The Newbie BookMoocher Thread #1

This thread has one main purpose: To help newbies to BookMooch!

Everyone in this thread has been a newbie on BookMooch & we've learned a lot about things that can help you to have a fantastic BookMooch experience...

And if you introduce yourself, then we can mooch from you!!!

There's a Wiki page for BookMooching ( http://wiki.bookmooch.com/ )... lots of great info there!!

Some good threads to check out are the "General BookMooch Questions", the "Angels Needed/Offered", "Pimp Your Inventory" and the notorious "Rant/Complaining" thread... and to counter that: "I Just Had A Great Experience on Bookmooch" thread!! (no links because some of these change on a regular basis)

Generally good suggestions to start BookMooching:

**Don't list any more books than you could mail out to start. seriously. Some BMers have listed their books & had almost all books mooched immediately... think $$. Don't get overwhelmed with too many mooches to start.

**Condition notes are very nice. Even if you only put good, very good, or 'the dog nibbled a corner'. Most will choose a book with a condition over one without. You can even offer books that are awful, just put it in the condition notes.. someone may want a book to take to the beach or vacation & not worry about having to bring it back or keep it looking nice!!

**Status Notes: On your profile page is a section called Status. This message is posted with your book every time someone mooches. Let others know if your house has pets or smokers... if you send books immediately or every two weeks or you will be out-of-town for the next five years... anything that you would like to know from others, they want to know from you.

**Wrap your books for rough mailing!! Try to put some type of waterproof & tear-resistant packaging around your books. Tape is good... (don't use scotch, magic or 'office desk' tape) Padding really helps!! recycle your padded envelopes. Pretend that the post office is staffed by elephants & gorillas. (but they're not... really) TAPE IS GOOD!!

**Multiple Mooches If someone mooches two or more books from you, send them in one package!! Yes, it is OK!! They are trying to help you keep your postage costs down per mooch-point!! Plus, they are telling you that you are listing some really great books!! **If there are other books the (current) owner has, but you are out of points, ask them to reserve the book for you & wait on mailing the other books!! That way all the books can be mailed together, making it a very happy day when the arrive!!

**Communicate!!! Keep your moochers informed!! If your books are going to be delayed, let them know... Stuff happens. Thank people!! Smooch if you can, smile when you can't.

**Ask questions. If someone does something that you don't understand or gives you feedback you don't like, ask about it. Knowing that you care enough to ask about a situation will often smooth any ruffled feathers.

**Consider shipping internationally. It is often less expensive per point than mooching within your country... sometimes even cheaper than shipping within your country.

**EMAILS: Some BM emails are caught by Spam filters... Check your Spam Folder & add BookMooch.com as an approved domain. The problem is that the mail comes from the BM servers, but has the BMer as the reply address. Many spam filters don't approve of that.

**The "Abuse" button This is actually a notification button. If you are having problems with another BMer, you can click this button & explain the problem. There are some volunteers that mediate &/or solve problems that sometimes occur. And if one of those volunteers should contact you, its ok.. they are really here to help you.... and help BookMooch. They don't want you to get into deep problems... they are like lifeguards to help prevent you getting in too deep & drowning in the deep pile of books you might have to send or receive!!
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Enjoy!! Getting a book in the mail is a little spontaneous birthday party. Revel in it.
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(to experienced BMers, PM me with more ideas or post below this. Then we can copy this thread starter onto subsequent incarnations.. and improve BM for everyone... more BMers means more books to mooch!! & more BM friends!!)

**This thread starter will be edited as suggestions are received...

quote**Don't list any more books than you could mail out to start. seriously. Some BMers have listed their books & had almost all books mooched immediately... think $$. Don't get overwhelmed with too many mooches to start./quote

This is very very true - DO NOT List more than you can handle. I listed 400 at once - and I'm still trying to catch up over a month later!

>1 skittles:: The BookMooch Wiki may be found here:

http://wiki.bookmooch.com/

skittles, that is a very good newbie starter guide. Thanks for thinking of it.

I'd add--

Ask questions. If someone does something that you don't understand or gives you feedback you don't like, ask about it. Knowing that you care enough to ask about a situation will often smooth any ruffled feathers.

Enjoy. Getting a book in the mail is a little spontaneous birthday party. Revel in it.

Here's a version of a sort of "form email" that I send when I communicate with new moochers. (This particular moocher was in Canada).

I tailor it to the situation, and this version is a little longer than usual, because the moocher had asked a couple of questions. Because the questions are relevant, I left them in:

Hi (new moocher):

Do I "find it worth the time and money to mooch books?" Well, yes I do, but the majority of the books I mooch are ones that either can't be found at the regular bookstore or public library (unusual, or out of print, or not published in Canada).

