Hope this is the right place to put this. I'm looking for advice on selling credits.  I've trying to sell some credits because I have more than I will ever use.  My ad has been up for months and there have been hundreds of views but only one person bought a few.  

Am I doing something wrong or is the market for credits this bad?

I think the market is bad. The few credits I have sold I had to wait a while for it to happen. I think you have to be persistant. Keep trying. I think it helps to keep bouncing yourself up to the top.

I think it's more like 'feast' or 'famine' - when folks are buying then a lot get sold (the feast) then since a lot of folks that buy don't need credits for awhile and things dry up (the famine). 

I'll sell my limit for perhaps 3 or 4 months and then nothing for 3 or 4 months. I think some of the buyers have regulars that they get them from - it helps if you are flexible and can take Pay Pal or Amazon Gift Cards - I limit myself to just the Amazon Gift Cards or Snail Mail (USPS Money Orders) so I'm sure I've missed out on a few possible sales from folks who have a Pay Pal account.

Best you can do is tohang in there and post in the Bazaar like the rest of us.

Like those above, I've found it hard to sell credits, and like Danny I don't do Paypal so that might limit me also.  Pat

So many people are selling credits = you have a lot of competition and folks here in the forums have mentioned it being slower since PBS upped the requirement price to $3.

I bought some for the first time recently and chose a few people near the top of the list and those that took PayPal. Also, one of the people I chose is a fairly regular poster here on the forums.  Now I'm a bit credit heavy after sending out a lot of books the last few weeks.

I went over to the Bazaar and looked at your posting there.  Nothing wrong that I could see.  Some selling credits mention fast turn around and/or what hours they would be available in their particular time zone.

Edited after I saw that you did mention taking PayPal and Amazon gift card.

Thanks for all the comments. I rarely post anything in the forums so I guess I'm an unknown.  People probably don't look at history and activity.

I agree with Danny, I sell credits and have for years.  I like that PBS set the minimum, before you could lower your asking price and get them sold but it just wasn't feasible  to continue.  I found that it is very easy to mail out books here but not many people continue to post.  Those of us that keep a current shelf of books could send out books daily but I can't afford to continue that without receiving books in return.  I think People have figured that they can buy credits for 3.00 and not have to post any books.  Cheaper even if you buy books at FOL sales as you invest 50 to 1.00 in the book read it and then mail it out you spend 3.50 to 4.00 (don't even talk to me about books I send out that I actually bought)  And people will snap them up.  But I have books that have been on my WL for years and none are posted.  I use to see that there were increases in posted books daily now not so much.  So the Swap in the title  seems to be getting less so.  So there are more takers on PBS than givers.  I put my shelf on hold occassionally just to stop mailing out so many books.  I am sure others do the same.  When they changed the membership it cleaned up the site some but there are still allot of people only interested in getting cheap books and not posting any.  Just my thoughts before my first cup of coffee.

Unless you are a stardard member the cost for buying credits is a minimum of $3.49 when you include the swap fee. That is before the $0.50 fee charged to add money to your account. It is really not worth it to buy from other members if you are not standard. It is almost the same to just buy directly from PBS 3 at a time, in which case no posting is ever needed.I agree swapping has slowed down and more members are looking to use credits and not much interested in incurring additional postage costs until they get to a comfortable level of credits.

Thanks for all the comments. I rarely post anything in the forums so I guess I'm an unknown.  People probably don't look at history and activity.

You have very low posting count, very few books on your Bookshelf, and have your swapping history set to private. That can all add up to looking like someone who swaps little on the site and transfers in credits to sell and people may move on to buy from an obvious heavy PBS swapper.  Get active in the forums! If people start to recognize your name, they may be more willing to buy.

Right now, I think back to school spending and holidays coming have many people tightening the belt on the book budget.

I never really looked at my profile and privacy settings because I did not think it was important.  Thanks for the advice.  I've made more settings public.

Trying to sell mine as we speak. Not much luck

"Unless you are a stardard member the cost for buying credits is a minimum of $3.49 when you include the swap fee. That is before the $0.50 fee charged to add money to your account. It is really not worth it to buy from other members if you are not standard. It is almost the same to just buy directly from PBS 3 at a time, in which case no posting is ever needed.I agree swapping has slowed down and more members are looking to use credits and not much interested in incurring additional postage costs until they get to a comfortable level of credits"

I'm a standard member and your post has me confused..This is what I see when I go to buy from PBS and I still pay the .50 fee. I dont see a minimun of 3.49 anywhere and everyone pays the .50 transaction fee.

