I have been thinking about it seens i started at paperbackswap. But i wanted to know what others thought of it. I am not sure if i should use the money or not.

I would wait until you have built up your shelf a bit.  With only 17 books on your shelf, it would be hard for someone else to find multipal books that they want from you.  JMHO

Not sure what you mean by use the money or not.  It's like $9/yr to join BOB. You could sign up and see what happens. I have a fairly small shelf and I've managed a few trades. But I have around 50 books.  I signed up because I had a bunch of books that were plentiful in the PBS system.  I did a deal once and it was a lot of work for the 4 credits I earned.  So I signed up to be a boxer. I prefer small trades. You don't have to trade lrge boxes with everyone. In fact I turned down the 2 lrge offers I got because I just coudln't find anything on their shelves and they each asked for over 10 books including some audios.  All the BOB deals I've done have been for 1 or 2 books.  17 is kind of a small shelf. But you never know-you might get an offer or 2 for a small trade.

I love boxing!  I get to trade books and don't have to use my credits.  I get to save credits for wish list books.  It is wonderful.  You don't have to trade with everyone who offers...but don't get your feelings hurt when someone turns your offers down either.  I would recommend it to every member of PBS. 

And if you decide to give it a try, and don't like it...turn it off.  You can just say you made a $9 donation to this wonderful site.

It is a great way to trade books and allow yourself to keep your credits mostly for your WL books, as Jennifer said. I agree to that your shelf is a little small, but you will just need to keep that in mind when you offer to trade with someone, that they might have a harder time finding something they want, but there's always another boxer, so denials are no big deal!!! I usually run about 50/50 cancellations (mine+others) to completions, but I would suppose with a smaller shelf, it would run higher.

It's great for being able to try new authors that you wouldn't normally try, since you want to save those points for the "special books" you are looking for. This way, you get to try more books!

It also saves you money anytime you get a box that is more than 1 book. It's cheaper to mail two books at once, than to mail both of them individually.

But, even if you only get a one book offer, what's the difference than if you'd gotten a credit request for it. You don't have to accept if there's nothing on their shelf you really want, you only accept if there's something good! So, it doesn't hurt you to accept them.

Once you start hitting a few sales at your local library, yard sales, friends & relatives, and get your shelf built up, it will go even better! Just don't go nuts like me and have to turn your living room into a library! hahaha

Take a peek at the Overview page for Boxing, you will see that you can search other boxer shelves to find the specific books you are looking for. Now, it won't help you with those WL books, because those still go strictly to the WL, but with any other books that are regularly in the system, you don't have to have credits to get them, just have to find someone that has a copy and wants something off your shelf!

I hope you enjoy it, whenever you start! Oh, and don't worry if you get a lot of requests to begin with. Your name goes on the front page, and many people watch that page for the "fresh, new, shelves, ripe for picking"! After a bit it settles down to a moderate pace, and  anytime it gets to be too much, you can always turn it off for a week, month, or however long you want!

i have been wondering the same thing.  would love to hear more perspectives on BOB.

my problem is that im looking for very specific books usually. i dont usually read the more popular books and i joined here to get the books that i wanted to go buy at b&n...but decided it would be fun to see if i could get them for the books that i have that i/we dont want to keep (we have plenty we are keeping and actually too many).

i know its only $9 but i wish there was a 2 week trial version or something to try it out. i am just worried that i wont find anything on anyone else's bookshelf that i want. 

if there are any crafters or someone hoarding parenting books reading this, feel free to dispute my claim! lol!

I think that there isn't a two week trial, since it can take a little bit to complete a request (mailing, choosing, recieving, etc).  I like it a lot.  I tend to offer a lot more than get offered, so I have tons of cancellations.  It does make me feel better about trying different books.  When you figure a mass market paperback can cost as much, I think it is very worth it.

My impression is that the distribution of book topics among the BOB traders is about the same as that on PBS in general, there just isn't quite as wide a selection. 

i am just worried that i wont find anything on anyone else's bookshelf that i want. If there are any crafters or someone hoarding parenting books reading this, feel free to dispute my claim!

You don't have to join BOB to find out what is available!  Go to the "community" menu, click on BOB, and check out the search interface.  You can search by genre, such as "Home & Garden / Crafts" and see what books are available and from whom. Granted, that won't guarantee that the members with those books will want to trade for any of the books you have, but you can at least answer the question on whether there are any books available in the BOB system that you would want. 
 

I love BoB - it such a great way to get new books without using credits.  It is also a great way to try new authors and genres - so for those of you who aren't sure you will find anything, why not use it as an opportunity to try something different?

It costs $9, credits are more than $3 - so trading 3 books through BoB pretty much pays for it.  There are some boxers with really great shelves, so as Bret said, take a look and see if there is anything you might like!

You can go check out what's on BoBers shelves even if you are.  Head into the BoB area and do a search.

If you can't find anyone you'd like to trade with, the you probably don't want to join.  If you do find a bunch of people, then it might be worthwhile.  If you find one or two, you might PM them -- "I'm considering joining BoB but I'd like some confidence that I could do a swap. I see 4 books on  your shelf I'd be interested in, would there be anything on mine?"

Also note that while some folks don't mind 1 book BoB swaps others (like me when I was a BoBer) were not fond of them.  At that point, I'd much rather use credits--I've saved nothing on shipping and narrowed my choices for trading my book from everything on the site to just your shelf. 

I currently have my BoB turned off. My problem was a good one though.  I was just getting too many books on my TBR pile and too many regular orders to keep up with reading and mailing for both regular and BoB transactions..