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PBS charging membership fee
(Hope it is okay to discuss other swap sites) I got an email from PaperbackSwap today that says they are going to start charging a membership fee. $20 for unlimited swaps and a lower $12 option and another option to pay by the swap ($0.49). For me, it will still be worth it, but I imagine some users will close their accounts there and that may mean we get a few new members here. Just an FYI that we may see some new U.S. accounts.
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Sarah
9 years ago
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I don't know if it is OK to discuss other sites but we too belong to PBS also and also received the email regarding membership charges. We have already sent them an email to say that we would not be members if they where going to charge fees so we also hope we, BM, get more members. We do very little with PBS as most of our books post and get mooched here but we do like the postage option with PBS which is why we were members there.
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I've been reading in the PBS forums, and it looks like hundreds of folks are leaving PBS. This could be the boon BM has needed, but nobody over there is talking about it. I'm not sure it's allowed...
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I believe it is not permitted to discuss other swapping sites on their forums.
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I've had my account here on inactive for a while, but I'm coming back because I'm irritated with PBS fees. A lot of people are going to be dumping their points and requesting books before the date for fees, so I suggest anyone who still has an account over there maybe include a BookMooch bookmark or a piece of paper with the site info for any book they send out :D
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Actually, we believe they are preempting that kind of thing as we sent them feedback to the effect that if they were going to charge membership fees we would stop our membership. We even suggested other ways to raise the monies they apparently need. Their answer to that was to remove our membership from their roles in mid swap as we were supposed to send a book out and now can't get the address to send it to.
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I joined here a couple of weeks ago and am on pbs, and am using my credits and plan on leaving. Sad but am not paying a fee for new stuff I would not be using like e books. Just getting used to this site. Have sent books out but yet to order books. Will be soon though.
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I think it is against the rules to include ads in PBS shipments and that would include bookmooch items.
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I'm a new member here as a result of the introduction of fees on PBS. I used up my points and will close my membership there as soon as everything is received. The only thing I liked about PBS in comparision to other swap sites is the rule about book conditions (not that everyone held to it).
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The other thing to "Like" about PBS is the fact that you could get media mail postage printed which is why we joined in the first place.
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Hi guys, I am also on PBS. I do plan on staying. If anyone is willing, I will gladly trade my BookMooch points for PBS credits. My PBS username is lebookworm if anyone wants to PM me over there! :)
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I came over from PBS because of the new fees. I don't have a printer, so the printable postage was never a selling point for me, anyway. With all of the Amazon advertising they do there, I'm surprised that they need to charge fees. For the amount of swapping that I do, this site seems like it will be a good fit. I do hope that it gains more members.
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I am also here from PBS and plan to do both for a while. I have some credits here (8) if anyone here from PBS would like to swap and I will accept PBS credits for Bookmooch.
I seem to find more books over there I like, however not sure how long that will last.
Message me if interested! Glad to be here!Sara
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Miss Daisy (and others), the best workaround for the postage here is to use PayPal's postage printer: https://www.paypal.com/shipnow Media Mail is an option for this service.
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I wrote a comment on the goodread for pbs ex-pat.https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/156293-pbs-ex-pats
Someone had started a discussion about bookmooch. Many were not very positive due to the many inactive accounts here or people promising books and then taking forever to send. I emphasized that I have found many nice books and people here. Though not much activity usually.
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Roo, valid discussion points. I personally cut back my usage of BM after 1) I got a glut of points and no bites on my wish list, and 2) the lack of quality standards and shipping time requirements at BM. Those are two things which made PBS much better than BM, even though it had other limitations (tiny wish list, fees for everything useful, etc). I only wish the people here would be willing to bend on their opposition to such rules. Requiring someone to ship a book within 5 days of the mooch is not unreasonable, but some users here think it is a federal crime to think that.
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I was one of the complainers on Goodreads about my experience here. I got rid of quite a few books and have had a hard time finding anything. When I did, I've had an even harder time getting a response. That part drives me nuts. Especially when u see that the person has logged in yet doesn't respond. And then you check their profile and see similar complaints.
I paid my membership at PBS and will see how it goes.