.:$3.95 / Credit (1,2)
$3.79 / Credit (3+)Quantity:1 for $3.95

2 for $7.90

3 for $11.37

4 for $15.16

5 for $18.95

6 for $22.74

7 for $26.53

8 for $30.32

9 for $34.11

10 for $37.90

11 for $41.69

12 for $45.48

13 for $49.27

14 for $53.06

15 for $56.85

16 for $60.64

17 for $64.43

18 for $68.22

19 for $72.01

20 for $75.80

21 for $79.59

22 for $83.38

23 for $87.17

24 for $90.96

25 for $94.75

26 for $98.54

27 for $102.33

28 for $106.12

29 for $109.91

30 for $113.70

Sorry Michele, 

I sell to Ala Cart members as well as others - they all pay $3/credit - no swap fee and no extra charges ($0.50 to add money to any account type fee).  
They just go buy an Amazon Gift Card  at $3/credit and send it via Amazon to your email address or go buy an Amazon gift card from wherever they can by a gift card (Safeway, Licky's, CVS, Rite-Aid, Food Lion, etc) and send you the code letters and numbers on the back of the Gift Card.....

10 credits will go for $30
20 credits will go for $60 

I've sold 15 credits for $45

as well as 50 credits for $150 - no surcharges of any kind.....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ETA: Sorry Michele - didn't realize that you were 'quoting' Mary's OP. about credit costs'.  
I should change my remark to "Sorry, Mary, but..."
 

Unless you are a stardard member the cost for buying credits is a minimum of $3.49 when you include the swap fee. That is before the $0.50 fee charged to add money to your account. It is really not worth it to buy from other members if you are not standard. It is almost the same to just buy directly from PBS 3 at a time, in which case no posting is ever needed.I agree swapping has slowed down and more members are looking to use credits and not much interested in incurring additional postage costs until they get to a comfortable level of credits.

I think Mary is confused,

It is $3 to purchase credits from other members for everyone. You transfer money to another member in exchange for credits outside of PBS using Amazon, PayPal, money order, etc.

Swap Fees are for ordering books not buying credits from another member.

The 50 cent credit card processing fee is for adding money to the PBS account which doesn't apply to buying credits from another member but would apply if buying credits from PBS.

Yepp Danny I know which is why Mary's post is confusing but she was referencing buying from the kiosk I think not members.

If you buy a credit from a member for $3.00 you still have to pay PBS $0.49 for a swap fee, so the cost is $3.49. 

If you buy directly from PBS (+3)  the cost is $3.79 and the swap fee comes with the book credit so there is only a $0.30 benefit to buying from a member.

It's worth noting that, while the site sees an immediate benefit from the on-site sale of credits, the long-term effect is inflation/devalued credits (perceived value, obviously the $3 price is still the min.) because it introduces new credits into the system. Granted, a credit bought from a member will have originally been generated by the site either for the list-10 original, a promotion, or bought from the site itself but those are already in play and without a way to remove credits from the system to counter-act the new ones being created by credit sales, it's generally less damaging/more helpful to the internal economy of the site to use existent ones where possible.

So, it looks like she means that when she goes to use that $3 credit with her Limited Membership, she has to pay PBS a .49 cent swap fee. Total amount that way for her would = 3.49.

Oh..ok. 

Standard may be a better way to go if you have 16 or more transactions...

Well best I can figure, with a limited membership PBS is selling 30 swaps for $12  ($0.40 per swap). A limited membership at @ $20 would need 50 books received to equal the same swap costs. Since in no year did I ever get 50 books, I was never standard, just bought limited to buy 30 swaps at a time. None of the other items associated with membership have any meaning to me personally. In the past year, the number of books received has declined substantially. A limited membership @ $12 really needs 24 books per year or ala carte is most cost efffective. I do not expire till 2/18 but based on YTD going alacarte will likely be most sensible as I do not expect to reach more than 20 books this year ( probably less).

I would think for an extra 8 bucks you dont worry about swap fees. You mention them alot..standard doesnt worry about that and they some free printable postage fees too..1 free a month and that's 6.60 a year free. Larger WL, friends direct, etc..

Worth it for 8.00. 

without a way to remove credits from the system

I wonder if inactive accounts that eventually close have unused credits that die along with the acc't.

I do not worry Michelle. Just do not pay for what I neither need or want. Not limited to PBS. I look at Comcast, Verizon etc the same way. Guess it is just the way my brain works. Pet peeve for stores doing buy one get on free. I do not want 2 and will not pay double for 1, so I buy none. Others like it. Different strokes for different fokes " shrug"

I guess if an account actively chose to close with credits they would disappear. But inactive, I think not because the possibility exists that person could chose to reactivate account, they would stay in a limbo.

"I do not worry Michelle. Just do not pay for what I neither need or want. Not limited to PBS. I look at Comcast, Verizon etc the same way. Guess it is just the way my brain works. Pet peeve for stores doing buy one get on free. I do not want 2 and will not pay double for 1, so I buy none. Others like it. Different strokes for different fokes " shrug""

You took the wrong thing from my post but par for the course <shrug>