PaperBackSwap

PaperBackSwap (PBS) is a club co-founded in 2004 by Robert Swarthout and Richard Pickering of Atlanta, Georgia (USA). Its purpose is to use the Internet to facilitate the parity trading of books among member bibliophiles in the United States.

Size

As the largest of the various Internet book swapping sites, during the first two years of operation the PBS inventory of available books reached 800,000 and continues to grow. On its second anniversary, circulation was in excess of 30,000 books each week. While large in scope, PBS does not have international shipping as does www.Bookmooch.com, their largest competitor.

Membership requirements/restrictions

Membership is free and is offered to individuals residing at addresses served by the United States Postal Service, including APO and FPO (military mail) addresses. Commercial enterprises are prohibited from membership.

Operation

A credit system is used to enable members to trade books for credits and credits for book. Consequently, a member need not seek another member who desires a parity trade; credits are the medium of exchange. Both paperback and hardback books may be traded, as well as audio books. While there is some debate within the industry regarding the relative value of a recently released hardcover book versus an elderly paperback book, within the PBS system the value of any bound book is always one credit, and the value of an audio book is always two credits.

Income Generation

PaperBackSwap offers a few paid services to the membership. One is the privilege of conducting anal swaps of groups of books with other members. Another feature is similar to the service provided by LibraryThing for managing the books in one’s personal library. Another source of income is the fee charged for the optional printing of USPS Delivery Confirmation on labels used for mailing books. PBS also sells book accessories and other items bearing the club logo.

Other Sites

Bookins, BookMooch, Frugal Reader, Readers United, Title Trader, and WhatsOnMyBookshelf are similar Internet sites that include book trading services. SwapaCD is a sister site to PaperBackSwap that facilitates the parity swapping of music CDs in a manner similar to that of PBS.

Sources

• Carroll, Sean (Sept. 18, 2006). “Web Site of the Week: PaperBackSwap.com”. PC Magazine
• Deahl, Rachel (May 17, 2005). “You Give Me Yours, I’ll Give You Mine”. The Book Standard
• Durden, Charles (Sept. 1, 2006). “A reading revolution”. Georgia Magazine
• Gardner, Marilyn (February 15, 2006). “Avid Readers Swap Their Books Online”. USA Today, CBS News, The Christian Science Monitor
• Johns, Andy (May 29, 2005). “Tales of the Trade”. Rome News Tribune
• Martin, Kate (March 8, 2006). “Paperback Recycler”. The Daily Reporter Herald: Loveland, Colorado
• Masters, Clay (January 18, 2006). “Dusty paperbacks come out of their boxes and shelves and onto the Net”. Daily Nebraskan
• Nurse, Doug (April 17, 2005). “He Traded Reading Habits”. Atlanta Journal Constitution
• Rathbun, Andy (July 27, 2005). “Read any good books lately?”. Newsday
• Sabalos, Sarah (June 16, 2006). “Read well for free (almost)”. San Antonio Express News
• Smith, Ryan E. (October 1, 2006). “Bookworms trade titles on the Web”. Toledo Blade
• Tedeschi, Bob (October 16, 2006). “I’ll Trade You My ‘Titanic’ for Your ‘Spider-Man’”. The New York Times
• Treadwell, Sally (January 12, 2006). “Got Books? Then Trade Them!”. High Country News
• Vogel, Charity (Sept. 17, 2006). “Pity not the Paperback”. Buffalo News

See also

Book swapping