Trading Old For New

By Elizabeth Chayne

Got a box of books gathering dust inside your attic? Guess we’ve all got one of those. There’re a bunch of books friends lent you and your never returned, then there are the gifts you never read, and the books you actually bought yourself but never finished. The problem isn’t about how to get through those books, but about how to get rid of them. Sure, you could sell them to secondhand bookstores—for a handful of coins (total, not each!) eBay? Good idea, but why would someone pay full price for an old book when they can a new one for the same price or less?

  Book-trading, commonly known as book-swapping, is the practice of trading books. Many websites have sprung up nowadays that deal with book-trading. The way it works is like this: you post your books to the site, the way you would for eBay. The books are then requested from you by other members of the site. You send the book to the member, and receive one “request point” in return. What that means is that you get reimbursed for postage, and that you literally get a new book for your old one. Hopefully a new book you like and want to read. All for the price of a few stamps.

  The first book swap site that introduced a “credit” system was SF-Books.com, launched in 2001. This site has a nice feature that allows you to choose which continents you wish to ship to, and which you don’t, which is a way to keep postage low. Read It, Swap It was the first UK swap site, launched in 2003. I believe it’s actually run by two friends as a sort of sideline. I ran across a post that claims they have over 60,000 books right now, so there should be something you like! TitleTrader is a site most of my friends enjoy using. The emphasis isn’t entirely on books there, as there are plenty of categories such as DVDs, CDs, and VHSs. Admittedly, the site is pretty US-based (meaning that most of the items only ship to the US), but it’s worth a look.

  And anytime you feel ready to try a new trading site, just go over to Google and type in “book swap”. There are no end to the trading sites up there now!

More Information

SF-Books.com

Read It, Swap It

TitleTrader