PaperBackSwap

I love this site and use it as a daily (hourly?!) salve. Thousands of books at your fingertips to be had for the price of postage, amazing! I traded away hundreds of my unused and unneeded books and in return have amassed a large library of great books that I never would have bought full price. Kids books, science fiction, poetry, they have all of the genres. Other reviewers here have noted that you have to wait sometimes, but big deal, if you need a book quickly just go to amazon, and leave paperbackswap for the books you'd really like to have but don't have to read this moment.

I prefer paper books myself. The reason I ordered on this site was my friend's birthday. He travels by car a lot and loves to listen to interesting stories while driving. It also catches your attention and helps not to fall asleep in the evening. I was quite satisfied with their service and prices. It is a pleasure to deal with nice and intelligent people.

This was really an awful experience. I used their website functionality incorrectly but to the best of my ability, given the way its laid out and the instructions on their website. Then I received an extraordinarily rude and condescending email from them, attacking me for having not used the website correctly. The email isn't even signed by anyone - not surprising, given the level of rudeness and condescension. I will never post there ever again!

Paperbackswap works some of the time. The problem is if someone complains about you, your account is automatically shut down and you lose your credits. You do not get a chance to share your side of the story. In my case, I ordered books that never came. The sender claims I received and read them. I was told to contact the post office to find out what happened. Before I could do any of this, my account was closed. I lost 164 book credits. I had offered to credit the sender anyway because I had enough credits. This was not good enough for them. I also lost credits on their CD and DVD sites. After years of trading, one complaint ended my account.

Highly recommended. Every transaction has been pleasant with no issues. Its not a fast process but it is 100% reliable. The site does charge fees but not much at all. Its cheaper to ship the books media mail versus using their automatic shipping (just FYI).

I have been a member of PaperBackSwap for about 7 years. They have over a million books to choose from and in any genre one can imagine. The customer service has always been friendly, courteous, and quickly resolved any problems. So theres a charge
Now. The owners aren't in this enterprise for nothing. I think $20 a year is a bargain.
I use their wish list and discounted books on best seller lists.

This is the greatest idea! I love paperback swap! It's a simple concept. You join - you get 2 free book credits - you request a book - you get it sent to you FREE - you list books on the site by posting the ISBN # - someone requests your books - you send them out and pay postage... the cycle continues!:-) Overall, you are only paying $3-$4 a book, so if you are a bookworm, this is perfect.

You cannot change your address on your own on this primitive website. You have to "send a request" then wait. Also, they have some weird methods for you to add PBS money and book credit etc and then you have to separately for back and request the book. I'm sure they will have some story as to have it's a good cause, they're all volunteers etc.
You get what you pay for I guess.

This website makes it easy to swap or purchase used books at a great price. Club members upload a list of used books they own and are willing to swap with other readers. Once a book is requested, the owner ships it and receives a single credit. They can then use the credit to buy any of the over 4.5 million books on the site. A club member can also purchase credits for $3.95 each. I love paperbackswap and have found many great used books on the website.

Book swapping site - Awesome way to get and get rid of books. The even have wish and reminder lists if you want to just watch reviews on books or if you want to get in line for a popular book that's not available immediately. I have swapped over 100 books on there and I love it!

This is one of my favorite sites, if for no other reason than to keep track of the books I want to read. Having a 500 book wishlist is worth the $20 membership fee. You do have to be patient, but I have gotten dozens and dozens of books from my wishlist, both popular and rare. Love it!

I gave away five books and I paid for their shipping. I was promised I could receive five books for free in return.

After one year, the swap credits EXPIRE. So I paid out of pocket to give away my books and received nothing in return. Apparently Paperbackswap thinks this is okay.

Paperbackswap.com is an excellent site to swap your gently used books! Users post their books by ISBN, then other users request the book using a first in first out method. A book request is sent to the owner of the book, who then mailed the book off to the requester. In return the sender receives one credit which allows them to order a book from another member.

Overall paperbackswap.com is an excellent place to find affordable reading material! I highly recommend it!

If you love books, have a lot of books, want more books, etc. this is the website for you. I will grab free books on offer through garage sales, freecycle, etc. and put them up on paperbackswap.com so that I can get books that I want. I have an extensive wish list on this site and whenever a book from my list becomes available, I'll get an email from the site. I'm a homeschooler and I have found this website to be invaluable.

This site is a book swapping site. Very easy to use and there are a million plus books just waiting to be ordered! The books themselves are free. All you have to do is find some books that you are no longer want. Members will order your book, you mail it out, and when the person recieves your book you get a credit to order a book you want. All genres, all types of books allowed!

I've been swapping books at Paperbackswap for a few years - it works really well for me! I get books from my wish list pretty regularly, and when I'm done reading a book I can swap it. Before I found PBS, I didn't have a good option for what to do with all the books I had read. The site allows me to turn them into more books, very easily! The best part is the feeling when someone else in the club wants the book I have - it feels so much better than selling them to half-price books. A couple of months ago, the site went to a membership model - but the cost is pretty small (20$ or 12$ a year), and if you don't pay the yearly fee, you can pay-per-book if you want. 49 cents a book request is OK with me, considering that some of the books I get are brand-new hardcovers. Yes I loved when it was free, but how could that last forever? I am not wasteful with money, but I believe in paying a reasonable cost for a service I find useful. It may not work for everyone, but Paperbackswap is definitely worth it for me. Any serious reader should check it out.

PS An earlier review said that there was no notice of the site change to membership model, but I got an email telling me about it and there was a notice at the top of the site that (if you click it) gives more details. I guess if you missed the email and missed the notice and didn't read any of the Discussion Forums it would have come as a surprise, but the change didn't happen without warning.

Excellent way to trade paper and hard back books. I have had very positive experiences and I have been a member for over 2 years. I think it is a great choice for recycling books.

This used to be a quality site & chock full of trades. Now? Ads. Nothing but ads. Hardly any trading.

I have been a member of PBS since 2005 and it has saved me so much money on books. Great members and so many books listed. Highly recommend.

Like the fact you can trade credits between DVDs, CDs and books. Not always the latest, but you can fins some great classics.

I've had credits sitting in my account for many months now and I can't find anything to spend them on. I've done searches on everything that interests me but most books that are actually available are so outdated that the information is completely irrelevant now. I've never had a single book in my wish list actually pop up. (There was one book which I excitedly requested but the seller cancelled it for an unknown reason).

Putting a book on your wish list that has 3 or more people already on the wait list is a complete waste of wish list space. (I'm #1 on more that 70% of the books on my wish list yet I STILL haven't seen a single book on my wishlist get posted so I'm being generous).

It all really depends on the books you're looking for. I'd recommend looking though the list of ACTUALLY POSTED books and seeing if there's a bunch of things you're interested popping up otherwise it's just a waste of time.