Why Can't We Trade, Barter or Borrow?

Why can't we trade, barter or borrow?

So what's the big deal about trading or borrowing? It's keeping things out of the dump, right? Actually, no.

Because trading, swapping, or borrowing can often cause a whole new can of worms to be opened, by ticking off those involved. Because of the hassles of a poor trading or lending experience, participants may choose to throw away items rather than go through the hassles again of another bad gifting experience.

Here's a brief look - Say you have a couch, and you really are in need of a much smaller chair. You Offer the couch on Freecycle(TM) and someone emails you offering to trade for a chair. "Great!" you think, "I can pass along the couch AND get a chair too!".

So you load up the couch, and drive over Streaked Mountain, help carry the couch into the new owner's house, and discover that the chair you are picking up has been outside serving as a dog house for the past 6 months. At this point, you have agreed to trade, and can't just load up your couch again. You leave with something that you agreed to take in trade, hurt and furious that what is supposed to be a recycling forum has caused you more headaches than rewards.

Or, you borrow a table from someone and when you return the table, they claim you have damaged it and they want compensation. You now find yourself in a peculiar situation and everyone involved has a less than pleasant experience.

In both cases, participants may decide it's far easier to just throw items away than deal with the hassles of trying to give or receive through a recycling forum.

Freecycle(TM) is a GIFTING forum - we are here to keep usable items out of the landfill by gifting them to another person, NO STRINGS ATTACHED. This means no trades, selling, bartering, borrowing, or reimbursement of any kind, other than a simple "Thank you."

So what to do? Simple - OFFER up your couch, and post a separate WANTED for a chair. If someone asks you to trade, forward the email to the moderators and let us enforce the rules. And you enjoy the benefits of Freecycle(TM) - knowing that you are changing the world, one gift at a time!

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