Who We Are Contact Us Please choose a topic: About Us What's Coming Up Press Testimonials About Us Tots Swap Shop only wants to do one thing. We want to offer a community to exchange second-hand children's products and advice relating to these products. Parents everywhere, especially those with limited storage space in their homes or apartments, are looking to rid their growing children's toys, books, clothes, etc. all the time. Whether they advertise in a newspaper or at their local grocery store, or setting up a garage sale, everyone would prefer that these items go to a happy new home rather than to our ever-growing environmental problem. The idea to provide an online environment for swapping children's items came naturally to the founder because of her decade-long experience as a web developer and as a mom. The Internet is the ideal platform for such transactions because of its universal reach and its ability to build communities of like-minded individuals. What makes Tots Swap Shop unique? Simplicity and convenience. The site is designed to ensure easy usability and search-ability, and will respond quickly to user-submitted suggestions. You do not need to leave the convenience of your home or office to find products. Focus. We are only interested in one thing: the buying and selling of your children's products. From toys to clothes to gear to books to DVDs, we want to build a site and community that makes the buying and selling process as easy as possible so it will be the only place you would come to shop for second hand items. Community. We are starting as a small grassroots community that will rely on your active support to stay fresh, informed, and resourceful. We are not supported by any corporation, so your participation is needed to ensure that this site remains objective (or in this case, subjective) to all visitors and users. Responsibility. By making it possible to buy and sell used products, we are doing our part to support environmental awareness. Rather than having usable but unwanted items end up in trash and landfills, items go to children who really want them. In addition, you can use the site to make donations to those less fortunate. Value. We use a points denomination system instead of cash. We want to make the site more fun since most people putting up items here are looking to get items in return, and not necessarily make money. The whole idea behind swapping is to interact with others, so that you get as much for your transaction as you get from your experience. Children grow and need new things every day. We are hoping Tots Swap Shop will be the place that you will visit often to get and give these things. We appreciate your interest and hope you pass the word on to others, and earn bonus points for doing so. What's Coming Up Tots Swap Shop is currently in "beta" stage. During this time we are refining the features and functionality available to site users. We welcome any feedback you have regarding technical difficulties, as well as any recommendations on how to make Tots Swap Shop more useful (and fun). Contact us at contact@totsswapshop.com We are currently working to enable sellers to trade in their points for something other than an online purchases. This may be the case if a seller no longer has items to list on the site, or any need to swap for other items listed on the site. And we are also working on other fun aspects for the site. We will continue to spread the word about this site in order to build the Tots Swap Shop community. We appreciate your telling others about the site, and encourage you to "Join The Club" by entering your name and email into the bar on the left side of this page. Signing up will guarantee that you receive all the up to date news regarding Tots Swap Shop. Press PRESS RELEASE Tots Swap Shop P.O. Box 678, New York, NY 10025 www.totsswaphop.com contact@totsswapshop.com Tots Swap Shop launches community site to swap used children's items. New York, NY - April 2008 - A new online trading community, Tots Swap Shop, was recently launched by a New York web design firm, in March of 2008. The concept of Tots Swap Shop is to build a community of parents and friends to exchange used & new children's items using points as cash to swap/purchase the goods (sell goods - get points and buy goods - spend points.) It hopes to be a combination of Ebay and Craigslist for children's items. By using points instead of cash and eliminating all trading fees, Tots Swap Shop intends on moving away from the "home marketplace" business model of Ebay, and replacing it with a more community-oriented points-based trading system. The practice of using points instead of dollars helps eliminate fraudulent or exploitive accounts by separating the cash value from items and placing focus on their intrinsic worth. Point systems are being successfully and increasingly implemented by many online marketplaces such as secondlife.com and webkinz.com. Accompanying the bartering portion of the site, Tots Swap Shop has incorporated a blog on which users may post their advice and experiences with children's goods. This business model follows the growing e-commerce trend of "social shopping", where recommendations from fellow users play a key role in purchasing, that has helped numerous websites grow exponentially in the recent past. Tots Swap shop is currently granting 20 free points to people who sign up with the site and create a page for their first item to swap. Since the site was built by experienced web developers, it promises to have an intuitive interface, friendly design, and a quick support system to help any novice or expert put up or purchase their items for swapping. Tots Swap Shop hopes to build a strong following of people who will adopt the system to not only trade items for children, but also create a practice of recycling second-hand goods that normally might just be thrown away. Since children's items have a limited lifespan in ALL households, this is providing a good avenue for disposal and exchange. Concern for the environment and your pocket is the goal of the Tots Swap Shop community. Visit Tots Swap Shop at http://totsswapshop.com and the blog at http://totsswapshop.com/blog. Download this press release Testimonials Share your swapping experience with our community: (Subject to review for appropriate content.) Recent Comments Great toy swap - thank you TSS! submitted by kduff Just had my first swap of some outgrown kids furniture. Everything went really well - happy donor, happy recipient. This site is a great idea! What A Great Experience! submitted by Hunter I recently picked up a pair of shoes from the seller and it was extremely easy! I got the set for free by picking it up, saving on shipping charges. Thank you, Tots Swap Shop! Surprisingly Easy Transaction submitted by kunal I signed up for Tots Swap Shop not knowing what to expect, but after completing my first transaction, I must say the the experience was great. The seller was friendly and easy to deal with, and all I ended up having to pay for was shipping. I actually found the experience to be fun. Testimonials Your Tots Username: E-Mail Address: Title of Testimonial: Your Testimonial: