Swap your Stuff at Zwaggle
December 18, 2007
They say one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Well, if you’d like to get at said treasure without trekking across town to yard sales or digging through garbage cans on the side of the road, You might want to take a look at Zwaggle.
Zwaggle works like an online swap meet. Post stuff online that you can’t use but don’t want to throw away. Browse the inventories of other folks with the same idea. You can also find electronics, sports equipment, DVDs, books, and lots more. Because of the inherent difficulty of determining whether a baseball bat is a fair trade for a Laser Tag set, Zwaggle demystifies the shrewd science of haggling with Zoints. Zoints are a point system designed to avoid using cash, and the inherent drawbacks it would bring (PayPal fees, people trying to make a profit by selling whatever random junk they have lying around, etc.).
A lot of the stuff listed isn’t classroom-specific (video games and baby clothes, for example). But Zwaggle might be a good resource to pass along to parents. If you can make their lives easier by showing them where to find Christmas presents on the cheap, they might make your lives easier by encouraging Little Johnny to buckle down and try a little harder for his nice teacher. You’ll at least get a bigger smile during parent-teacher conferences. And a good relationship with parents is something most teachers wouldn’t trade anything for. -BILL FERRIS