As for the price to mail -- within Canada, cost is going to depend on how far it's going, how heavy it is (they'll weigh it), and it's size (they'll measure every millimetre).

I don't know where you're located, but sending books within your own province is usually less expensive than sending across the country. And if a book requester is in my own town, I've been known to just drop the book off in their mailbox. I've also met a couple of people at a Tim Hortons in between us, and just handed the book over.

I notice that you've set your status to "Ask First" for foreign moochers, and that's a good strategy. Believe it or not, it's actually cheaper to send to the US than it is to Canada -- and you get 3 points instead of one for each book.

I feel as if the books I'm sending within Canada are sort of a "good will" thing, and are financed by the books I'm sending elsewhere. I also feel that if I keep the costs averaging about $5 or less per point, then I'm doing OK.

Just a couple of things that I thought might be helpful.

The cheapest method of shipping is almost always the best strategy. Ask for the "cheapest method". If you're going to send to Europe, they'll tell you that it's going to take about six weeks -- and that's OK -- experienced bookmoochers expect that, and new moochers just need to be informed that that's how long it's going to take.

To send outside of the country, you'll need to fill out a customs form, which doesn't require much -- just the address, what's in the package, and its value. Make sure that you state that it's a used book, and put the value at a dollar or two, not the value when it was new.

Here's a couple of useful links for help:

Since the forums on Bookmooch don't always work very well, the most active community of Bookmoochers can be found on the Bookmooch forum on LibraryThing: (http://www.librarything.com/groups/bookmooching#forums). If you have problems with, or questions about Bookmooch, it's the place to go. You can also use the "Pimp My Inventory" thread to let people who might not see it otherwise, know about your inventory.

And if you want a book owned by someone who won't ship to Canada, the forum is the best place to find an "angel". See below for info. about angels:
http://wiki.bookmooch.com/index.php?title=BookMooch_Angel_Network

Good luck with your mooching,

Thanks Skittles! I'm a newbie and just working it all out. Yesterday I mailed 17 books and it was a bit expensive (2 to Canada). I figure I can do that maybe twice a month.

The problem I have now is that there's nothing I want on BM, at least wishlist wise, and the 'recently added' book tab hasn't changed in the last week...My son went through the list and found some gardening books though.

(For a good laugh, type in genre:literature and see what pops up, DEFINITELY not literature always!)

6: And that's where you look at the moochable tag on LibraryThing.
http://www.librarything.com/tag/moochable

The remaining problem is figuring out who has tagged a copy that way.

#7: make a second moochable tag viewable at the book with MoochFromInfiniteletters and put how you want them to mooch from you in your profile.

This is great. It has information here I found out the "hard way". It's wonderful the sense of community at Book Mooch.

I'm not sure I understand how the the moochable tag works/ Can someone help please

Thanks in advance
Gerri

9: Some people tag books they have listed (or are willing to list) on Bookmooch as "moochable". However, since not everyone who uses that tag can be found in the list at the bottom, it can be tricky to tell who to contact about a moochable book.

skittles was suggesting a secondary tag to identify which person had a copy.

The other problem: There are members who don't use tags at all. My library includes collections labeled adoptables, bookmooch, and paperback swap. My profile is open to comments or you could contact me on either of the swap sites if there's a book you'd like...

I'm a bit behind times updating on LT sometimes so it may be best to see what I have on offer at bookmooch or paperback swap as those books could possibly not all be listed in my adoptables collection. It's also possible I've got books in the adoptables collection that are not on either swap site yet. I'm not going to list everything at once because I don't want to be swamped with requests; and not just for financial reasons.

Okay, I think I get it, but if the book is unmoochable on BM, would it be visible as moochable on LT? Or would it be that it's moochable but not listed on BM?

TIA,

Amy

12 >>> would it be that it's moochable but not listed on BM

Yes, it would be not yet listed on BM

skittles...great idea! great OP!!

I think everyone has covered all the bases so far, but I urge any newbies (or otherwise actually) who find this thread to continue to query ANYTHING they don't understand; or would like assistance with...
we all learn that way. :)

I just want to say welcome! Enjoy - as much as I do!

**bump**

I've added another point to the first message... on multiple mooches. I've had a few newbies ask if it was ok to send the books in one package... YES!!

My next 'project' in this endeavor is to add COSTS!! Mostly postage costs, but also possible costs for mailing supplies.... probably a supply list & suggestions for free mailing supplies.

What I would like to request is the POSTAL links from the various countries outside the US. Then I can add the postal links to the top message so it isn't so US-centric.

Any additional suggestions from the group are always welcome!!

Ahh this is a great message, though I checked it out after I joined. Luckily I only added 22 books, and though all but one have been requested, it's still a small enough number that I can send everything out pretty quickly.

