Are you still actively using BookMooch?

I have not been active on the site for over a year. I took a break from it because with mail deilvery being so slow lately, books were not showing up. Had several that just never arrived, after months. Plus wanted to avoid the post office for a while, and relieve the strain on the postal system, things being as they are right now.

Wondering if shipping has improved any lately- I used to always send my books Media Mail- if you're doing so, tell me what's the current status? Are you getting books that arrive in reasonable timeframe? (I don't mind waiting weeks, a month even- but six months on and nothing arrives became a sad thing for me)

I’ve not had any problem.

I haven't used it in a few years- the postage cost to send from Canada was really high. As well, I couldn't find books that I wanted and when I did, I got messages that no one wanted to send to Canada.

I still mooch things as they come available, which has not been very often for me the past few years. I have no lack of books that I'd like to trade, most with very good demand, but I just don't need more Bookmooch points. I accumulated an excess way back when the point differential on international mooches was different.

I recently put up on PBS just because incoming hits for me have been steady there. I sent them media mail and the turnaround time was within 2 weeks for most of them (U.S. only). There were a couple of stragglers though, but that could have been user delay in marking received since I didn't check the tracking.

Well, maybe I just had bad luck with the last few swaps. I know they do get lost in the mail sometimes. I was on PBS too before, but got tired of the fees . . .

Have way too many points now, myself- and never could find what to use them on anymore.

I think I've had maybe 3 books mooched from me in the past year and have mooched about the same amount. I still send books when I get requests (I now use Sendle to mail them from Australia because it's a bit more reliable than Australia Post at the moment), but it's trickled off drastically.

Like macsbrains, I'm keeping my account open, but I haven't added anything to my inventory in a while because I have enough points to mooch with. A lot of the books I can part with have been taken to my nearest Street Library or passed onto friends who might be interested.

>6 normandie_m: same here. I moved a lot of my wishlist items to my Thriftbooks wishlist, especially books that are unlikely to turn up, or have been on my list for years. Now my Bookmooch list is narrowed down, and I occasionally get a hit, but am not adding more to that. Eventually I expect I will just not use it any more at all.

I sometimes get books from Thriftbooks for about the same cost as Media Mail shipping. And usually they are in better condition.

I cleared out a lot of my inventory and brought to my local LFL.

I'm still using BookMooch, although my goal was to give books I didn't want to keep to people who wanted them, rather than get more books (trying to "reduce" a library of about 2500 titles so they don't all have to be packed up when I eventually clear my house for renovations). For books I want, I seem to do better on PaperBackSwap (although they're few and far between on both sites). Requests seem to come in fits and starts on both sites. Darth-Heather, thanks for the suggestion; I will look at Thriftbooks. Even Media Mail has really become expensive.

I have quite a few ARCs that can only go on Bookmooch (PBS doesn't allow ARCs), and I have been debating about posting them. I'd like them to go to people who are seeking them but postage & supplies as well as trips to the post office are more burdensome now than they used to be. If I didn't already have 100 points the decision would be easier.

I stopped using Bookmooch when postal rates went sky high. No one would send to Canada and I wasn't going to spend $20 to send a book. Also I wasn't getting any hits on my wishlist.

>3 torontoc: All reasons why I stopped a number of years ago.

Does anyone know if BookMooch is still "alive"? I had a problem with one of my e-mail accounts several months ago, and since then have been shut out of almost all the functions on the site until Tech Support "confirms my e-mail address". I've sent I don't know how many requests to Tech Support, using the e-mail link on the site, and not gotten any response. I still get mooch requests, so BookMooch has both of my e-mail addresses and they're working, but I can't add to my inventory or mooch anything myself. I guess it's PBS or nothing from now on. I don't like the fees, but at least when you ask the PBS "Librarian" a question you get a prompt answer.

>12 mirigall: I found this link with a phone and mailing address which I may try since all else has failed. I don’t know how accurate it is but it says they have 32 employees and $7 million in revenue. You would think they would want to keep that coming in. https://www.zoominfo.com/c/bookmooch/353212829

>13 varielle: varielle: Yes, I see where you got that link. It doesn't seem to make sense, but if you find out anything, please let me know.

>9 macsbrains: macsbrains: if what's stopping you is mostly trips to the post office, I don't do that any more. There's a site called PirateShip where you can open an account and print out USPS labels with tracking number and all. You can use media mail and the site doesn't charge anything extra. My helpful mailperson picks up the books with the rest of my outgoing mail (I think they get some sort of credit for picking up packages so the post office branch doesn't have to process and handle them). If you use PayPal, which I don't, I think they may also enable you to print USPS labels.

