One day, the piles around my house were of no consequence to me. I happily stacked one toy on top of the other. I stowed clothes in storage bins. I squeezed between bins of toys to get from one room to another. Stored loads of board games in the toy cupboard. Piled DVDs haphazardly one on top of the other on the media stand. Or I stashed household items in the basement storage room. One overflowing stack leaned against the next in a very helter skelter fashion.
All was well until the day when the piles got too high. The storage bins too numerous. The cupboards and drawers overflowed. I had no choice but to acknowledge my hoarding tendencies. I had to get rid of stuff that was no longer needed. There was no other solution…unwanted stuff had to go. A quick google search netted me the particulars of several local consignments stores. What I didn’t sell at the consignment store, I sold through my local mom club group. Anything left over I donated to local charity groups through neighborhood donation pickups. All was well with my process for “getting rid” of my excess stuff, until I became a work-at-home mom. Once I had work projects and assignments coming in, I didn’t have time for running around town dropping off items I wanted to sell.
But, time is a precious commodity when you work from home during the day and ferry kids around in the evenings. I had very little extra time during my day. I needed to find an alternative to running to and from consignments stores and the post office. A site came in to my cross hairs…Valet.Swap.com.
Here’s how Swap.com Valet Service works:
- You select the items you no longer need.
- You send the items to Swap.com Valet Service.
- And Valet.Swap.com does everything to sell the item for you.
Once the item is received, Valet.Swap.com will photograph the item, store the item in its warehouse, and list the item for you. Once the item is listed, you can swap your item for another item listed on the site. And the best part? There is no charge for the Valet.Swap.com service!
Why Use Valet.Swap.com?
- Kids grow out of toys, clothes, and pretty much everything else fast.
- You end up with your storage spaces filled with items that are no longer being used.
- These items are often in very good condition, but you don’t want to throw them away either.
- At the same time you need to get your kids a whole bunch of bigger clothes, larger sports equipment, and more advanced toys.
- Swap.com Valet Service is the smartest way to get rid of your unwanted toys, etc., AND find other toys you need.
Currently Swap.com Valet Service only accepts baby and kids’ items including:
- clothing items
- toys
- games
- kids’ sports equipment
- media — computer games, video games, DVDs, BluRays
- baby gear with the exception of very large items, like strollers and cribs
What I Liked about Swap.com Valet Service?
- I rummaged around my home and found a recordable storybook that was brand new and had never been used. I have my eye on several other items that I want to send in to Swap.com Valet Service.
- I logged in to Valet.Swap.com and clicked on “Send items to Swap.com.”
- I could choose several shipping options to send my item to Swap.com Valet Service…from printing the shipping label at home, to requesting a shipping label by mail, and finally to requesting a shipping label and packing materials for an additional charge of $3.
- I was asked to state that the items were in “good condition, working order, and…with no stains.” If the items don’t meet Swap.com Valet Service’s criteria, I had the option to let Swap.com donate the item OR the item could be returned to me for an additional shipping charge.
- About a week after I requested the shipping label, I received it and shipped the recordable storybook to Swap.com Valet Service the same day.
- Once I received a confirmation email from Swap.com Valet Service that the recordable storybook was listed, I was asked to set a price for the recordable storybook.
- Once listed, I was able to see what I wanted to swap my item for. I quickly added items to a “Want List.” I added including a Toy Story Lego Set, a Kung Fu Panda 2 Wii game, X-Men action figures, and a couple of other items.
- I chose to swap the recordable storybook for the X-Men action figures. Instead of having the X-Men figures shipped to me, I re-listed them on the site until the next swap!
Swap.com Valet Service is operated by Netcycler, Inc. Netcycler, a Finnish company, currently operates swapping services in Finland, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Netcycler’s U.S. services include Swap.com Media and the Market, as well as Swap.com Valet Service. Netcycler developed a unique technology for enabling multi-party swapping any items.
I was compensated for this post. The views expressed in the post are my own. I follow the tenets of Blog With Integrity.
