Will you swap a beautiful tropical island for an invitation to Gmail?

For the time being Gmail rules, with people offering to buy an invitation to Gmail for even US$200 on ebay. Not anybody can subscribe to Gmail; you get it only after being invited by a Google employee or Gmail user. GmailSwap is a website that allows people looking for a Gmail account to get in touch with those willing to send an invitation. People are willing to swap some personal belongings for an invitation.

Author and speaker Dave Taylor's blog The Intuitive Life has a list of interesting stuff people are offering to swap for a Gmail invitation.

Among noteworthy things and promises I came across on GmailSwap.com are
1. a song of your choice, sung over the phone,
2. your picture hung out a window at the Empire State Building
3. your message in a bottle in the Pacific
4. a video message in Sango, the tribal language of the Central African Republic
5. a shrine in your honour
6. a spell for luck
7. save an animal from being squashed
8. free ironing
9. wisdom
10. an Australian boomerang
11. a private boat tour through the Venice canals
12. your name on the side of a Formula race-car
13. a rosary blessed by the Pope
14. a samurai sword
15. another piece of the Berlin Wall
16. aviator shades from the Dalai Lama
17. 24/7 computer technical support
18. a guided tour of Ecuador and the Galapagos
19. a digital photo from Madrid, every week
20. domain registration and 5 years of webhosting
21. a place to sleep at the Woodstock 35th Anniversary
22. a dolphin adopted in your name
23. a personalized horror or fairy story, by a published writer
24. a friend in Istanbul
25. three days of hospitality during the Athens 2004 Olympics
26. a professional dowser will find water/metals in your land
27. letters of acceptance to Princeton, Harvard and Stanford
28. a goat named after you
29. a Playboy Magazine subscription
30. an original rendering of you as a comic superhero
31. a tree planted in India, follow up pictures for 25 years
32. a registered Republican will vote for whoever you like
33. the story of how someone lost their virginity
34. an authentic bible signed by Jesus


Mind you, some of the things and offers are real and people are desperate to swap their record, comic and stamp collections.

"For weeks, I had been hearing people complain about their desperate need for Gmail, and I thought it was silly -- and a little sad -- there was no recourse other than eBay," said Sean Michaels, creator of gmail swap told Wired. It "came out of my firm belief that nice people were out there somewhere, ready to answer the pleas of the masses, but that there simply wasn't a conduit for the two groups to get in touch."

The latest news is that Google is offering more invitations and the prices of invitations on eBay has dropped.

"I'm glad that the market value has decreased," Sean Michaels told Wired. "It encourages original, entertaining and creative swaps, not mundane, high-ticket items. It's a lot easier to decide to swap for a 'personalized fairy tale' when the market value of an invitation is $5, not $50."