Farewell to Paperbackswap

I've been a member of Paperbackswap since April 2007.  In that time, I've traded many DTB books, but with the upcoming changes, I've decided to cancel my membership.

In the past, you posted a book.  When a person requested that book, you sent it out (paying for the shipping of course) and you got a credit.  With that credit, you could request a book from another member and you would get that book for free (if you don't count the money you paid to ship out the original book in the first place).  It was basically a place that brought together people to trade books.

Then it started to get complicated.  You have choices when you ship.  You can pre-print the shipping label.  They charge you $0.55 to do that, but I would do it for the convenience and to help them out.  Also, to buy PBS money (the money you use for the shipping label) you have a $0.50 transaction fee.  So, over the years, the little fees have been stuck in there unless you went the post office.

On February 15, Paperbackswap is switching from being "free" to charging for the chance to trade books with other members.  Instead of being able to use your credits to simply get a book, you'll have to pay $.49 per transaction to use your own credits.  If you print out your shipping label, you get a "free" credit, but since you're paying the $0.55 already, it's not really free.

You can pay $20 annually and get your trades for free, but you're going to have to get 40 books to make that cost effective.  The other choice is $12, and you get 30 free swaps. There's also some nonsense about how many books you can have on your Wish List, but I think that's a minor issue.

With the amount of swapping I end up doing, I've sent out many more books in the past year than I had wishes granted.  Overall, the service has gone downhill for me.  They've been starting to nickel and dime me for a while now, and this is just the last straw.

Personally, I have been trying to replace many of my DTB books with the digital versions. The credits I was using on the site was to supplement books in my church's library, but those wishes haven't been granted in a while and it's just not worth it for me.

I am trying to use up my credits one last time and then my account will be closed.  I am an advocate of finding ways to save money while still reading books I love, and Paperbackswap no longer fits into that category in my opinion.  I won't be recommending it any longer.

Farewell Paperbackswap.  You started out good, then made yourself WAY too complicated...