We’ve been seriously low on good television in my household, so yesterday I thought I’d come up with a brilliant idea when I remembered my Swaptree account. I’ve been holding on to box sets of the first seasons of Lost and The Office, and I figure I’ll be able to do a nice trade on Swaptree for something else worthwhile. I was about to see if the first season of Entourage was available when my better half had a better idea. The library. Sure enough, Entourage is there.
In the library’s favor: It’s free. There’s no shipping. It’s within walking distance.
In Swaptree’s favor: No grumpy librarians. It’s got social networking features. (Yes, I’m being sarcastic.)
Of course there are plenty of other scenarios where Swaptree comes out on top. New DVDs not available in the library yet, books you want to take notes in, games you don’t want to have to return, etc. But in this case, the library wins out. Grumpy librarians and all.
Great post!!! I love the grumpy librarian comment. I am a HUGE Swaptree user and love it. However, if I lived near a library, I would probably rent stuff too. The one benefit of Swaptree that you didn’t mention is forgetting to return the items to the library. Guilty as charged. That is why I love Swaptree.
The Library is a great place borrow CD’s too!
The library in my area allows patrons to reserve items via their web site…very convenient if your not in a huge rush to get someting.
Netflix is kind of like a library except you can’t walk to it and it runs ~$15/mo. ;)
The library isn’t technically free. The way I look at it, everyone pays for their local library. So everyone should use and abuse it. :-)