>15 mirigall: Thanks for the Pirateship rec! Indeed, they really are great and I wish I'd been using them sooner. Since I last posted I actually did start using them because I have been selling some stuff on ebay, and it's been great to have the postage pre-printed because I can use the self-serve kiosk at the post office to get a receipt and not have to wait on line much.

As far as pick up, though, unfortunately, I don't have a helpful local mail person. The lady on the foot route is fine, but the local carriers on the truck only show up when they feel like it, even though you have to make pick-up appointments on the USPS website. I currently have a 30% success rate with them actually showing up to pick up my packages. (And then I get an e-mail saying they picked them up! As if! I am home! No one rang the bell! I still have 10 packages in my hallway!) The times they do come, they don't actually want to carry packages out to the truck, either. I usually have to do that for them just to get it done.

For those of you that do have helpful mail carriers, then it would be a breeze! I WISH! I mean, I've had WORSE carriers (there was an entire 15 years I had to get my regular mail and packages rerouted to work until my local guy finally retired and I could get stuff successfully sent directly to my house again)... but... still not great. My local FedEx guy misdelivered 2 of my packages just last week to 2 different houses on 2 different days and I had to go searching the neighborhood like a porch pirate hoping to find houses that matched the pictures on my delivery e-mails. He did successfully bring me one package in between them, in which case I spoke to him about the first misdelivered package being irretrievable. That didn't help because he then misdelivered my next package to another, entirely different house, but that one I recovered. I swear, at least try to get the house number OR the street to match...

(I do have a good mail carrier at work whom I praise daily when she comes in because for a long time I didn't have a good one there either. Now I get the mail every day! During actual business hours! Can't believe it! She's wonderful!)

Yeah, the post office and I are not best buds. Alas, hauling tote bags full of packages myself on multiple buses remains simplest.

If your carrier is great, let them know they're great!

>16 macsbrains: macsbrains: I'm glad you like PirateShip. I normally only send one or two books at a time and my mailperson is happy to pick them up. Well, at least the pre-printed postage helps some.

>13 varielle: varielle: I sent a letter to the address you found explaining my problem and asking if they were, or could communicate with, the BookMooch website people. I just got an e-mail back saying they had gotten my letter, that they looked at my account and saw that it had a "ban" on it, and that they would refer the question to the volunteer site administrator. (I don't know yet if my account will be reinstated.) Apparently they are a separate "branch" of whatever BookMooch originally was (I don't think I understand this). However, you might try the same thing.

>18 mirigall: Thanks! I will try that. I think they are also having some sort of glitch. I opened a new account that’s not working correctly. If you try to add to inventory it gives the same message that you can’t do that until your account is reviewed but when you look it’s been added to your inventory. 🤷‍♀️

>19 varielle: It seems the person at "BookMooch" who said he would contact an administrator actually did, because I did get that "confirmation e-mail" and my account now seems to be OK, so if you still want to get back on BookMooch I hope it works for you.

>20 mirigall: Thank you! I’ve put a letter in the mail. Cross your fingers. 🤞

>20 mirigall: It’s been a month since I sent the letter. No response and still locked out. I guess after 16 years I have to hang up my bookmooch hat. 😢

>22 varielle: aw. that's sad that they weren't able to fix this for you. I've really enjoyed Bookmooch over the years but it seems that it's circling the drain now. poo.

>22 varielle: I'm so sorry it didn't work. But don't try to close your account yet. I'm not sure how long the whole thing took for me. I don't suppose the "administrator" deals with the site very often nowadays.

It may be just as well. Postage is so expensive and the books I want are so scarce I’m probably better off ordering from Thrift, Powell, or Alibris and get more bang for the buck.

I opened a new account and have been sending out books and acquiring points but I’m blocked from mooching until my email gets verified which of course never happens. I just read on Quora that Bookmooch closed in 2019 because it was outdated and too expensive to maintain. That would explain why they are completely unresponsive but Why is it still available? Other people seem to still be getting some utility out of it. I’m baffled.

>26 varielle: Hi Varielle - I know how frustrated you've been about this, but somebody is still paying some attention to the site because it went down a few days ago and was restored. I don't know what's going on, but I'm one of the people who still gets some utility out of it so will continue to use it. I'll never use all my points but never expected to anyway. Book postage is getting so expensive that we may be reaching the point where it's cheaper to buy the book second-hand or on something like Thriftbooks.

>27 mirigall: I noticed that. I’ve found a back door way to still view my extensive want list even though I can’t do anything else. I just wish I could get an acknowledgment or someway to fix whatever the problem is. I can’t even donate my points to anybody. I miss Bookmooch. I got some terrific books through there that I would never have found elsewhere.