Swap and Trade Used Books Online : Book Trading Sites Including Paperbackswap, Bookmooch and More

I am a reader. My mother was a reader, my grandmother too and my whole family has followed in their example. We read a lot of books which can make for a very expensive hobby. When you consider the cost of a new hardback book is typically over $20 at retail price and we who love to read can go through a few novels each week that's an easy couple of thousand dollars each and every year if you are buying your novels new.

Yes, yes I know you can always join the library, or dig your way through yard sales, charity shops, church bazaar's or hunt around in bargain books stores and eBay auctions to save money but for me, book swapping just makes a lot more sense in the long run.

For what reason? Well, the reasons are plentiful actually, not least because joining a paperback swapping site allows me to declutter my books shelves of all those books I had no intention of ever reading again (and we all have them) and receive new ones I do want to read for for nothing more than the price of postage. I get to pass on a novel to someone who has been looking for it, which makes me feel good, and get one for myself in return for much less than half the price of buying it new.

It is much less time consuming too and time is important in my life. Before online book trading sites came around I would be up early on a weekend to go check out garge sales or local book sales or spend precious time and gas money traveling to my local library to invariably find they lacked any of the books I was really interested in reading leaving me to settle with something to 'make do' until something better would come along. I hated that, but with the typical book swap site you don't have to do anything like this. The usual format for these sites is you create a list of books you want to read and when they become available the system automatically send it to you, or places it on hold and sends you an email letting you know it is available if you want it.

So much easier!

My third reason for loving the concept of swapping books online is that it saves me money - a LOT of money! Consider the price of even a new paperback is around $5 - $8 for a regular mass market paperback, more for those silly oversized ones and at least double or worse for a hardback. Pricey huh? Then consider you can drop one of your unwanted books in the mail for around $2.50 media mail price and get a book back for free. That's a saving you at least 50% but probably much more. It is better than trading with a used book store because the selection is massive by comparison (some online book trading websites have several million books available right now!) and opening up your laptop and clicking the mouse a few times is much less hassle as well.

Finally, it feels good to 'recycle' books throughout the reading community. Think how many trees are being saved through sites like these and this is also a great way to find out of print and hard to find novels or to provide one to someone who has been searching for it for ever.

So, now you've got the bug, where are the book swapping sites? I'll list a few with brief reviews below. There are lots of sites like this now so this is just a selection of some of the better ones I have come across (mostly aimed at US residents although some allow for international swapping).

I like PaperBackSwap a lot. It feels a lot more professional than many of the other sites out there, has more titles on offer and generally a larger community of book trading guys and girls. At the time of me writing this, there are 5 million titles available for exchange according to the homepage stats and 1500 logged in users currently browsing the site...that's a busy community!

PBS currently allows you to swap paperbacks, hardbacks, textbooks, audiobooks and cookbooks using a credit system which basically gives you a credit for each one you swap which can then be used to 'buy' another for a credit. So basically, it's a one for one exchange (audio books cost 2 credits).

Credits can also be bought here, but at $3.45 a credit I've not yet been tempted to do so. Besides, it somewhat messes with the whole idea of swapping if you can just 'buy' it.

PaperBackSwap.com has slightly stricter quality guidelines than some of the other book swapping sites out there which is great for receiving titles in good condition but can make you a little nervous about listing your first novels on the site. Utimately though, a common sense approach combined with the guidelines on the site works great. These are 'used' after all, no one is expecting perfection.

Join Here - It's Free and You Get 2 Book Swapping Credits When You Register Your First 10 Books For Swapping!

Bookmooch is a simple site to use, allowing you to swap your books with other readers around the world. You simply add your list of available novels to the site and when someone requests it, you mail it off to them and receive a book swapping credit which you can then use to request a book from someone else.

This site allows you to browse their list and tells you whether a copy is currently available in the system for request. If not, you can add it to your wishlist and will be sent an email when it becomes available.

Join Bookmooch

This site allows you to swap Books, DVDs, CDs and Video Games through in a straight exchange with other users. There are no credits in play here, you swap something you have with someone who wants it and get something from them in return. The nice thing about this site is you can swap a paperback for a DVD or a CD for a video game if you like, although from a personal standpoint, I'm not overly excited about the idea of swapping a $30 game for a $8 paperback in a one for one trade...but that's just me! Personally, I like the credit-based systems as this allows you to value items from a real value perspective and to save credits for items you want from whoever has it rather than having to trade one-for-one with just the one person...who invariably doesn't have anything you want or vice versa.

Join Swap.com formerly known as Swap Tree.

This site has a fair number of titles you can browse through and offers used book swapping opportunities with other readers from around the globe...or you can set your account to only trade in your local country if you choose.

This site works on a 'credits system' which means you receive credits for swapping books which can then be used to 'buy' another of the same points value. Each title is given a credit value based on their perceived cost, so for example, you can typically swap one mass market paperback for another, but if you want an expensive legal tome, then you're gonna need more credits!

If swapping isn't something you want to do, or if you have seen a novel you want but do not have enough credits in your account then you can also buy credits through the system which are $2 each. Most paperbacks seem to go for one credit so you'll be paying $2 each if you choose to use this method.

I found this site has fewer available titles than my personal favorite site, but occassionally you can find something you are looking for here so its worth checking out.

Join Here

This site allows you to trade books and DVDS. By sending off a book or DVD you own you get points which can then be used to order another one from someone else. If you want to, you can send out something from your shelf and use the credit you receive to buy a DVD and vice versa if you choose to.

They keep track of your orders and allow you to print the postage from your home computer which saves you a trip to the post office. However, in return for this more 'managed' approach to swapping, you pay $4.49 for shipping...which to me, seems a little expensive for a paperback when I can ship one, packaging and all, for under $3 when trading through other places.

With close to 500,000 titles listed at the time of writing and over 20,000 DVDs, this is a site is still worth checking out.

Join Here

This is another option which works along the same lines as the other credit based systems. You send your books out, you get a credit which you can then use to request one from someone else. 2Swap is a growing site worth checking out.

Join 2Swap Here

The following two sites are just for British book swappers...although you can use Bookmooch too if you are from the UK as they allow international swaps if you don't mind paying international shipping and waiting a little longer to trade with people outside the UK.

ReadItSwapIt.co.uk has over 200000 available for trading with other UK bibliophiles.

WeSwapBooks.com is a smaller site which is again, open to UK book swappers...seems closed now though which is a shame.