VI Headliner Sponsor Feature: Swap Vintage

Good afternoon lovelies! As you know, Vintage Indie wouldn't be possible without all of my fabulous sponsors. This month we have some new sponsors aboard and we'd like to welcome Swap Vintage first! You might be wondering what Swap Vintage is all about, so I interviewed site owner Mitzi Swisher.

Swap Vintage is a
unique online community set up specifically for members to be able to
swap vintage items (20 years old or older) with one another – while it
has a lot of the features
of a regular social network, the main focus is to facilitate trading of
items.

I knew that trading was a growing trend,
especially in this bad economy. I also knew that most vintage collectors
inevitably have items that they don't particularly want or need anymore
– either their taste or decorating style has changed, or they picked up
a box lot at a sale or auction to get that one certain thing and they
don't know what to do with the rest, or they have duplicate items in
their collections, etc.

Also, if you are a seller, you often have items that never sold, or
that weren't quite good enough to be listed to begin with, but are still
good things. Instead of selling these unwanted treasures at a yard sale
or giving them to charity, Swap Vintage allows folks to use them to get
items they really do want, or need for their collections. It's a win
win situation!

I also have categories on the site for artists and crafters who use
vintage supplies in their work – there is a popular term – destashing –
which means to purge your studio of supplies you've been hanging onto
but you won't ever use. Swapping is a great way to destash and get new
supplies at the same time!

The Forums, where the
swaps are initiated, are divided
into categories by type of item – Clothing & Accessories, Costume
Jewelry, Housewares & Decor, Vintage Linens, Craft & Sewing
Supplies, Dolls Toys & Games, Paper Ephemera, Books & Magazines,
Gardening, Vintage Holiday, and Collectibles. Hopefully these cover
most of the types of items that folks will want to swap – though I
anticipate these will grow and change over time as the needs of the
community dictate.

Membership on the site
is $5.00 a month, paid via the PayPal subscription service. A 30
day free trial is currently available so people can give the site a
try, after that they will be
prompted to set up the PayPal subscription.

You can
create an account without signing up for the free trial – but you won't
be able to access most of the pages. You
will need to sign up for the Free Trial in order to access most of the
site –
(view the Forums,
interact with other members, etc.).

Swap Vintage isn't a
free site for two reasons:

1. Requiring payment
helps reduce spammers and scammers. I realize the free trial period
could be an enticement to them still, but I wanted to make sure when the
site was new there was a free trial for everyone to be able to join and
try it out. We will see how things go, if changes need to be made in
the future, I will figure out the best course of action. My goal for the
site is for it to be a commerce free zone – no ads, no items for sale,
and definitely no spammers and scammers!

2. This project is
literally a one woman show – me! And since I have no day job, I cannot
afford to work on a project of this size for free – even though I wish I
could. So, I set a monthly price that I think will not be a burden to
anyone who wants to become a member – hopefully it will be enough to
cover the time it takes to Admin the site and to keep it up and running
(hosting fees, etc.).

Thanks again to Mizi and Swap Vintage for sponsoring Vintage Indie this month. If you or your business would like to sponsor Vintage Indie, please let me know. We're offering a summer special and have extended it though August!

xoxo Gabreial