Swap a book? - "Buy" a book! (bookmooch.com)

Name: grahamt

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Product:	bookmooch.com
Date:	12/05/08 (156 review reads)
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Advantages: Get books for "free"; no need to wait to find a match with another swapper

Disadvantages: Not always a good place to find the more unsual book

I love to read. So does my wife. There is rarely a moment when we've not got a book that we've started and sometimes more than one. So, you'll guess that we get through a fair number in a year. Now, this could be a very expensive hobby.

Many books I get given at Christmas or for my birthday but those alone will not last me long. I also buy books on eBay although this doesn't always work out a cheap option once you've added on postage. The same goes for Amazon, unless you are buying in bulk, sufficient to ensure free delivery. ASDA Online is often a good source for discounted books and free postage.

All in all, however, this means that we end up with hundreds of books spread around the house, most of which we've read. Some we know we will want to keep but others we will likely never read again. It occurred to me that there might be some way of profiting from this pool of material. Of course, I could sell on eBay myself but what I wanted was something easier.

Here on Dooyoo I came across a review of a website called "ReadItSwapIt" that sounded like it might fit the bill. I took a look at the website and even signed up for it. The principle of the website is that it provides a facility whereby you can swap your books with those of other ReadItSwapIt members. You just list the books you have that you want to to dispose of and those that you are seeking. If someone wants one of your books you then take a look at their list and chose one for which you are willing to swap.

All sounds very easy and the only cost is of postage. I gave it some thought but decided not to take my membership any further. The main reason was that I was concerned that I would be unlikely to find in list of someone else a book that I would want in exchange for the one I was swapping. I didn't want to spend my time turning down swaps simply because we didn't both have books each other wanted.

Then I found BookMooch.

BookMooch is to all intents exactly the same as ReadItSwapIt but with one additional advantage, and a very big one at that. With BookMooch you don't have to swap at the same time. Effectively you "buy" and "sell" books on BookMooch, but not for money.

The BookMooch website was created by British-born American, John Buckman and is very simple. The Home page presents a bizarre picture of some very strange creatures lobbing books with arms legs and faces to one another! At the top are the usual sorts of tabs you find on membership websites; Home, Browse, About, Join, Log in. If you think that BookMooch may be the site for which you have been looking then "About" is a good place to start.

Here, the "Overview" page does exactly what it "says on the tin". It explains the reason behind the website and how it works. Essentially, you list your "swaps" and "wants" and then sit back and wait. In fact, you may not even have to wait because if BookMooch finds another member with a book that you want, it will tell you there and then. Mostly though, you may have to wait for an email from another member asking to "mooch" a book that you have listed to swap.

The section in which you are probably most interested, however, is "Points Explained" because it is here that you are told how the "buying and selling" work. Basically you receive and pay points for just about every activity on BookMooch, but not always whole points. Firstly, you get 0.1 of a point for every book you list available to swap. List 10 books and immediately you have earned yourself a whole new point.

What can you do with this point? Well, you can "buy" (mooch) a book that you want, that is, unless this is a book from outside of your country of residence, since BookMooch is a world-wide organisation. For a book from outside of you country you need 2 points.

So, you need to build up your points for all of those books you desparately want so, keep adding books to your inventory and wait for someone to latch on to one you have that they want. That's when you get the email. Now you're really in the money as for each book that you pass on to another member you get a whole shiny new point unless, that is, they themselves live overseas, in which case you have just earned yourself 3 points. The extra points are to encourage members to post books to overseas destinations and to cover the likely additional cost of postage.

So, you now have enough points to mooch the books you want and when a member is identified with one that you want, again you get an email, you request it and then sit back patiently and wait for it to arrive in the post. The final thing that you should then do, and to encourage you there are more points to earn, you acknowledge receipt and leave feedback for the member concerned. That will earn you yet another 0.1 of a point.

There is just one other thing for which you have to watch out. I'm sure you would never do it but it is just possible that there may be some greedy members who will try to grab more books than they provide. BookMooch allows you to have a Mooch/Swap ratio of up to 2:1. That means, you may receive twice as many books as you provide but no more. If your Swap Ratio drops below this then you need to swap more books to get your ratio back above this before you can once again start mooching books. It's only fair!

