Does anyone here use BookMooch? Have you been successful in receiving books on your wishlist?

I've been a PBSer for just over two years and have sent out 220 books and received 225 that are on my growing wishlist. Obviously, PBS is successful for me, and I have 49 credits in my favor. I had several books on my Bookshelf that had not moved for months and months, and I wanted to move them on for credit, so I joined BookMooch also. Those books were requested immediately, and now I have 7 "points" that I assume are what we call credits here. I've posted 150 books (about half) of my wishlist there with no response at all. I know my wishlist might be somewhat obscure to many, but still, I'd think I find something since I've gotten so many here.

My question is this for those who use both PBS and BM: Have you had much success with BookMooch?

I might need to rethink posting on BookMooch and not accumulate any more credits there lest I lose them unless some of my wishes are fulfilled.

Thanks for any thoughts!

I have used it, however I didn't have much success with it. Partly is due to the window of acceptance (may be different now) but I think it was 4 hours to accept so sometimes hey'd be posted when I was sleeping an dI missed them. I like the 2 day window here.

I'm not 100% sure that we're allowed to discuss other book trading sites here but, for what it's worth, there is not an actual acceptance window on that site. When a book is posted as available, it does not go to a WL. If it has not been requested by someone withing something like 4 hours then an e-mail is sent to members with the book (or a "similar" match) on their WL. There's common sense, but as far as I know there are no actual deadlines. I've made a request for a newly posted book and had it sit for 2 months (a little past optimism, I know) as "Accepted". Once I could no longer delude myself that they were returning I cancelled it and left negative feedback. Similarly, I need to see if I can find a receipt for one I sent out because it's either been received or lost in the mail at this point.

I was a member of bookmooch - and am not a fan. They do not operate on a FIFO system like PBS does. If I remember correctly, when a book that has wishers is posted, and email goes out to all with it on their wishlist, and it is a race to see who requests it first.

Also, there is no deadline to mail a book, it is simply when the person gets around to it - in my experience, often they didn't get around to it. So, just because you request a book and your request is accepted, doesn't mean the person is actually going to mail the book - and if they do, it may take weeks.

Janie, my recommendation is to not send any more bookmooch books out - and that you may struggle to use even the 7 points you accumulated. If you do get lucky and get some books from there - you can repost some more of your books them. My experience was anything other than mass market paperbacks get very quickly requested on that site.

Though, onm thing I did like about bookmooch was that it is international, and I was able to ...eventaully...get some foreign published books that are not available in the US.

Bookmooch used to be a lot more active than it is now; the increase in postage costs over the last few years, especially internationally, have driven a lot of people away, and the site founder doesn't really do much more than keep the site running at this point, no particular added features or even culling out long-dormant members. And of course there's the general reduction in those who are buying print books that affects membership, just like there is here at PBS. I still have lots of points there that I am slowly using up. I would agree that you don't want to send a lot of books out if ending up with credits you can't use would bother you.

It's not on a FIFO system, as others have said, and so anyone can snag a wishlisted book if they happen to see it available. Nice if you are the lucky one who grabs it, but not as predictable a system as PBS's is.

Unpredictable, but I've snagged some good books there. Occasionally on my WL, but I seem to have better luck browsing the recently added books and sometimes find WL books there. I have received some books internationally that aren't available here (or at least not yet), and do like the fact that the condition can be stated. I get a lot of books from here that can't be re-swapped (yep - my bad for not looking carefully thourough them), but they can go there. They also have a friends function which helps. 

I was on there but not for long,did'nt like the way it was run and did'nt end up getting many books sent to me when I did find something,

These Discussion Forums are provided to allow you to exchange thoughts, ideas and opinions on topics that are of interest to you. Please try to keep in mind that although this is a family-oriented website, membership is restricted to those 18 and over, and some mature content and conversation is to be expected. The forums are not intended for viewing by underage children. While we do not permit what is (in our judgment) vulgarity, overt rudeness or anything obscene, we do realize that our membership is adult and will sometimes use the vocabulary of adults. Also, please do not use the discussion board to bash PaperBackSwap.com or to promote other commercial websites. This is a friendly site! Let's keep it that way.

I'm pretty sure everyone here can read the disclaimer at the top of the page.  Janie was not promoting another site, she was asking opinions about it, which, if you read the thread, you would see were mostly negative.  If TPTB have a problem with the thread, they can delete it.

These Discussion Forums are provided to allow you to exchange thoughts, ideas and opinions on topics that are of interest to you.

IMHO this thread was not started to promote another commercial website. It was started to exchange opinions on a topic that was of interest.

Charles, are you the forum police now?

Well I used bookmooch and hated it. It was hard for me to understand everything and they never had any good books. I mailed what people had given points for and wound up giving my points to a school. I say give it a try but it didnt work for me.

I began this thread inquiring about BookMooch because I was eager to move on some stalled books on my bookshelf. I posted those books on BM and they went quickly (thankfully)! Then I had those five or so credits to use. I posted my huge wishlist and finally figured out that PBS has the system downpat! BM does not notify you when a book on my WL is available; it is up to you to continue to check availability, and I only found one book on my list. But I used the remaining credits anyway on some beach-read type books that I've intended to read, so I'm glad that I didn't "lose" anything over there. I will say that I had a few requested books that were available to "mooch" but that the owners either ignored or never checked that they had a request for the books. And it's up to you to continue to "remind" them. That was a real pain.

Anyway, lesson learned, books gone I wanted gone, and I'm back to using only PBS! Thanks to all you had some helpful words for me!

I dont think there is anything wrong with you asking about another book site. 

Nothing wrong with an inquiry re another website!  Nothing to get all exercised about Charles.

\Merry Chritmas

while I prefer PBS, BM has been good to move some books with lots of copies here, and for me to get copies of books for my brother, that while I could get here, would like to try and use those points there especially when a common book (if that makes sense!) and save my PBS credits for books that will come to me via the FIFO system.