What do you say when you get a box of books offer & the other person has nothing of interest for you?  I just signed up for box of books yesterday & have already had 3 offers, which is cool but I don't really know the appropriate responses yet.  Guess I'm just afraid saying I'm not interested & having it taken wrong.

I think the best thing is to simply say that you aren't interested in anything from their shelf at this time. I think most boxers understand that not everyone is going to accept their offier.

I usually say.  

I'm sorry, but at this time I don't see anything on your shelf that interests me.   I appreciate the offer though.

Have a great day

Barbara is right, most boxers completely understand that not everyone is going to accept their offer.

When I was doing the box of books I would always offer them a deal when I didn't find anything on their shelf.  But I've always had way too many books on my shelf. I think I might be addicted!

Just politely turn it down.  You don't have to accept every BOB offer that comes to you.  I've turned down several.  I had a lot of Patricia Cornwell and James Patterson when I first joined.  Well so did the people I had BOB offers from and I had already read the books they had.  You feel guilty at first but the idea is to trade books you've already read for books you want to read.  Some people will trade for books they have no interest in and just repost them. But, to me, that's just a waste of my time and postal money. 

I did one and the person came back that I didnt have any books that interested him. He offered me the two books for a two for one special with a credit. I thought that was generous and took that. I also have had people not interested in my books. I'm slowly getting Other books so hopefully that will help. :)

I've hit that point where I'm almost always turning down offers.  It seems like I don't read what's on the other person's shelf,  I already have it TBR, or I've already read it:P  I just decline them as nicely as possible - I'm not interested in anything on their shelf, but thanks for the offer.  Not much else I can do.  And if someone messages me back that they really, really want or need something or other that I have, I always try to work out a good deal for them.

I've been turned down a LOT lately for my B.O.B. offers.   If anyone has Pokemon, Real Ghost stories, or something similar for trade, then PLEEEEEEAAAAAAASSE PM me!!!!!!!!

Grace, you have way too many dang books, girl!  hehe

I dropped by BoB membership because I realized I was really only interested in two narrow genres & the books on my WL--none of which were appearing on BoB shelves and I was tired of turning them all down.

Before that, though I just sent a message similar to the above "I'm sorry, I don't see anything on your shelf I need right now. Thanks for the offer!".  

If they had wanted at least 3 books of mine I would often offer them a deal on the books of mine they wanted--sometimes I was taken up on it, usually not.  

I'll echo what others have already said.  I get turned down sometimes with a "thanks but there's nothing that interests me on your shelf right now", and it's fine, no problem.  Sometimes people have offered me deals on the books, which is great, and I often take them up on the offer.

I would always politely decline but offer them a deal from my shelf. But it got so that just about every offer I had to decline because the other party's books were so far from my reading taste that I couldn't even figure out how they got to my shelf in the first place.. So I did not renew my BOB membership, which disappointed me, because I did have some good trades throughout the year.

A polite decline is the way to go. I used to BOB and was always getting offers from folks whose shelves held nothing I was interested in--which pretty much is why I didn't renew. At one time I had a couple hundred books on my shelf from a wide variety of genres, and I'd get 10-book offers from people who had 20 books on their shelf--all romances, which I don't read. I'd be scratching my head going, "huh?" LOL But you should definitely not order from someone just because you don't want to say no--you'll end up with a box of books you don't want and only feel resentful about it later.

We're all adults here, and hopefully folks know not to take a decline of an offer personally! Of course, a polite decline of an offer does NOT entail saying, "Sorry, there's no way I would trade with you, your books suck!" LOL

Cheryl

If you get a lot of books cheap just to post that you have no interest in reading: you'll get a lot of BOB offers w/those type of books on their shelves.  So if you go out an buy a box of cheap series romances just have a bigger shelf-be prepared to get BOB offers where they have a lot of series romances.  (or mysteries, kids books whatever). 

I'm having a problem with mysteries right now.  I love mysteries. But I've pretty much exhausted Patterson, Corwell, the Kellermans,  Reichs etc...,  But I frequently have a mystery or 2 on my shelf and then when I get a BOB offer, I've already read everything they have. 

I don't mind when someone turns me down as long as they are nice!

You don't necessarily have to do even trades either, you can always PM back and forth to work something out.

Mary, I hear you about the mysteries. That's probably my favorite genre overall, but I gave up reading most of those "uber-popular" authors you mention years ago and tend to read less well known authors these days--but ones I think are better writers. :) They aren't always easy to find, and rarely are they just sitting on people's shelves, but those would be the type of mysteries I'd be looking for in a trade. Most of the time when I post them here, they are wishlisted, but often only by 10-20 people. And I find that I often have to wait for months (and sometimes years!) for them to come available on MY wishlist!

I have a few fairly popular British series written by authors like Martha Grimes, Deborah Crombie, Ian Rankin, etc. on my shelf, but they generally get chosen eventually. And I occasionally restock my trading shelf with cozy stuff that's a bit more popular than the books I read from the FOL sale or from the clearance racks at Half-Price books. But for myself the whole BOB thing just wasn't worth the hassle.

Cheryl

Yeah most of the mysteries I read now are less common and are usually WL. 

Have you read Anne Perry?  I know she's been around a while but she's new to me.  I loved her WWI series. 

(sorry for the thread hijack).  I just wanted to point out that if you have your shelf loaded with books you'd never read yourself and be prepared for a lot of BOB offers for similar books.