New PBS Fee Schedule

We just got the notice that PBS wants our money. What to do? I get so few books of of interest, per year, I guess I'll just pay the a la carte fee.

I've never paid for anything on PaperBackSwap, so I don't know how they arrange payment. If it's through PayPal I think I'll leave PaperBackSwap, as I don't like having my credit-card information spread all over the Internet. Most of the books I really want are books that people buy and keep in their libraries, and since my real interest is in getting rid of books, I'm doing much better on BookMooch (where I have already given away so many books that I don't mind requesting books that I might want to read but wouldn't buy).

I'm having mixed feelings, too. What with media mail postage going up all the time, adding another fee on top starts to make the whole swapping thing less feasible.

My TBR is ginormous, so it's not like I need more books! But it discourages me. First BookMooch runs everyone off by not listening to their concerns and now PaperBackSwap runs everyone off by wanting to charge!

Hits to my wish lists have been fairly sparse for a while now, and my inventory doesn't move either. I'm afraid the concept of swapping books is failing...

I'm feeling mostly meh, but then I was never super active in PBS, not like I had been with BM. Like >1 Sandydog1:, I'll pay the a la carte fees as necessary, but I don't think I'll be adding more books to my inventory once my credits are spent down.

>3 dkhiggin: I've been wondering about the demise of swapping, too. My reading habits have changed quite a bit since I first started swapping. I read a lot more books with the idea of one-and-done reading, not so much keep forever. I'm a lot more discriminating on the condition of the book, when I do want to keep it, and I'm much less inclined to be interested swapping a new release, when I could more easily get it from a library. And now that the ebook market has expanded to very generous selections both in libraries and on Amazon, more than half now of what I do read is on an ereader, which helps swapping not at all.

I'm fine with the membership fee, especially as I'm not fond of the transaction fee on the other two related swap sites. I had a 'gold key' membership and paid for the standard membership already.

FYI: there's a thread for trading credits for membership here:

http://www.paperbackswap.com/Want-Buy-Gift-Membership-Return/topic/300293/?l=25&...

nothing wrong with more books...

edited to add: but beware of the other discussion threads at PBS, they are rather..... heated.

I'm fine with it, too. I understand that there are costs involved in running the site. I do enough swapping there that it is worth it to me.

Having found out about the payment arrangements I've decided to stay with PaperBackSwap as well as BookMooch. My original intention on joining both of them was to get rid of books, not acquire more unless I really wanted them, so my PaperBackSwap transactions will now be limited to books that are worth the extra cost (postage of the outgoing book plus swap fees). I still prefer a "book" book to an e-book, except when traveling or for things that aren't available except as e-books, but I realize that I am becoming a dinosaur in that regard. However, I suspect that, if there is to be a demise of book swapping, it's due as much to the Amazon everybody-in used-book market as anything else. As with so many other things that have changed as a result of Amazon, in my opinion usually not for the better, in the book world.

Amazon is a disease of the Internet.

So let me revive this very old thread with a rather tangential question -- Now that I've spent down all my book 'credits', is there a way I can donate the couple bucks of PBS 'money' I still have showing on my account? Like, gift it to another member?

I don't think you can gift it to another member because then members would use PBS money to buy credits, thus making PBS a money exchange site, or more of a purchase site. Also, members could ask for money instead of credits for book swaps.

When I renewed my membership, I saw that you could use PBS money to buy/renew your membership. (I'm now good for another year)

If that fails, you could donate your money to PBS. (just a thought)

If you aren't ala carte, you could post the question on the forum, or have someone you know post the question on the forum, or search the forum for the answer.

Good Luck.

You can donate the money back to PaperBackSwap, which according to the help page gets recycled back into the system for new members first two free credits: http://www.paperbackswap.com/misc/friends_of_pbs/friends_of_pbs.php

>10 skittles: Yup, I am an a la cart member so posting on the forum is indeed out -- which I actually only figured out yesterday, when I tried to post an offer for an ARC unpostable in the forum. Which I had successfully done in the past, but apparently not for a while.

>11 Ciarda: Thanks so much for the link! This might be what I'll do. But the pages mentions the goal of 'keeping PBS free', which makes me think the text is pre-2015?