| It's the start of a new year at college. Panic sets in | | | | Care to Trade allows you to buy, sell or trade items |
| when the reading list pops through your letterbox. As a | | | | and barter services with users from all over the world. |
| language student, this occasion would mark a new | | | | It's appealing for students like myself who don't have |
| event in my diary - going into town, rummaging through | | | | huge amounts of money, because all classified |
| all the foreign language bookstores, in the hope of | | | | advertisements are free. In fact, they state on the site |
| retrieving all the necessary material required to pass | | | | "pay no listing fees, no transaction fees, and no |
| the course! Furthermore, if you get the reading list late, | | | | commission". The basic idea is that if I'm looking for a |
| or delay the process, the chances of you finding even | | | | French textbook that someone else has, they can |
| a sixth of the textbooks or novels is unlikely - Dweeby | | | | barter with me for no cost or loss, for an item or |
| Danielle will have beaten you to it! You literally have to | | | | service that I possess and no longer want. You'd be |
| pay the price, and order off a really expensive online | | | | surprised how material you're looking for crops up |
| bookstore with extortionate delivery rates, and | | | | when you search on this site. A detail that makes |
| because the text is obscure, they have to order it in | | | | things easier is the "sort by ISBN#" facility (ascending |
| themselves, which takes even longer! | | | | or descending in number), and also the option to |
| My other option used to be to search on Amazon, but | | | | search by state (outside the U.S if this is the case). If a |
| often there are two problems with this: firstly, rare | | | | particular advert for a book grabs you, you can click |
| books probably won't be listed, and if you are lucky | | | | on "view details". In the new window, the title of the |
| enough to find them (especially translations from the | | | | book, with a description (condition, edition details), |
| original text) they charge exorbitant amounts for them. | | | | author, shipping details (i.e. "In person, buyer pays, or |
| All I want is the text, not the fancy edition with notes | | | | negotiable if trade"), selling details (for example "willing |
| by a random academic I don't know! In general, it really | | | | to trade/sell for - open to offers!") and so on are |
| can be gutting if what you're paying is beyond the | | | | shown. Not only can you barter on books, textbooks |
| recommended retail price! | | | | and magazines, but also health and beauty products, |
| I'm now at the end of my third year of studying for a | | | | flyer miles, tools and hardware, and real estate and |
| Bachelor of Arts, majoring in French and Art History | | | | cars, which apparently are just a few of the most |
| and slightly out of the loop as I've been on a year | | | | widely used categories. |
| abroad in Paris. The final year is a critical one, and | | | | I'm very impressed with this website, and my hope is |
| getting hold of the text as early as possible is also | | | | that it expands and becomes a full fledged, widely |
| paramount. My course comrade, who's quite well | | | | used service, as it is a great resource that students |
| informed about the Internet, had been talking about a | | | | like myself could make good use of. |
| website called "Care to Trade" over the vacation. | | | | |