#16 Good idea!

This should be the link to the the UK Royal Mail website price finder:

http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/olpui;jsessionid=TSOAV3HR5LOHAFB2IGVUSPQUHRA0...

Was that what you were after? You can send mail in the UK using other services but I'm pretty sure that they are usually intended for business use and so work out vastly more expensive.

Maybe also include a note to say that when sending overseas from the UK, sending as surface mail rather than air mail can halve your costs, especially if you're sending outside Europe. And to make sure you send using the parcel as a 'parcel/package' rather than a letter.

ETA: I don't know how to post the link to the website so you can post it in your original message so I left a message on your profile - I hope that worked!

#16: Here is the link to Canada Post rates & prices:

http://www.canadapost.ca/cpo/mc/business/ratesprices/default.jsf

Domestic (read Canadian) rates vary greatly, based on both origin and destination. E.g. a similar book sent from Montreal to Toronto costs more than from Toronto to Montreal, based on my trades.

International (non-US) rates are 2 to 3 times more expensive, depending on weight, size, shipping method ... but not on destination, an equal opportunity for international moochers.

soul & qforce: Thanks!!

I have also been given the Peru postal info....

I will gather the info & post later.

And the New Zealand Post rate finder is here:
http://www.nzpost.co.nz/Cultures/en-NZ/OnlineTools/RateFinder/

Australia seems to be
http://auspost.com.au/products-and-services/postage-assessment-calculator.html

They have a 3kg flat-rate price inside Australia, along with airmail and seamail for outside.

Not sure if it makes a difference but qforce gave the link to the business (as opposed to personal) section of Canada Post.

http://www.canadapost.ca/cpo/mc/personal/ratesprices/default.jsf

#23: It's essentially the same thing. The only difference is that the Business link give you more online shipping options than just the Ship-a-click (print your own label) option in the Personal link.

>22 infiniteletters:

That is it for Australia - well, how to calculate postage costs and what flat-rate local bags are available... the site I use for working out my mooch postage

http://auspost.com.au/products-and-services/postage-assessment-calculator.html

For the Netherlands I use http://www.tntpost.nl/voorthuis/brieven-en-kaarten/naar-het-buitenland/wat-kost-... to work out the postage.

edited the starting post again.. will be getting to the postal info soon!!

Thanks to everyone who has been adding links!!

edited to add "MORE TAPE!!"

**bump**

for the newbies who might not see it buried..

Hello! I joined BM yesterday and am tickled pink. I have one question. I am now unable to access my profile to update my information. Has this happened to any of you?

Go to "home". Then click on your name (highlighted in blue) and when your profile shows up, look on the r/h side under where you picture is or should be and there is a notation, "Edit your profile".. click on that and edit. After you are finished editing, at the bottom of the page will be a spot to click on (forgot what it says exactly ) that you have finished editing.

30: Unable to view your profile or unable to view the page where you can change things? Any errors?

It's telling me I have to wait for an email and that I cannot access that yet...

And go figure it is working now... ;-)

I just looked and saw TC's (Tani's) profile just fine, in fact I found a book, so maybe I'm your first "moocher"!!

Welcome to Bookmooch, TC. You might want to link your LT profile to you BM profile to make it easy for people to check out your inventory.

How does one do this, dadena?

Profile --> Profile accounts and settings (top right corner) ---> Also on (near bottom).

*bump*

Not a newbie per say, but I do have a newbie question.

What happens if you click remove all inventory while you have pending books to give? Does it cancel those requests or just ignore them in the inventory?

I'm trying to clean up my inventory and post status notes, but I need to remove all the current listings first to make it easier.

It does not cancel your pending mooches, no; it will take your points down by ~41.4

40.> "it will take your points down by ~41.4"

Wouldn't that depend on how many books are in your inventory? For instance, I've actually only got 12 books listed right now. I plan to add more, but not until very late this month, because I'm going to have several weeks that I won't be able to mail out books coming up shortly.

#41

Since dakotamidnight has 414 books listed, it'll take their points down by ~41.4. If you have 12, it would take your points down by 1.2.

I have a newbie question.

I mooched a book about two months ago. The book owner accepted the mooch but sent an email saying it would be delayed by one week (I don't know if that's some sort of maximum delay period or not, I've never delayed one). I expected an email in a couple of weeks tops saying the book had been sent, but never received one. After about six weeks, I clicked the remind button and got no response. It's been a few weeks since then. Should I cancel the mooch? keep waiting? Send another email?

Ah, so that's how it works... I include condition notes when I list the books, so I don't have need to take them all down, was just curious.

