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Post by windysisters on May 22, 2020 22:28:00 GMT
A new book swapping website has launched. Must be almost brand new as they only have a few hundred books. From a quick glance they use Hermes and the buyer pays the postage bookswap.co.uk/
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Post by adelynechan on May 22, 2020 22:35:45 GMT
Interesting! It's almost like a flipped version of Bookmooch: Points based but buyer pays postage. I guess that gives you the control of how many books you combine into a single postage, which is quite nice. Interesting too how they seem to have gotten Hermes postage cheaper than Royal Mail's 2nd class small parcel, although they do add a handling fee.
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Post by geminii on May 22, 2020 23:05:11 GMT
Interesting, but it's not a two way swap then .. more a book for postage ?? Will have a proper look ..
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Post by froglady on May 23, 2020 7:43:30 GMT
Thanks for the info. Sal
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Post by janetandjohn on May 23, 2020 7:43:41 GMT
Nice site (IT wise). I've looked through but the one thing that is missing is condition of book. All those lovely covers but no way of knowing if that is the edition you will receive, and whether it will be in good order or fair, or bad. We'll keep an eye on it shall we?
If anyone has a go, please do report back!!
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Post by pennyt on May 23, 2020 8:22:41 GMT
Nice site (IT wise). I've looked through but the one thing that is missing is condition of book. All those lovely covers but no way of knowing if that is the edition you will receive, and whether it will be in good order or fair, or bad. We'll keep an eye on it shall we?
If anyone has a go, please do report back!!
If you look at the instructions on how to list a book on the site, there does appear to be a box to indicate overall book condition. Can't tell though, of course, whether it's accurate as to which edition is listed. It's an interesting idea, to combine the best of Bookmooch and RISI - no problem if you can't find something on someone's list to swap with if they want one of your books. I shall keep an eye on it as it develops. I wonder if it's been set up by the guy who was interested in taking over readitswapit when it collapsed?
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Post by lorraine5 on May 23, 2020 9:06:43 GMT
Oooh, thanks for that info.
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Post by celia48 on May 23, 2020 9:57:22 GMT
I’m probably being a bit thick but if the receiver pays the postage, what are the points for?
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Post by pennyt on May 23, 2020 10:18:10 GMT
I’m probably being a bit thick but if the receiver pays the postage, what are the points for? It seems you have to have points to be able to order books, and if you don't have any points you have to buy some! The 'how it works' bit says: How much will the swapping cost? When you order a book, the handling cost is £0.99, and you pay £2.63 for the shipping. If you wish to make an order but you don’t have any ordering points, £3 will be added to your invoice for every point you purchase.
I have to say that last bit is very unclear - it seems to be saying each point costs you £3!! On top of the £2.63 for postage and the 99p handling fee! At that rate it could work out cheaper just to buy a copy from Amazon... Presumably it's to encourage people to offer books first so they build up points to get them going, but I find it a slightly baffling model.
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Post by geminii on May 23, 2020 10:43:59 GMT
As someone who has many more books on my shelves than the site has listed yet, it sounds like a lot of faffing around .. plus when Charity Shops sell books for 50p (when they're back open) I'm not seeing the benefit in joining up ..
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Post by adelynechan on May 23, 2020 11:51:43 GMT
I’m probably being a bit thick but if the receiver pays the postage, what are the points for? It seems you have to have points to be able to order books, and if you don't have any points you have to buy some! The 'how it works' bit says: How much will the swapping cost? When you order a book, the handling cost is £0.99, and you pay £2.63 for the shipping. If you wish to make an order but you don’t have any ordering points, £3 will be added to your invoice for every point you purchase.
I have to say that last bit is very unclear - it seems to be saying each point costs you £3!! On top of the £2.63 for postage and the 99p handling fee! At that rate it could work out cheaper just to buy a copy from Amazon... Presumably it's to encourage people to offer books first so they build up points to get them going, but I find it a slightly baffling model. Not thick at all, I too found the model rather difficult to understand. I think it works out as: 1. Offer books, wait for them to be "ordered" 2. Send ordered books (without paying anything), receive a point 3. Order books using said points, if you haven't got any then you have to buy them for £3 4. Pay £2.63 + £0.99 to get the book ordered in (3) above
So I guess if you order the same number of books as you are sending, then it just costs that postage+handling fee. Doesn't seem to be very worthwhile to buy their points.
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Post by rosemary3 on May 23, 2020 15:05:55 GMT
The problem I see is how is it going to start? Because nobody can get any points until someone has ordered their books, and if you order without points you have to pay a total of £6.62 (?) so it seems to me everyone will be sitting there waiting for someone else to order first... and nothing will ever happen.
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Post by evie1612 on May 23, 2020 15:20:24 GMT
Well... I’ve just given in and joined. It seems relatively easy. I listed a few books and was given a point, not sure if that was for joining or for listing books. So I ordered a wish list book for £3.62 which would have cost nearly £7 for a used copy on amazon. So the person I ordered from will get a point to use for an order and so on and so on. Just need to wait for my book to arrive and hope someone orders one my books so I can get another point. There seems to be some good books listed.
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Post by windysisters on May 23, 2020 16:45:38 GMT
The problem I see is how is it going to start? Because nobody can get any points until someone has ordered their books, and if you order without points you have to pay a total of £6.62 (?) so it seems to me everyone will be sitting there waiting for someone else to order first... and nothing will ever happen. According to their stats there have been over 100 "swaps" so someone must have got the ball rolling. And I've just seen that evie1612 has been our pioneer and said new members are given a free point so maybe that's how it starts
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Post by lorraine5 on May 24, 2020 8:27:21 GMT
Nice site (IT wise). I've looked through but the one thing that is missing is condition of book. All those lovely covers but no way of knowing if that is the edition you will receive, and whether it will be in good order or fair, or bad. We'll keep an eye on it shall we?
If anyone has a go, please do report back!!
I joined yesterday and when you offer a book you mark it very, good, good or acceptable and there is a box where you can type any addittional comments on condition.
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