Similar to Wish?

10/24/2011

Last night I was delighted to see an email from Paperback Swap saying that a book similar to the one I was wishing for was just listed. What was I wishing for? Inkscape: Guide to a Vector Drawing Program (4th edition). What did they offer? Transformers Dark of the Moon: Bumblebee's Best Friend. WTF? Uh, thanks PBS. That was really awesome. So close.

I usually love trading sites because for a few dollars you can get rid of a book you're done with, you didn't like, or you never wanted in the first place and replace it with something "new." It doesn't give you that bit of extra space in your room that you so desperately need, but it can be faster than trying to sell at Amazon, eBay, or your regular marketplace of choice. Unfortunately, unlike Swap.com's even three-way trades, Paperback Swap has a credit system, a system that results in more trades...at first. Because the books I want cover things such as programming, graphic arts, or bladesmithing and the books I have are much more popular novels, this results in very uneven trading.

I currently have seven credits that I can't use on anything in my wish list. I could use them all on my reminder list, but those are not priorities. I had to put my account on vacation hold several times, but the day it comes off it finds another trade, a trade I can't afford if I'm getting nothing in return. Looking at the status of my wish list, it seems that I will have to put my account on hold for eternity. Or I need to find something else, several something elses, to want. Edit: a few minutes later - Thanks to Entertainment Weekly's excellent reviews in the October 28, 2011 issue, the first two new books for my wish list will be Harry Potter: Page to Screen by Bob McCabe and 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami.

I could use these credits at their sister site SwapaCD, but nothing I want ever gets traded there either. And I don't have enough DVDs to trade to even bother with SwapaDVD.

Disappointed right now.