Swap those DVD's you don't want on Peerflix

June 25, 2004

This is
kind of cool, you got a copy of Gigli and you want Lord of the Rings. Peerflix allows members to swap and sell while they make their money on the packaging. Once your 'customer' receives the goods you are rewarded with Peerbux. These can be used to purchase films from your want list. Great idea! I bet Hollywood hates it. Blockbuster execs have no doubt turned to grain alcohol for comfort from this latest Internet marketing idea. You can join for 5 dollars a month for unlimited trades. When you cancel your membership, then you must return the movies. If you opt for the 1 dollar per movie deal you get 10 trades for 10 dollars and according to the site, you own the movies that you receive. On each transaction, you pay the postage as well. 37 cents in the US and 49 cents to those of us up in Canada.

Users maintain a list of DVDs they own but want to get rid of, and a list of the titles they want. When discs on your available for trade list matches someone's wanted list, that person is sent an email informing them of the disc's availability.

To send out your discs, Peerflix provides users with packaging, either with prepaid postage or without the postage. Peerflix makes its money selling the packaging for the exchange.

You get either a monthly deal, with as many trades as you want, for with prepaid postage or unpaid postage, or you can get individual envelopes for with postage, without. The monthly deal is more appropriate for the high volume trader. Peerflix is still fine tuning which method it will use, prepaid or unpaid postage.

When you send out the DVD and the customer receives it, you get what are called Peerbux. These are credits you use to redeem titles on your wanted list. There is a variance based on the movies value. Obviously The Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition will get you more Peerbux than Home Alone 4.

Once you build up Peerbux, the Peerflix system looks at what titles you want and lets you know which you can get. So if you have five Peerbux, it tells you which titles you want are available for five Peerbux or less.

"In theory, you should always have a zero balance
because as soon as you get the Peerbux, your requests get fulfilled," said
Dan Robinson, founder and CEO of
Peerflix.

This is very good thinking. While very similar to file trading, it is quite legal. The site is set up nicely and each movie has a review. There is of course a nifty search function as well. Right now, there are 30,000 titles to choose from. Yes, I know you are wondering, but don't worry, they certainly do have Pirates of the Carribean: The Curse of the Black Pearl! Why would anyone sell that? It is no doubt the best movie ever made. What!? Only 6 Peerbucks? This is an outrage! They must be insane! Check it out. Did I mention it's in Beta? Drool 😉

Source: IGN