Hi Everyone ,

I'm just trying to figure out what type of deals generate the most views / interest. For example . what  deals you'll most likely take alook at.

For me,

LIKES ,  X- amount of books for 1 credit ( thats probably a given, everyones seems to like that....LOL)

For 5/2 credits , I do like those but sometimes wish they'd offer a 2/1 also. incase I cant find 5

In the subject , I like it when its says what Genre so I can skip the ones I'm not interested in

DISLIKES -When you need to order so many pounds..thats confussing

                  When people want credits before they send books

                  When they want you to order all the same author/ genre

                  Or when they have all different kinds of deal , such as , 3/1 on these 3/2 on these and so fourth. I can understand limiting hardcover.

My deals are basic, like 4/1 on series, & 2/1 on others .  sometimes bigger deals.

So does anyone have any things they like / dislike. please feel free to add. I'd like to get other peeps ideas.

thanks

I prefer people to put the genre of their books in the title.  Way too many books that I'm not interested in are offered up for deals, and knowing that 99/100 books on a person's shelf are romance would stop me from wasting my time.

Yep , thats what I listed as well.  I wouldnt look at childrens ,since mine are older now anyway. or sci-fi.

  I don't mind 2 for 1 but I do like 5 for 2 or even 3 for 1. I am more likely to take a bigger advantage of 5 for 2 and 3 for 1 deals  and order quite a bit. 

I dislike confusing deals if I have to spend 5 minutes deciphering your deal I probably won't take advantage of it.  I'm not real good on figuring out fuzzy math I had enough of a hard time with decimal points and still can't do fractions. :)

I hate reading a great deal and finding they only have 25 or less books on their shelf to offer.

Not listing genre doesn't bother me since I rearrange the shelf immediately on looking at someones shelf to see if they have what genre's I am interested in.

I think deal offers are more effective when they are not limited to books that the sender thinks "go together".

For example, don't offer a deal for someone to take all your 10 of your Nora Roberts books for 4 credits. In my opinion, someone who already likes Nora Roberts probably already read some of the 10 in the offer, and someone who has never read Nora Roberts probably doesn't want to start out with 10 books.

You are limiting your potential orders to people who want those exact 10 Nora Roberts books. That is much less than the number of people who might want to order a few of them, or a few of them in combination with some other books from a shelf.

So, I almost never order if the sender is picking the books for me. (Well, once in a while I might take a kid's book deal, but I have never seen a single one that appealed to me for myself).

Also, I won't order a deal if the sender doesn't seem to understand basic math ... for example, sometimes I see offers for something like "3/1 or 5/2" and I think to myself it's better to just avoid those senders altogether.

I also dislike trying to figure out "pounds" of books. I don't bother with those deals, either. Media Mail rates work out to about 40 cents per extra pound .... just tell me how many credits you want for the number of books that are being sent.  I have no way of figuring out how much your books weigh unless I go to Amazon, look up each book, and add all the weights together, and I've got better things to do with my time.

Great topic! I've had a lot on my mind in regard to the book deals. I am always drawn to the most books per credit deals, but I find that those books are in the worse shape. I wonder why people even have them on their shelf as usually a couple of them I wouldn't even consider postable, but I can't gripe because it was part of a deal. So, I'm starting to steer clear of most of those as I feel it's just a way for people to unload their junk.

Also, seeing as I have a bookshelf here of close to 400 books, it amazes me when people advertise that they are "overflowing" or "need to clean out the room for the baby coming" etc. and they will have less than 50 books to offer. Really? That is at most 2 boxes of books and that is what it's going to take to make room for baby? Seriously. It just irritates me because I feel like they are using dramatic advertising to draw people in and really don't have much to offer.

Hand in hand with that one are the ones who offer 6, 7  or more books for 1 credit and they have 20 on their shelf. Again, really people? Do they honestly think with so few books someone is going to find 6, 7, or more that they want??

I do like deals and I don't mean to just be bitching here, but had to unload that. The ones I'm most drawn to are the ones who say things like "first deal offered this year" or "over 300 books to choose from" as I feel it will be worth my time to scroll through what they have. I HATE the ones who don't tell you in the titel what they are offering and just put "Look here for great deals...." etc. I don't even bother with most of those unless I'm really bored. Most of the time their deals are not that great or they would have put it in the title.

I hate reading a great deal and finding they only have 25 or less books on their shelf to offer.   +1

I wish there was a way to look at a shelf by excluding  a genre-   like exclude all kids books, or exclude all harlequin....

Well, I'm fairly new to the Book Bazaar so I'm learning as I go and this topic is really a good one !    I have a fairly nice size, eclectic bookshelf with a lot of vintage romances that I'm trying to rehome as well as a lot of thrillers/mysteries and some paranormals.  The vintage romances I'm willing to do a 7/2 while with my hardbacks I'll do a 2/1 and the rest of my GP (general population) I would do a 3/1 on.  Does that seem weird ????

I like a clearly stated deal or an offer to consider any reasonable deal. I do not like it when I receive unpostable books in a deal. It is not really a deal if the books do not meet PBS standards for posting. I would also like very much to be able to exclude certain genre when browsing a bookshelf. I always offer 3 books for 2 credits and 5 books for 3 credits. Also 7/4, 9/5, 11/6, etc. Basically that means I do 2/1 for any additional books after the first one. I allow as many hardbacks as you want as I find they are not really that much heavier than paperbacks generally.

I offer deals once in a while to narrow down my shelf but mainly so I can bring more in and add them to my shelf as I have a limited space where I keep the books that are posted on here.

