Brad Ideas - P2P DVD Exchange - Comments

BookMooch is another one

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 19:48:51 -0700

BookMooch does the same thing with books. However, the sender is responsible for the shipping costs for whatever they send, and a point system is used to balance trades.

http://bookmooch.com

Hi,

Rodger — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 09:53:38 -0700

Hi,

We're working on a new startup iLetYou that is aiming to change the way that you rent, which in turn fixes this problem of a true currency of exchange - something eBay has, but PeerFlix is constrained to arbitrary Peerbux values. You can sign up for a Private Beta invite:

http://www.iletyou.com

Feel free to let me know any additional thoughts.

Cheers,

Rodger
http://rodgerv.wordpress.com
http://www.iletyou.com

I really like this site

Anonymous — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 13:45:09 -0700

I really like this site SwapSimple.com - They responded to both my customer service emails immediately and you can trade across platforms (books for dvds vice versa)

I think it's worth looking at and commenting on.

Devon Mills

Hi.

Neil — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 04:53:24 -0700

Hi.

I run a book trading website in the UK (www.readitswapit.co.uk). Rather than operating a credit system like PeerFlix we offer direct swaps (you choose something you want from somebody else's books, and they choose something they want from yours).

I think this is a simpler model, and seems to work well for our users. What do you think? Visit here for a brief discussion of credit vs direct swapping and give us some feedback if you want.

A US-based site that (I believe) operates on a similar model is Zunafish.

Neil.

Problems printing, no answers yet.

Anonymous — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 09:38:38 -0700

I'm new to Peerflix. It was recommended by someone who used and liked the service.

I'm having problems. Two of the mailers printed incorrectly. One would not print at all, but an error message showed up on the paper. The second printed fine -- except the address area is blank.

(Two other labels printed without a hitch.)

Am I responsible for these errors? In the meantime, my PeerBux are being spent automatically with automatic fulfillment. Which means my balance will soon be at zero. Which means if I have to cancel these two shipments, I'll be in the negative, already hurting my reputation.

Has this happened to anyone else? What should I do?

PeerSux

Anonymous — Wed, 23 Nov 2005 23:39:33 -0800

Oh, boy do I agree with you! I found the selection and speed of delivery impossible to tolerate. I tried writing to them three or four times w/ questions and never got a reply. Finally, I sent them four emails trying to close my account. They agreed to close it but kept the money remaining in my account. This is illegal. I told them this and they said the money in the account was a "fee" and they were entitled to keep it. Uh, no. The money in the account is kept there in anticipation of their performing a service. Which they didn't do. It was a small sum but I imagine they're doing this to everyone that quits and they're making a tidy profit. I'm filing a complaint right now w/ the California Consumer Rights Commisson.

Peerflix

Anonymous — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 19:27:13 -0700

I have never encountered a company with such a flagrant disregard of customer service. I have sent a half dozen unanswered emails to Peerflix. They don't have a phone number to call, and I guess I lost the few DVDs I sent to them. I don't know if the whole thing is a scam or not, because my last email asked for a response if they were still in business. And, once again, NO RESPONSE. I may have to contact the Attorney General's office to check on the validity of this whole scheme.

Why is that cheaper?

brad — Tue, 06 Sep 2005 14:52:26 -0700

In spite of the problems with peerflix, one thing that’s clear is that it’s much cheaper than the price you suggest for the low-volume user. Higher volume users might be more interested in a $4.95 fee or the higher fees of netflix etc.

The site is a bit hard to use to get details on how it works, but from what I can see it arranges trades, so that somebody has to have a DVD (or other thing) I want, and I also have to have what she wants to make it happen, and I have to enter a negotiation to complete the deal. (Ie. what if my DVD is much more expensive than hers?) That doesn’t sound like it would work, but perhaps if your web site answered these questions I would know more.

New Trading Technology Developed

Scott — Mon, 05 Sep 2005 07:50:18 -0700

Hi Brad,

There is a completely new technology that has recently been developed. Basically, this technology will match people according to their wants and needs. You simply list items you have (such as DVDs) and items you want. The technology takes care of the rest. It proactively searches for matches with individuals closest to your location. It is also much cheaper than Netflix, Peerflix, and other "trading" based sites available. Individuals pay a subscription fee to list items they have. For example, for $4.95/month you can list 10 revolving items you have (only $60/year). This technology will search for any item or even services (plumbing, electrician, etc.)

My website, www.binswap.com, incorporates this technology. Please check it out and provide any commentary.

Thanks

So how does it deal with the problems

brad — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 10:05:14 -0700

That people are seeing in Peerflix? Requests for trades are too infrequent except on the hottest releases, so if you try to get a good but not recent movie, plan to be holding it for a while. Is that different in barterbee?

Another alternative

QueenBee — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 06:28:50 -0700

Hi Brad,

I just came across your post and thought you should know about BarterBee.com. It's very similar to your concepts and PeerFlix but also allows for trading of CDs and Video games in addition to DVDs. People get to set the value of the products ultimately getting around the system forced approach.

take a look and provide some commentary if you wish.

http://www.BarterBee.com

P2P DVD Exchange

brad — Tue, 22 Mar 2005 05:12:53 -0800

For the past couple of years, I've been mulling over an idea for a different kind of DVD "rental" company, similar in ways to the popular NetFlix. Now I have encountered a new company called Peerflix which is doing something similar. Is it annoying or vindicating to see somebody else run with something? :-)

So instead I will comment on Peerflix, which I am going to try out, and what I planned to do differently.

The rough idea is a movie network that doesn't own the movies. The members do. The members declare what disks they have that are available to go out (key in or scan UPC codes or just put disks in drives) and, just like netflix, they also browse the list of DVDs and pick what they would like to rent. For each disk you have out, you are entitled to one in (approximately), and somebody close to you, who has the disk you want, is told to mail it to you.

Once scaled up, it's faster than netflix (the disk is mailed to you directly from the last person to have it, rather than going through the warehouse) but mainly it's vastly cheaper. In theory it could even run for free, with postage and mailers being the only cost -- plus of course the initial disks you introduce into the system. Netflix 3-at-a-time is $216/year, the one at a time is $120 per year.

There are, however, a number of interesting problems to solve in doing this, and some special factors you may not know about Netflix.