>43 jessicamhill:

Jessica, I would say that it depends on the circumstances, but I snuck a peek at the account of the person you are mooching from, and I would say she's a bad risk.

She hasn't been on the site in eleven days, she's never sent out a single book (although she's mooched 14), and now her account has been put on hold.

If it was a person with an otherwise good record, I'd say add the book back to my wish-list, but maybe wait a while longer. However, I don't think that you have much chance of getting the book from this person.

Since you don't seem to have a lot of points to gamble with, if I were you, I'd cancel the mooch, and hope that the book comes up from someone else.

#43: I'd actually send an email response to the acceptance email. Sometimes spam catchers block BM emails... like reminders.

Has the person logged in recently?? you can see that on their profile page... that's usually a good indicator of whether or not they are active.

And they may have mailed it!! There are a few states I hesitate to mooch from because it always takes forever to get to me!!! Media Snail Rate!!

edited to agree with geophile

44: you can go back and edit each book individually, however with a large inventory it might be easier to start from scratch. I know it took me a few days to get everything sorted out in mine, and I am still pretty sure I am missing a few condition notes. My inventory was half that size.

On a personal happy note, my LT inventory is now compltely up-to date. This is several months ongoing, and included a marathon session earlier this week to complete.

47.> however with a large inventory it might be easier to start from scratch.

Yes, I can see that. It's but one reason I keep my inventory small. Congrats on getting your inventory up-to-date.

45--Wow. I wish I would have known I could get all that information about the person's mooching past. I would never have requested it from her. Her feedback is all terrible. Lesson learned, I suppose. Thanks for all your help.

It sometimes works to mooch from someone with a poor record, but with caution and a willingness to cancel after a few weeks.

When an account is closed by the admin, all points are returned to their original owners, so you will never lose a point on a bad mooch.

One more newbie question -

What are the benefits / purpose of friending someone on BM? Can you then see their new inventory sooner or the like?

my opinion only

**a few clicks closer to seeing their inventory & wishlist on a regular basis... (and btw, you can RSS someone's inventory)

**it is a reminder that they are nice & easy to mooch from. (if only we could unfriend those with whom we never want to mooch from again!!)

**it is a warm fuzzy on both sides.

>51 dakotamidnight:: Well, not so much see new inventory sooner, but members can reserve books so that only people listed as their friends can mooch them. This a more broad way of reserving books than for reserving for one specific member by userid.

I tend to use friending as a way to create a personal reference list of members I've had very good experiences with who repeatedly have wonderful things in their inventory, and then, when the mood strikes me (and I very nearly typed 'mooch' there) I'll use my friends list to go browsing through inventories and see if anything new catches my eye.

Firstly: my BM friends ARE my book-friends; my lovely, special book-friends. *waves to them*

Secondly: my friends' list is an efficient way to find them.

Thirdly: everything that skittles and MyriadBooks said...

52: You can RSS someone's inventory?

I tried with http://bookmooch.com/m/inventory/pvachuska and couldn't get it to work in google reader.

>55 dakotamidnight:
You tried putting this into Google Reader? http://bookmooch.com/rss/inventory/en/pvachuska/

56: No - I clicked the little rss button {orange button} by the username to subscribe to the rss.

I'm not really familiar with RSS but I'm trying to learn.

and I just added your inventory to my google reader... it went in fine.

if you can't add via the orange square in the address line, do it via add subscriptions on the google reader page, putting in the URL itself.

Hm, then it should have worked. Did GReader give you an error message?

59:

It come up as title unknown and said "The feed being requested cannot be found."

I just added my own inventory's RSS feed and it worked so something weird is going on with the link from that other member's inventory page.

Try this: http://bookmooch.com/rss/inventory/en/pvachuska/

(looks like Google Reader needs the "en" part of the URL to parse correctly)

>51 dakotamidnight: - 54

For angels it is also handy to add people you are angelling for to your friends list. It makes it easy to contact them regarding the transactions. And these people often end up turning into your book friends anyway.

61:

It's working now - I think it just had a hiccup.

I joined BM about a year ago and didn't post any books because I was afraid to and I still wasn't comfortable with mailing books out. I have since mailed books for the MG program here and was pleased with the mailings that I just posted 9 books last night and already 3 have been requested. Luckily I wasn't to busy or short on cash that I was able to send 2 of them out today. I did see somewhere on BM that if you weren't comfortable with spending alot of money at once to only inventory about 10 books. I am still learning the ropes and have to say I am glad to find this thread to help me in my Book Mooching adventures...

Thanks everyone!!

>64 crazy4reading:

Welcome to Bookmooch, Crazy4reading!

I'll think you'll find that it's a friendly, welcoming group here.

You are wise to keep your inventory down to a few books until you get a feel for how many you are comfortable sending.

