|
|
 What is SwapitShop? Well it is an online auction site for kids and teenagers. You can buy and sell things using the virtual currency swapits. As it is virtual currency it does not mean you buy virtual things, you get real things. Once you sign up you receive 10 swapits from SwapitShop, which to be honest is hardly anything. After that there are 2 main ways to earn swapits. One of them is to use codes. You get these codes in magazines like, Disney, It's Hot and Top Of The Pops. You maybe thinking well I don't buy these magazines so I won't get the swapits. Well if you join www.swapitshopforum.co.uk and look in the codes section people buy the magazine and tell everybody else the code. So you can get the Swapits without even buying the magazine. The other way to get swapits is to sell items on there. You can sell anything and it will nearly always sell!
If you decide to join you click on Join Now. This takes you to a page where you fill in all the details. It only takes a couple of minutes. You have to think of a username and password. You also put in your e-mail address, house address and age. Once you have registered you get a conformation e-mail and your account becomes active. If you are under 13 to need to send in a parental consent form.(which is a bit anoying as you can't use your account until they recieve a signed form.).
You can buy and sell all sorts of things on there. The main catergorys are, books, cards, colletables, gadgets, games, music, movies, sport, style and toys. You can get all sorts of things on there from Xbox 360's and iPod's to fake sick and joke parking tickets. There really is loads of choice. Swapits is an expanding company and they say they have about 150,000 members at the moment but are getting loads more each month. Swapits put their own auctions on and include items such as PS2's, Nintendo DS consoles, Shampoo, Toys and DVD's.
Once you have joined you will need to no how to buy and sell. Well it is REALLY easy. To buy something you want you need to either place a bid or Close Now. To place a bid you type the number in the box and press enter (it is not like eBay where it automatically updates your bid). If you get outbid you will be sent an email telling you so. You can also check in you Swap Sessions and there will be a link saying make a new offer which takes you direct to the right page. If you click Win Now you automatically win the item at a set price which you can see on the screen. Once you have won an item you will be sent an e-mail confirming it. You will also see the item in your Swap Sessions and it will say 'Awaiting Item'. A really good thing abou SwapitShop is they do not give your details to the other members. Once you have won an item the person sends it to SwapitShop and then they forward it to you. When they receive the Swap they put 'Swap complete' next to it and the date and time. If they have not received the Swap within 14 you have the option to cancel it and get all your Swapits back or extend it for another 14 days. There is a minority of people on Swapits who don't send in swaps but you can tell who they are by the star rating and I will tell you about that later in the review. Selling an item is pretty simple too. Once you are signed in you click on 'Add Swap' down the side. That takes you to a page where you firstly put the swap into a category. You then give it a title and write a short description. After that you can add a photo if you want, it is not necessary but it does often increase the amount of bids you get. Finally you put a start value (which is the lowest amount of Swapits you will get) and a Close Now value. Then you choose if you want it to be a 7 or a 14 day listing. Swapits check ALL of the listing before they go on the site so people can't put unsuitable things on, like copied CDs and DVDs.
The best thing in my opinion about this website is that no real money is involved. This is a good thing about child safety as they can go on and buy things without adult supervision. The customer service is very good and they normally reply to e-mails within 24 hours. They also give you bonus swapits like, when it is Christmas you get 100, if they receive your swap within 5 days you get an extra 15 and they often do surveys which are worth between 50 and 200 swapits. They also have a really good star rating system so you can tell the trustworthy swappers from the untrustworthy. This works by points, if you send the swap in within 5 days you get 2 points, if you send it in within 14 days you get 1 point. On the negative side if you do not send the swap in at all you lose 3 points and if the swap it not as descried, e.g. if you say it is new and it is not, you lose 4 points.
The worst thing about swapits is……well the only thing I can think of is that sometimes people dont send in the swaps, but this is very rare and you can tell who they are by their rating. Also you get your swapits back anyway.
If you want to check out SwapitShop please click on the banner below! If you decide to join please type in 1260386 when it asks for the member who refered you. (this box is in the top right corner of the 'join now' page! PS you must be 18 or under to join!
|
|