Welcome To the BarterQuest Blog!
May 7th, 2008
Hi, and a very warm welcome to all of you to the official BarterQuest blog! For those wondering what BarterQuest is, we are building a trading platform, specifically geared toward the individual consumer, where cash isn’t necessary to get what you want. Have a book you already read? Trade it for the next book on your “to-read” list. Do you offer specialized services? You can also trade your services for that Nintendo Wii you always wanted. You will even be able to trade a couple of weeks at your beach house in Florida for a couple of weeks in a beach house in California. The possibilities are endless!
We’re currently working on many interesting things. Among the key features, we have a great Matching Engine which will automatically match what you have to trade with what you really want, so you don’t need to spend too much time weeding out all the fluff. We also allow Multi-Party Trading, where everyone involved can get what they want, making it easier for you to get your hands on what you wanted. In all, our site will provide the easiest and most fun trading experience you’ll find anywhere!
Make sure to come back to this blog or, even better, subscribe to our RSS Feed as we continue to fill everyone in with the latest news on bartering, our product development, and our company. There will be a lot of fun and exciting times ahead. I hope you join us for the ride!
May 14th, 2008 at 2:39 am
I really like the idea. I am curious how you plan on guarantying delivery of the service or product.
Thanks.
May 19th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
Hi Apurva,
That’s a question with no single perfect answer, but, we believe, several good ones.
First, as part of the trading process you will be communicating directly with your trading partner to arrange delivery. You will have their contact information and can attempt to settle any problems on a one to one basis.
Second, you will be encouraged to contact us with any problems you encounter and we will make a determination as to whether your trading partner has violated our Terms of Use and should be sanctioned.
Finally, any negative trading experience you have encountered should be detailed in your Feedback on the trade, will become a permanent part of the public profile of your trading partner and will influence your trading partner’s User’s Rating. Over time, users who regularly trade will establish a track record that is accurately reflected in their public profile and their User’s Rating and can, therefore, be relied upon by others.
This being said, our site does depend on the inherent honesty of its users, as do other consumer sites. We are pleased to observe that in the overwhelming number of cases more established consumer sites have demonstrated that you generally get what you expect.
June 13th, 2008 at 4:58 am
The economy going obsolete? It seems this service, back to bartering via online seems almost a parady, if it really works -assuming this is somehow better than my plastic or even more portable.
Ok, maybe it works and I’m slow. How is this system different or superior to swaptreasures.com features and services or more specialized than barteryourservices.com or u-exchange.com, etc?
Nevertheless, the follow comes to mind. It may relate.
“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex,and more violent it takes a touch of genius and alot of courage to move in the opposite direction”
June 18th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
While the main concept of bartering is the same, regardless where it’s being done, our site will offer several advantages:
* Instead of users having to sift through hundred, perhaps thousands, of items that other people want to trade, our Match Engine will do all the work for them. All they need to do is post what they have and specify what they want for it. They can then use our Match Engine to find matches for their items, or the Match Engine will make SmartPicks and send them automatically through E-Mail. Trading has never really been easier.
* Users will not be limited to barter their items for services, and vice versa. For example, a user needs web designing services, and has a spare television that they’re not using in their house. Instead of going through the time-consuming process of selling the television first, then paying someone for their web designing services, they can cut the middle-man out and trade the television directly to a web designer.
* Our real estate bartering service will not be limited to the trading of properties. We will also support trading items or services for timeshares or rental time in a vacation house, for example.
Of course, bartering is not for everyone. Some people may prefer using cash instead of trading. But we hope our site will make those people, like yourself, become part of our community and discover the many advantages bartering has over using money as a medium of exchange.