I one biggest grip when I offer a deal is having to police others who try to take advantage of you when offering a deal.  If the deal states one hardback and 3 paperbacks then that is what it means, some try to request 2 hardbacks and 1 paperback but other such things.  It is different if they PM and ask about a special deal but I really don't like someone going ahead and doing that without contacting me first. 

I don't mind small deals, like 2/1, but I prefer larger deals.....more books for less credits!  It would be helpful to know what genre's they have before even looking because I don't read romance and certain others.  I can usually tell if I'll like someone's shelf when I skim through the first page and it's mostly romance or another genre I don't like.  I HATE when someone offers a "deal" that obviously isn't much of a deal.....like 5/3....I've also seen 5/4!

I can understand limiting hardcovers because shipping can get expensive but when someone's deal had a million different steps to it, it gets confusing and I don't even bother checking out their shelf simply because I feel I'll get the deal wrong.  Example:

3/1 on PB, 2/1 on HC....BUT in the 3/1 you can include a HC but just one.  In the 2/1 you can include a PB, 2 is fine.  Limit one audio with each deal, unless you want more, PM me.  This deal is going on until this cerain time on this certain day.  I might consider 3/1 on HC even though I said 2/1, but if there's 1 HC and 2 PB's that's fine. 2 HC and 1 PB are fine too! 

WTF!?!  CONFUSING YET?  LOL

For these types of deals, I feel like I need a pad of paper to write down the INSTRUCTIONS before searching for books I may like!! lol!!

I don't like when you pm the deal maker about book availability, are told the titles you select are still available and then when you go to request find that they are not all available.   I understand assuming the order maker may change their mind, but I still usually give them at least 24 hours to make the request in case they can't get to the computer immediately.

Interesting topic.  But shouldn't it be in the "Club members thoughts" forum?

I have to agree with everything members have mentioned above. My gripe about some deals is when the person offering the deal doesn't remove the previously requested books from the bookshelf. This means having to go back to what requestors have posted and writing them down only to go back to the offerer's bookshelf and see what is still available. Come on - even though I'm retired, I'm not going to spend my time doing that.

Tim , I though since this is where deals are done , It would be ok to post here.

Is it okay to ask this here  everyone ?

The reason I amost never use the book bazaar anymore is receiving too many books that were unpostable.  I'd rather have less of a deal and get books I can repost.  I like to see genre in the subject line also.

Shawanna,  may I humbly suggest you would get better response if you did each of those deals separately.  Do one for awhile and then start another. You can also add a comment on your shelf and put the other offers or simply say open to deals, pm me.  I would think a subject line of "Vintage romance 7 for 2"  would get a lot of traffic likely to order to your shelf.  You could also add a siggy line that says "anything on my shelf 2 for 1".  :O)  I'm not picking on you, just want to help :O)

My gripe about some deals is when the person offering the deal doesn't remove the previously requested books from the bookshelf  +1

Lisa, while Tim is correct that most chat happens in CMT, I think this is so specific to this forum that it fits here.   IMHO :O)  If it helps anyone use the bazaar more successfully, Hooray!!  :O)

I, for one, avoid the CMT forum like the plague so I'm very happy that this subject came up in this one!

What Jeanne said!  Thanks for the topic, Lisa! 

I don't do X for 1 deals because any deals I make are to save on postage more than to clear out books.  I use Goodwill for the "cleaning out" stuff.  My books are all in great shape so I don't mind waiting for the members that are willing to do X for 2.  Once in while, I'll offer a "great" deal.  I did that not long ago but I still kept to a two-book minimum for shipping.   I did an  "all books posted before a certain date" deal because I was tired of them just sitting there.   :)

I also appreciate something in the subject line about the number of books on your shelf, the genres and a clear, easy to follow deal.

Sharon

Thanks everyone for your input , and I'm glad no one minds that I put this here.

I think it was an excellent post and appropriate for Book Bazaar. 

When reviewing someone's bookshelf, I would like to be able to exclude genres, for example see a list without childrens books.

It is annoying when lists aren't updated, books are unpostable, or there are too many caveats for choosing books.

LOL

YOU GUYS ARE ALL GREAT!!! I LOVE THIS WEBSITE. I LOVE THE BOOK BAZAAR!!! I mean, come on, where else are you going to meet all these people from all different walks of life, who are basically here for the same reason, THEY LOVE BOOKS !!!!

That said. I also would like to know what kinds of deals people most are drawn too, but as I read over all the answers they are all different. I think Shellie F. said it best, "do one deal at a time". I have done just about every kind of deal there is: surprise books, lbs of books, same genre,  2/1 - 3/1- 5/2, etc. And I have had a fair amount of success each time. But I think the # 1 thing that worked for me was having a lot of books to choose from, when I had 400 + books (of all genres) they were flying of the shelves. But now that I have a small amount (under 60) things have slowed down.

GREAT DISCUSSION, Lisa. And to answer your question (in my opinion): what draws me in is the big deals 3/1 - or better. And what makes me order more is a good variety.

I wish you nothing but the best in all your deals,

Kristy

I agree with the people that mentioned the genre.  I want to know if you have horrors or thriller or I won't even bothe to look at your post.

Most important things to me when searching for deals  would be the genre on the shelf and simplicity.    Great question.

I agree with Sharon - "I don't do X for 1 deals because any deals I make are to save on postage ... My books are all in great shape so I don't mind waiting for the members that are willing to do X for 2. "

If someone only has one credit I'll often hold onto books for a bit for them if they want a deal.  Love to avoid the postage of a single book if I can!

I really enjoy reading everyones  imput on this. Thanks !