About Barter’s Market

Barter’s Market is a marketplace for Cleveland neighbors built around trading and giving. It borrows from a few good ideas: the handmade goods of Etsy, the neighborliness of a farmers market, the give-it-away spirit of Buy Nothing groups, and the reach of an online marketplace.

You list what you can offer (eggs from your hens, an hour of tutoring, a crib your kids outgrew) with an estimated value, and you list what you need or would be open to. Barter’s Market looks for people who fit together: the babysitter who needs eggs and the egg farmer who needs a babysitter. When no two people fit, it looks for circles of three, where each person gives to the next.

Then you propose a trade, negotiate it, and swap in person. Or skip the trade and give something away. A listing can also say it accepts cash; trades with cash are finished at a Trading Post, a safe public place like a library lobby, where the cash is paid in person. Nothing is ever paid through the site.

Part of Cleveland Commons

Barter’s Market is one of the tools of Cleveland Commons, a set of civic projects for people who live here. Other Commons sites can show Barter’s Market listings through its public feed.

Questions or ideas? Read the guidelines or use the report link on any listing to reach an admin.