June 30, 2010 9:07 AM
Paperback Swap - free books!
This is amazing!! At least for a household of book lovers like ours.
A couple years ago, Angie told me about PaperbackSwap - where you list your books (hardbacks too) and agree to send them free as people order them (usually 2.38 media mail).
For every book you sell, you get a point which you can then use to order a book FREE from their huge database. And when you sign up and list 10 books, they give you two points to start ordering stuff right away.
Here's their friendly tutorial.
I signed up immediately and within 10 minutes had listed 10 books and ordered a book I've been looking for (in hardback too!). Two of the books I listed were on people's waiting lists and I'd packed them off and made two more points within a week.
Since then I've sent over 200 books and received over 200. Which sounds like a lot, but there are five AVID readers involved here.
When I signed up, Angie got a point because I listed her as my referral. The link above is coded so that if you use it to sign up yourself, I will get a point on my account.
But I would tell you even if there were no points for referrals. I would tell you, because Paperback Swap has been so totally COOL!
As of today, Paperback Swap has 4,556,873 books listed and hundreds of members online listing more at any given time. Any kind of book you're looking for - and some are hardback editions. I entered the keyword Early Reader this morning and there were 2431 listed. 4776 board books. 21 Elisabeth Elliot. 37 Jane Austen. 31 Dr. and Martha Sears. 238 Narnia. And even one Barbara Curtis :)
Lots of audio books too.
Oh - and here's a great feature: if you want a book that's not listed, you can put it on your wish list and you'll be notified as soon as someone else lists it. We've received many books we were looking for this way - including some of the Adventures of TinTin and even a couple textbooks for my college kids.
Posted in Bargains, Books | Permalink
Comments
I love this site. I've been on since February and have sent and received many many books. In fact, I had one come in yesterday looking brand new. I've teased Barbara about getting me hooked on it. I've found a lot of books that I was looking for and found an incredible amount that I didn't even know existed but were just what I needed.
They have this so well set up that you can look by genre, author, keyword, title, ISBN (international standard book number), etc.
My daughters are excited about it. They have already received their summer reading books through the site. And you know how difficult it can be to obtain summer reading lists from the library. People get them out early and you might never get your book in time to write that book report or make that poster.
And you'd be surprised how you can obtain books that are either free or dirt cheap that are on other people's wish lists. Even if they're not on a wish list, I'm still getting requests for books that I have sitting in a box in the basement.
Definitely a win/win situation.
Posted by: Sue from Buffalo | June 30, 2010 9:32 AM
This has been a great blessing to our house as well. My 2 boys are not very good at taking good care of books. Getting them books they will like to read, used, means that I don't worry about anything but "Did you like the book?" which makes them more inclined to read. I also love reading the reviews of each book written by members. I have found a few books that I loved that way and avoided a few books that just were not what the back of the book would have you believe. I also like that the books I am mailing out are going to someone who really wants to read them. We have sent and received cookbooks, history books, childrens board books, romance novels, mysteries and science fiction. The choices are amazing.
Posted by: Jane D | June 30, 2010 7:28 PM
