Swap meet?

[Bern]

I messed up and ordered some surface mount ICs when I needed DIP packages. I can’t believe I will ever use them, but not worth the hassle of returning them. What to do with them? I would be glad to send them to someone who could use them, for just the postage. I also have several other ICs that are perfectly good, that I don’t expect to ever use. Some are quite special, and no longer available. Got to wondering, does any body know of a forum of some type where parts can be traded? Maybe a new site, or a special deperartment on this site, where we could help each other out by having a garage sale, or swap meet. If it was set up with a section where part numbers could be entered, both wanted and available, along with a dedicated search engine, just for these parts. Maybe also a price which would cover shipping, and whatever. Any interest in setting up something like this? I believe it could become very popular and beneficial.

[jimandy]

Your idea came up here a year or so ago and I was all for it but nothing ever happened. I think what is needed is to find a model on the web for a similar activity - i.e. a swap site, perhaps of collectibles of some kind. One problem though is that hard to find items tend to force a market value, then side deals start happening and soon it becomes an auction. But let's keep our eyes open for something on the web that seems to work and see if we can use it to define some rules.

<small>[ March 11, 2006, 08:37 PM: Message edited by: jimandy ]</small>

[jollyrgr]

While swap meets, ham fests, and the lot are all fine a board such as this would be come destroyed if it were to develop into a swap meet. Regular users selling stuff would be fine every once in a while. But my fear would be that vendors, especially those from the Pacific Rim, would use this as a free source of marketing. Dare I call it SPAM? I do enjoy flea markets ham fests and the like but to place this in a open forum would be suicide for the forum. Check USENET groups for an idea of what this board could become if swaps were allowed.

While I don't play online games I have a number of coworkers that do. There are a number of Chinese players that play the game for a living. They collect objects in the game then sell them for real world money. For most players of the game thes "farmers" are a nuisance.

I don't mind online purchases and frequent eBay quite often. My suggestion would be to use eBay to sell stuff.

[Bern]

Ya, I guess I hear what you are saying. There are those that would abuse what the original intent was.

[Will]

It seems to me that if such a site were set up - but strictly for either donating parts for the price of shipping OR for swapping parts then that would not be attractive to commerical interests - couldn't we get N & V to help out with this ? for instance they could either change Robo-nexus (Which seems hardly to be used) - or add another one names 'Parts-Swap'- I have quite a few sticks of 74N TTL which I'd prefer to donate rather than dump 'em in the trash

[NV185864]

Ebay. It's easy and you might get more than postage.

[philba]

not sure ebay would be worth the overhead of setting up an account.

I have several bags of DIL TTL 74xxx chips. lots of them. random selection. anyone want for the shipping costs?

[L. Daniel Rosa]

I've tried with limited success. Just start the thread, and when it dies let it go.

A few years ago I managed to find a home for some lonely 50A SCRs and 5W wirewound resistors and I forget what else. I think a few poeple even sent me some cool stuff in exchange.

It was through a similar venue that I got my first exposure (pun iuntended) to UV LEDs.

BTW, there's more on possible ebay restrictions. Some of the stuff I have is "industrial waste" that I can keep, give, or trade but not sell (I was given permission to scavenge it, which I wasn't supposed to have and my former supervisor may get some grief if I make money from that error). Also, I used to have a business license and I don't want to start selling things in a public forum until it is reactivated.

[haklesup]

Unless they are desireable and in some quantity, components sell poorly on ebay. You may have to run an auction several weeks in a row just to get a min winning bid. In the mean time, you waste your money on listing fees. Even Craigslist dosen't list any components i can see.

[Engineer1138]

About a year ago I brought up the idea of a website dedicated to swapping services such as soldering or simple design in addition to parts. My conclusion was that it would be too time consuming to do it right. And if I'm going to spend that much time on something, I either would have to make money doing it, or really enjoy doing it for free... and I have too many hobbies already

If I were retired, it would be an interesting hobby, but married with a day job I just don't have the time.

I also have some OLD! parts available for free. When I get around to it I'll post a link to my website where people can request them.

What SMT devices do you have? I'm converting to SMT, and may be interested in a swap. You can PM me if you prefer.

[missouridave]

This web site:
http://www.freecycle.org/
has a concept that might work here. You can only give things away for free. It works well regionally, and could probably work for electronica, if someone (N&V) set it up.

[NV185864]

If not Ebay then maybe there is a local ITT Tech or other tech school near you. I've given many components to tech schools. They love it. And sometimes they can give you a reciept for taxes. Tech students are always looking for more parts to let the smoke out of. And hey maybe you'll make some friends at the local tech school that would apreciate your help and expertise.

[HighFrequency]

I am an electronics student in BC and I know I love getting my mitts on different chips and what-not. I recently sampled some Microchip RF devices, then realized I had no way to program them. Plus they're SMT, and I don't know how to program SMT chips.

<small>[ March 15, 2006, 10:21 PM: Message edited by: HighFrequency ]</small>

[jimandy]

In an effort to keep this thread alive, I have looked at some web sites that do swaps and barters. Best I can come up with is a rough idea based on a point system. Here's how it might work.

1. Participants (called members) must register (this part leaves a lot to be said on authentication, verification, etc.) Qualified registrants become members of an association, which may or may not have some legal standing. (is there a lawyer in this forum?)

2. A member then lists his "stuff" with a description and his/her assigned market value. The listing is posted on the web.

3. Each item is assigned points based on the market value declared by the member. For instance, if I list a special purpose transformer that I bought but never used and never returned, I might assign it a value of $35.00. This translates to 35 points. Doesn't matter whether I go with a high or low value (see step 7).

4. Member Sam sees it, wants it and I ship it. (all handled by transactions through the swap web site. Sam pays shipping only). I get 35 points added to my account in the "bank". Sam's account is charged 35 points.

5. How did Sam get his points in the bank? Well there could be several options here, one being that initially Sam paid for them in cash to the association. But thereafter (or even if he did not buy points when he joined) he would get points for his listed items that were "bought" by members in the same way that Sam "bought" my transformer.

6. I am now 35 points richer and can use them to buy an item listed by Sam or someone else in the group.

7. Now here's the kicker on item 3. If Joe lists a similar transformer with a lower declared value, say $20.00 (20 points) then it becomes competitive and Sam probably would have ordered from him, rather than me. Or if I knew the transformer was out of production I could list it at an inflated price (say 50 points) and might find a potential buyer who had an equally overvalued item that I wanted, but we would both be happy with our mutual transaction since no cash was spent other than shipping (which we might agree to waive on such a swap).

So there's a proposal, rough as it is. Care to comment?

[Robert Reed]

I like it! But, I think it should be on a separate thread and only accesible from the N&V home page. Michelle--have you got your ears on?