Will You be my Neighbor?

After I read a "tweet" from @tomascol, I decided to look into NeighborGoods.net.  It is a pretty neat idea, so I signed up.  I was now in a community with "16 people within 50 miles sharing 4 items".  NeighborGoods is a website that connects you with people that are nearby (or not even close) that have things ready for you to borrow.  Need a hammer for a weekend job?  Don't buy one, borrow one from your neighbor.  Need a charcoal grill for tonights BBQ party?  Don't run out to Home Depot and buy one for a one time use, borrow mine (related picture to the left).  No really, borrow mine.

It is a neato idea.  It could bring you and your neighbors closer.  It could save you money.  In fact, on your NeighborGoods profile, it tells you how much money you have saved and how much money you have saved others.  Pretty spiffy.  I have even heard (since I was supposed to be interviewed, but something happened where they didn't do it and I sat waiting, but maybe there was a communication problem) that Wink News is going to run a story on NeighborGoods.net this Thursday.  Yeah, they wanted to interview me to hear what I thought about it, even though I haven't even used it much.  I just put the grill up to borrow yesterday.

So sign up.  I will probably put more stuff up to borrow.  Maybe I will meet a neighbor or two.  Maybe I will be able to borrow something I need for a weekend project and save some money.  I'll let you know how it goes.  By the way, the grill is also for sale - $75.00.  NeighborGoods let me list it for sale as well, but I've been looking all over my listing to see where it says it is for sale and can not find it.  If you see it, let me know.  I'd like to know that it is working.

4 comments:

  1. When i clicked on your link, there were two large red buttons in the column to the right of the picture of the grill. One says "borrow this." One says "buy this." So perhaps it's working.

    This is a very interesting idea. I like the spirit behind it, but does it bother you that your location is right there for folks to see? What sort of accountability is there if someone borrows your grill and then skips town?

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  2. The location on Google Maps is only in the vicinity of, that is not actually my house. I think it is using the center of my zip code, because it isn't even close.

    I thought about what would happen if they just decided to take my grill. The FAQ says that you can leave a public "This user is involved in an unresolved transaction problem!" alert, but that's about it. But if they only signed up to get a free grill, I guess I would be out of luck.

    Maybe NeighborGoods will give me the name and address of the person who signed up and took the grill and I could press charges (if they used their real name and address).

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  3. Thanks for letting me know about the buy button!

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