Can you tell how many copies of a book there are in the system?

Put the book on your reminder list.  That will show how many copies are listed.

cool thanks

I have checked out many of the books on my Bookshelf and many of them have over 100 copies in the system.  Is it really worth it to leave them on my bookshelf or should I just give up and sell them on E-bay?

Kate--

I also have several with quite a few copies on my shelf.  I figure I'll leave them on my shelf until someone here requests them or I decide to do something else with them.

Who knows when someone might request one of them?  Requestors are giving a chance to look at your shelf when they order one of your books, and someone might decide they want one of them.

I also figure I might offer a deal in the book bazaar one of these days to get a few more credits.  I figure the more books I have on my shelf the more likely it'll be that someone will find a couple they are interested in .

Here are some stats from The Pulse Of PBS just now:

Books

• Books Available: 4,163,450
• Books Posted in last 60 minutes: 782
• Books Posted All Time: 13,594,099
• Unique Titles Available: 594,027

Books Mailed

• Books Mailed All-Time: 6,847,417
• Books Mailed in last 7 days: 62,862
• Books Mailed Today: 5,395

Members

• Members Online Now: 2,080
• Members Logged In Today: 22,475
• Members in Chat: 1
• Public Profiles: 81,265

There really isnt a way to predict how quickly or slowly a book will be ordered here at PBS. Most are ordered through FIFO but since PBS gives us the ability to order directly from another member's shelf, and to use the Order More From Member feature, a book may be ordered today even if that copy is way at the end of the FIFO.

At the same time, it may take months and months to get an order. Since being a member here, I have had all but 3 books sit longer than 3 years. I have had requests for books that have over a thousand posted, and no orders for books that are the only copy posted.

But with over 62,000 books mailed this week, and new members joining every day, I figure mine will be ordered eventually.

One thing you could do if so inclined is to put info into your blue header of the bookshelf with the offer of a deal including those books by title.  And you could put it into your signature lineof your posts so that they are visible.  I know that there are lots of books I haven't read with hundreds in the system, and if I ran across such information about those titles, I would order to get them.  It would be slower but probably calmer to do it that way rather than offer them in the BB.   I've some good luck doing it that way with my unpostables.  That reminds me --I need to go edit my signature line. ;D

Ruth

If you have the place to store them then keep them. I don't think I have ever had a book sit more than 6months and I post a lot of heavily posted books. Sometimes I post 1 or 2 before I've read them to work their way up FIFO.  I also post a lot of WL books and frequently a heavily posted book is added using the Order More From Member button. 

I've also traded a lot of them through Box of Books and I consider my yealy BOB membership fee as helping to support PBS.