How many times can you watch the same film? Twice? Maybe three times? The average DVD-owning family has a whopping 114 DVDs lying around, just waiting for a DVD swap opportunity.

But who’s trading DVDs? It turns out, lots of people are. You could be, too.

Here’s how to host your own DVD swap party — a guaranteed win for everyone involved — and how to swap DVDs online if you’re looking for a particular title.

How to Host a DVD Swap Party:

A DVD swap party isn’t like hosting a yard sale. Yuck. For this, you’ll only invite your videophile friends, and the fact that it’s personal will encourage them to bring films they know are good. After all, if you just bring duds to a DVD swap party, you can’t really expect to go home with anything interesting. Here’s how to make sure your DVD swap party is a success:

• Invite lots of people early, send a reminder later
• Notify guests of a minimum DVD count everyone must bring
• Entice everyone with the promise of food, drinks and fun
• Consider coats, floor plan and seating
• Expect at least 30% of your RSVPs to be no-shows
• Play a popular film for attendees during the swap
• Surprise guests by wearing a character costume

DVD swap parties are easy to get people to come to, because DVDs are generally all similarly priced, and the costs invested into a DVD are lost sitting on a shelf otherwise. Pretty much everyone who loves films has a few DVDs they wouldn’t mind parting with.

How to Do a DVD Swap Online:

DVD swapping has become, more and more, a simple and safe practice online. There are just two quality sites dominating the world of online DVD swapping. Neither of them charge membership fees, and only ask that you pay shipping to send the DVDs you’re swapping. Both can help you find your swap quickly with powerful search functionality. You’re sure to find the exact DVD you’re hoping to swap for.

1. Swap.com – This site lets you swap pretty much anything including clothes, accessories and electronics. But you’ll want to head to a corner of the site found at www.Swap.com/Movies to swap DVDs. This is the best DVD swap site, because Swap.com actually guarantees you’ll receive what you swap for when it comes to videos, CDs and video games. Swap.com also allows three-way swapping, which can help you get what you want faster.

2. SwapaDVD.com – This website is huge, featuring over a quarter of a million DVDs up for trade at the time of this writing. Swapping on Swap a DVD isn’t always a two-way street. Instead, it works on a credit system, and you can earn enough credits to get your first DVD just by posting 10 DVDs you’re willing to swap. Every DVD you send out earns you enough credits to get another in return.

DVD swapping online is a great way to watch new movies for nothing more than the cost of shipping, which in most cases is roughly $2.29 accordion to SwapaDVD.

Like the Idea of Swapping? Become a Swapaholic

If you love the idea of hosting a DVD swap party, try hosting a clothing swap party. If you like swapping DVDs online, use Swap.com to trade other things.

If you’re really into swapping, check out the community at The Swapaholics. This website’s owners, Amy Chase and Melissa Massello, have co-hosted hundreds of swapping events bringing out as many as 500 attendees. Their swapping parties are the best of the best, and they bring together other like-minded Swapaholics to find more swap-portunites that you’ll be interested in.

Have any DVD swap ideas or tips? Into swapping more than just videos? Share your thoughts below.