Where have all the swaps gone?
February 20, 2017 11:32 AM   Subscribe

I used to love participating in swaps on Livejournal and Laundromatic. Where can I do so now that these sites are pretty much dead?

I'm aware of things like Redditgifts and Swap-Bot. Where else is there nowadays? I love the Redditgifts Secret Santa exchange but am looking for something more frequent. Preferably Secret Santa style, or wishlist themed, or journaling related, but I'm open to all ideas.

A lot of the stuff I see on Swap-Bot seems to be geared more towards things like ATCs and stamps and postcards, etc. which are useless to me. I want swaps with bigger items or boxes of goodies that are actually useful and have been specifically chosen for your partner. Or I'm thinking something like a journal supply swap where everyone puts together a nice box of gently used things they no longer need/use, like stickers, pens, Washi tape, notebooks, etc and swaps them.

Where do these sorts of swaps live now?
posted by Malleable to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (5 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
They've mostly moved to subject-specific forums or to Facebook groups around the hobbies. Knitters on Ravelry, Scrapbookers on Scrapbook.com, etc. I'm not familiar with journaling forums, so I can't recommend anything specific for your interests, but look at the largest forums for journaling and the largest Facebook groups / pages for journaling, and you'll likely find they have swapping sub-forums/groups.
posted by jacquilynne at 12:11 PM on February 20, 2017 [1 favorite]


You say you know about Reddit Secret Santa, but just to clarify - Reddit Gifts runs year-round. They're mostly - but not all - themed, but usually something like 6 are running during any given round.
posted by cobaltnine at 1:06 PM on February 20, 2017 [3 favorites]


Best answer: Oh my goodness - you need to fall down the pen-pal rabbit hole. I am just looking for *pen-pals* (letters only!) and every pen-pal swap I've signed up to has ended up being a gift swap just like what you're describing - focused on swapping stationary, journaling, craft supplies and whatnot. Oh Comely! runs one called Perfect Strangers; you could also start looking for pen-pal-ers on pinterest or instagram and seeing who they follow etc... Stationary/journal blogs are a good launching point - try Seaweed Kisses, Paper Pastries, All Things Stationary, Snail Mail Love, Snailmail Magazine, The Paper Trail Diary, and Viva Snail Mail. This is what's in my feedly leading me to gifty swaps! Sorry for the lack of links, just got into work.
posted by jrobin276 at 1:26 PM on February 20, 2017 [6 favorites]


Reddit. Reddit gifts is the subforum they have just for exchanges. And, as I was writing this I saw cobaltnine already mentioned it, but thought I would put the link out there anyhow.

There are also specific forums that may swap as well.
posted by bessiemae at 2:43 PM on February 20, 2017 [3 favorites]


Paperback Swap is kind of fun!
posted by Ostara at 10:04 PM on February 20, 2017


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