I'm in a really down mood about my job, so I could be feeling snarkier than normal, but I am curious to think what the masses think about credit prices. When you see someone posting credits for sale at a WAY higher price than everyone else, do you just want to post in their thread and be like, "Are you serious?" If you see someone requesting credits for a ridiculously low price (usually in a rude way too, like "I NEED CREDITS FOR A DOLLAR, WRITE ME NOW!"), do you also just want to post a virtual slap? I'm sure most people just cruise by without thinking either of these. Personally, when my credits are high and my WL offers aren't coming, I try to undercut the lowest prices and just sell fast. I did this a day or two ago and it went great. But I just don't get it when I see a post selling credits for 20-40 cents higher than every other post. Maybe the person didn't look first? Thoughts?

I don't let what others want or expect to alter my mood in any way.  Want to ask $3.00 for your credits when others are asking less?  No skin off my nose!  Asking for a credit for $1.00?  Again, why would I care?  I'm certainly not going to be selling it to you for that but that's no reason for me to be snarky about it.

I ignore it. they're not going to be buying/selling anything at those prices anyway. Let them learn from experience.

I indulge in an eyeroll or snort diet pepsi out of my nose and move on.   ; >)

Every now and then I do sell credits inexpensively. I have a couple of 'repeat buyers' and the transactions have gone smoothly so far.

$1 per credit seems ludicrous, but who knows... if I desperately needed cash and had hundreds to sell? More power to 'em if they can find a deal either buying cheaply or selling for more than the going rate.

Oh, and the snarky seven year old side of me almost always wants to reply to topics titled "Am I Wrong?"... "Was This Stupid?"... "Is This Ugly?" with:

'Yes, you're wrong. Yes, it was stupid. And... Yep, that's butt ugly.' Before I even read the post, lol. So far, the adult side of me has refrained.

I'm with Jo.  A lot of eye-rolling here!  I generally just mutter "Good luck with that" in a sarcastic tone to my computer and move on.  Yeah . . . sometimes I'm tempted to write something, but I just let it pass.  I figure they probably don't want to hear my opinion. 

Oh, but since we are sharing . . . I do have one that still bugs me:

There was someone that kept posting in the Book Bazaar that they had tons of books on their shelves, desperate to get rid of them, adding more, etc.  They have over 1000 books posted, so I could see wanting to move them.

People kept responding to the posts asking if they were offering any deals, but they just kept ignoring the question.  I didn't see anything on their shelf that I wanted, but it started to annoy me that they would not answer the question and kept bumping the post and creating new posts.

So I sent a very nice PM sharing my experience of how I get a lot more credits for a lot less money by offering deals on multiples.  I gave examples from a deal I had just done and how beneficial it was for me.  I didn't mention anything about the fact that questions were being ignored or indicate in any way that I found it annoying.  It was more along the lines of "Hey, I'm sharing my experience and I hope it helps."  I didn't get any response, but at least this person quit creating new post. 

Here's the part that got to me:  This same person created a post later asking for a deal on some books.  They still have roughly the same number of books on their shelf as they did before and not really any new ones added (yeah, I looked, I was curious).  Now that post asking for a deal and the fact that they obviously don't want to offer a deal, did kind of make me mad.

I know it probably shouldn't bother me and obviously I'm not going to do anything about it (well, except for my complaining here!), but geez . . . how rude of them!

  Hope this is the right place; would like to sell a total of 20 credits; unable to find any postings to get idea as to "average" price/value.

  Do not know where to look or post.

  Is $3.00 each reasonable?

DOH!

Hand Smacks Forehead!

-RD

Robert,

Post in the book Bazaar under a new topic saying that you want to sell credits. You can sell them any reasonable price. $3 dollars is reasonable however  many people sell their credits for less so you might not get offers if someone else is selling them $2.25.  You can always start with $3 then if no one is buying start selling them for less.

Rob...that totally just cracked me up! 

Many people price their credits for what it cost them to earn them and what everyone else is charging is not relevant to them. I haven't sold in a long time, but I know I won't ever sell mine for the 2.10ish that is the going price these days, just not going to happen. I don't see the point in selling credits at a loss, I'm not looking to just get rid of them. I might as well keep them and get books with them later.

As for the people wanting credits at crazy low prices, I just wish all the scammers on them instead of an honest member as I scroll by their post.

Last time I sold some credits, the "going rate" was around $2.20-$2.25". I priced my credits at $2.50, and also posted along the lines of "these credits were earned here at PBS, by sending single books, and mostly at the mailing cost of $2.47 each". I had members buying my credits, despite that they weren't the cheapest available . Maybe if we didn't try to undercut each other by 5c, the price wouldn't be on a downward spiral. Just an observation.

Many people price their credits for what it cost them to earn them and what everyone else is charging is not relevant to them. I haven't sold in a long time, but I know I won't ever sell mine for the 2.10ish that is the going price these days, just not going to happen. I don't see the point in selling credits at a loss, I'm not looking to just get rid of them. I might as well keep them and get books with them later.