If you add your Bookmooch ID to the "Also On" field in your LibraryThing profile, it will help people on this forum to find you on Bookmooch.

And if you put the books that you would like to obtain on your bookmooch wishlist, it will help you to find them. A large wishlist will help you to get more books, because you never know what's going to become available. Also make use of the "Show Related Editions" button at the top right of the wishlist page, to help find more books.

Thanks geophile!! I just added Bookmooch ID to my profile. I thought I had done it before but was mistaken. I am still working on my wishlist. I have so many books here that I want to read that I am afraid to wish for anymore. I have no room on my shelves for the books that I currently own.

Thanks for all the help and information.

>66 crazy4reading: I think many of us here have kind of scary giant to-be-read piles/shelves/rooms/homes. :)

If you don't want to put something on your wishlist, you can also put things in your save-for-later list. I think the save-for-later list is woefully underemployed. My wishlist is mostly "I would love to have this!" and my save-for-later is "Well, that would be nice." It's also a good way to keep track of what I might want to take out of the library if they have it.

I also use my save-for-later list for the audiobook titles I want that are super common in print versions (I don't want to get all the related edition emails and the option to turn them off for a particular title never seemed to work for me).

Hi! I'm new to BM and just joined LT so I could post in this group. Here's my newbie question: I have a book which, when I enter the correct ISBN, does not list the author - I decided to list a related edition (which did include the author's name) instead and carefully noted the differences in the condition notes. Is this kosher? My thinking was that if anyone were to search for the author, but not the specific title, they wouldn't have found the book otherwise.

>69 Zora5:,
Personally I think that's fine since you noted the difference in condition notes.

@69 I've done that before, Zora5. I just make it a point to make it *really* clear that the book is a different edition, (and list the publisher, year, page count, binding, etc.), and it sounds like you've done that!

@71 Ack! Ok, I just went back and added some more details - I hadn't thought about page count or specifying the binding (since it was the same as the one listed) - but how would a moocher know that? More detail=good.

Yeah, I'm always under the impression that too much information is better than too little information. So far I've had no problems! :)

No exciting questions from me - I just wanted to say hi as a newbie :)

I wish it was possible for me to smooch already; I need to send a point back to the Canadian I shipped to because it was quite cheap.

74: Just give it a couple days and you'll be able to. :)

>74 willowbean:
Welcome willowbean!
A serial smoocher already! :)

I wish there was a way, other than a generic "ask me", to specify which foreign countries we will ship to. For instance, I'm a Canadian-American and would be happy most of the time to ship to Canada without someone having to ask whether permission for each book. Sometimes I can afford to add a few other countries to ship to, but not always. I'd love to be able to change the settings to "will ship to own country and the following: (e.g., Canada)" when necessary. I do use my status notes, but being able to change the settings would be better, because I could keep Canada open and automatically restrict others as necessary for the pocketbook.

you can specify in your status notes that you will ship to the US & Canada (which you said you've done) & that Canadian moochers can just mooch right away, but others should wait for permission.

Some international-sending moochers will say that they will send smaller paperbacks internationally but not hardcover or large books. I am set for internation, but have noted in the book's condition notes that 'this book is too heavy to send internationally.'

>78 skittles: But how does a Canadian moocher mooch without asking permission? I didn't think they could do that if I'm set to "ask first".

>79 auntmarge64: Well, when it's "ask first" you are supposed to wait until you have received a yes or no from the person you're mooching from. However, you can actually mooch as soon as you've asked because the book is reserved for you as soon as the request is made. So what you can say in your status is "Canadians, you don't have to wait for a response, just go ahead and mooch" or something like that.

@80

Oh, wow, I didn't know that! Do people tend to abuse that feature?

>81 orangewords: I don't think so. I mean, some people just go and look at the book and see "It's reserved for me! That must mean it's okay to mooch!" but those people usually don't have a lot of international mooching experience.

The thing is, it's necessary the way it is now, because if the person on the other end somehow didn't get the ask email, there would be no way to allow the mooch at all. Also, if you're on the last day of your "ask first" reserve, still haven't heard back, and haven't been able to get through in a personal email, mooching with a note is relatively acceptable. Sort of "Oh, I think you might not have gotten the 'ask first' email. I'll cancel if you can't send this." It doesn't accuse the other person of being a jerk who has ignored you, just politely exclaims that dear me, there must have been some sort of mix-up. Which is actually true a lot of the time! "Ask first" can be weirdly tricky.

OK, thanks for the suggestions. I've changed my status message to read At the moment I am unable to send to countries other than the U.S. and Canada, except for mooches already approved. As able, I'll edit it to open up for other countries again.

