What’s better than buying a new jigsaw puzzle? NOT buying a new puzzle!

I recently discovered that a town near me hosts a jigsaw puzzle exchange: During weekend flea markets, volunteers at the community center set up a table where people can donate a puzzle, then take a different one home. So I decided to drop off two puzzles I've completed, and picked up two new ones to enjoy.

 

That was cool.

 

For so many reasons: It’s cool to not throw away perfectly good things that other people might want; cool to get perfectly good things for free because others don’t want them, and cool to know that there are other people nearby who enjoy the same hobbies as you.

But perhaps coolest of all? In the first puzzle box from the exchange I opened, I found something I had never encountered before: All the end pieces were in a separate bag, saving me the tedious task of plucking them all out before I could begin the real puzzling.

My husband felt that having all that done for you already was akin to cheating, and one of the avid puzzlers who started the exchange agreed, describing that practice as “just wrong!” But I quite liked it. And now I want every puzzle I start to be separated like this: