, some doubling over a weekend. So much for gold as the “safe asset” theory.

You can thank hedge fund titan, John Paulsen, for the action. John gained international notoriety when he earned a $4 billion bonus after making huge bets against subprime loans going into the housing crash.

Since then, his touch has grown somewhat icy. He started out 2011 with a huge, bullish bet on US banks, a play, I confess, I never really understood. This was back when Bank of America (BAC) was trading at a lofty $14/share. As a hedge, he backed up these gargantuan positions with big holdings in gold, which quickly made him the largest owner of the ETF (GLD).

John’s P&L held up reasonably well during the first part of the year. As the banks faded, gold went from strength to strength, limiting his damage. That all changed on April 29 when global financial markets flipped into “RISK OFF” mode and gold melted along with everything else. Its hedging capability proved to be nil. By August, John’s losses approached a near death 50%.

Needless to say, his investors failed to see the humor in the situation, and rumors of cataclysmic redemptions started sweeping the street. By implication, this could only mean large scale liquidation of the yellow metal. This was happening when the rest of the hedge fund industry was catching daily margin calls, forcing them to dump even more gold into a downward spiral, their best performing holding for the year. When the sushi hits the fan, you sell what you can, not what you want to. By the time the carnage ended, gold was down $392.

When the crying was over, Paulson had reduced his ownership in the ETF (GLD) from 31.5 million shares to 20.3 million. That’s a haircut of $1.76 billion of the shiny stuff. In the end, Paulson says he only suffered redemptions of 10% of his somewhat reduced funds, much lower than expected.

Gold actually anticipated the new “RISK ON” trade by a week, bottoming on September 26. Since then it has behaved like a paper asset, tracking the S&P 500 almost tick for tick, adding a quick 19.6%. So, what’s up with gold?

As we approach yearend, the downward pressure of this redemption selling is waning, hence my basketball analogy. New bull arguments have also come to the fore. The contagion in Europe has prompted massive buying of all precious metals by panicky individuals, including Silver ETF (SLV), ETFs Physical Platinum Shares (PPLT), ETF Physical Palladium Shares (PALL), and even neglected rhodium, with a collapse of the Euro imminent. And how will the ECB eventually end the crisis? With a continental TARP and quantitative easing, which we here in the US already know is hugely positive for gold prices.

How far will the gold get this time? The gold bugs say we’re going to break the old high and power on through to the inflation adjusted high at $2,300. I’m not so sure. I am not willing to bet the ranch here on an asset class that could plunge $1,000 going into the next recession, which could be just around the corner.

But there may be a trade here in precious metals space for the nimble. My pick has been to buy lagging silver, which offers much more bang per buck if the sector starts to build a head of steam. The white metal will not get hit with IMF gold sales, which are also a rumored part of any European bailout package.

Why Now is the Ideal Time to Buy Apple : AAPL

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) – This great American success story saw its stock put under pressure following the death of founder Steve Jobs. But the new management team was handpicked by Jobs and is expected to perform well.

Analysts are estimating sales growth of 30% in FY 2012 (ending in September) versus a projected 67% rise in FY 2011. At just 9.6 times FY 2012 earnings estimates the stock looks undervalued.

The Trade of the Day recommended AAPL on Oct. 10 after it bounced from its 200-day moving average. The stock is in a powerful bull trend, and any time it dips to its bullish support line and 200-day moving average it should be bought.

A recent report from Credit Suisse analysts targets AAPL at $500 within 12 months. Technically a quick trade could take the stock to its 50-day moving average at $395 and much higher longer term.

Funny Pic of the Day

The Real Reason Gold Will Rally: Armstrong Economics

The End of Capitalism
Now What's Going On


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