BookMooch and PaperbackSwap Compared

I am an avid reader of books and if I kept all the books I read my bookshelves would be overflowing. But I have found a simple solution to this problem: internet book trading websites. You can easily get rid of books you no longer wish to keep while at the same time receive books that you have not yet read. Your only cost is the price of postage when you send away your books. What these sites have in common is that you set up an inventory where you list all of books that you want to give away, and when a book is requested you get one credit that you can use towards books that you have on your wish list. I am a member of two book swapping sites that slightly differ how they operate: BookMooch.com and PaperbackSwap.com.

BookMooch

This is the first book trading website that I became a member of and it is the one that I use the most. As of today I have sent over thirty books and I have also received about the same amount. When you list a book in your inventory on BookMooch you receive one tenth of a point, so ten books would give you one point. You also receive one point if one of your inventoried books is requested; three points if you are willing to send the requested book abroad. To request a book from another member will cost you one point, or two points for a book from abroad. The extra points required for trading books across borders is added to help pay for the increased postage cost. Furthermore, you also receive one tenth of a point if you leave feedback on the member that sent you a book. What is great about the point system is that you build a surplus of points when you trade, and all point transactions are made at the request, you do not have to wait for the member to receive your book before you get the point. When a popular book is listed on BookMooch and many members have it on their wish lists the system randomly chooses one of the members who then gets a chance to “mooch” the book, if this member is not interested in the book the system then randomly chooses another member. BookMooch was created in 2006 by John Buckman.

PaperbackSwap

New users to PaperbackSwap get two book credits when they list ten books on the website. Any subsequent books listed in your inventory will not yield any more credits, so those are the only free points that you receive. To request a book from another member will you put you back one credit (two credits for audio books), but the member who sends you their book will not receive their credit until the book is delivered. So the book sender often has to wait a couple of weeks before they get their due credit. It is pretty easy to run out of credits on this trading site, but when you need more credits you have the option of purchasing more from PaperbackSwap. Book credits cost $3.45 each which is not bad at all for a used book, and I assume that the proceeds go towards website maintenance. Wish lists are handled differently at this website, members line up for popular books. The member who listed a book on their wish list first will be first in line to receive the book when it is listed in somebody’s inventory. This can be somewhat hopeless at times when you are number 200 in line for book, but at least you do not have to rely on chance to get your wish listed book. PaperbackSwap.com was created in 2004 and it is only open in the US, but it is still the biggest book swapping website with over two million available books.