If you add a book to your bookshelf and see that there are 1000+ copies of the book available, do you keep it on there or do you just donate/sell it elsewhere? What number is your threshold? On one hand, I don't want to just get rid of them if there is a chance I'll eventually get a credit for it, but on the other, storing it for years and years seems pretty stupid too. Right now I have a bin in which I keep the books I have listed, so as long as that bin isn't full I'm cool, but I don't want tons of bins waiting forever, you know?

Also, I wish that on your bookshelf it told you how many other people were ahead of you to get rid of the book.

They don't show that info because it would discourage people from posting more heavily posted books. I tend to not purchase super heavily posted books in any way.  They're generally ones my library has.  But I do sometimes take too long to read a book or buy one that I think won't be heavily posted and am surprised.  I've only had a couple that had more than 200 in the system though.

I tend to keep my bookshelf books until I have to move (I've moved 3 times since I joined).  It's really what works for you.  If it bothers you to have them in the house then offer a deal and move them out or donate them. IF they don't bother you then keep them and maybe you'll get lucky and someone will add one using the Order More button.

I add all my books to my shelf no matter how many copies arecin the system. I've had people order some heavily posted books from me by adding them to their order. It's always a nice surprise when that happens! I have plenty of space so I don't have to worry about that. Another thing you could try is offering a deal in the book bazaar for your heavily posted books--two books for one credit or three for two--something like that.

Edited to correct for typos

I add it to my shelf no matter how many copies are in the system -- you never know when someone ordering something else might browse your shelf and be interested in ordering more.

Definitely try deals, if you're interested in that sort of thing.  You can also post a note that you're open to deals (or for specific deals -- "3 for 2" or whatever) in your profile, your forums signature and your bookshelf header, to increase the chances someone who is interested will see that.  You've only got 50 books on your shelf right now, so keeping the added variety and selection is helpful in deal situations.

I don't.  If there are more than about 50 of a book posted, I'll take it to the UBS or donate it to the FOL.  I don't have space to store books for years, and I'm too impatient to get rid of books.  Good luck. Pat

I post it anyway, and then let it sit on my shelf. I have so many books, storing one more until it can get ordered doesn't make a difference.

I'll go through my pile every now and then and take a box to FOL.  I keep all the posted books in one box.   I will offer a deal in the Book Bazaar right before taking the books to FOL.

A lot of my books are older, because I just joined so I have a house full of books to get through. I'm sure as I get newer books it will be less of an issue.

Before I post a book, I add it to my reminder list to see how many copies are available.

If there are more than 30 copies, I generally don't post it. 

My office keeps a bookshelf for anyone who wants to donate or take a book, so I give to that a lot!

MaryF

I am having a yard sale tomorrow with my heavily posted books; 25 cents each 5 for a dollar; the left overs will go to the FOL. I can always spot other book lovers at yard sales and that is my favorite price to pay---so that is what I'll sell them for.

I don't usually add a book to my Shelf if there is a very large number of them in the system. That said, you never know when a book is requested from you, the requestor looks through your bookshelf and sees a book they've thought about requesting but it wasn't on their high-pri list. I've done it a time or two myself, it's a convenience of the moment.

If there were 50 or more copies of a book I probably wouldnt' post it. If you add the book to your RL, it'll give you the number of books already in the system which will give you a very, very rough idea of where you will be if you post the book but unless you keep the book on your RL and periodically check where it is you won't know how fast it's moving. ETA to clarify: I don't mean where YOUR particular book is but how many, or fewer, books are in the system after you added yours. It's an unreliable system to track.

A lot of work for probably no return. I wouldn't post the book.

Gail

I had somebody order one of those books from me right out of the gates when I joined. They had ordered another book from me and looked through my bookshelf and ordered the second book at the same time. Guess I was just lucky. I always post them whether there are a lot of copies in the system or not. 

Had a question, figured it out.  Thanks!!

I don't even bother looking at that number. I just post the books. If I am looking to take a donation to the thrift store or the book sale is coming up, then I look at what has  been on my shelf for a while. I had reduced my shelf down last time I wanted to donate some books by only keeping around books with fewer than 5 copies available. DIdn't move much after that. Now I will just reduce by how long they've been listed. There could be few copies because few people want to read the book and there could be a lot of copies because a lot of people read the book, I don't think the number in the system necessarily means a lot towards how soon your book will get requested.

I donate books twice a year--once in late winter, once in late summer.  If anything has been on my shelf for more than a year, it usually goes into the donation pile.  If a book is not a keeper, I like to release it from captivity so it can find its next owner.

Although it sometimes happens that the heavily posted books will be ordered, I think it can backfire if you have too many books on your shelf.  It's off-putting for a requestor to look at your shelf if you have hundreds of books, IMO.  I normally won't look past a page or two of book listings unless the member's tastes are very similar to mine.  For this reason, I try to limit the number of books on my own shelf to 100.

I buy books from used sources so I never know for sure if it will go or not.

I give a deal on my books on my wall to move books faster and save on shipping.

I normally pay .50 or less for a book so if it doesn't move or I cant sell it back to one of the used stores in town I unload it at a yardsale or give it to our library's books sale room

I don't bother listing anything that's not wishlisted or is the only copy in the system. A few years ago I was very active on another book trading site (still a member, just not as active) and listed /everything/ - but eventually I got tired of all the space it took up. If I can't get points for it fairly quickly, I just donate it to the local Friends of the Library for their sales.

I don't think I've ever ordered an additional book from someone's shelf - my PBS points are precious enough I usually want to save them for wishlisted books. I do sometimes do 'impulse requests' on the other site simply because I've got more points built up there.

I added all my books to my shelf and I rarely go to the UBS any more.  If I do go, I sort my shelf by the oldest postings and take maybe a dozen of those; I don't actually delete them from my shelf 'til I get home.  But the UBS usually doesn't want them and I end up bringing them back home again.   I think some of my oldest books have been listed for 3+ years, when I became an active member (I joined in 2007 that but didn't really start posting for almost  a year).  I too keep my shelf at around 100 books, But I also have another 100 TBR, about 40 of those WL . I don't choose my next read based on WL, but just on what I'm in the mood for (I even have some Nora Roberts, lol, which are oh-so-plentiful here), so when I'm done unless it;s WL it will go to my shelf regardless of how many other copies there are.  I know I could go ahead and list some of those heavily posted ones so they start moving through FIFO and just read them whenever, but I would rather keep my TBR and regular shelves separate, both at home and here online. They really do move...eventually!

I don't have room to keep a lot of books.  Most of those on my bookshelf have less than 5 copies in the system.  

Lif eis too short for me to obsess over how many other books are in the system vs how many are requested etc. etc.  I just post the books I don't need to keep any more and don't bother with extraneous data.  If it doesn't get requested, so be it.  Every so often I may have a garage sale then donate what I don't sell there, then start over with a clean bookshelf.

I post them all, I offer deals and those highly posted ones often go during a deal.

I won't order highly posted books except in deals, and it's usually because I find an author that I didn't read before for whatever reason and I might go back to order some of the older ones. But I still look for deals on them, generally.