How come we can get DC only and not postage and DC for BOBs? Since we are able to change the weight of the books on a regular PBS swap, what's the difference in doing so for a BOB? I had one regular swap today and all the rest were BOB requests. I used PBS postage on the regular swap, but had to make a trip to the PO for the others. It would have been so much more simple and less time-consuming to have been able to just drop all of them in the mail from home.

Not complaining. Just wondering why.

Thanks, Pam

I don't know the why of it, but I do know there is a workaround.

Post a copy of, say, Grisham's "The Client"  (as nobody is likely to request that from you in the next 2 minutes).

Then click on it in your bookshelf and use the "Send to a Friend" option to generate a mailing label.  Enter weight of the BOB box.

I ran into the same thing once upon a time, but a PBS buddy suggested this - just repost one of the books from your BOB swap after the deal is accepted by both sides, and then find the book on your shelf, click on it from your shelf, and use the "mail to a friend" feature that shows up to the right.  Copy & paste the receiver's address into the appropriate boxes, then when you buy PBS postage, enter the actual package weight, and you can inbox your BOB partner with the DC#.  Of course, you aren't getting instant credit for it because it's supposed to be a book from your own shelf that you're mailing to the friend, but it is a handy way to use PBS printable postage for your BOB swaps.  You'll also have to mark the book as received when you know your receiver has it.

*ETA:  As for why - I don't actually know for certain, but I think it has something to do with instant credit and BOB needing to be on some sort of different system, and they probably don't have one designed yet for BOB.  I'm sure I read in the help docs or somewhere that they are supposed to be working on it.

Thanks Bret and Kim. I'll have to try out both suggestions and see which works best for me.

Pam

You can use paypal to print out your postage instead of taking it to the post office.  It doesn't have a surcharge and you get DC at the internet rate.

Rebecca

I wish we could buy postage on here for the BOB's too. :(

You only have to use a dummy book if you're sending a WL book to a friend.  For BOBs, I just repost 1 of them, add the weight of the others & packaging and Mail to a Friend and use the printed postage that way.  Just don't repost the book until you're ready to print the label out.