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altarielIt's a year since I joined BookMooch, so I thought I'd post about the experience. BookMooch is an online community that enables the exchange of books: you post an inventory of books that you're willing to exchange, earn points for sending them out, and then use those points to request books that you want. Joining the site is free; you pay to post your own books; requesting them costs nothing. Obviously, if you send out more, you acquire the capacity to request more.
You're asked to offer a minimum of 10 books when you join: I sorted through the shelves and offered about 20, I think, mostly books from my reading group that I didn't think I'd want to read again. It struck me that there could be an awful lot of crap on offer out there, and that the way to ensure that the overall quality of the books on offer was good was to make some premium books available myself. So I offered things like Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka, The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. As expected, these books went very quickly, and I earned points very quickly as a result.
I decided early on that, in principle at least, I'd be happy to send books overseas. My limits on this would be: cheapest postage possible, and no hardbacks, textbooks, or trade paperbacks. I don't think that I have in fact refused to send anything abroad, but then I mostly offer paperback fiction. I understand there's a general frustration on the site that people in the US in particular aren't as willing to send internationally; I assume international postage is prohibitive from the US?
I did find the first couple of weeks fairly time-consuming in terms of fulfilling requests. After that I instituted a once-a-week postal regime, which worked well and, besides, by that time, the most popular of my books had already gone. I've noticed that some people with very large inventories have strict postal schedules, so if needs be I'll do the same thing. I don't intend to offer as big an inventory, however; I'll probably upload another 20 or so books in the near future and accumulate more points as they go out. My inventory is down to 3 books on offer at the moment; however, I still have 22 points available, good for at least 10 more books.
What have I got out of this? I've given over 60 books and received around 70. I've completed several gaps in collections, notably my Colin Dexters, and also Stephen King's Dark Tower series. I've picked up a lot of Star Trek books, and also expanded my collections of books by John Christopher and Peter Dickinson. It's a good way to try out authors that I've had recommended but don't necessarily want to purchase (e.g. Peter Tremayne, Ellis Peters, Catherine Asaro). I've picked up books by Virginia Woolf, Doris Lessing, Zora Neale Thurston, Margaret Atwood, and it's been good for sourcing books discussed in Slightly Foxed.
If you're joining with the intention of very quickly getting copies of bestselling authors, you're fooling yourself (e.g. Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger is currently on 111 wishlists – try the library, folks!), but if you're the kind of person who reads eclectically, and not only big names, then you'll probably do quite well from it. The trick here seems to be to build up a big wishlist: the site will notify you if/when a book you want becomes available, and (nice touch) if something by the same author becomes available. I currently have 80+ books on my wishlist and add more all the time. I doubt I'll get some of the ones I have on it (e.g. Ursula Le Guin's Language of the Night), but then Alice Randall's The Wind Done Gone just turned up this way, so never say never.
I'm meticulous about describing the condition and edition of the books I send. Other people have invariably been the same, although one or two I've received have not been as described, and the worst I got had bookworm: yuk. Straight in the bin. There are ways of making your disappointment felt: you can refuse to give the point for an unsatisfactory exchange. I don't do this if the edition is not exactly the same, although I might make a note of it in my feedback comment. These comments are publically available, so you build up a record of good service – if you provide it. It's a fascinating system with some interesting checks and balances built in.
All in all: a very positive experience. I gather there is quite a lively community attached to the site and also on LibraryThing, but I haven't joined those and don't really want to. I haven't kept an account of how much I've spent in postage, but I'd say that the average I've spent per book is between £1.60 and £2, which is pretty good going for second-hand books these days.
You're asked to offer a minimum of 10 books when you join: I sorted through the shelves and offered about 20, I think, mostly books from my reading group that I didn't think I'd want to read again. It struck me that there could be an awful lot of crap on offer out there, and that the way to ensure that the overall quality of the books on offer was good was to make some premium books available myself. So I offered things like Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka, The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. As expected, these books went very quickly, and I earned points very quickly as a result.
I decided early on that, in principle at least, I'd be happy to send books overseas. My limits on this would be: cheapest postage possible, and no hardbacks, textbooks, or trade paperbacks. I don't think that I have in fact refused to send anything abroad, but then I mostly offer paperback fiction. I understand there's a general frustration on the site that people in the US in particular aren't as willing to send internationally; I assume international postage is prohibitive from the US?