That's it really, and all for free, save for the cost of postage. You may wonder how the site runs on no income but it appears that John pays the bills by receiving a commission from Amazon where you cannot find a book that you want on BookMooch and decide that, rather than wait for it to materialise in another member's inventory you will buy it from Amazon there and then. I have no idea how often that happens but presumably it must be often enough.

Now, those of you who are accountants may have noticed that all these points don't actually add up. For instance, books going overseas win the sender 3 points but cost the moocher only 2. And then there are all of these 0.1 points materialising out of nowhere. Well, I guess it's all magic. If this was real money then I'm sure that the Auditors would be all over the site by now but as it isn't I guess it just "works"! I wonder if Gordon Brown is looking at this and thinking, "I could do with some of that!" Mind you, governments always seem to have ways of "balancing" the books, usually at our expense.

Assuming you've bought into the concept, the first thing to do is join up. Clicking the "Join" link brings you to the page where you are asked first to provide a user name for logging in, your displayed name as it will be seen on the website by other members, and your email address. Next you provide a password and a secret question and answer in case you forget it. Then, as security and to prove that you are a real person, not a bot, you have to retype in the box provided, the randomly generated name of an author displayed above the box.

Lastly you provide your address so that other members will know where to send the books you have requested. There is also a box for your country of residence so that the BookMooch software will know when you are entitled to the 3 point bonus for books you send overseas. Immediately below that you declare if you are prepared to ship books overseas. I did. There are still quite a few members who won't. They mostly seem to be based in the US. Anyway, that's it. Couldn't be simpler.

So, what's BookMooch like to use in practice? Well, I've been using it now for around 6 months. I initially loaded up my inventory with about two dozen books and immediately got hits from members who wanted some of them. A couple of these were based overseas, in my case in the US. In no time I had a healthy pot of points to mooch books I wanted. Very soon after I got a couple of notifications of other members who had books I wanted. You don't have to accept a mooch request though. You can reject it. I had to early on when a book I had listed turned out to be one that my wife hadn't read. It's probably best not to do it too often though.

So successful was I initially that I soon had a pile of books that I was after that I now had to read. Almost all were in very good condition and had been well packaged for their journey. Mostly they had been fitted into Jiffy bags, which is probably the best solution.

However, after a while I noticed that the activity had reduced substantially. Weeks would go by with no members asking for my books and no emails telling me that books I wanted were available. I did get an email this morning telling me one I wanted was available but that had been the first in over two weeks. Not that this is a problem mind you. I still have over a dozen books waiting to be read but if I hadn't I might be drumming my fingers.

Mind you, there are times when you don't want any activity. Such a time might be when you are going on holiday. For this there is an option on your profile to indicate as such. However, unfortunately you cannot post-date this so you have to remember to do it before leaving, which is unfortunate. I'm usually too busy thinking about what I might have left behind!

I can't explain this. I don't believe that my reading preferences are so unusual that there would be few other members likely to have books that I want or would want to read books that I have made available. I'm sure that as the BookMooch membership grows the breadth of reading tastes will grow to encompass even the more unusual. For now I will just have to be patient.

A couple of other features of BookMooch include the ability for you to donate excess points to charities such as children's hospitals and African Literacy but how it works I don't know. More magic undoubtedly. There is also a BookMooch forum where members can post questions. There is a link from the BookMooch website.

Lastly and newest, there is now a BookMooch application on FaceBook. I've added it to my FaceBook profile. Here you can get the application to display the descriptions or covers of books available, wanted and swapped. Maybe this will encourage more members to join BookMooch?

There is also on the website an interview with founder, John Buckman, explaining how he came to set up the website and there are also regular newsletters telling you what's going on.

I love BookMooch. It does everything I need in order to enable my pool of reading material to match my reading appetite. The only thing that could improve it would be a little more activity. For that it probably needs more members.

Have you joined?

Why not!!!!!!!!!

Summary: A great place to swap books with other members, just for the cost of postage