>81 orangewords:
It can be abused - but usually by new members who don't understand the system and think, as it is now reserved for them, that it is OK to mooch. It IS NOT!!! Not even in the cases chelonianmobile cited.
Unless you receive an OK you should not mooch an 'ask first' book - no matter that your request may be stuck in their spam filter.

The thing to do is to send another email a few days before your reservation runs out and they often get that and will tell you yes or no then. If they ignore that too you need to find an 'angel' while it is still reserved for you or just when it runs out - you will see posts in threads here regarding this often. But it is not advised to go ahead and mooch the book, no matter how much you want it. I have missed many mooches because of this, but it is the way of BookMooch and it is much better than before we had a reservation system - believe me! And they appear again...

My 'ask first' status is there for a reason and I prefer it is adhered to - though I get all my requests because I check my junk box regularly and I respond immediately.
Most of my rejected mooches are from members not waiting for my reply (and often a few seconds after 'asking first' they have mooched it; so I have no chance anyway) and it is not nice having to sort it all out - especially when you don't want to send it and they have mooched it.

Mostly it works well.

I have a *sort* of tricky question about this. There is a user who has an "ask first" book that I want. I have asked a couple of times, and he/she has not responded. His/Her inventory is really sketchy, and though I've reported him/her for abuse, the inventory is still up. (For example he has books listed like "One one" by One and "Two two" by Two.) How ethical would it be to mooch the book, knowing that he/she won't respond, if only to put him/her on vacation?

New question. I have a book that's really been beaten up, but is readable (except for a little bit of the last 2 pages). I started to throw it in the recycling bin, but instead I changed my status message to say that anyone who wants it can have it for free along with a mooched book. I described its bad condition in detail. Is this ok?

86: That's fine. I've done that in the past for a few really beaten-up ex-library books, and eventually someone came along who wanted them.

#85 - yes, I think mooching in order to vacation someone is fine, especially someone listing what sound like imaginary books ...!

>84 Lman: You know that in most circumstances I would just ask for an angel. However, if a book is on a hundred wishlists, I have tried emailing twice without response, and it's day seven, I have no problem mooching with a note. In fact, that was something we've discussed as a group and IIRC often considered okay as a last-ditch effort. I wouldn't give someone -1 feedback for then telling me no. I'm on "ask first" too, and if someone didn't hear back from me by day seven (unlikely but possible), I'd really rather they mooched it and we could work it out after. When we finally get "ask first" on pending pages my opinion will probably change. But as it is now, that is all I have to say on the matter.

>85 orangewords: I believe there is an angel for that country on the official angel list, so you could explain the issue and see if they'll do it for you without worrying about ethics. :)

I have yet another question. I've been reading the rant/complaint threads and now I'm paranoid about how to pack books. The one book I wrapped in heavy packing paper was in multiple layers with a thinner wrapping paper beneath (also multiple layers) with a recycled styrofoam wrap beneath that (also multiple layers) with about 10 feet of clear packing tape, so I know that one was fine, barring a hit from an atomic bomb. But bubble mailers...I've been putting books directly in them with a plastic grocery bag covering the book, then sealing and taping (with clear packing tape) the one seam. Should I be cutting the bags to the exact size of the books? I've just been matching the book to the smallest adequately sized mailer.

86:

Yeah, I have a supply of books with multiple flaws that I offer for free with any regular mooch on my profile and they go fairly steadily. I had one that was listed recently where my condition notes consisted of: "This book has seen better days. It's quite old, so the pages are tanned. The spine is missing a bit in the middle (I don't even know how that is possible) The cover has a tear, a large crease, flaking, a corner torn off, a piece of the bottom of the corner torn off, and a large stain, possibly coffee. I could go on, what with the edgewear and the dogearing, but I think you get the general idea. By some miracle it manages to still have all its pages bound together and it's quite readable. If you take anything else from my inventory you can have this for free."

and it got mooched! So, you never know!

#90: I reuse bubble-wrap mailers ALL the time. The extra that I do is where the wrapping is thinner, I put a little reinforcement with tape... or where I've seen similar wrappers shred or tear. On the back, if the wrapper is well used, I will also put a single vertical & single horizontal lines of tape in case there is a tear, those might hold the book in the envelope.

The only other caveat I would add is make sure the envelope fits TIGHTLY around the book/s because most tears happen because the wrappers are loose & the books move around or the extra envelope gets caught in the postal machinery.

But, most importantly, Do what you feel comfortable & appropriate. If you think it could use a little more tape, then tape it. If you think it should be fine, then you are done!!

@90 Ok, I feel more comfortable. I want to make sure that I've done what I can to make sure the moocher receives the book in the same condition it was when it left my house. So far, the books I've received haven't had re-usable mailers, so all my books have been sent in sturdy, brand new mailers. I would just hate for someone to receive an empty envelope or a rain damaged book because of something I could have easily prevented.

