Navigating the Facebook Babywearing Swaps

Okay, so what happens if you don’t want to stalk the releases (or you stalk and are not successful), but you want a Pavo or Tekhni or other popular limited release wrap?  Well this is where buying used comes into play.  Babywearers have a term called “churners.”  This refers to babywearers who love to try lots and lots of wraps, but don’t keep them for all that long.  These churners will buy the wraps, use them for a while, and then sale or trade them.  The largest of the facebook swap pages is called The Babywearing Swap.  You can search for it on facebook and request to join.  Once you join The Babywearing Swap, you will also need to join the feedback group.  There are files on the site with information on how to set this all up.  The feedback links are very important.  Sometimes large amounts of money are changing hands for these wraps.  You want to know that you are doing business with someone that has good feedback.  You should always read through all of a seller’s feedback before completing a transaction with them.  When buying on the swaps, you will pay for the wrap via PayPal.  You should always send the money as payment for goods and services, so that you have PayPal protection if the seller were to not send the wrap or if the wrap was not in acceptable condition.

The Babywearing Swap is a huge group!  I have found the best way to utilize this page is if you already have a general idea of what you want to buy.  So let’s say for example you want to buy your first woven wrap.  A good place to start for a first wrap is a base size wrap.  If you are average size, your base size is likely a size 6.  The best way to shop for a size 6 is to go to the photo album section and look through the size 6 woven wrap album.  You will see abbreviations such as FSO (For sale only), FTO (For trade only – meaning they want to trade to another wrap), or FSOT (For sale or trade).  You may also see terms such as EUC (excellent used condition) and ppd (postage paid domestic – indicating that shipping in the US is included in the purchase price).

There are also facebook fan groups for most of the wrap companies.  The group for Pavo is The Pavo Society.  The group for Tekhni is Talk About Tekhni.  The group for KokoSkaa is KokoSkaa Wrap Factory Friends.  You can request to join each of these pages and find used wraps from each of these brands for sale on these pages.  These fan groups are actually the best way to find highly sought after (HSA), hard to find (HTF) wraps.  One thing to take into consideration is that some of these limited release wraps may end up being sold for much higher prices than retail.  If you want to know what retail was for a wrap, you can look that information up on the company’s website.

It can be hard to decide what is a reasonable price to pay for a used wrap.  As long as the wrap is in EUC, I am willing to pay the retail price for the wrap.  Lots of wraps are pretty stiff straight out of the bag, so I don’t mind if someone else has already given a wrap some love and attention to start the breaking in process for me!  My preference is to try to find the wraps I am searching for as close to retail as possible.  I am typically willing to pay, retail plus shipping and fees.  This means the shipping from the retailer to the original purchaser, the shipping from them to me and the PayPal fees.  This would usually add up to around $30 on top of the retail price.  Pricing on used wraps can become very controversial.  In my opinion, it just comes down to supply and demand.  You have to decide for yourself what is reasonable for you and how much you want a particular wrap.  I have found that if you can be patient and wait a few months after release, the market value will typically decline a little and it is easier to find the wraps for closer to retail.  Sometimes it can be so hard to be patient and wait though!

This is a wrap that I fell in love with after it had already been released.  It is one that I searched for on the swaps and was willing to pay market value for.  It is Pavo Penumbra Syzygy in a size 5.