Well, a proper review of Bookmooch. I have been using it and I love it. But its not brilliant. Well lets get to the criticisms. If people put up books they do not have, get the 0.1 point for a 100 non existent books, they can exchange them for books on a deception. This has been done, when 1 guy in Asia did this and was finally stopped (I read this on another article, but can't find the URL, so sorry for that). There is also the look. It could really do with a cleaner look. Also (from the same article I can't find), what about an RSS feeder for when your wishlist book comes in.
The advantages are really good. The social element of swapping books, getting trust points from feedback and being part of a network, is its major selling points. As Cronin-Lukas of The Big Blog Company said:-
"Google sells reach. Amazon sells reviews. eBay sells reputation"
Reputation really helps on this site. People come back to my bookmooch as I have positive feedback.
I got to say, its a great service, but it can still add more features.
If I find the link i will post it up to that article I can't find.
16 comments:
This is no suprize. The problem with BookMooch is that they award credits without any way of backing them up. They just hope that people will follow through. Becuase they have a large influx of new users now, the problem is masked, but when the userbase levels out, there will be thousands of users with tens of thousands of credits - credits they rightfully earned from sending their items away - and they will have nothing to spend them on. This is why I use an alternate service called SwapSimple, because they guarantee their economy. Just my $0.02.
It just really makes me mad to see the press promoting the heck out of services like BookMooch, without doing the proper homework, or even giving the model a bit of thought. I fear that soon, BookMooch will ruin the swapping model in the public's eye, for the other swap services that are truly trying to create a responsible trading experience for their community members.
I had a really bad experience with bookmooch. if you join, be preared to send out a minimum of ten books before ever receiving one in retun.
Bookmooch is a great idea materialized by the founder John Buckman but apparently he does not know what's going on at Bookmooch! His administrators are using the site to make money out of Bookmooch by creating their own accounts and mooching expensive books and giving away cheap books in return! Then they sell the books they've mooched. If a member competes with them in mooching hard-to-find or expensive books their accounts will be closed or suspended indefinitely based on ridiculous reasons, which are meaningful for only themselves! Traps will be set for such members using fake accounts the administrators have to close their accounts. New members who have expensive books should send such books to the chief administrator, Mark Williams, to be allowed to exchange books at Bookmooch, although they may not know they are sending the book to him because he can use a fake account to mooch such books! Think twice before joining Bookmooch!
Bookmooch is great for booksellers because of the point system they use, 0.1 pts for every book listed. A bookseller could list 1000 of their crappy unwanted books and get 100 pts automatically. If you are a bookseller, I highly recommend it. If you are a normal user, you will have a tough time finding books you want, because of the competition with these booksellers. A lot of users are stuck with points and unable to find anything to use them on.
BookMooch is amazing. I am not a book seller and I have had nothing but positive experiences since joining.
Seems like the "for profit" sites have been here to try and kill competition.
I find for the most part people who love to read love to share what they have read.
Who said trust should not be a thing we should aspire to in this world.
The lack of GUI - Graphical User Interface doesn't bother me at all, the more slick GUI sites make me wary. . .for profit not for sharing.
Also the "for profit" sites for the most part don't offer the rich world of International sharing, very insular to the United States, a sad thing in my view.
If you want a chat area, awesome graphics, a company that hides they are for profit, join another swap site.
If you want a rewarding experience where you can find International titles, swaps and yes friends, along with domestic (US) opportunities then join BookMooch.
Just my $0.02 cents so join and enjoy, I'd love to Mooch from you and have you Mooch from me!
Bookmooch is not only implicitly accepting the actions of its administrators, who make thousands of dollars monthly reselling books mooched on false pretenses from unsuspecting members. Bookmooch's founder, Jon Buckman, has been repeatedly been made aware that his administrators are engaged in dishonest (and sometimes borderling illegal) conduct, and has taken no actions to stop this from happening. Is he making a profit from the sales of these books as well? One has to wonder... Anyhow, I'd be very cautious about using Bookmooch. The rules are such that if you annoy one administrator (by, for example, not agreeing to send him your high priced textbooks) you will be suspended indefinitely, with no way to use the points you paid money to accumulate. I would try Paperbackswap instead. That site is a well-run, well established organization, with far better books shared much more equally among its many members.
Tired of the slamming of Bookmooch. Check out the BBB complaints about Paperbackswap a for profit business unlike Bookmooch.
