New York Times: Read It? Watched It? Swap It.

[Damion Chaplin]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/13/technology/13zuna.html?ex=1302580800&en=a7c5d06e876f6d1d&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss' target='_blank'>http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/13/technology/13zuna.html?ex=1302580800&en=a7c5d06e876f6d1d&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss</a><br /><br /></div><i>"For Heather Perlmutter, a 41-year-old investment portfolio manager in Manhattan, the Web site with the whimsical name made perfect sense. Like many Americans, she found herself awash in CD's, DVD's and VHS tapes that were seldom if ever played anymore. They just took up valuable space in the Upper West Side apartment where she lives with her husband and two young children. Then a friend of a friend told her about <a href="http://www.zunafish.com">Zunafish</a>, a new Web site that matches people with discs and tapes to trade — and video games and paperback books, too. To the delight of her 7-year-old son, Ms. Perlmutter recently used the site to barter her tape of </i>"Fried Green Tomatoes<i>,"...for a tape of Steven Spielberg's digital dinosaur blockbuster, </i>"Jurassic Park."<i>"</i><br /><br /> <img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/logo.gif" /> <br /><br />These types of online media trading services are becoming more and more numerous. I would probably never use a service like this because I just sell my old stuff on eBay, but almost everyone I know, including my tech-savvy friends, are afraid of eBay for one reason or another. Zunafish and others like it seem like a good idea for those people. They don't have to take a picture of it and they don't have to worry about transferring around electronic funds (a la Paypal). The article goes on to say <i>"...if consumers were asked to place all of their CD's and DVD's, for example, in three piles — those they love, those they like well enough to keep and those they would be happy to have taken away — the piles would most likely be equal."</i> I recently performed a purge, so my 'take away' pile is limited to the 2 discs no one would buy, but otherwise my 'love' and 'like to keep' piles are pretty equal. Are yours? I'm curious.

[Jason Dunn]

It's funny, I put my tech toys up on eBay, but never CDs or DVDs. VHS tapes get sold in garage sales, I hardly have any left. I look at CDs and DVDs like books: you collect them and will listen/watch them when the mood hits, so you want to keep them around.

[Damion Chaplin]

Yeah, but I sometimes get suckered into buying a DVD when I don't know if I'll like it or not. Sometimes buying the DVD is only 2 or 3 times more than renting it once, so I just do it.

Then it turns out to be the biggest piece of garbage ever. Then I'm stuck with a watched-once copy of A.I. that I'll never watch again. No surprise that no one would buy it from me, even at $5. Are you reading this Spielberg?

Last year I made over $150 just clearing out the stinkers from my collection...

[dignow96]

This sounds like a great little service its just a bit late for me. I haven't bought an actual CD in over six years and all of my VHS tapes went to garage sale heaven years ago. Now if I lived in the real world (instead of Kuwait) I might be hip to swapping some DVDs but since I do live so far from the evil clutches of the RIAA and the local take on piracy is a bit different then you would expect in the States I'm not sure most of my DVD purchses over the last few years would pass muster back home. Besides, all of us American/Western types over here generally let each other know who has the best copy of whatever bootleg is currently available and we swap amongst ourselves. I've got all of Lost Season 2 if anyone has Desperate Housewives Season 2 - for the wife of course. ;)