There has been a good early response to my Swap Shopper challenge, with more offers for my keyring coming in than I was expecting, and better offers too.

There have also been some very encouraging comments from readers on the site, so thanks to them, although one particular person has bizarrely made it her job to become the site’s resident buzzkill.

Read on to see the offers I have so far received for my News Shopper keyring.

Before I get to that though, let me recap my mission for those not yet aware of what I’m doing.

I’ve started a swap chain. It has begun with a humble (but beautiful) News Shopper keyring and will eventually see me raise £1,000 for charity, I hope.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b394/Simon_Bull/keyring-002.jpg

I’m in the process of ‘swapping up’ the keyring and I will then exchange what I receive for it for something else, and so on, until finally after numerous swaps I have something which is worth someone swapping me a grand for.

That’s the idea anyway.

When I started this last week I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I didn’t think there would be many offers forthcoming for my keyring (despite its gorgeous design) and I thought the offers which came my way would, quite frankly, be a bit rubbish.

But I’ve been pleasantly surprised.

So here, in order of receiving them, are the offers I have had so far for my keyring:

A free driving lesson in the Bexleyheath area
A piece of scrap paper (from the abovementioned buzzkill)
A mother-in-law
A tin of Smith Kendon Wild Berry flavour travel seats
A pair of platform shoes
A bicycle wheel
A year’s membership of Bexley Archaeological Group

So I’m currently in seventh keyring offer heaven!

As happy as I am with the (mostly) very generous offers I’ve had so far, I’m going to bide my time before deciding what my first swap will be. It’s probably going to be the most important swap of the whole process and I want to make sure I get it right. A wrong turn now could scupper the whole challenge before it’s started.

I also want to bide my time to see what else comes in. I’ve got a trick up my sleeve, which you’ll see if you look in the classified section of this week’s printed Shopper, and I’m hoping that will generate some extra interest in my swap mission.

If you want to get involved in this fun project and offer me something for the limited edition collector's item that is the keyring send me an email to sbull@london.newsquest.co.uk, preferably including a photo of what it is you’re offering.

I’ll be making my first swap decision next week, when I’ll have the difficult task of weighing up all the offers. Should I go for monetary value, mass appeal, novelty value or some other criteria? It’s going to be tough and I may need some help.