Intro to Barter




Barter is bigger and more popular than most people realize. Here are a few fun facts:

Barter on Swapsity
  • A whopping 30% of world business is done through barter
  • 65% of Fortune 500 companies engage in barter
  • Toronto swappers have saved over $110,000 at Swapsity swap meets in the last year
  • The history of barter can be traced back to 6000 BC
  • The salary of Roman soldiers was once paid in salt
  • According to Time Magazine, Collaborative Consumption—the explosion of peer-to-peer swapping, sharing, trading and bartering—is one of the "10 Ideas That Will Change the World"

In a nutshell, bartering is the trading of products or services for other products or services between two or more parties.

Today, technology and peer-to-peer communities are reviving and reinventing the oldest form of commerce and enabling people to live a more collaborative lifestyle.

The obvious advantage of barter is that it does not involve money. Swapping enables you to meet your needs in lieu of using your cash or credit card. We’ve seen Swapsity swappers trade kitchen renos for a car ($4,000 saving), organic veggies for web design and even financial consultations for custom designed maps. A swapping site like Swapsity helps turn your things, talents and time into something else of value by connecting you to swappers in your neighbourhood and across the country. Joining a swapping site is a great way to tap into a community of people interested in bartering with you.

Barter community Swapsity
Swapping makes the exchange personal. In the words of one of our members, “bartering puts a sense of warmth and humanity back into transactions that can seem colder and more distant when there is money changing hands.” People also feel connected to something bigger and get to expose themselves to new, cool and unique experiences.

Barter opens a whole new world of possibilities .

Advantages of barter


What are the “me” benefits of barter?

  • Keeps money in your wallet
  • Builds social connections
  • De-clutters your space
  • Makes it easy to recycle
  • Gives you access to items, services or new experiences not in your budget
  • Opens your eyes to the valuable skills you have to share

What are the “we” benefits of barter?

  • Encourages collaborative lifestyle and strengthens communities
  • Redistributes pre-loved stuff to new homes where they can be re-loved
  • Reduces waste

Barter in your budget Here at Swapsity, we firmly believe that the swapping economy complements the cash economy and it pays to incorporate both into our daily lives. Everyone out there has bountiful resources and wealth of skills to share (see example) and we can all benefit by supplementing our budgets with barter. We can then use the cash that we conserve through barter toward paying off debt.

We’re passionate about connecting people who want to swap and actively growing the swapping movement in Canada, online and offline. It’s an exciting time for us and we warmly invite you to be part of the journey.