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For those of us who live outside the US and don't have access to any other sites, this might be a good thing if it brings in members prepared to send overseas.
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there are quite a few of us willing to angel any book to anyone around the world
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I was an active member of Readitswapit here in the UK but actually hated the time limit for sending a book. Five days as mentioned earlier in this thread as a suggested limit may not seem unreasonable to some but to me at times would be impossible. Not all areas are well served by Post Offices, nevermind ones that are open full time and I work full time. And before someone suggests printing postage online, I will not do it as I prefer my business to go to a much valued village or town P.O!!
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Donna, I fully agree about time limits. I used to be able to send mooches the next day, but lots of things have changed: finances and accessibility to a post office being the main ones.
I buy my stamps in post offices when I can, but it's hard to explain to those moaning in the queue behind me that I'm buying a couple of months' worth of stamps in one shop!
Post office opening hours are an issue for all of us. I weigh and stamp my packages, but it often takes me almost a week to be anywhere near a post office with a letter box into which I can put the packages. A couple of weeks ago a package wouldn't go further into the letterbox nor come out; I left it with my fingers crossed and was pleased when it arrived safely. Today I badgered a postman who was delivering mail to take my packages!
Moochers need to understand that all of these things conspire against us, and that bona fide BM members will get their mooches out as quickly as is possible, barring further problems. It's annoying, though to be badgered about sending a book when there's nothing one can do to hurry the process. I'm certainly not doing a 40km round trip especially to post a mooch!
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I think for many of us who have had issues, it's not the fact that people have lives, need some time to get to post office or struggle with finances. I think it's more the lack of communication. Of course those are all reasonable things most of us deal with. If the sender would just follow up with an email and let someone know it may take some time that would make it easier to understand than just being ignored. I've also noticed some people have waited weeks to months before canceling a request or even waiting months for a book that was approved.
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Well, like it or not, if you want the site to gain new members (which we desperately need) then maybe it's time to look at the reasons why people chose the other site over this one. As for the last couple of messages, I would think a good compromise would be to require people to at least ANSWER a Mooch request within a few days. Right now, it's on the requester to cancel and mark the sender as vacation if they fail to answer, rather than require to sender to respond to an email in a reasonable amount of time. Baby steps.It's not too unreasonable to assume someone can check their email at least once a week. And if they go on vacation, label their account as such. That said, the day that one of the 244 and counting books in my wishlist are available to me (some have been there for over 6 years), I 'll post more books on my account. But that's going to require new members bringing different inventories with them.
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Michael, the bigger your wishlist, the more chance you have of books on your list turning up here on BM!
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I'm a member from paperbackswap. I have some audiobooks on CD's that I listen to in my car. I want to swap/mooch/give-for points... or ?
Now they are listed here at bookmooch.com under books but they are cd's.
1)How do I list them as audiobooks?
2)How do I order new/reused ones(do I need points,....?)
These questions were probable answered when I joined but I still don't understand.
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New member here coming from PBS. Looking for a new book swapping home... Hopefully this is it:)
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pwalesky, to list audio books use the ISBN. If the ISBN isn't apparent on the packaging, then sometimes I've found an ISBN on Amazon or other sites that has helped.
I also recommend you also put a note in the Audio Books forum -  Audio Books - to publicise your new listings. Use the "review" section to add a comment such as "audio book on CD/cassette" to help make it more seachable.
BM doesn't always add audio books to the "recent" feed, so adding extra information wherever you can will help you and anyone else looking for audio books. The "inventory plug" forum would be another place to shout about your new listings.
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I hadn't realized that fees were charged for PBS. If anyone deserves the fruits of a cash economy it's the independent authors (many who are underpublicized in a winner-take-all climate within the publishing industry) and the independent booksellers (who have little chance at being undercut by Amazon). More traffic for bookmoochers, we hope, and if you do have a book budget, spend it on your local indy bookshop.
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could someone suggest some books for my (60) year old brother who lives in assisted living? i am thinking crossword puzzles or like that?
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focused fox, you might want to start a new thread completely so that people see your post. That said, why don't you tell us a bit about him so we can recommend titles or genres he might enjoy.
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