I’ve been eagerly awaiting this day. Swapadvd.com finally went live, open to the public, today. No, I’m not a nerd. I just love to get free stuff in the mail. I’ve been a member of paperbackswap.com & swapacd.com for almost a year. Basically, you get to trade in the books or cd’s, now dvd’s, that you have around your house for items that you actually want. The sender pays the shipping cost & when the receiver gets the dvd, the sender gets a credit & they can order another DVD.

All of these sites are run by the same people & I picked them out of all the swapping or trading sites out there because:

• You get a free credit for the first 10 DVD’s you post. This is a great way to try out the site & see if you like it.
  
• It’s free to use. Swapacd has a small surcharge for each cd you order, but I think it’s only $.50.
  
• Great Selection. The book site has over 1.5 million books to choose from. The CD site is under 80,000 & the DVD site is about to reach 4,000. I’ve been beta testing Swapadvd for a few weeks & am thrilled that it came in time for Christmas.
  
• It’s totally legal. In fact it’s the only legal way I know to get free cd’s, movies & books.
  
• I can keep any of the dvd’s that I want for free. I can also swap them again to make room in my house. It’s a great way to clear out a bookshelf. The site is very low pressure, if you don’t feel like swapping for awhile, you can put everything on hold.
  
• All of the sites seem to have a strong community with people that are willing to help each other out. Their forums even have a rule that your post must be courteous, I can’t say that about most places online.
  
• You can purchase a credit for a reasonable price if something you want comes up & you are out of credits.
  
• The wish list. On each of these sites, if an item isn’t in stock you just have to enter the item number & it will put you on a wish list. This way you don’t have to constantly watch the site, when the item becomes available, it will be offered to the first person in the wish list line before anyone else.
  
• The owners have a terrific sense of humor. Some of the members were joking about what was next, goat swapping? The owners then bought the site swapagoat.com (Actually there have been rumors that they will start a game swap next).

To join or look around just click the above banner or the icons in the top of the sidebar. Oh Happy Day!

Technorati : books, budget, christmas+gifts, free, free dvd’s, paperbackswap, shopping, swapacd, swapadvd

I was watching trailers for The Mist by Stephen King & it really got me thinking about the group dynamic. The Mist chronicles David Drayton who gets trapped in a grocery store with some sort of mist. As the story unravels David finds that he’s afraid of the mist as well as the people in the store who had always been his friends & neighbors up to this point.

It really drove home the fact that you never know when you are going to get stuck in a situation where other people can influence your very survival. For instance, one day I went shopping. Shocking I know. I had been to this store dozens of times before. I heard a kid crying behind me as I was walking out of the bathroom. The store was crowded that day & I left the restroom in a line. Suddenly, the woman in front of me turned around & started yelling at the woman behind me to make her kid be quiet. I was literally stuck in between the two. I didn’t know if I should say anything as the women started yelling & threatening each other. I didn’t know what to do because I couldn’t fathom yelling at anyone, let alone a stranger, in a store. Finally I was able to duck away, I don’t know if store security was involved or not. It’s a funny story now, but it was very tense at the time. It could’ve been so different if the first woman would’ve just asked the second lady if she needed any help. The truth is we all handle stress differently, some people become heroes & others turn into monsters.

I can’t decide whether Jessica Fletcher on “Murder She Wrote” is very brave or just plain stupid. Well of course, on the show she’s a hero. However, it seems like she confronts the murderer every single episode. Granted, she’s always OK because she somehow convinces the police to come & hear the confession even though the police haven’t believed her up to that point.

She is just so calm in the face of danger. She has a way of getting people to confess & she doesn’t blink if they threaten her. She always ends the show laughing. She’s either really brave or taking some unnecessary chances. Should the show be prefaced with a “Do not try this at home” warning?