Sharing Is Good: How to Save Money, Time and Resources Through Collaborative Consumption by Beth Buczynski

Author:Beth Buczynski [Buczynski, Beth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Business & Economics, Consumer Behavior, Social Science, Popular Culture, Environmental Economics
ISBN: 9781550925449
Google: WSkAAQAAQBAJ
Amazon: 086571746X
Publisher: New Society Publishers
Published: 2013-10-20T16:00:00+00:00

U-Exchange.com — A barter site with over 70,000 members that specializes in every type of trade, from books and clothes to dog walking and website design services. Businesses are welcome to

join and engage in B2B and B2C barters.

• Cost to join? No. Thanks to advertising on the site, there are no commissions taken on trades, either.

• One-for-one sharing? No. U-Exchange is set up to facilitate direct trades, but multi-party trades are possible.

• Point system? No.

• International? Yes. U-Exchange has barter categories for over 80 countries, although the most active countries are the United

States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.

• Who pays for shipping? Members work out their own shipping arrangements for long-distance trades.

• Insurance? No.

Tradeaway.com — TradeAway provides the means for a business or person to acquire goods or services through a medium where cash is not a requirement for a transaction to take place.

• Cost to join? No. Registering on TradeAway is always free. There are fees associated with a number of optional upgrades you can

make to an account or listing.

• One-for-one sharing? No. Both direct sales and trades are facilitated through the Tradeaway system.

• Point system? Yes. TradeCredits are a non-cash, barter currency used by members to pay for items and store value in the system.

• International? No. Tradeaway is only open to residents of the United States.

• Who pays for shipping? Shipping arrangements and costs are worked out between trading parties.

• Insurance? No.

Listia.com — Listia is an online auction platform where you win other people’s stuff, from electronics, to crafts and antiques.

What to Share

105

• Cost to join? No.

• One-for-one sharing? No. People bid on listings using credits they’ve earned. The highest bid wins.

• Point system? Yes. Points are earned for signing up, listing items, making trades, inviting friends, and joining Listia on social networking sites.

• International? Yes, although most listings are in the United States.

• Who pays for shipping? In most cases, the item owner pays for shipping.

• Insurance? No.

Skills/Time

The sharing of skills, knowledge, and time is a very important part of the collaborative consumption movement. When people share

their time, new skills are learned, new connections forged, and self-sufficiency gained. We start to appreciate skills that were forgotten when we started buying things instead of making or repairing them.

You don’t have to be an expert to teach what you know, and no skill is too small or insignificant to share with others.

Even if you don’t have a particular skill you’d like to share, your time is still a valuable resource. Ever heard the phrase time is money?

Time banks allow members to turn hours into equity that can then

be used to trade for things or services. Peer-to-peer errand and task networks make it easy to hire your neighbors to complete short-term projects. Some people have even turned time-sharing into a

full-time job. Sharing your time helps people (including you) save money, eliminate multiple car trips, and support the local economy.

TaskRabbit.com — This errand and delivery marketplace connects people who have extra time with people who don’t. Members, called

“TaskRabbits,” can make extra money by doing odd jobs or small

tasks for those who are tight on time.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.