03 · of five
The range is a doorway
Your thing gets a band. Everything on Zwaptz inside that band is something it can become. Pick one, offer, and if they say yes you arrange to meet.
You are never asked what your trainers are worth, and neither is anybody else.
Not one-for-one
This is not swapping your exact thing for their exact thing
The old problem with trading things directly is that it needs a coincidence: you want theirs, they want yours, at the same moment, in the same town. That coincidence almost never happens, which is why nobody trades things.
The band removes it. You are not looking for one person who wants your trainers — you are looking at everything worth roughly what they are worth, and choosing.
You see objects. Never a price tag.
The dollar figure is plumbing. It runs underneath, decides what you are shown, and gets out of the way. What you actually do is scroll through things and think I would use that.
What is near you
Never an address. Never a postcode. Never a map. Never a pin.
A rounded distance and nothing else — “about four miles away”. Your postcode works out who is near you and is shown to nobody. Why there is no map is on what’s nearby.
Eight ways in
- ElectronicsThe Walkman still works. So does the amplifier and the microphone you bought for a podcast that lasted four episodes.7 listed
- CollectiblesThe spare. The one you upgraded from. The one that came in a box with something else you wanted.6 listed
- FashionThe jacket that fit the person you were in 2019. Good denim outlives several opinions about it.5 listed
- Home & GardenThe bread maker, the second kettle, and the secateurs you own three pairs of.5 listed
- Sports & OutdoorsOne summer of climbing, one winter of running, and a stove that has boiled water twice.5 listed
- Toys & GamesUsed hard for eleven months and then abruptly never again.5 listed
- MediaRecords, books, film. Kept because throwing them out feels wrong, which is not the same as wanting them.5 listed
- OtherThe sewing machine, the birdcage, the globe, the lava lamp.3 listed
Four worked examples
Illustrative figures, showing how a band is read. Not records of completed swaps.
| You have | Band | It becomes |
|---|---|---|
| A bread maker, used four times | $40–$70Medium | A cast-iron skillet and a stovetop coffee pot |
| Two children's scooters | $55–$95High | A box of building bricks and a wooden train set |
| A road bike frame and a spare wheel | $120–$190Medium | A small guitar amplifier and a hard case |
| A folding pocket knife, no readable maker's markthe difficult one | $25–$260Low | Nothing yet — and that is the right outcome |
The difficult one
A wide band is an answer
The knife is not a failure of the valuation. It is the valuation saying, accurately, that it could not read a maker’s mark and that the difference between two readings is a factor of ten.
A single confident number there would have been worse in every way. You would have traded against it, and one of you would have been badly wrong.
All four in full are on real trades.
Some items on Explore are seeded examples so the categories are not bare. Every one is marked example value on its card and says on its own page that nobody appraised it.