It’s what every socialist dreams of; a society share the stuff they don’t urgently need and receive the stuff they desire without having to spend any money on it. One possible downside to this is the idea that people are not to be trusted and will take advantage of the good nature of others. If there was some forum where people could look for goods to share while at the same time moniter what others have to offer and have an indicator of how trustworthy there were, that would be amazing right? Look no further!
The people Spullendelen have recently created exactly such a platform. You can register the goods you have to share, indicate with whom you want to trade and and what days an interested party could come and pick them up. Clearly value is created through the otherwise neglected goods that might have been useless to one party, but extremely valuable to another.
The guidelines specifiy the rules that are ought to be maintained (clearly specified dates when you will return the item, as well as state of condition it was in when you borrowed it). The website itself distances itself from any conflict arising through the transactions, and lending something out to someone is at your own risk.
One of the means the website aims to use to counter this is to have profiles for users that show how often they lend out and borrowed themselves, as well as the money any person has saved by doing so. You can also add people to your friends and only allow your unused goods to be shown to your friends or people in your own neighborhood.
Consumer Value Creation 