I have recently become a member of PaperbackSwap.com and I asked and received mod permission to post it on the SDMB. The deal is: joining is free, and you get three free credits for signing up. You post books you are willing to send to another member, and select from over 600,000 books for a member to send to you. Each time a member receives a book you send, you get another credit. When you receive a book from another member, you go to the website, tell them you got the book, and the member gets a credit. All you pay is postage. The website specifies that the books must be in good condition, and I have yet to receive one that wasn’t. If you wish, you can specify that books be from a non-smoking household.
The books are sent Media Mail, and I believe the highest postage I have paid was about $3. You aren’t limited to paperbacks - you can post and select hardbacks, also, although the postage for those is a bit higher. Standard paperback postage runs about $2.07. The website had a feature where you can print out wrappers pre-printed with the address to send it to and your return address.
I really enjoy being a member. It has enabled me to thin out my bookshelves of books I will never read again in exchange for books I want to read. And it’s lots of fun (for me anyway) getting packages from all over the country! In addition, I have found some books I’ve been looking for for ages, and didn’t have to pay full bookstore prices for them! I mostly read sci fi/fantasy, but have gotten some mysteries in series I like - there is a very wide selection to chose from - from children’s books to religion to romance to self-help… .
And if you wish, you can put me (Snakescatlady) as a reference - it gets me an extra credit. That is not required to join.
If anyone decides to join, I hope you enjoy it as much as I have!
Each credit means you can choose a book. You start with three free credits, so you can choose three books before anyone selects a book from the ones you have posted. After those three are gone, you have to wait until a member chooses a book you have posted to get another credit. 1 credit = 1 book, although I believe you can purchase additional credits. I haven’t investigated that as I have been sending out an average of three books a week since I joined.
Oh yes - forgot to mention - when you post a book as being available for another member to select, you get the chance to leave a review of the book. So if you’re thinking about a book and aren’t sure if you want it, you may have the chance to read what someone else thought of it. Reviews aren’t required, and not all books wil have them. When I first joined I posted about 50 books in one night, and didn’t want to take the time to write a review of each one!
Posting books is easy - you just type in the ISBN number.
I love paperbackswap.com. I’ve been a member about six months and I’ve trades over a hundred books: 62 mailed out, 51 received. It’s fabulous. Especially nice to me is that I no longer need to feel the slightest bit guilty about grabbing a brand new romance, mystery or other ‘junk-food’ type book to kill a few hours, because I can always swap it. I don’t lose a dime, because eventually I will end up with a book I love and want to keep.
I’ve used them and they work fairly well for the average-sized paperback. But after seeing several requests from people in rainy, snowy or generally wet locales to add a layer of plastic wrap to protect from water damage, I just switched to padded mailing envelopes. I can get them 4 for a dollar at my favorite discount store. I still print the wrapper out, but now I just fold it and tape it to the envelope.
Heh! I was going to email the mods and ask permission to post the very same thing. I joined it a couple of weeks ago–loving it so far. Already sent out 5 books and have several on the way to me. I got the first one yesterday. Pretty sweet deal just having to pay for postage to send books out. It’s far better than Amazon!
I signed up! I will admit to being a book hoarder - I have problems letting go. But i’d like to free up some of my space, and save some money on new reads, too.
I’ve been a member for several months and I really enjoy it. The books I’ve gotten have generally been in pretty good condition, and I can browse around and take chances on books that I wouldn’t necessarily want to buy, or that aren’t available in our pitifully small public library. If I find I don’t like them I can just re-post them and get something else.
All of the ones I have received have been in at least good condition, and a couple have looked brand new. I got a copy of Jimmy Buffett’s “A Pirate Looks at Fifty” that doesn’t appear to even have been opened. In hardback!
