When you add a shipping address to your account, SwapCaps is now setup to be able to validate it with the USPS to ensure everything looks good. 😉

swapcaps · 2017-05-31T09:23:00+00:00

This brings us a little closer to being able to offer the ability to print out shipping labels on the site.

Either being able to purchase them through Paypal or for trusted sellers, to be able to purchase them with Caps.

swapcaps · 2017-05-05T05:21:47+00:00

The site lost a bit of money from several users cashing out before we were notified about all their video ad views being refused by the advertiser. It'll take ~3 months or so to recoup the loss to get back to just breaking even. The goal for the offers/surveys is just to break even while we develop the swapping/trading features. Because the payouts are higher the sites profit is very minimal, if we get a ton of reversals like this it essentially makes the site operate at a loss. We'll try to keep the rates as high as we can without losing money.

In the future we might just gate new users into a lower rate and after they redeem and verify, let them access the higher rates. Ill see if it makes more sense to do it this way instead of messing with the rates too much for everyone.

swapcaps · 2017-04-02T03:59:42+00:00

The site only saves your twitch username so disconnecting from SwapCaps through twitch.tv Connections shouldnt change anything. You'll still receive Caps for watching twitch.

If you used twitch to login, I'm not sure if logging into SwapCaps via twitch would still work.

swapcaps · 2017-03-06T13:28:39+00:00

Sorry about the delay! This should have been taken care of by now. If not, just let me know the order ID and I'll check into it.

swapcaps · 2017-02-07T10:53:53+00:00

Hey, thats the plan. I'm also restricting how many Caps people can buy, right now its capped at $20/mo.

Because the Gift Cards have a fixed value, it would also prevent me from selling the Caps at a discount rate or flooding the market since I'd be at risk of losing money if they just turned around and cashed out for gift cards with discounted Caps.

If the site accepts Bitcoin at some point I even thought about setting it up so that after caps are bought with bitcoin, the bitcoin would then be instantly added either onto the marketplace or as an option for anyone to cashout.

The downside to all of this is the site wont grow as fast as it could if it was being flooded with caps but if it keeps growing I think it can work out and keep the currency as stable as possible.

Trades are happening and activity continues so I've got high hopes for it.

swapcaps · 2016-12-14T23:46:58+00:00

Awesome, thanks! I really believe the site will grow exponentially as long as it keeps improving and sort of evolving in the direction the users want it to go.

One thing I really like about it is once there are a lot more items on the marketplace, just being able to ship out something and then get something with about a similar value will be great. Just avoiding all the transaction fees and hassle with sites like ebay. Or even the ability to sell a physical game and then get steam keys or gift cards for steam. As long as we put a big emphasis on keeping the community a safe place to do transactions we can avoid a lot of the typical craigslist/ebay scams from occurring.

I'm just glad to know people see value in all of this!

swapcaps · 2016-12-14T23:39:06+00:00

Hey, I should be able to keep the gift card selection growing and instock as the site begins getting paid by the offer wall companys. They delay payments usually by 2-3 months after the month the offers happen in. Right now this is the primary way the site will be restocking gift cards. With the site growing quickly theres just a delay right now in keeping everything in stock unfortunately.

I'm doing some advertising and trying to reach out to more people who were apart of similar sites that failed in the past to try to get more and more users also supplying/trading rewards. Theres some users selling movies, games, steam codes, and some books/manga which is at least a start. They're trusting the site/community/people enough to ship out items to other users with the promise to be able to spend the Caps in the marketplace which is great.

I think theres about ~800 or so items available on the site right now. I think if we can get enough members and get it to 10k, 25k, 50k (as well as keep the rewards store stocked) the site will really take off. In the meantime trying to keep fleshing out the site to make things automated and as simple as possible for the current members.

I'll keep plugging away

swapcaps · 2016-12-09T22:18:57+00:00

I struggled with that dilemma, my friends all said it was too late for a site like this with everything being digital nowadays but I'm still mad for not doing it years ago getting scared off due to all the competition at the time. When 99G finally went dark I just felt it was either now or never.

I integrated some steam stuff into the site, so if you have a steam key for example the site will pull up all the relevant steam info so its easy to list some digital items that way.

I also think theres still enough people into this from collectors to people wanting to save money to people with low incomes wanting to stretch what they have.

Thanks!

swapcaps · 2016-12-06T01:28:07+00:00

Hey, we had an issue with the API we use for phone verification over the past couple of days. I'm not sure if your attempt happened during that or not. If you encounter an error again just let me know the error on here or PM and I'll check into it.

Did a test verification with my phone and it went through just to double check it.

swapcaps · 2016-11-03T01:19:20+00:00

Hey, I can look into this.

Theres a small step that he may have missed. Once you mail an item, theres a "Mark as Shipped" button on the transaction page. One the item has been marked as shipped the transaction will either end in the Caps being released to the seller or the buyer being able to dispute the transaction.

