Swaps of goods and services are booming, online and off. Jane Heyman has exchanged portraits for haircuts and plastic surgery.

ESSAY- ALINA TUGEND


Last year, I asked a friend, who used to be a professional photographer, to take some photos of our boys. She wouldn’t accept pay, so I was going to get her a present. Instead, she asked if I could help edit some of her daughter’s college entrance essays. It was a perfect trade - we were both using our professional skills to offer something that otherwise would have cost a fair amount of money.

Little did I know then that I was part of a growing community - offline and online - that is enthusiastically embracing bartering, particularly in this economy, when it is often more palatable to spend time than money.

As we all know, exchanging goods and services goes back, well, forever. But being a neophyte barterer, I was surprised, once I started checking around, at the deals some friends, and friends of friends, have negotiated.

Jane Heyman, an artist in Los Angeles who paints portraits, has traded her work for haircuts, legal services and even plastic surgery.“I had a show, and the doctor liked my painting of Warhol, which I gave him and got a free nose,”Ms.Heyman said.“He liked my work, and I liked his work.”She figured it was a good deal - the plastic surgery would have cost about $7,000, while her work sells for $3,000 to $5,000.

But Ms. Heyman has also had some deals that didn’t work out as she hoped. She bartered a portrait for a personal trainer“but I wasn’t happy with him,”and regrets trading a painting she did of the Beatles for weekly massages.

My friend Carol, who works with animals, helped a friend train her dog, and got, in exchange, a set of“very good golf clubs,”because the friend’s husband had bought himself a new set. My friend Gloria, an opera singer, has exchanged singing lessons for Pilates training.

And that’s just between friends and clients. We’re not even talking about online yet.

The ubiquitous Craigslist online services forum offers barters for anything (cleaning, massages, jewelry, catering). But there are many sites that are item-specific and growing quickly.

Swaptree.com, for example, is a Web site where people trade books (including textbooks), video games, CDs and DVDs online, paying only for shipping.

Since it started in 2007,“we’ve been able to double the site every three or four months,”said Greg Boesel, chief executive of the company.“In January, we grew 40 percent over the previous month.”

Now, he says, they have hundreds of thousands of members, and do thousands of trades a day. Registration is free. The company makes its money through advertising.

Bartering offers a way to get products or services that we feel we can’t or shouldn’t pay for in these uncertain times. And for those willing to put in a little time, it’s a good way to both clear out old stuff and get new stuff without paying. And I learned one other thing: In my next life I’ll become a masseuse. It looks as if people will trade just about anything for a good massage.