URL: www.swapcaps.com
Swapcaps is a very intriguing combination of Listia and Swagbucks. You can list items to sell (both by mail and digital, like gift and game codes) for the site's internal "caps" currency, which are then used to bid on or buy other people's listed items.
The added wrinkle that differentiates it from Listia is that you can also earn caps through various activities similar to the Swagbucks model - taking surveys, watching videos, offer walls and so on.
It's interesting in that it's two ideas that haven't been combined in quite this way before, and also because customer-to-customer (C2C) e-commerce platforms that cater to people just selling a handful of personal items are real thin right now (eBay and Amazon have too many fees and rules tailored to professional "power sellers", Listia's internal economy is a complete inflation-ravaged wreck).
Just one problem ... I'm not sure the site is actually actively managed anymore. Most features of it still work, but there are a number of big red flags that indicate the site owner is no longer at the rudder and may not have been for months now.
We'll get back around to the possible zombie status at the end though ... let's do the review proper first.
NATURE OF WORK AND PAYMENT
It's important to note there is no way to directly earn cash, or to convert caps to cash. You'll have to use caps to buy listed stuff. A number of different types of gift cards are usually listed, however, and the site owner regularly posts Amazon gift cards to buy among other things (though caution is advised on these listings - more on that later).
If you don't want to sell stuff and just want to work, you have the following options -- surveys, watching videos, install/use certain apps and a few different types of third-party offer walls. More detail on all of these options below in the "Starting Out" section.
As with eBay, sellers can opt to either set a "buy it now" price or set an auction that runs for up to a week. Sellers always pay for shipping, though, and you'll have to factor that into your sale price as there's no way to make a separate billing status for it.
As I write this, 100 caps is roughly equal to $1 USD real money (based on the fact that you can buy 100 caps for that amount). Of course, as was seen when the wheels came off of Listia, the actual value of caps could vary greatly over time depending on site activity.
SITE HISTORY / LEGITIMACY
Based on this Reddit comment from the unnamed main man behind Swapcaps, the site appears to have been conceived in mid-2016 originally as a game-swapping site like Game Trading Zone, but offering the ability to exchange digital currency, gift codes and other items that swap sites often forbid.
The concept obviously turned to opening the field up to all types of items before it launched in early 2017. Based on the site's social media history throughout 2017, a lot of elbow grease appeared to be put into it and it looked quite legitimate. It still functions, but as mentioned, the owner seems to have been totally MIA since late 2017.
I base this on the following warning signs:
- No social media accounts updated since November 2017 (and some all the way back to August 2017)
- I emailed them a basic question about signup, never got a response of any kind, not even an auto-responder
- Listings by the main account on the site (user swapcaps) have been getting "seller did not deliver item" complaints since August of 2017 (yet they still have a 100% reputation score for some reason)
- The owner does not seem to have made their identity public anywhere (that I can find), and has their WhoIs registration details hidden using the Privacy Inc. VPN service
So has the site been abandoned? It looks for all the world like it has. It seems like it started out with good intentions and was initially legitimate, but then somewhere in fall of 2017 something happened to the owner - plane crash, jailed for insider trading, spiritual awakening and journey to Nepal, who knows.
Even though the site seems to be on auto-pilot, some of the legit site members seem to still be listing and fulfilling their auctions. You'll want to check reputation REALLY carefully if you plan to dive in, though, as if the management is absent presumably the rules are not being enforced.
INTERNATIONAL ACCESS
I don't see anything on the rules page mentioning residency requirements, but I also haven't sold anything on the site, so there may be something that comes up as part of the account verification process attached to that.
Since sellers always have to pay shipping, I would not at all be surprised if there is some hidden requirement to be in the United States that I just haven't seen yet.
STARTING OUT
Signing up is about as simple as it gets, you really just need an email address.
We've already covered potential issues with selling and buying items, so let's dive into the tasks you can do to earn caps.
All of these are basically farmed out to a third party service. For example, you take surveys through Peanut Labs, who work with Swagbucks and a number of other sites. Though Peanut Labs is a fairly reputable survey company, they are known for lower-end pay and that holds true here. There are tons of surveys available, but they tend to only pay in the neighborhood of 25 cents per ten minutes or about 1.50 per hour (given the assumed exchange rate of 1 cap for 1 penny).
There are pretty much unlimited videos to watch, but only at a rate of about half a cap for three to five minutes. Offer walls I can't help you with, because you literally can't pay me to do those things.
FINAL VERDICT: SOME POTENTIAL
I give Swapcaps the "some potential" rating as it would be great if the Sword of Damocles wasn't hanging over it at the moment. The world has long needed a site like 1990s eBay where casual sellers can just list a few things here and there at little expense or hassle, and though the surveys and videos don't pay much it could be useful as a little kick to push your account balance up high enough to buy something you're looking at.
With the site owner apparently missing from the internet from the months, however, who knows when the plug might be abruptly pulled and all your accumulated caps rendered worthless. And even if it does keep running, there's no real recourse against scammers.
If the site owner has Google Alerts on and happens to visit, it would be great if you could drop a line or leave a comment indicating what's going on with the site. And after this disappearing act, putting a public name and face to the site would be a really good idea to help restore credibility. I'll update this post after Swapcaps either makes a comeback or officially goes to the zombies.
URL: www.swapcaps.com
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