Those who have purchaed the gold key - how do you like it?  Pros?  Cons?

I have been going back and forth with getting it.

Thanks!

I love it!  I definitely like the extra WL slots and I love the ability to see which of my friends wants a book I'm looking to post.

I like it too. Same reasona as Sarah. Allowing me a quick view of which friends are wishing for a book is a lot less time-consuming than checking their WLs individually.

I like it.  It's allowed me to send a few multiples now that I might not have found with just posting a WL book to FIFO.  While I'm not poor, saving postage allows me to post more books.  I don't care at all if people friend me just because I have the gold key. If it saves me postage at some point than it only helps me. 

I have a teenager who is a voracious reader.  I like the 100 extra spots on the WL for her since she can't have her own account yet. 

I also use the postage for bulk orders and large books more now that I'm working full time for the convenience. Which means I'm putting money in my account more often.  So I'll get that $6 back with the once a month .50 money transfer fee waiver.

Plus it's a small cost to help support PBS.

I haven't started getting a flood of WL books from my buddies yet though.  But I'm actually relieved about that because I have way too many books as it is right now. I'm ok with waiting for FIFO. I never go in the WL threads.

I love the extra WL spots and I have received several WL books earlier than anticipated because with the Gold Key a friend was able to offer them directly to me. It is a small price to support PBS and it gives me very real benefits.

Honestly, I'm on the fence. My friends are benefitting from my WL posting, but now I feel a little locked into it because of the increase to my WL. 

I bought the Gold Key membership mostly for the extra 100 spaces to my wishlist, which I've benefitted from already.  The second reason was for the one free transaction per month, which has been great because I only make a transaction every 1-2 months for postage.

All the other "benefits" I haven't really used, nor were they a deciding factor in my purchase.

I love the extra WL.  I love the waiver of the fee to add postage money.    I like the idea that PBS is doing this to raise money for their expenses rather than charging everyone. 

Even if you do not get the Gold Key, one of the side benefits is the added "Not Now" button to postpone WL offers.

All of the above, plus I like the Gold Key icon.  Yes, I am like that. hahaha

Well worth it, if you need books quickly.  I've noticed a really fast turnaround compared to non key.

I agree, I love the gold key for the reasons listed above.  WL slots, though at the moment I am well below 200, posting to friends, the waiver on the transaction fee for the kiosk ...all well worth the upgrade. 

I just made the 'leap'.

Thanks for all your help!!

Still deciding....

Another question - all of a sudden I am getting more friends request - is there somewhere for gold key people to go?  Do they find out somehow when someone else joins?  Sorry if silly question.

My friends requests really increased with Gold Key membership...there is no Gold Key hangout that I am aware of but I think other members are friending Gold Key members because Gold Key members have the ability to post books to friends -- when you are posting a book that one of your friends is wishing for, it will give you the option of choosing that friend/one of the friends or posting FIFO. At first I was always going FIFO but then I started to get wl books offered to me that I knew I wasn't close to #1 for which has made me more likely to post it to a friend rather than going the FIFO route and having to go through potentially several inactive members before it is requested.

I am not complaining by any means =) I just didn't know how they are finding me.  So I can find more as well. =)

I've had about 40 people friend me since I got the Gold Key.  Some people were upset by members doing that. I say the more the merrier on my WL.  It increases my chances to save postage money which allows me to send more books out.

Like right now I am reading 3 books so I can send 4 all at once to someone. Although 1 is an upostable freebie. On eof my TBR books came up as free for hte Kindle so I posted it here.  It popped up as being on a "friends" WL. I looked at her WL and I have like 10 of her WL books in my TBR. I offered to post 2 more to her with the 3rd being a freebie.  I would love to send her more but she's low on credits and I don't want the pressure of reading them all in a short time.

I sent you a friend request Patti. I think one of the best features of Gold Key is the ability to see when friends are wishing for books I'm about to post. And that's one reason that a lot of us had our friends lists explode once we joined.

I love this feature, as I'm using the increased WL room, and saving money on my postage deposits (since I always use PBS Preprinted Postage).  I've gotten a few WL books from fellow Gold Key members before FIFO would have gotten them to me. I even used the fee waiver to place a PBS Market book order without extra .50 charge, so my Gold Key membership is paying for itself. I will definitely renew this ...

I love getting Friends requests, and have gotten some increase since I've become a Gold Key member (mine is set to auto-accept).  I like that I may be able to help out other friends get their WL books!

I like that it helps support PBS.  (and Lori, I like the icon too!)

I don't mind the friend requests - I LOVE them - I just don't know how they are finding me.  I wanna find people too!  LOL!

I have my Friends set to auto-accept so I have no idea how many people have friended me because of the Gold Key thing.  Never thought about friending other GK members just for the WL postings.

Time consuming but any gold key member that has a profile can be found in the membership directory.  If  you post in the forums then they can see the gold key icon as well.   Then many friends show their friends.  So friends of friends can go throug their friends lists and see your name with a gold key icon.

If there is a will, there is a  way.

A lot of times people will friend you because you are active in the forums, or they request a book from you and look at your other books available and see that you have similar tastes or you have struck up a "friendship" through comments in a PM like "I am new to this author but loved the first book I read...have you read others and did you like them", etc. I get a lot of requests from being a Top 100 swapper. (Look under "Community" for Top 100) The more you reach out, the more friends you can gather. Some people will not accept requests if they don't know who you are -- don't be offended and just move on. I do try to friend people that I have something in common with...IMO it serves no purpose to friend someone who's book tastes are diametrically opposed to yours, so looking at other members wish lists can be very helpful in finding people to friend.

I asked this question about a month ago because I was on the fence. I ended up taking the plunge last weekend. I'm testing the waters still.

I'm hoping to send more WL books to those on my friends list. I only add those whom I "know" -- I understand the more the merrier but at this point I'd like to keep it to people I'm familiar with or 'know" in the forums or games.

I've posted a few WL books in the last week but none of them were on anyone's list. If I at least know who you are and you're a forum regular, then by all means send me a request and I'll accept.

Anyhow, I didn't think I cared one way or another about the extra WL spaces since I usually kept it so I had about 10 spots left -- it's kind of liberating just clicking the "wish" button, however, and not having to worry about space! lol

I love it!  I've met a lot of new people, I have a lot of extra slots for more WL books & it's helped me to send multiple WL books to the same person, thus saving me postage AND they get more books at the same time!

It's kind of pointless to me because you have to keep on renewing it every year.  Eventually, I'll use up the extra 100 slots, and then I'll be in the exact same situation all over again.