Thanks to everyone for answering my, apparently interminable, list of newbie questions! :)

#93: Your questions are good ones... and think of all the people who want to ask those questions but haven't... or want to ask them, but find out that you've asked them already!!

Questions are Good!!
Questions are Important!!
Questions help us be better moochers!!!

KEEP ASKING QUESTIONS!!!

Yes thanks for asking all these questions. I am a newbie and everytime I have a question I have come here to find it already asked and answered.

I just recently sent out my first 3 books. 2 on Friday and 1 today. I used regular envelopes and just fold the envelope to fit the book and use alot of clear packing tape. Both books have been delivered and one has already given feedback. I have always been concerned when mailing books. I actually asked the post office what they thought and the person behind the counter had said that using the bubble envelopes are good but they add to the mailing cost because they add to the weight.

Now I do have a question and I don't think I saw it asked yet. I know that the other book that I sent out on Friday has been delivered (I always request a delivery receipt). How long should I wait before I remind them to mark it as received? I believe that is the only question I have at this time.

Thanks,

Monic'a

#95: I'd give the person a week, then a gentle reminder.. not everyone can get to their computer everyday & "Life Happens"... after a week, then they forget that they received it or thought that they already marked it rec'd...

Then, there are the times when the Post Office SAYS that they delivered it ... and it went to the wrong address!!

Or someone else in the house picked it up or put it to the side and the person you sent it to doesn't know it arrived!!

Thank you skittles!! Now I just have to remember to check in a week...

Chelonianmobile, as Lman pointed out above, it is not okay to mooch after an 'ask' request without permission.

This is stated clearly on each 'ask frist' notice.

Some people give permission to certain countries in advance, such as the many is the U.S. who will always ship to Canada, but must weigh packages first elsewhere.

As annoying as it is, some do not respond to 'ask' requests, but that is allowed.

What you might consider is placeing a second 'ask request.'

If you think the e-mail might not be getting through (less likely than it being ignored, or not read), then you can place a 'friend' request with a note attached.

98: But people will continue to mooch after 7 days with an apology note until there is a reliable on-site way to see ask firsts.

I know you've heard this many times, but that's the source of the controversy, not the people who mooch 5 minutes after they ask first.

If a complaint is issued for someone not waiting for permission, then the admins will ask they please not to do so again.

Overall, there are more who complain about people not waiting for permission then there are about people not responding to 'ask' requests.

Yet changing to a requirement for permission would cause more problems than it would likely solve, for the reasons above.

So please do your best to respond when someone asks, although this is not required, it is polite -- and be sure to always wait for permission when mooching, as not waiting is against the rules and quite definitely bothers people as they then will have an unwarranted cancellation or rejection (the moocher should cancel of course, but some resist doing so).

How does one turn off the wishlist emails? I have received like 30 of them tonight and I don't have enough points at this time to take advantage of them.

Try clicking under 'other options' in the email.. I know there was one to turn off emails for related editions there.

>101 highdesertlady:
click on the "your account" button on the left of your bio page;
then on "bio" - view your public bio;
then on the right is an 'edit your profile' button - click that and in the next page scroll down and under 'options' you can un-tick the "Receive email notifications for related editions on your wishlist" box, and you can remove "related editions" notifications.

add: you cannot turn off notifications for books on your wish-list unless you remove them from your wish-list. Perhaps putting yourself 'on vacation' may stop them. I suggest you just ignore them - better to get them than not; OR find some popular books to send to up your points, and then you can mooch them - or borrow some from BoB. :)

I was wondering when you add books to your wishlist do you automatically get email messages for those books? I added one book so far but I don't remember receiving an email stating that the book was available but I do notice when I search for the book that there are copies available. Just wondering since I am still trying to figure Bookmooch out.

Thanks!!

Monic'a

When a book is listed an email is automatically sent to a random person on the wishlist; every four hours an email is sent to another person on the wishlist until it is mooched. It will show up, however, as available in a search or on your wishlist even if you are not the person who has received an email notification yet. The book is available to whoever mooches it first, so by all means, if you see that a book on your wishlist is available then grab it quickly! In fact, you will be most successful at getting wishlisted books if you check your wishlist frequently rather than waiting for email notifications. Many of us use an RSS feed so we can check our wishlists constantly when we are online. For instructions on how to go about doing that check this thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/89849

Did you wishlist the Bleachers book after March? If so, the book was available at that time and you wouldn't have gotten a wishlist email.

