----- Original Message ----- From: "Holmes Online" > Thanks Stewart - great info. I see how you get billed, sounds > simple. Now > since you are not trading 1:1... Well, technically, you are: if, for example, you send out five CDs, you'll get back five CDs in return. They're just not from the people you sent your CDs out to! And you won't get sent any more CDs until you send out more. > > (1) Does your card also get credited for the cds you send? and... > > (2) LaLa runs the site and sends out free envelopes (and if you need > more...?) and supposedly give a cut to the artist whose used disc is > changing hands...that's a lot of hands in a $1.49 pie. So what do > you get > per disc as a seller? Nothing. You're trading the discs, not selling them. LaLa gets their $1.49 per disc for paying postage, providing the envelopes and, most importantly, putting you together with this person you've never met in Washington DC who wants your copy of Kirsty MacColl's TITANIC DAYS *and* this person you've never met in Chicago who's willing to send you her copy of the Close Lobsters' FOXHEADS STALK THIS LAND. Personally, I think that service is worth a buck and a half. (I mean, that's only a little more than you would spend to trade CDs with someone on Audities, once you factor in postage and buying an envelope if you don't have one to repurpose.) If you need more envelopes, you click a button on the website and they send you another 5 or 10 envelopes, which you get in 3 to 5 business days. > > (3) If as a buyer you request a disc and the seller doesn't have to > comply, how do you know your request is being filled or that a disc > is on the way? Your requests are more passive than that: you've got a want list on the site that LaLa uses to let other users know that you want someone's Kirsty MacColl CD. If a person is willing to give up his Kirsty MacColl CD, he's the one who initiates the transaction. You only know that you're getting the disc when someone agrees to ship it. LaLa provides a money-back guarantee if you're shipped a disc that's broken or doesn't work, and if the disc doesn't show up within two weeks, you can alert LaLa and say, "Hey, this guy promised me a disc and never shipped." I've never had that problem, so far. S