The swapmeet (episode 18) is open for business! PLEASE read the instructions! (For those of you who refuse to read the instructions, please do not respond to anyone else's comment except to say that their email address does not work. ANYTHING else you need to say, say it in an email. If you insist on responding to a comment, I will delete your comment. If you want to know how to swap for something, see #6 below!) For people who would like to chat in addition to, or instead of, swapping, there will be a poll along shortly.

Don’t know what swapping is, or you know but you’ve never tried it? See here. You can also take a look at the feedback from episode 3, episode 4, episode 5, episode 6 and episodes 7-8, episodes 9-10, episodes 11-17.

Please, do not participate if you do not have time to mail your items within the next three weeks! Hopefully, another swapmeet will be coming up in the fall.

How it works

1. Everyone will need to list their country of residence, and tell others where they’re willing to send. If you would list that first, it will save other readers time.

2. Anyone who wants to play can list up to 15 items they’d like to offer for swap. Please NUMBER YOUR LIST and do not include more than 15 items — it really helps to keep the thread easy to read. You can list full bottles, partial bottles, decants, samples, whatever you want. You might want to consider NOT swapping valuable items (see #8 below). New: You are also free to mention that you'd prefer to swap only with people you already know from Now Smell This.

3. If you have items you'd like to just give away to a happy home, you can do that too! Please do that in a separate comment so there aren't any misunderstandings, and again, be sure to tell others where you're willing to send. You can list up to 15 "freebie" items in addition to your 15 swap items. New: You are also free to mention that you'd prefer to give your items only to people you already know from Now Smell This. (Note that we will NOT be holding a separate freebiemeet this spring.)

4. You can choose to include a wishlist if you like, or you can just wait to see what people offer you.

5. You will have to post your email address in your comment, or have some other way for readers to contact you — one option is to list your email address at gravatar.com, and then link to your gravatar page in your user profile here (see the first comment below and click on my name for an example). Another option would be to link to a contact page at your own blog, or anywhere on the web where people can find a way to reach you.

6. To avoid an absolute tangle in the comments, please conduct all swap (and freebie) negotiations via email. So, if you see something you want, send a query or an offer via email. Nobody should reply to comments except the person who left the original comment — and they should leave a reply to let people know when items are no longer available, or if they need to clarify their original listing.

7. I will leave the comments open until Tuesday May 4, then I’ll close the Swapmeet.

And some rules

8. We will NOT be responsible (and we won’t get involved) if your swap doesn’t work out, nor will you be allowed to post complaints here, ever. If you’d like some sort of accountability, consider swapping at someplace like MakeupAlley. They have a token system for leaving feedback on swaps. [Over the course of the first 17 episodes, there were 3 instances of swaplifting that I know about.]

9. No selling, please!

10. Once both parties agree on a swap, it’s bad form to back out for any reason; until that agreement is made, both parties should be free to offer their items to anyone else.

11. And obviously, you should package your items properly and mail them promptly, and you should let the other party know when their items arrive. You might want to read through items 6-10 on our swapping post.

Note: top image is Chrysanthemums by mdpai75 at flickr; some rights reserved.