The Barter System Lives!
Author: AF Duncan
April 13th, 2006
Has anyone out there used this joint? Sounds pretty nifty:
The site, which looks remarkably similar to a prototype Mr. Bloom sketched on notebook paper four years ago with Mr. Elias, trades only one-for-one items within the same category — CD’s, DVD’s, VHS tapes, video games, audio books or paperback books. No item (for example, a seven-disc DVD set of the first season of the television series “24″) is worth more than any another (say, a DVD of Peter Jackson’s “King Kong”).
Traders using the site determine the relative value of an item by choosing to swap or not. No one is ever forced to make a trade, Mr. Elias noted.
Each trader pays Zunafish $1 through credit or debit card for each trade. The site then calculates the postage costs and creates addressed mailing labels that can be downloaded and printed out. Each trader, Mr. Bloom said, is responsible for paying the postage and mailing the item promptly.
Like buyers and sellers on eBay, the traders on Zunafish rate each other, providing a confidence index for future transactions.
Whaddya know. Anyone want to place bets on how long it takes the big media corporations to try to put the kibosh on this little enterprise?
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3 Responses to “The Barter System Lives!”






April 13th, 2006 at 8:14 am
Freaking awesome!
April 13th, 2006 at 6:49 pm
I actually signed up because of this article.
Havent traded anything yet
April 14th, 2006 at 5:26 am
Cool man, let us know how it works out. It’s a pretty good idea, actually.