swapitshop.com > Reviews (74)

This site is a fairly different one to the other on-line auction sites as accumulatable points called swapits are introduced. Still similar with other auction sites where you can place an item and set a minimum and maximum value (max value can only be min value's 15 times), describe the item briefly, then put it on auction for 7 days. The only thing is that you use swapits rather than money so that there is no worry for the money transfering business! You have an account which starts with 10 swapits when you register and as people bid for your item and you send it off swapits are put into your account 3 days after the swapitshop receives your item. Then you can use it to buy other items. Items are all sent to the swapitshop which then send them to the winning bidders which ensures that member's data are confidential.
Avalable catigories in the swapitshop are the bookshop, cardtrader (for collectors card, e.g. pokemon cards), gameszone (card games, PCgames, gameboy, dreamcast, etc.), musicspace (CDs, minidiscs, cassettes and posters), sportscene (collectibles, clothings and posters of the sports stars), toybox (general toys, collectibles, beanie babies, Tamagotchi, etc.) and videostore (videos, DVDs and posters of celebrities). When you place a bid you can go into the appropriate category and there will be an average trade value of each category which is useful at advicing on how much to set the item. When you are buying products the items of each category is listed in dates when the auction is ending.
In addition to these there are also competitions going on in each catigory and reviews and supersearch, etc. these services.

In general I find swapitshop very good however sometimes when you have won an item the items isn't sent by the bidder. Swapitshop has come up with rules against these - e.g. valueing each member's reliablity using stars (depending on how soon the items are posted after the auction is won) and giving extra 25 swapits to each item received by swapitshop within 7 days of closing the auction. However sometimes it still happens but after a limited time you will have the chance to cancel the bid or extend it.
A disadvantage is that the categories are limited - so there are a limited number of things you can place for auction and buy. I think this is because this site is targetted at a younger age group (no money is ALLOWED to be used & there is a parental control facility).