Originally published January 20 2006
Online toy exchange finds fans
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Toyswap.com lets users swap, buy and sell toys that have lost their use or are unwanted. The site also provides a place to donate them to charity. Toys are displayed by their selected dollar values.
"You get rid of things you don't play with any more and you can get new stuff, like Godzillas and Dragon Ball Z," he said of Toyswap.
Launched in October in time for the holidays, the fledgling business operates through a Web site that lets shoppers swap, buy and sell used or unwanted toys or donate them to a needy organization.
Swappers register at toyswap.com to post information and photos of their toys or view others, then mail them to each other using PayPal transfers for payment.
While other sites exist for reselling toys, Michelle Maxia said she developed hers after discovering none that dealt with toys exclusively.
The 42-year-old Maxia, a stay-at-home mom since Jacob and his 5-year-old sister Makena were born, tripped across the idea for Toyswap almost by accident, the way she might trip over the buckets of unused toys in her house in the southwestern Chicago suburbs.
While waiting to see her chiropractor, the gregarious Maxia struck up a conversation with a boy who was playing with Lego Bionicles.
Her son had three of those at home but never played with them, she told him; what he really wanted was Godzilla.
All of a sudden, it came into my head: 'Toyswap dot-com.'
Still, she remained optimistic the business will flourish after the holidays, at spring-cleaning time and for kids' birthdays.
"A couple of weeks after Christmas, I'm going to be looking at the toys that my children had to have and they'll be sitting in the corner," she said.
"I think the idea has some merit, but like many ideas it's in the execution that will determine whether it's successful or not," said Chadha, who also teaches entrepreneurship at the Chicago-based school.
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