Bookswapping and Frugal Gifts

This post was going to be about three sentences long, and then I got carried away. Somebody ordered a book from me through PaperbackSwap and while I was there pringint out the wrapper I realized that my book credits could be put to use as frugal Christmas gifts in what is going to be a very tight season this year.

If you are a member of PBS and you have bookcredit, you could create a cute gift certificate for a family member or friend who would appreciate it, and offer your book credit so they can pick a book of their choice.

You could also just use your credits to order presents you pick out. You can get audio cassettes and hardbacks sometimes, as well as paperbacks. Save the swaps (or your home-made gift certificate) for Christmas and birthday gifts, hostess gifts, stocking stuffers, something special for Thanksgiving, and just for something small but special for no reason at all.

So that was the basic post. Then I remembered that I can get book credit for referring others to PBS and I remembered that there are a number of free bookswap sites on the internet, and LibraryThing lists most of them. I decided to check them out and share my findings here.


Paperback Swap still looks like the best one to me.
You get three credits right away, just for listing a certain number of books. You don't pay anything for books you receive. You only pay to ship the books people order from you, and it's usually only 1.59 since you can ship everything bookrate. Paperback Swap also offers credit to members for referring new members. If you are not already a member and you want to sign up, AND you 'know' us rather than our pseodonymns, you can give us credit when you sign up by using my regular email address (the one ending in '_ _ _ peh' atyouknowwhere dotdotdot etc. Sorry for the silly obscurity, but that's the way it is. We have a small internet stalker problem). I've been a member there for a few months and I've gotten several nice books (the sequel to The Gammage Cup; A Severe Mercy in hardback; The Lifetime Reader by Clifton Fadiman) in exchange for mysteries, mostly, that I wouldn't read again anyway.

FrugalReader looks good- I just signed up there. You get credit for listing books so you can start right away, and you get credit for referring new members who list you as their referrer (I'm the DHM there, if you want to join and give us credit), and I don't see any other fees except what it costs you to mail the books requested by others.

With Bookins you pay 3.99 for every book you order, which makes it less frugal, but still, for that certain book you've been looking for it might be just right.

What's On My Bookshelf seems to offer more tapes and movies than the others, if their website is a good reflection of their holdings.

With TitleTrader you have to wait for your first positive feedback for credit. If nobody wants the books you list, that could be a while, but as soon as you get that first positive feedback you get three credits! Title Trader offers extra credits based on the book's value at Amazon. I just signed up there, too, because they also offer referral credit, and if you want to sign up giving us credit, here's the link to do that.

SwapThing offers a trade for trade site and you pay 1.00 to Swapthing for each swap.

SwapSimple also charges two dollars for every item you order, or you can join their Ambassador program and earn one dollar for every so many transactions which result in your referrals. It wasn't one click shopping, and the first book that showed on the page when I looked ought to have been thrown away, or at best in the backroom behind a plain brown wrapper and only visible to those proving they were 21 or older, so I didn't investigate further. I am pretty sure the book titles on that page rotate, so I would not always find such nasty surprises, but I wasn't impressed with their judgement.


With LendMonkey you get credit for the first ten books you list, and then you get credit for each item you send out, similar to PaperbackSwap (except PBS gives three credits for the first nine books listed). I didn't see any credits for referrals and the list of members, transactions, and items listed is much smaller than other sites. You can get books, games, movies, and music here. There are 143 games listed (Xbox, Sega, etc). It may grow, but if you need quick credit, you might want to look elsewhere. Sign up with LEndMonkey if you have time to wait help a little site become a big one.

For those in the United Kingdom, Bookhopper has some very generous terms. Readit Swapit is also a UK based program.

Paperback Swap still looks best to me if you want to join just one.

For more ideas on frugal living, see this weeks Frugal Fridays.