Books travel from the West Coast much faster than from the East Coast.  At least that's how I've seen it.  Must be due to traffic flow or where the shipping hubs are located. 

You can usually count on at least a week for books to arrive. Sometimes it takes a little longer than a week and then sometimes you're pleasantly surprised to go to your mailbox to receive a book in less than a week.

IMO you might not want to do the  "watching"........because it will do exactly what it did......lead you to being frustrated. 

Many members feel this way at first, and there can be numerous reasons.  Perhaps your sent books weren't traveling as far.  Perhaps you mailed next day, and the senders mailed within the PBS time frame instead.  etc. etc.

I prefer to order a book(s) and check on occassion to see if it has been accepted, printed etc.  I have never checked a postage date.........just not important to me.  Whether the book got to me in one week, or two........it got to me!!!!  lol

This is an incredible site, you will have lots of opportunity for swapping books.........it is your choice in how you to choose to view / enjoy it!Patience isn't easy when you know a great book is on its way!!!  

My analogy would be to "traveling".........the travel time to get to the vacation always took longer, than the travel to get home!!!  Anticipation!!!!

That's media mail.  Really, I've sent books across country and sometimes they get there in 2-3 days yet I can send a book one state away and it can take 2+ weeks. 

Cynthia's right about not watching.  You know the old saying, "A watched pot never boils," and there is good reason for it.

It seems that there is some sort of  Murphy's Law about the books you want most are the slowest to arrive.  They also seem to be the ones that the sender takes their sweet time about answering and mailing.

After being around here for a couple of years, I can tell you with confidence that you will get books in return for the ones that you are sending.

I try to watch where someone is, if I can, before I order a book. I am on the east coast and it takes up to 4 weeks to get books from California especially. I can get one from the east coast in as little at 3 days and at most a week.

Of course now that I have been here a while, they just seem to show up every week no matter what.

I just joined a few weeks ago and the same thing happened to me.  The problem that happened with me was I sent all my books out the day I recieved the request for the book.  The first person I requested a book from however waited until a few days after the deadline for mailing it.  I got it within a day or 2 of them mailing it though.  The second book I requested came MUCH faster!  Hope you get some books soon!  Kim S

I have been waiting for book 2 in a series of 5 for what feels like several weeks now - of course that would be the one I am ready to read next.  It's Murphy's Law....

I do a lot of online trading. I have the same issue. The things I send out get to people faster than they get to me. I have no idea why. Another thing to consider is some people may be marking that they have sent when they have not. I have run in to people that tell me they have sent but the DC and/or post mark tell me something different. Be patient, I know it's hard. It's fun to get things in the mail like this. Try to focus on the excitement. Remember the torture of waiting for Christmas when you were a kid? Wasn't it worth the wait in the end? ;-)

Good Luck!

I agree with Miranda about how some people mark a book as mailed but when you get it the postmark reveals a different story. I just received a book that was mark on 3/29 but the post office postage label says 4/07.  Once it was at the post office it only took 3 days to get it. I wish there was a way to report people on shipping vs. postmark discrepancies, that might make some people more honest and quicker to mail books.

I wish there was a way to report people on shipping vs. postmark discrepancies,

There IS a way to report them.  When you mark the book as received, be sure and fill out the survey, indicating the postmark on the package.  If it's pretty clearly mailed more than two days after being marked mailed, I always indicate that in the box at the bottom that says "anything else we should know about this?".  I'll say the package has a clear meter strip from the PO so the mailed date is definitely NOT a mistake.  That way, it's on record with PBS.  A pattern of late mailing, PBS says they will take action.

If the date you indicate the book mailed is more than a couple of days after the sender says they mailed it, they get an auto-email from PBS telling them someone marked a book they mailed as being mailed late.

I do understand the frustration; I imagine when new I felt somewhat like that, very eager to get my first books from the club.  As my TBR pile grew quite quickly, I changed my tune fast.  I then set my focus on credits, and it seems like you have a lot to be happy about there.  Relax a bit about it and have fun with all those credits you've earned.

I'm in MD and I"ve also noticed that my books take longer to arrive (books I've sent) then when I lived in WA state.  I think because in WA I lived pretty close to Seattle which is a major aero industry area so my books probably were all put on planes pretty quickly.  Now they all seem to go by truck and takes weeks to arrive most of the time. 

Also it can depend on how you're shipping books. Are most of yours smaller and can go 1st class?  Or are you paying extra for 1st class?  Are the books you are ordering heavier and most likely going media mail?  Just a though.

sarah- i have had trouble with the mail person in my area not picking up the mail from the blue box- repeatedly. i would hate to think that someone would "report" me to tptb for something i have absolutely NO control over... this has happened repeatedly and i have reported it to the post master.... once the books leave my hands i have zero control over how long it takes, when they get stamped, etc...