Free Books Thanks to PaperBack Swap

Over the past five or six years I slowly diminished my "library", mostly due to moving across the country and lack of space. I mostly sell books on Amazon because I don't pay any fees if the book does not sell. But Amazon offers a bulk discount and special prices for large sellers of books which sometimes makes it hard to compete and actually make money on the book. Thus I have few miscellaneous books that have been hanging around in boxes.

A few months ago I signed up for PaperBack Swap, but was really confused on how I earned "credits". This past week I spent some time reading the website information and FELL IN LOVE! First, you sign up (preferably by clicking on the banner above as that is my referral link and I will get a credit when you list 10 books -- THANK YOU!). Then you "post" 10 books. Once you do that, you will receive two credits on your account. You use 1 credit to request a book from another Swapper. When someone wants one of your books, you receive an email asking if you can mail the book and giving instructions on how to do it. Once you mail the book and it is received, you will get 1 credit for each book you swapped allowing you to request that many more books.

Each member pays for shipping the books out. You pay for the books you ship, but the books you request are shipped by the sender. A nice perk of the PaperBack Swap site is that they allow you the option to purchase Media Mail postage right on their site and you can print the shipping label all filled out with the postage and drop it in the nearest mail box! They do charge a small fee for the service (it is $.50 per transaction to put money in your account and an additional $.43 added to the standard Media Mail postage), but after spending 30 minutes in line this morning to mail 3 books, I appreciated the convenience of print and ship this afternoon!

There are other nice features on the website. You can request that the books you receive be in a certain condition or come from a non-smoking house. You can also build a wish list for books that are not currently on site and indicate which ones you would like "auto filled" when they become available.

Overall I have been really impressed with PaperBack Swap. I've mailed 10 books today and requested one (I used one of my free credits after listing 10 books). I'm excited to use this new "free" service!