Surely honesty counts for something on this blog so please post this.
My experiences of the service so far is that it's a scam, well designed and clever, but still a scam. They scam books from newcomers, make it a business and then crocked admins skim the cream.
It's a good one way stream for your books, but don't expect to get anything back.
Alternative BookMooch Experience.
I had created an account and posted very nice books that were mooched immediately from people abroad. I sent the books and got quite a lot of points so within the first week I had mooched 15 books and sent 15 books. At one point I find veeeery interesting new books from another guy and mooch them. I wake up only to find that all the "good" books that would have totalled 50$ on Amazon have been cancelled on my behalf by an admin and my account has been put on vacation. I have already written 3 emails to the admin support but none has replied to me. I have only positive reviews on my account, but it has been disabled without any reason. The fact that only the newer and pricey books have been cancelled is very suspicious.
It's no free lunch. BookMooch is a for-profit site, like Google and FaceBook, and the "members" are the product which is sold to advertisers. Give John Buckman cred for seeing a niche market and creating a successful brand. A cinch for the founder/CEO of Lyris, a direct-marketing firm (sold in 2005 for $12 million). Compare the stats from February 27, 2008 BookMooch Wordpress blog under "Amazon should love us":
http://bookmooch.wordpress.com/2008/02/
to the numbers on the blogads website:
http://web.blogads.com/advertising/bookmooch/bookmooch/adspotsfolder/ba_adspotsfolder_revision_create_shortcut?persistent_uid=c7dd78ebd527751c8162b1bc18cfc779&persistent_ref=
Short version:
2008: "I think Amazon should be happy with us, since we sell about $10,000 a month worth of books for them …. BookMooch is paid an 8% commission …."
2011: "At BookMooch, our small "amazon info" button sells over $50k of new books each month for Amazon. Just think of how well your highly visible ads will do at selling your books."
2008: "I don't take advertising"
2011: "Our users actually love book ads …."
The slickest part of John Buckman's operation is the poor fools who "give a little" ($$$) to BookMooch (on top of paying for postage, gas, and books, AND wasting time searching for books that will never enter the system). From the BookMooch blog: "Even a teeny donation of $3 per month really helps … My time is donated, as are all the admins … nobody gets paid for helping run BM."
one last thing:
http://sunrisecodeworks.com/BookMoochStatistics.html
Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.
I also joined Bookmooch. I listed several books, accidentally listed three books as available, instead of requests, but quickly deleted them. About an hour later my account was deleted with no explanation, even after I wrote the administrators and explained the simple mistake.
I have been on PaperbackSwap since 2007 and have had only one issue, which was quickly explained and resolved (within 24 hours). I have swapped over 300 books there successfully. I love it.
I joined bookmooch and had 4 points from listing my stack of books. I requested 2 for myself. I sent out 3 books which were requested from me on the same day. Later on in the evening I could not come back to my account. It had been disabled. I saw as my inventory was emptied and my points were stolen by admins. They also marked the books I sent out as cancelled by me. I have a few choice words to describe bookmooch, but they are not safe for work. I have been using PBS and have had no such problems. Also I was never warned nor given any reason for this abuse at BM. Staw far away... my account name was illustratedman it's searchable.
I thought that BookMooch was great, until I had a problem with a preferred user who scammed a book from me. The only response I got from customer support, when I brought it to their attention, was that I was ridiculous for 1) expecting the other user to provide me information and maintain contact and 2) expecting BookMooch to take action when the other user did not. I used to highly recommend this site, but I can no longer do this. I am no longer a member for this reason.
I had the same problem as other people. Joined up, sent some books, mooched one book (I think) and had requests for others. Came back to deal with it and my account was on vacation. Four emails later without a response and I gave up.
I used bookmooch very briefly and had them delete my entire inventory when they found out that I was leaving as I was having trouble finding books that I was going to want to read. That left me with a negative number of points. They said they wanted to verify my email account even though they had been sending me emails without problems. Then they made comments about me using all my points and that those points were given to me for someone with an active inventory. I said I had mailed books to people the day before and did they want the pid number off the postal receipt and that I would have sent the books to anyone who wanted them. So the points I got for listing books I guess I was not supposed to use. I feel like they like certain parties and if you are not one of them you will be ignored and have trouble. I recommend paperbackswap.com they dont do the things that bookmooch does.
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