Point your browser to BookMooch.com and PaperBackSwap.com, two sites that enable people to swap books they don't want for ones they do. It's a brilliantly simple premise. On PaperBackSwap, users receive credits - the currency of the site - for listing books. When a member requests one of your books, you pay the postage, print a mailing label and ship the book to that member. When you request a book, you pay only a credit. You receive one credit for each book you list, and PaperBackSwap gives you two free credits when you list your first 10 books.
On BookMooch, you receive 1/10th of a point for each book you list, and 1/10th of a point for leaving feedback about a book you received from another member. When you send a book to a member within the same country, you receive one point; you receive three if the member lives outside your country. It costs you one credit to request a book; two if requesting a book from another country. Also, you are required to send out at least one book for every two receive; sending a book internationally counts as sending three books.
My friend Matt gives PaperBackSwap a thumbs up - if any of you have used BookMooch, let the rest of us know what you think of it.
2 comments
You left out Swaptree! I haven't used either of the other two services, but I have gotten a lot of great books from Swaptree. Their service matches up the books that you have with the books that others want and vice versa, even leading to three way trades. I love it.
That's awesome to hear! I'll have to give it a shot.
And I realize I left out a lot of sites - there are almost too many to count - but for this post I wanted to focus on two of the most well known that are devoted only to books, just to keep things simple. Maybe in the future I'll compile a bigger list, but these two are a good starting point for most readers, I think. Thanks for the recommendation!
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