Mooching can be a good thing!
One of the podcasts I listen to on a regular basis, Inside the Net, in a recent episode, introduced me to a cool site called Bookmooch.
I find that I buy a lot of books which, after reading once or twice, I end up setting on a shelf never to be touched again. (OK, I confess… there are more times than I’d like to admit that I buy an interesting looking book on impulse and I never even get through it once, my attention invariably being drawn to some other book with a shiny, brightly colored cover). Anyway, if you are anything like me you should check this site out!
I’d say the site is based on the premise that “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure”. The idea is that you give away your old books that you aren’t using any more, and in return, you are able to “mooch” books from other users. Note that you don’t actually have to do a one for one exchange, i.e. give your book to a specific user in exchange for one of theirs. You also don’t pay any money, except for the postage required to send one of your books to someone else. Instead, you get a “point” for each book that someone “mooches” off of you, and it costs you a point every time you mooch a book from someone else. There’s actually a little more to how points work, but that’s the general idea.
Admittedly, it does require you to take a little bit of a leap of faith. You start out by creating an inventory of books you are willing to give away. In some cases, the book is already in somebody’s wishlist, and you may find yourself receiving one or more requests for your books on the same day. You have to pony up the postage and send them out. When you find a book you want, the result you get in mooching from that book’s owner is entirely dependent on that individual. So far I have had a very positive experience. I’ve requested three computer books that would have easily cost me over $100 had I bought them at the bookstore, and in each case I received them within a week of requesting them. Of course, I’ve also sent out several books, but since they were just taking up space anyway, it feels kind of good to know that someone else will get some benefit from them. And I in turn, would reap benefits from others doing the same.
The site does provide user profiles and book mooching/giving history, along with feedback somewhat akin to what you’d find on eBay, so you can get some idea prior to consumating a transaction how it may go.
Anyway, I think this is a pretty cool idea. I encourage you to check out the site and/or listen to the podcast for a more thorough understanding of how the site works.
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I find that I buy a lot of books which, after reading once or twice, I end up setting on a shelf never to be touched again. (OK, I confess… there are more times than I’d like to admit that I buy an interesting looking book on impulse and I never even get through it once, my attention invariably being drawn to some other book with a shiny, brightly colored cover). Anyway, if you are anything like me you should check this site out!
I’d say the site is based on the premise that “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure”. The idea is that you give away your old books that you aren’t using any more, and in return, you are able to “mooch” books from other users. Note that you don’t actually have to do a one for one exchange, i.e. give your book to a specific user in exchange for one of theirs. You also don’t pay any money, except for the postage required to send one of your books to someone else. Instead, you get a “point” for each book that someone “mooches” off of you, and it costs you a point every time you mooch a book from someone else. There’s actually a little more to how points work, but that’s the general idea.
Admittedly, it does require you to take a little bit of a leap of faith. You start out by creating an inventory of books you are willing to give away. In some cases, the book is already in somebody’s wishlist, and you may find yourself receiving one or more requests for your books on the same day. You have to pony up the postage and send them out. When you find a book you want, the result you get in mooching from that book’s owner is entirely dependent on that individual. So far I have had a very positive experience. I’ve requested three computer books that would have easily cost me over $100 had I bought them at the bookstore, and in each case I received them within a week of requesting them. Of course, I’ve also sent out several books, but since they were just taking up space anyway, it feels kind of good to know that someone else will get some benefit from them. And I in turn, would reap benefits from others doing the same.
The site does provide user profiles and book mooching/giving history, along with feedback somewhat akin to what you’d find on eBay, so you can get some idea prior to consumating a transaction how it may go.
Anyway, I think this is a pretty cool idea. I encourage you to check out the site and/or listen to the podcast for a more thorough understanding of how the site works.
Read Full Post
posted by eric at
10/21/2006 10:00:00 PM
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