That's me.  When I sell credits it's for my cost.  I have tried numerous times to sell multiples by having "sales" but probably 90% of the books I send out cost me at least $2.60.  The last few times I tried to sell at that price I got no takers.  I have to admit it angers me to see people sell them so cheap... especially when I know it's because they gain a lot of their credits from our sister site.  I use the money I earn selling credits to buy e-dc here at pbs which helps the site. 

So that's why the price of credits has dropped so low. I wondered about that, how people could afford to sell credits for less than the cost of mailing a book media mail rate.

Is scamming really a thing? It didn't hit me until someone used the word a few posts up. In a way it makes sense, because I'm kind of amazed that now, the majority of people seem to be selling at $2.00 flat. That's almost impossible, so are there accounts of people reporting having sent their money and not getting credits? I haven't seen threads for that, but I don't always look (and I KNOW PBS wouldn't get involved with that). I suppose it's a new area rife for scammers - maybe they'll start posting $1.90 or something, anything to get people to send them money. (What's worse is, those things are driving down prices falsely - because if people are paying scammers, they're NOT really getting credits at those prices, but everyone else feels that they have to compete and lower their prices too.)

 Is scamming really a thing?

Not in credit sales. I've never heard of anyone selling credits not turning them over when paid.

I have, in the past, seen a few examples of people begging for credits, only to turn out to have gotten more than one free credit from various people. And they didn't tell the other gifters they had alread received one for their 'emergency' need. Now there's rules for how to ask for loans on the Bazaar. I think it's in one of the top 'sticky' notes.

As other's have pointed out, people can sell credits for $2.00 for two reason.

1) They sell in bulk in the Bazaar. Sell 5 books for 3 credits, spend only a bit more for postage. One credit usually pays the postage leaving two credits in the clear as long as they books were either read and not wanted anymore, or picked up cheap. (Many people get them at thrift stores, library sales or for free on freecycle.) So any money paid for the last two credits is usually free of costs.

2) PBS allows people who trade CD's and DVD's at the sister sites to transfer their credits here. It's usually much cheaper to mail the CD's and DVD's than a book even with media mail. So they're mailing out for under $2 and then transferring credits to the book site to use on books or sell.

These are not scams. They're completely allowed by the site, and are totally legit. The site has put a restriction of 50 credits that can be 'gifted' a month (on none game trades anyway) to keep everyone from flooding the market. Whether you make any money or just break even, all depends on how much money and work you're willing to put into it. 

I have a huge book shelf, a lot of books were mine collected over the years (I'm 61 yo) and a lot are from friends, coworkers and family.  So in other words I get a lot of books for free.  I don't watch movies so it is usually the other way around for me.  I send credits over to DVD swap if I want a movie from paperback swap so I'm not selling DVD credits.  So why do I sell credits at below media mail prices?  Often I do because I accumulate a lot of credits (some I have donated to schools) and I don't consider 53 cents an unreasonble amount to pay for a book that I get i.e. $2.53 (media mail) - 0.53 = $2.00.  It is still a win situation for me for a book I want to read or gift.  I don't feel as though I need to break exactly even and I would like people who need low cost credits to have them and get the books they want. I don't sell credits all the time by any means so I don't think I'm shutting out those who need to ask more for theirs.  I don't like the people who beg for credits in the forums so that a lot of people will send a credit to them free.  I look and it is often the same people.  I have no problem with someone friending free credits I just think this is a fairer way to manage excess credits.

Actually, I remember I once saw on the Book Bazaar that someone did a credit scam.  They were offering credits for $1 (at the time the going rate for credits was also not so low as it is now) and then never sent the credits or answered PMs once they got the money.  PBS closed their account, but I think those that were scammed probably did not get their money back.

...and so it begins. At least one post now has credits in there for $1.95. With a friend here off-site, I joked about that, but now it's actually happening. Now, seeing credits for anything over $2.25 is going to sound outrageous, yet I remember when I joined, they were around $3.50 (close to the PBS price). To me, $1.95 is insane. But that's just me.

The person listing credits for $1.95 each just joined 7/12/13 i.e. 6 days ago and has 8 books listed.  Not sure how she has 30 credits to sell.  I defnitely would stay away from that one. Of course they COULD be credits from a sister site but don't think I'd risk it.

When the price of credits dropped so low in the bazaar is when I stopped posting so many books. I only post enough to cover what I need. Not that I ever made a big profit on selling credits. But I got enough to cover the postage and maybe a tiny fraction of the book if I bought it just to post (for books I read, I consider whatever I paid to acquire the book my fee to read it).  I was happy to get $2.50-$2.75 or basically enough to cover my postage and a little extra towards wrapping materials or a .50 thrift store find that I didn't read. Now I just leave those WL books I don't want to read at the thrift store and donate most of what I read back to same store.