Do you have books you would like to get rid of? Or maybe new ones you’d like to get? What if you only had to pay just a little more than the postage for the books you got? Interested?

Welcome to Paperback Swap.

When I first heard of Paperback Swap, I was skeptical. You mean there’s a place that you can trade the books you no longer want for ones you do? What if the person who wants my books doesn’t have anything I want? We have now been members of PBS (Paperback Swap) for years, have gotten around 690 books, and saved over $1,200.00!

Here’s how it works.

Find some books you want to get rid of. (Tip #1 – the lighter the weight, the lower the cost.) List the books on the PBS website. When someone requests one of your books, you simply mail them the book paying the shipping yourself. You get a credit for each book you mail. The credits never expire. 🙂 When you find a book you want, you just request it, the person mails it to you and you get a book to keep, read, enjoy, or list again. Each book you get is yours to KEEP. You can sometimes get brand new, hardcover books just for one credit! (This is not just paperback books. You can trade paperback and hardcover.)

If a book you want is not available right then, you can add it to your wishlist and when it becomes available, you will get notified. (Tip #2 – Keep a few credits around just for such a time.)

What if you don’t have any books you want to get rid of? Go to a thrift store, pick up a few cheap ones and list them. (Tip #3 – You can look up books that are on peoples’ wishlists to see if the books you were going to get and list are wanted or are already listed. If they are wanted they’ll most likely get requested.)

What if you are going to be out of town for a few weeks and someone requests a book? No worries! You can set your account to “vacation” and your books will be hidden during that time so that no one sees and requests them.

For a long time PBS was able to make this site free, but now there is a small yearly fee just to help with all the upkeep. (Unless you want to just do the “pay as you go” option.) However, if you do the Standard Membership, you can mail and receive as many books as you want to during the year for only $20.00. Break that into 20 books and you are still paying less than $4.00 a book! Plus, if you sign up using one of the links on here, you’ll get a $3.00 discount! Now your books will be even cheaper. (And my name on PBS is PossumAnnie in case for some reason they ask if you have been referred.)

There is a standard for the books mailed through PBS. You aren’t supposed to send a book that has water damage, is missing the cover, or has writing, underlining or highlighting in the book. (A name on the front page is fine.) If you have other special requests (no books that smell like smoke, none with brittle pages, none that have been around dogs or cats, etc.) you can add those so the folks sending you books won’t send you ones you can’t read. (Tip #4 – If a book is requested from you with extra requirements and you are unsure if your book meets them, accept the request and send the requester a personal message asking about it. You can always cancel the book request if it doesn’t match, but you can’t send it if you’ve already declined it.)

Paperback Swap is our go-to place to look for books we are wanting.

So, what books are you wanting to get? Does this sound like something you’d be interested in? Have you heard of PBS before? It really is a lot of fun and I’ve gotten so many good books from PBS! Many that would have cost $15-20 or more!

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