With Box of Books (BOB), you don't have to use any of your credits at all.  You go to another Boxer's shelf, select the books you are interested in and ask them to look at your shelf and select an equal number.  So basically you are doing a book for book trade and not using any credits.  You can then save your credits to be used for those books not available in BOB.  And of course mailing a box of books is less expensive than mailing books one at a time.  I love my BOB membership but have it on hold right now because I have way too many books in my TBR pile.

Boy Latricia - she must have loved getting your order!

I want to join BOB too - mainly just to support the site but I'm sure I'd use it every once in awhile. 

Susan, you say you can put your BOB on hold so that's good to know.  I wonder does that affect your regular shelf status? 

Janette-You can put your BOB status on hold without having to have your whole shelf on hold. Comes in handy when you want to take a break from Boxing but leave your shelf open to credit book orders :)

Boxers have their own little icon so you can tell one right away. Only designated boxers will offer that deal.

Also you don't have to accept every BOB offer you get. You can decline.

BOB is awesome for trading those plentiful in PBS books that just sit on your shelf.  A lot of people will only order those common books if they get them in a deal.  I know that's the only time I order books that have 50+ in the system-through a deal or BOB.  Last week I sent out 3 books  in BOB trades that all had over 100 posted into PBS.  I was able to trade them book for book instead of having to offer a deal on them to get rid of them.  I bot 3 books from my reminder list in exchange. 

No you can negotiate however you want.  Generally an audio book is worth 2 print books if they don't have audio you want.  Sometimes people will do more books on one side than the other if that's what they want to do.  Like if someone has a large tradesize book, they might ask for 2 smaller paperbacks in return.  I generally prefer small trades of less than 5 books. I rarely find more than a couple books on someone's shelf that I want. Some people will trade with anyone even if they don't have any books they want to read.  They just repost the books.  I only trade if they have books I'm interested in reading.  I know I have a couple really thick trade size books that have 2 or 3 full length books in them. When I post them-if I get a BOB request for them, I'll probably ask for 2 paperbacks in exchange. They're going to cost more to mail and basically contain 2 or 3 paperbacks in 1 lrg book. 

The minimum bob trade size is 1 book.  As far as I know there is no maximum; I did one trade for 71/64 books once. (they got 71 childrens books, mostly "Babysitters Club" series that I was quite happy to move, I got a bunch of scifi/fantasy plus some misc.)  I've done a handful in the ~30 range.  Typical is more 6-8.  [I'm currently on hiatus from BOB and working away on my TBR pile.  Happiness is a house with walls well-insulated with books.].

Audio books can be a little tricky - for unknown reasons the BOB trade interface doesn't make it obvious that a listing is audio or not - you have to click down into the details to see that.   So you can get into odd-feeling situations where you request 2 books, they request 4 back, you find two more you would like, they request....

I've done a few trades with audio books and haven't had a problem. I always request 2 books and have never had someone come back adding more books to their box.  I tag all my audios with the # of CDs, the narrator and abridged/unabridged.  But the tags aren't that noticeable on BOB requests so I don't think that's why.  Maybe.

Bren-I put my whole account on hold because Mt TBR is topping 400 and DH is complaining.  I keep them all contained in my office but still-he complains. 

My largest BOB trade was for 8 books and a typical trade is 2-4 books.  Even at that small number of books per BOB trade, it saves you money on the mailing.  I used to accept every BOB trade request regardless whether I found any book of interest from the other person's shelf just because I don't want to disappoint them.  But with the amount of money I've been spending on mailing, it just isn't feasible to trade and post without reading, so I do decline BOB offers now.

I love my boxer account...but like Susan said my TBR pile is way to big....every day I come home and my wife is like "you got another 10 packages today" :)

I love it :)

My largest BOB trade was 36 books my smallest was 2 books...so you an see it can range!

Because my main search is for Sci Fi & Fantasy and I did a search for BOB members a couple of months ago with the largest number of Sci FI & Fantasy books available ranged from 76 down to 20 books (I think I searched the top 25 members) and the most any of them had that I did not already have was 5 books.

Using credits and deals I have had as many as 17 books for 17 credits ordered from me at once in a single transaction and several in the 10-15 credit range. I have also ordered as many as 96 books (for 20 credits), as well as several in the 10-15 credits for 20-66 book range. To do a BOB deal the other person also needs to be a Boxer.

One of the reasons I buy credits is to ensure I have sufficient credits available when I find that really good bookshelf that fills the holes in my collection.

Since I work at the Post Office I like to see those books mailed, but I do like the economy of multi books per mailing to save on postage.

Kevin

My smallest BoB was one, and the largest 20+. I always try to find books to swap. I rarely decline. And if you ask for a deal, I'll consider it. I love BoB for saving on postage, not spending credits for books, removing large amounts of books from my living room corner, and just the fact that someone else wants my books.