New Aussie Book Swapping Site

Hi all. I've just launched a new Australian Book Swapping Site (free to join and swapping only costs as much as postage). Check it out at www.aussiebookkarma.blogspot.com

Closed as of July, sadly. Seemed like a nice idea too. Hope someone else is able to take it over.

If you are interested in swapping books in Australia you should check out www.bookmooch.com.

Hope to see you there

I'm not an active bookmoocher, but it is a great site, very well thought out and developed. And you can put in your preferences that you only want to send within Australia.

If anyone can give me some pointers to begin with - I would love to give it a go! There are so many of these types of sites in the US and none here, it's really disappointing :(

Bookmooch.com is built in America, but it's pretty international. You can set (like I have) that you only want to send within Australia, and I've never been bugged by anyone asking for a book to be sent elsewhere. (Of course, I don't put many books on there, I generally pass my books directly onto friends if I'm not going to keep them.)

You get a certain number of points for registering books, and many more points for actually sending a book to someone! And once you've got some points, you can start requesting books too. (One point = one book. I think it's 1/10 of a point for registering?) So it encourages everyone to be honest: to not just say you're going to send something and never do it. If the book doesn't arrive, you don't get the full amount of points.

I'm sure bookmooch can explain it better than me. :) I'm only an occasional user, but I think it's great. http://www.bookmooch.com/about/

Oooh, apparently if you do send a book overseas, you get *3* points, not just one! And it costs 2 to mooch a book from overseas. But still, postage costs and trying not to think of the carbon footprint... I'll probably just stick to Australia-only.

babemuffin:
There are a quite a lot of us also on Bookmooch; and there is a group on here called (strangely, hehe) Bookmooching here which may answer some questions too.

Bookmooch is a fantastic site, a great complement to this one IMHO - I have mooched some great books from there. For every book you put up for mooching you get 1/10th point; for every book you give away you get one point if it is local and three points if it is international. For every book you mark as received you get 1/10th point too. It costs one point to mooch a book from your own country and two points from another. You can set preferences to NOT send internationally; to ask first and then you can consider; and to send worldwide. Lots of overseas members don't mind if you use slower surface mail either - your cost is the postage of the book - so that can help. And if you want a book from another country and they don't send internationally, there are 'angel' members who will mooch the book for you; you then get it from them. I am a member of the 'angel' network as I don't have a lot of my own books on offer - this way I send lots of books and have points to mooch books!

I did not think I would ever use it that much when I joined but I am surprised at how many books I have found - and how many I have managed to send ; and how many points I now have. Most of us have a link to our Bookmooch profile on our LibraryThing profile.
I encourage you to check it out - and we are all here for support. Post a question and you will be inundated with helpful advice, hints and support. You can even search by countries to see what is available in your neck of the woods.

Edited to fix all my typos. *sigh*

For an Australian only Book Swapping Website
http://www.bookswapaustralia.com.au/
This is only a new website and just starting out, Check it out it also has some great book lovers gift.
I highly recommend the book bag, fantastic idea as i find my books get ratty in my handbag. have a look
http://www.bookswapaustralia.com.au/subpages/giftshop.php