I did find the first couple of weeks fairly time-consuming in terms of fulfilling requests. After that I instituted a once-a-week postal regime, which worked well and, besides, by that time, the most popular of my books had already gone. I've noticed that some people with very large inventories have strict postal schedules, so if needs be I'll do the same thing. I don't intend to offer as big an inventory, however; I'll probably upload another 20 or so books in the near future and accumulate more points as they go out. My inventory is down to 3 books on offer at the moment; however, I still have 22 points available, good for at least 10 more books.
What have I got out of this? I've given over 60 books and received around 70. I've completed several gaps in collections, notably my Colin Dexters, and also Stephen King's Dark Tower series. I've picked up a lot of Star Trek books, and also expanded my collections of books by John Christopher and Peter Dickinson. It's a good way to try out authors that I've had recommended but don't necessarily want to purchase (e.g. Peter Tremayne, Ellis Peters, Catherine Asaro). I've picked up books by Virginia Woolf, Doris Lessing, Zora Neale Thurston, Margaret Atwood, and it's been good for sourcing books discussed in Slightly Foxed.
If you're joining with the intention of very quickly getting copies of bestselling authors, you're fooling yourself (e.g. Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger is currently on 111 wishlists – try the library, folks!), but if you're the kind of person who reads eclectically, and not only big names, then you'll probably do quite well from it. The trick here seems to be to build up a big wishlist: the site will notify you if/when a book you want becomes available, and (nice touch) if something by the same author becomes available. I currently have 80+ books on my wishlist and add more all the time. I doubt I'll get some of the ones I have on it (e.g. Ursula Le Guin's Language of the Night), but then Alice Randall's The Wind Done Gone just turned up this way, so never say never.
I'm meticulous about describing the condition and edition of the books I send. Other people have invariably been the same, although one or two I've received have not been as described, and the worst I got had bookworm: yuk. Straight in the bin. There are ways of making your disappointment felt: you can refuse to give the point for an unsatisfactory exchange. I don't do this if the edition is not exactly the same, although I might make a note of it in my feedback comment. These comments are publically available, so you build up a record of good service – if you provide it. It's a fascinating system with some interesting checks and balances built in.
All in all: a very positive experience. I gather there is quite a lively community attached to the site and also on LibraryThing, but I haven't joined those and don't really want to. I haven't kept an account of how much I've spent in postage, but I'd say that the average I've spent per book is between £1.60 and £2, which is pretty good going for second-hand books these days.
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no subject
Date: 2009-09-12 09:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-13 11:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-13 12:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-12 09:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-13 08:41 am (UTC)You may also be interested in http://www.swapclub.co.nz - if you tell them nicoladc sent you, I'll get a few points :)
no subject
Date: 2009-09-13 11:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-13 11:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-13 11:38 pm (UTC)I personally think that the Bookmooch userbase within New Zealand is too small to give "only to my country" users the Full Bookmooch Experience, but, if you're not bothered that you only get a mooch once in a blue moon, there's no reason not to stick a few books up and wait for a nibble. You can also set your account to "ask first", and there's no stigma attached to declining to send because you can't afford the postage. (Just don't say that you won't send because it's cheaper to buy the book new!) Sending to Australia is often worthwhile because it's usually less than double sending within New Zealand, and you get three points instead of one. You can also state in your profile that you'd like moochers to take more than one book, and reject the mooch if they don't.
Swapclub is quite quiet compared to Bookmooch, understandably, but there are new listings nearly every day, and it's not just restricted to books. I pimp it when the opportunity comes up because I think it just needs more members to really take off.
I wouldn't use either site if I were desperate to get rid of a huge pile all at once - that's what charity shops are for :)
no subject
Date: 2009-09-13 09:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-19 12:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-13 08:58 pm (UTC)I downloaded Bento this week and started cataloguing my books. I was horrified to find how many unread books I had; I really most stop buying them until I catch up a bit! It's the 3 for 2 offers that seem to be my downfall!
no subject
Date: 2009-09-13 09:23 pm (UTC)Unread books... *shudders* I dread to think. There are four shelves just beside me...