Frequently Asked Questions, Troubleshooting, and Forums Guide

Swap Policies

I want to respond to an ad. How do I do that?

I want to place ads. How do I join?

How do I price my used items for sale?

Who pays the shipping?

How much will shipping cost?

How should I handle paying/receiving payment?

How many ads can I place on The Swap?

Lots of people want my book! How do I decide who gets it?

Why am I unable to log-in and post on the forums?

Why can't I get to the site sometimes?

I lost my curriculum ads password. Can you get it for me?

My email address has changed. How do I change it on my ads and in the forums?

I want to respond to an ad. How do I do that?

Click on the seller's email address (something like name@domain.com), and your email program should pop up. If it doesn't, check your browser configuration, or make sure your stand-alone email program is running.

Be sure to include the title of the item, the price, and your question(s), if any. Forget the ad number--most sellers don't write down the ad numbers anyway. Copy the whole ad into your email if you want.

IMPORTANT: If you're certain that you want to purchase it, include that in your very first email. Just saying "I'm interested in your book" isn't enough of a committment for most sellers. But you can piggyback your questions and conditions, and still commit to buy the item IF the conditions are met. For example, if you're concerned that the item is the 1990 edition, you can say something like, "If the item is the 1990 edition, I would like to purchase it if it's still available."

Remember, items can move VERY fast, and if you take a long time making up your mind, the seller may and likely will sell it to someone else who offers a definite committment to buy *and* answers email quickly. If you snooze, you lose!

Asking a ton of questions about an item and then deciding not to purchase it after all isn't very considerate, especially if the seller has spent a lot of time and effort informing you of the contents of the book. Please be sensitive to the sellers' time constraints and keep your detailed questions to a minimum. Curriculum catalogs can answer most of your questions for major textbooks.

I want to place ads. How do I join?

Visit our Subscription Information page for details.

How do I price my used items for sale?

Any way you want...however, these rules of thumb might help you SELL that item. Price generally will be based on age, condition, and popularity of the item. Asking for half or so is a good rule of thumb, but certain items will be worth much more or much less due to their popularity or lack of it. If you really think it's worth more, price it higher. If it doesn't sell, you can always relist it later, or modify the ad. Be sure and state the condition of the item, and many people include the date of publication and edition number as well.

Who pays the shipping?

Whoever you like. Some prefer to include the shipping in the price, as they figure it makes it easier for both seller and buyer. The buyer knows up front what the total cost will be, and the seller can roll it into the price. Probably most important is to STATE whether or not you're including P& H in your sales price, so that buyers can decide based on accurate information. Do be aware that shipping, even BOOKS, is not inexpensive these days.

It may be more than you think! Grab your trusty scales and find out now. Use these two web sites to get a good idea on how much you'll spend on shipping.

Calculate U.S. Postal Service Shipping Rates Here
Calculate UPS Shipping Rates for Your Packages

Handle it in whatever way buyer and seller agree upon. Some prefer to wait until they've received a check from the purchaser before sending anything out. That way you know that the buyer didn't change his mind at the last moment or whatever. Some wait until the check clears the bank, and some folks prefer to do business with money orders only. For expensive items, C.O.D. is an option, but remember to iron out who pays for the extra charges in exchange for the added security. It's a good idea to agree in advance about who pays for what in case the item is lost in shipping, too. DO remember that you buy and sell at your own risk here. We've built in as many safeguards as we can for subscribers, and have an excellent track record for subscriber-to-subscriber transactions, but we can't guarantee success. We hope everyone that participates here will do so in good faith, but we're unable to provide anyone any guarantees, especially when in a subscriber-to-nonsubscriber transaction.

How many ads can I place on The Swap?

Individuals selling their own personal used items are allowed *ONE AD PER ITEM* and a *MAXIMUM OF 50* ads total on the Swap effective April, 1998. Ads exceeding the limit will be deleted without notice. Repeat offenders may have all ads removed and/or may lose access to The Swap. Remember, you can use the search feature in each category to see how many ads you have placed.

Lots of people want my book! How do I decide who gets it?

That's up to you. Many of us sell to the first person who meets the asking price, and some of us line up second and third buyers in case the first agreement falls through. An often-mentioned "pet peeve" is how to deal with the person who says, "I'm interested in your book." Many of us prefer to agree to sell to the first person who says, "I'll buy your book", because so often the person who's "interested" turns out not to want to buy the book, but is just looking for further information only -- and the exchange of several emails becomes very frustrating for both.

It's a good idea to respond to an ad with a combination of asking for information and stating your desire to buy the book, such as "I'm wanting to buy your book, but need to know if it's appropriate for a second-grade reading level first." Sellers would be well-advised to make up a standard set of their own policies about the form of payments, shipping times, email notification of the buyer when items are sent, mode of sending (postal or UPS or whatever), whether costs are to be divided in case of postal loss, and any other details. It saves a lot of misunderstandings when matters are made clear up front.

Please check the anchored thread on the Computers & Cash Forum.

There can be a number of reasons why you might not be able to reach this (or any) web site at times. Good or bad, right or wrong, the very nature of the net guarantees it *doesn't* have the reliability of your local TV station (and that goes on the blink sometimes too!). The internet is made up of a huge number of computers all linked which allows you to move from one to the other viewing pages and having a great time. Any problem on that 'linkage', starting at your system and traveling thru however many lines must be traversed to get to our server might result in your being unable to view the pages. Then there's also routine maintenance on the server -- this is usually done early in the a.m. or late at night, but if something urgent comes up during active hours, the guys that run the server are expected to fix it... that too means down time. There are more possibilities, but these are the major culprits. The key on the internet is to 'roll with the punches' and try back again soon. By the way, these problems should never be prolonged. If you think it's more than a minor glitch, please *do* write us!

Sure, just email Amy or Kelly from the email address that you're using for your curriculum ads subscription, and ask for it.

Just email Amy or Kelly and supply your old and new email addresses.