i rarely trade off characters, and most of them I've either gotten from different sites with in-game muns or the like, so don't worry, you're not the only one who doesn't use rlc! I don't trust paypal after a few incidents in the past uvu but like, if you have a basic character design that you drew (even if it's bad) the art you commission can really make a character super duper awesome!
oh man, dA is... well, for the most part it's p darn cringey. but yeah, the characters there you can buy with points are p cool. if only they weren't so much, and points could be bought through other means!
maybe offer to do design trades as well?? :0 that could work! if you want more babs, of course. uvu