After Earth Day

Earth Day has come and gone, nore or less.  In honor of Earth Day (and a little late). I thought I would write about one of my favorite pasttimes:  Trading.  Trading, swapping, bartering, whatever you call it, can be a lot of fun.  There are several websites to help you do it.  Locally, you have Craigslist.  If you use Craigslist, be sure to meet up in a public place.  You could probably find some local swap groups, too.  One place to look would be Facebook.  There are a few in my area but I have not used them too much. 

One of my favorite trading sites is http://rehashclothes.com/.  Once you figure out how to use it, everything is easy and fair.  To help you get started check here:  http://rehashclothes.com/site/howto
This site offers clothing, books, and accessories.  You will find a little bit of everything and a whole lot of nice people.  One of my favorite features of the site is that you can load books that you are swapping by entering in the ISBN.  If the book is listed, the listing is already made for you.  There are a few bugs with this, but overall it is a great feature.

Another site that I like is http://market.swap.com/  and there is an app for that!  With the app, you can upload your trades directly to the site from your mobile phone.  There is a very big mixture of items on this site.  Some people list big items here such as furniture.  Of course, that is something that would be more of a local trade.  I have not used this site for very long, but I have not had any problems with it.  So far, everyone has been nice and pleasant to deal with.  There is also a companion site:  http://www.swap.com/media/
The app for this site is really nice.  You can scan the bar codes of your movies, cds, books, and games with your smart phone and it will automatically list it for you.  The biggest drawback is that the sites are not compatable.  So anything you upload to swap media will not be accessible in your swap market account.  I have uploaded trades to this site but never made a trade.  I attempted to once.  It seems like there is some kind of fee or holding fee or deposit.  I was suprised about that when I attempted to make a trade.  The trade I attempted requested a $5.15 fee or holding fee (like I said not sure about that) and all I had was $5.10 in my PayPal account.  So I stopped the trade.

If I had small children, this would be my favorite swapping site:  http://www.swapmamas.com
There is a little bit of everything on here.  However, there is a lot of children's items.  Clothes, toys, books, you name it; there it is.  The founder of the site, Darcy Cruwys, is very involved in this site which is a really nice touch.  I have used this site a few times and I really like it.

Here is a list of a few other sites:
http://www.swapstyle.com/  I really liked this site for a while but after it had major technical difficulties, I quit using it.  It is still a good site, though.
http://www.barterquest.com/ Has a little bit of everything.
http://www.makeupalley.com/  This is primarily makeup.  A popular site.  Be careful about using someone elses makeup.

New to blogging 4-15-2012

Hi!

This is actually my first blog, so don't expect anything great.  First, I'd like to tell you a little about myself.  I am currently looking for a full time job because selling art is not enough to get by on.  I have an Etsy shop located at:  http://www.etsy.com/people/ArtByShara

I also have a Facebook page which is here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/ArtByShara/246709062086652

I am currently featured on this blog:
http://www.roguebaby.blogspot.com/2012/04/giveaway-art-by-shara.html
where we are having a giveaway for a free pen and ink drawing that I did.  The raffle is free to enter and will be ending soon, so hurry to enter.

Other than art, I enjoy camping, hiking, and swimming (although I am somewhat out of shape at the moment ;-) ), trading/swapping, and spending too much time online.  I also enjoy finding bargains at the store and couponing.  Not the extreme couponing, just everyday normal save a few bucks here and there.