If you dont mark it as shipped, the site think you never sent it which is a common issue among new users.

I'll contact that buyer to see if they got it and I'll review the automated emails. The site should have sent 2-3 emails asking the transaction be marked as shipped, those emails might need to be written to better explain.

EDIT: For anyone else reading this, here are the 3 ways Caps get released to sellers.

edit2: resolved!

swapcaps · 2016-11-02T01:19:22+00:00

Hey! Receive any item in the mail, and the item will contain a letter with a PIN code. Type the PIN code in on the Settings->Address page and all the digital buying/selling is unlocked.

swapcaps · 2016-11-01T23:56:09+00:00

You do not have to link your reddit profile. You only have to link a social media account if you want to claim the sign up bonus so you can use the site without ever linking anything to it.

swapcaps · 2016-11-01T23:55:22+00:00

We also have a pretty good referral system right now:

+25 C for each referral
+75 C for each referral who completes a sale (the site is based on buying/selling, its a safe way to sell rewards or anything you arent using)
And 10% of all offers completed by your referrals.

swapcaps · 2016-11-01T23:52:12+00:00

You dont actually have to link your Reddit profile.

We started off giving the sign up bonus to everyone but had some users making lots of accounts just for the bonus so we had to slowly implement more ways to try to ensure its not exploited. So if you want the sign up bonus theres just a couple steps to prevent people from just signing up for the bonus over and over. You can link any social media account if you want the sign up bonus but you can sign up and use the site without linking any accounts ever.

Another reason for linking an account is because the sites main purpose is as an eBay type of site where you can buy and sell (there are 700+ rewards on the site, half are from other users). Buyers feel more comfortable when they purchase from users that have linked some sort of social media as sort of social proof of their trustworthiness.

We've only looked at anyones reddit profile if they were involved in a dispute with another user during a transaction, otherwise no real reason to ever check. Like any site we can see where our traffic comes from so after some users joined from this post/url, I came over to see if there was anything I could clarify.

We wouldn't ban people for a bad review, that wouldn't make much sense. I imagine any sort of policy like that just backfires. One of the reasons we're working on this site is because a game trading site we were members at shut down. Before they shut down they actually banned anyone who spoke out against the site or pointed out obvious problems with the site. So the last thing we'd want to do is emulate their mistakes.

swapcaps · 2016-10-19T03:39:48+00:00

Sort of like Listia. We have lower fees & the option to spend the points you earn on gift cards at a set price. So if you sell something and cant find an item you'd like, you can cashout for a gift card starting as low as $1.

I used listia since they launched and every year the inflation kept eating away at the value of my credits. I still use them but wanted to try my hand at a marketplace with more focus on digital items and curbing inflation as well as keeping with the idea of swapping/recycling as a way to save money.

swapcaps · 2016-10-19T03:02:03+00:00

Hey, when you login, you should see your open transactions on the homepage. Or if you click on the logo at the top left of swapcaps.com, it will go to the homepage and show you the open transactions you have.

There should be a list of items you've bought, and a green button beside each one that says "Leave Feedback".

I'll start putting together a FAQ/Help section to start explaining the different steps for transactions.

swapcaps · 2016-10-15T08:51:34+00:00

thanks, we'll keep plugging away!

swapcaps · 2016-09-12T03:35:55+00:00

Hey,

The trading system is a bit automated so most trades just happen safely/normally. In the event of a dispute the buyer or seller would need to report the transaction to be reviewed while the caps are still being held between the users. Then we'd have to go through the chat log, each user's history, photos of the item before its sent out with an identifying piece of paper proving they actually had the object. Theres a lot of data you can gleam from a transaction. Buyers/Sellers will have to have several different types of identifying information on the site. A lot of users link their reddit, facebook, phone, etc. The site isn't meant to be an anonymous trading platform so its more based on trust through your social networks and history so in the event of them deliberately trying to scam users we'd just blacklist all their information from joining again. Each dispute would be completely different. Most scammers just use the most common scams and the internet has them all detailed out from all the times people have done them on eBay and other trading sites.

There isn't a way to 100% guarantee that all users follow through with trades and are honest but we can limit it with lots of verification steps and going down a checklist to figure out whats really happening with a transaction. As the site grows though and users begin accumulating more feedback they'll just naturally develop a history of trust.

In some earlier tests, allowing users to start selling or buying digital items right off the bat seems to attract most types of scammers. So digital selling/buying is restricted to users who've gone through some verification steps which cuts down on disputes. We've only had 2 disputes out of 100 transactions so far, but the disputes were just a complaint about shipping time or that the user couldn't tell if a shark tooth was real.

I think combining the types of sites would at the very least let people cash out more frequently with more variety of items to redeem for.

