Hiya! I'm new to PBS but not swapping - the site I used was direct swaps (book for book) so I'm still getting the hang of this.

I've sent out about 40 books in 3 days (I so owe my mailman!) and it's great to have a little breathing room since my home is overrun with books!

I'm a little apprehensive about ever receiving books in return though. The waiting lists I'm on (over 300 of them) seem to have people queued up by the dozen, even by the hundreds! So I'm wondering, do these queues tend to turn over quickly or will I be waiting for years to get anything back? Since I've basically just paid people to take my books from me, I'm a wee bit nervous I've wasted heaps of money.

Also, is there a list of PBS shorthand? I'm reading many of these postings with accronyms and have no clue what anyone is saying! hehehe

Some WL lines move pretty quickly, while others do tend to take a while. Patience is definitely a PBS virtue. It looks like you're wishing for a lot of YA. Those lines do tend to move a bit slower than some other genres.

I read a lot of YA too. While I occasionally get one of my wishes granted, I tend to get most of my WL books by playing in the book swapping games in the games forum or through my Gold Key membership. Come check out the games forum. It's fun!

You can also check out the genre forums for WL book threads, and there's a WL Multiples thread in the Book Bazaar where you can request and offer WL'd books in multiples to save on postage. (Just follow the listed rules for posting and requesting.)

There's actually also a list of common PBS abbreviations under the help tab.

Good luck and enjoy!

Thanks Debbie - I'll go check out the games and WL multiples!

One more question: When I put umpteen different versions of the same book on my WL because I don't care which version/format I get, if I have auto request on do I run the risk of getting them ALL? Or are there safeguards against that?

Hi Amanda,

When a book is auto-requested for you, the system will put all the other versions that it knows about and that are on your wish list on hold for you. When you see that you've got a request pending, it's a good idea to double check that this process worked correctly. Alternate versions are not always linked up properly.

Welcome to PBS!

It's when you mark a WL received that the system asks you if you want the other books to be taken off your WL.  Most ISBNS are associated through the WL expander, but once in a while there are other copies not associated so you might have to double check. At that point you can have them removed or not, your choice. This allows you to make sure you have the book in hand before culling your WL. It can happen that a wish is granted and the book you get is wrong or unpostable, and this will allow you to maintain your position for the other versions.

Hey Amanda!  Welcome to PBS!

Don't be daunted by long wishlist numbers, especially if they're newly released, popular books.  Those seem to move pretty quickly because so many are in circulation.  If you browse around the site and find some non-wishlisted books to read while you're waiting for your WL books, pretty soon you'll be overrun with books you'll want to read.  Also, you might want to do a search of some of the titles you really want.... Occasionally I've found titles that weren't linked to the original that aren't wishlisted. 

I don't play the games or anything, so can't advise on that. 

Sometimes the waiting time can be daunting, but it can surprise you..... And having belonged to another swapping site also, the two major differences I've found is (a) the reliability of people actually MAILING the books you've requested and (b) the condition quality of the books swapped here.  For me, the possible wait is definitely worth it. 

PBS Glossary

I think this is a link to the search, not to the glossary itself.  Quite a few of the PBS help pages are pop ups, so they do not have their own URL.

Thanks Emily (and everyone else for the answers)!

Ugg, yeah the pop-ups on this site are OUT OF CONTROL! Four pop-ups and and unwanted/unneeded download just for me to print each shipping label. *goes cross-eyed* =P

Since this seems to be a very active and successful site hopefully they'll over haul the user interface in the near future. The site (service) and members are great! The site itself is a hot mess. =S

If you feel a little "financially battered" by how many books you have mailed since you joined, you always have the option of putting your bookshelf on  vacation hold (it's a drop down option from the My Account tab. This does not affect existing any existing transactions, but will stop you getting any more request getting made from your bookshelf. (the books still move up the FIF0 - Fist In, First Out - queue while your account in on vacation hold.

If you do this though, make sure you put all your wishlist on auto-request, or they will also be on vacation hold.

Just FYI- if you put a book on hold on your bookshelf individually (not using vacation hold) it gets put to the back of the FIFO queue.

As you've seen with the books you listed, anything new or obscure is often wishlisted and thus requested asap; other stuff tends to sit. The good news is that since you've sent out a lot of books you will have lots of points to play with, so if you don't want to list any more books for a while you won't need to.

As others have said, wait times can be all over the place - new paperback fiction lines can move super-fast; more obscure genres and older books can be all over the place. I've wishlisted books I thought I'd never get and they've come up; others that I expected to get already I'm still at the back of a long line.

Once you've been a member for a while you will start getting a feel for what books and genres move fast and when/how. And when it might be worth it to you to try to find a book via other means (library, buy a copy, etc.).

It all depends on what book you are waiting for.  Sometimes you can get them faster by making friends who will post them to you directly, or requesting deals from the book bazaar.  I've been on this site for 2 years and I've gotten almost all the WL books I originally posted in that time.  Some take a few weeks, some I waited over a year for.  If the wait seems like to be ridiculous, I just don't take up WL space with that book.  I put it on my Christmas wish list or try for it on another book exchange site.  I've gotten books from Bookmooch (after a week or a month) whose waiting list on PBS was several years long!