Paper Back Swap discussion

Has anyone else tried bookmooch? It is far inferior to PBS. I am so thankful I tried PBS first or I might have thought bookmooch was all there was!

I've been a member of both. PBS first, then BM. I felt they were very complimentary. PBS is very structured and it is harder to get popular books. BM is a little freer and it's much easier to get the books. They are having some growing pains there though. I no longer use BM though, I was forced out. that's another nice thing PBS has in it's favor, you get treated much better and fairly. You are able to work out problems and really, PBS is just better organized.

I belong to both sites and also Swaptree. Each one has it's good points and bad points. OF all three, I like PBS the best, but the wait for some titles is unbelievably long.

The thing I don't like about Bookmooch, is that when the site tells you there is a title available, a lot of times if you are not right there at your computer when the email comes in, you can forget it. The titles go really fast. They've been teasing me with "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" for three months. Every time the book comes up, I click to get it, but somebody has already snatched it away and the only copy left is in Malaysia from someone who won't ship to the U.S. Very frustrating. This has happened at least a dozen times with that one title.

The good thing about Swaptree is that you can trade books for DVDs or CDs, and vise-versa.

Through all three sites, I've managed to really fill out my book shelf, beyond what I'm able to read for at least three months. The hard part of belonging to all three sites is remembering to update my wish lists and posted books all around when a book arrives from one of them, or when I ship a title out.

I've done both and find PBS a much better place to get books. There is no standard for the books on BM.. so although the poster can list the condition, unless you ask and the poster is honest, you have no idea what kind of condition the book will be in.

The wait for some books may be longer but I have a huge TBR pile, so waiting isn't a problem for me.

I do both. In response to the comment about no standard at BM for book conditions. I find that adding the comment is just as good. I love pbs but I have to say that I have a book that got sent to me and it has a small part of the back cover coming off. Since I am going to keep it I taped it down. I mean if pbs is picky about the front cover then I am not sure the book I just got should have been posted based on the back cover.

I do both as well. I agree with a lot of the earlier posts. I prefer PBS as well, just for the ease of using it. I love to be able to pay for and print labels and not have to go to the post office.
The positive I have found with bookmooch is that it is a place that I can swap my books that have small imperfections. I like and feel more comfortable being able to write a note on the condition and leaving it up to the swapper to decide if they want it. It has been handy when I get a book from PBS and it does not meet the criteria for posting on PBS (I just don't feel right posting a book that does not meet the criteria even when it comes to me in that condition) especially if it is an advanced copy or if it has a tiny bit of underlining.
So far I have not received books that have not been in good condition from Bookmooch. If I did I doubt I would have a problem not giving them the point.