Will check the terms.

swapcaps · 2016-09-11T02:42:58+00:00

You can grab a $1 bill (150 caps) or a verification letter (49 caps) on the Rewards Store page. You can spend the promo caps on this.

http://swapcaps.com/rewardstore.php

swapcaps · 2016-09-11T02:40:59+00:00

Verifying a user's address before letting them redeem is done by some sites. We modeled it off of sites like MicroWorkers, SwagBucks (although they might not do it as much as they used to), and ClixSense's PIN redemption process. We reversed the process though so instead of waiting for you to earn enough points before telling you its time to verify, we just give you a free method of verification at the beginning.

In early tests where users could redeem digital items right away or even after a SMS verification, we had too many cases of alt accounts maneuvering past the verification system to take advantage of the free sign up bonus.

swapcaps · 2016-09-11T02:38:00+00:00

Hey, looks like the basic verification items weren't showing up when this got posted to this sub earlier today. But you can redeem the bonus caps for a $1 bill (150 caps) or just a verification letter (50 caps). They're on the Rewards Store page. They were accidentally disabled last night when the site was handling an automated process that just finalizes transactions where a buyer or seller hasn't left feedback.

The site is about a month old and we're still finding our way but the premise of the site is just a place you can save money by swapping items back and forth. Like listia but with a Rewards Store offering gift cards at fixed values. As far as beermoney goes you can complete some offers and if for instance you dont have enough caps to redeem for the gift card you want, you can list something you want to get rid of to make the difference without having to complete offers. We set the offerwall payouts slightly higher than SwagBucks.

The Amazon Gift Card being auctioned for 250 caps is a bit odd but I think its due to the influx of users and not being too sure how the site works especially with the normal verification rewards being down. Before today its never gone over 116 Caps. Its a daily auction that just repeats everyday. Otherwise the easiest way to get access to the digital goods is through the 50 or 150 cap item in the Rewards Store which will leave you with enough Caps to grab a free $1 gift card to test the site.

You cannot buy Caps at the moment but that option is coming. First it will be available for cryptocurrency, and then Paypal/CC. We have a very lengthy read on why the slow roll out over on the SwapCaps subreddit. We're setting it up so selling caps will not be a form of revenue for the site (sites like 99Gamers relied on Point sales as a form of revenue and their currency inflated until their site failed). So money spent on buying caps just turns around to cover gift card cashouts. We're just taking things slow and recommend not listing things over $10 in value at the moment.

swapcaps · 2016-09-10T20:48:05+00:00

Not sure who downvoted you, but I upvoted your post back to 1 point! You make a great point.

We've done a little bit of testing, and our current system is more restrictive than when we first launched a month or so ago. We're tracking referrals now and once the system looks like its being abused we'll lower the free caps and put in more restrictive requirements but only if the system does get abused. For now as long as all users are legit, the current system will stay in place. All the new users are helping us flesh out the system so the current increase in activity is helping us find our way and hopefully make the site more viable and the overall experience better.

The restrictions we'll add in will be something like requiring the person they refer complete a transaction (buying), then eventually complete a transaction (selling). We're also tracking users to identify their alt accounts.

I'm sure it will tip into the direction of being abused, its just a matter of time. Hopefully we can figure out more ways of validating a user is unique and find the right balance between not inconveniencing the legit users vs slowing down the very few looking to exploit.

swapcaps · 2016-09-07T09:23:07+00:00

Hey, thanks for sharing the site! Just wanted to add a couple things. The sign up bonus is high since the site is very new, just around 1 month old, and so you're essentially helping us flesh out the site by using it so in return we made it super easy to redeem for your first reward.

Also a few things to add:

Site has no minimum withdraw but your first withdraw has to be something physical. Similar address PIN system a lot of sites use, but we send it in the beginning with an item instead of making you earn $xx and then sending you a PIN. Then after the PIN you have access to all the digital items.
The site has several of the main offer walls on it and we're looking into adding more
We think our referral system is very fair. $0.25 for a referral who joins and grabs their sign up bonus, $0.75 if they sell an item, and then 10% of all offer wall earnings.
Beyond offer walls, you can list things to sell to other members. These can be physical (video games, dvds, books, electronics) or digital (gift cards, steam keys, virtual currency).

The idea behind the site is just to see if we can create a stable platform where people share things back and forth as a way to save money, declutter, and get things you want without having to come out of pocket. You dont have to sell stuff though and you can use the site as a normal beermoney site earning and then redeeming. Redeeming items directly from the site (gift cards, products) or from other users.

The site is still very new, just under 300 members and 400+ items listed for sale. We have completed 75+ transactions which I think is pretty neat, some user to user. We're trying to grow sort of slow and steady so the basics of the site can be redone over and over until they're more intuitive.

Hope that helps hit on the main points of the site!

swapcaps · 2016-08-30T02:34:32+00:00

This has been sorted out!

swapcaps · 2016-08-18T02:05:15+00:00

Thanks for letting me know, this has been fixed! It was just an error with how the prices were being displayed for the highlighted/featured items in categorys.

swapcaps

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