Here’s a collection of posts specifically on book swapping.
Enjoy!
Finding A Book You Want To Read on www.PaperBackSwap.com
The site has a ‘reminder list’ that you can add books you want to read to. I like how I can click/search the author’s name and find books they’ve written.
Many times I like different books by the same author. I can select those I want to read and add them to my Reminder List.
Then when I have credits available, I don’t have to spend time searching for a book to select, I can just go to my Reminder List & pick one I’ve already selected to read.
I’ve come across books at garage sales and offered $5-10 for a huge amount of books (especially when they are ready to close down their sale).
I then post the books up on PBSwap to trade. Right now I have 249 books listed on the site. Every few days I find book requests to fill/send out in my account.
I’ve developed a system to fill those requests which saves me time, paper & money.
Speed Up Your Book Order Processing
In order to speed up the process of filing the book orders, I utilize a screen capture program to take a picture of the part of the screen I want to use & copy it to a MS Word document.
On PaperBackSwap.com, I go to the tab “books to mail out”, select the book to process, confirm that I have the book & can send it out within 2 days.
I then select: ‘print label’ for that book & open the PDF which has the name & address of the person ordering the book on it.
I copy/paste the return address as well as the destination address to a MS Word document, then reduce the size of the information &.
I then print it onto a portion of a full sheet label. This then my mailing label.
I either place the book in a padded mailer or recycle the Tuff Shield type of impervious plastic bag that online clothing catalogs send their orders out in.
I can usually get at least 4 books wrapped in one of those bags. Many times I am able to peel off the label of the mailer which I received a book in & reuse the mailer.
Ship Books Quickly With Poly Mailer
I’m excited. I found a tough, durable, waterproof mailer that will speed up my processing of books I send out.
I have been pleased with recycling the poly bags that I recieve when I order from online clothing sites into book mailers. One drawback is that it is a bit labor intensive to cut the bag down to the correct size and tape it shut.
The other concern is that of supply. I don’t always have a bag to use. I sometimes have padded mailers I received books in, but often times I don’t.
PaperBackSwap.com does have directions to use paper printed in the pc printer to wrap the book, but it takes even more time and is not waterproof. People who use this method often wrap the book first in plastic wrap then in the paper cover.
I searched online and came up with a couple of great, low cost options. I like having a self sealing pouch on hand that cost less than $ 0.08 – $ 0.30 each. I immediately ordered them. Check it out:
Picking Out Books is Fun!
I shipped out 4 books the other day. Just now I logged onto PaperBackSwap.com & noticed I had 4 credits I could use for books.
I went to my Reminder List and quickly selected a book. I then chose to look through the other books that that member had listed and found 3 other books I wanted to get.
Getting multiple books from a member saves me time in picking them out, and saves the member postage as you can ship multiple books out for less money than you could ship them separately.
Finding Books by Favorite Author
On the PaperBackSwap site, you can search by author or title for specific books. If you search by author, it will bring up a detailed listing of all their books on the site, including a picture of the cover of the book.
When you click on the description of a book, the author’s name is a link to a list of the titles & publishing year of all their works. The books located on the site are in green while the books not available are in red.
If you are looking for a specific book, or have an idea of the title, it is easy to find that book quickly.
Lost Book Order, No Problem
I just received an email from PaperBackSwap.com about a book I ordered over a month ago. Since I have not received the book, (& therefore haven’t marked it received) I have received a credit added back to my account.
I didn’t have to do anything, the system realized it was over 26 days past the order date & determined the book was lost in the mail. I am nicely surprised.
So often, now a days, you have to watch out that things happen as they are supposed to … It is nice to not have to mess with keeping up with all the books I have ordered.
I have made the commitment to myself that ASAP after receiving a book, I go online to the site & mark it recieved so that the person sending the book gets their credit quickly.
PBS has definitely been set up the right way to make it a good experience for members!
Lost Books Arrived? Mark Them Received.
Back in September, I was notified by the PaperBackSwap.com system that 7 books I had ordered were considered ‘lost in the mail’ since it had been over 26 days since they were ordered & had not arrived.
The system credited me for the 7 books so I could use them to get other books. The system simultaneously removed 7 credits from the lady who was shipping the books to me.
The person shipping the books lived in Hawaii & I live in Texas. She paid an increased fee to speed them on their way, but was warned it could take 30 days to arrive.
This nice lady sent me a message through the PBS system about this delay to reassure me that they were on the way. She even enclosed a gift from Hawaii with the books since I had ordered so many books from her. 
I held on to the 7 credits for a bit over a week after PBS had returned them to me. When the books arrived, I went into my ‘Transaction Archive’, found the books (by order date) and marked them ‘received’. This enabled the credits to be returned to the shipper.
I also sent her a message that they had safely arrived & I appreciated her thoughtfulness.
Communication sure can make life smoother, can’t it?
Book Swapping Helps the Environment
Book trading saves resources as you aren’t buying brand new books. It is also a great way to get books that are no longer in print.
I have discovered a book on low carb lifestyle called The 7-day Low-Carb Rescue and Recovery Plan by Dr. Rachael F. Heller & Dr. Richard F. Heller which is very helpful at improving weightloss with the low carb lifestyle. I found this book swapping on www.PaperBackSwap.com.
I had never seen this book in the book stores. It is available on Amazon.com. You are recycling when you buy used books on Amazon as well.