Yes I just wishlisted the book this week. I have been a member on BM for almost a year and I just started using it this past week. I was nervous at first to put books up because I am afraid of not following through with getting the books out in a timely manner. I am slowly starting to add books to my wishlist (mainly from my wishlist here on LT).

Thanks for the info on doing an RSS feed. I will try and look at it tonight when I am at home on my computer.

Thanks again for all your help.

Thank you, Lman and BCteagirl for the info. I have done both and it seems to be okay now. There were actually 50 of those emails. It was weird, because I had received virtually only a handful prior to last night, then Wham! Anyway, it's all good now.

Mmmuuuaahhhhh! to Lman for the smooch! ♥ In order to get the Jane Austin books I have coming... I had to borrow from the UBob last week, and with that smooch and an anonymous one this morning, I am able to pay off my loan. Yea!

I love LT and BM!

What's the official party line on how long to wait before hitting the "remind" button for a sent package? All the other books I sent on the same day as the one in question were marked received a week and a half ago (all within the continental US). My feeling is that I should give it 2 weeks (so, a few more days) then send a reminder email. Thoughts?

In other news, I just had 11 books mooched by a charity. 11 books to one address!! I feel like I just won the lottery! *doing the happy dance*

>109 Zora5: I would send an email rather than hitting the remind button. If it's the mooch I think it is (domestic, right?), they have a very solid record and likely will let you know as soon as the book comes in. The mail can be weird sometimes.

Er. To clarify: a personal email saying the other books you sent the same day have arrived and you're concerned that this one hasn't yet. Unless you sent it first class, though, I wouldn't worry too much for another few weeks.

@110 Yeah, that was my concern - etiquette. I want to do the correct, polite thing. I'm actually more worried about the PO than I am the user. With time and experience I'm sure this will abate, but right now I hold my breath every time I hand my books over at the PO. It's silly, I have a great PO and they're very helpful and conscientious...but I still worry.

Edit: Yeah, it's the domestic one. I haven't the foggiest idea when the books for the Filipino user will arrive. Sooner than later, I hope.

I just created a duplicate forum to this one at BM and copied the OP here. Lots of other great info has already been posted on this thread, so if anyone would like to go there and share some of that info I'm sure newbies on BM would be much obliged.

Thanks Dadena,

That thread, in particular should become quite popular as most newbies dont' find LT right away, other than those that came from here.

We'll need all of you BM old timers to help out with their questions :)

Someone has sent me an email asking if I will send a book to France from the UK. I've agreed to that as it's not so expensive, and I will get 3 mooch points which probably makes it cheaper per point than a domestic mooch. But it was also reserved for her for 7 days, and I've taken the reservation off and put one on for a day.

Does anyone have views on the etiquette of reservations?

I also thought BM showed the weight of different editions of books (where those are known copies eg current editions) - has that changed or was I imaginging that completely?

>114 elkiedee:
Why did you change the initial 7 day reservation?
The site sets it so the member reserving it (when asking first) has 7 days to mooch the book, which is a reasonable amount of time to conclude the transaction. I don't think it is good form to change it to only one day and expect it mooched immediately; the reason being some people don't have computer access every day, and 'life' gets in the way of mooching. :) It might be nice to change it back to the 7 days - it is quite OK to make it longer but I wouldn't shorten it.

I have no idea about the weight of editions - I am not sure I understand what you mean here. BM gets lots of book data from Amazon is all I know....

#114 I think Lyn is correct in saying that the weight comes from Amazon so it depends whether the edition of the book you've listed as a weight on its Amazon page. And knowing Amazon, even if it did I wouldn't rely on that weight when posting the parcel!

I don't see why, if I'm agreeing to a mooch from abroad and to sending the book, the moocher should be able to "reserve" my book while she thinks about it, let alone for 7 days. Initially I actually cancelled the reservation. It's been listed for a week or so without being mooched - chances are that it will still be there, but I don't think moochers should expect to reserve a book for 7 days. If someone asked me to reserve a book for them and explained a reason why, that would be one thing.

#117 My understanding of how it works:

The 7 day reserve is put on automatically when someone requests a book internationally from a member who is set to 'ask first'.

If the book owner replies with a no, then the reservation is removed at once.

If the book owner replies with a yes, then the reservation stays so the requestor is free to mooch the book.

I thikn it's set up that way so that overseas moochers aren't penalised and lose out on highly wishlisted books because someone in the book owner's country nabs it whilst they're waiting for the owner to respond. It sounds like you responded promptly but from experience a lot of book owners set to ask first don't respond until near the end of the 7 days if they respond at all!

If you don't like the ask first system I suppose you could change to 'send only within my country' and have a note on your bio saying you will consider sending overseas and asking requestors to email you if they are interested in any of your books. I've seen one member do this before and she let me mooch from her that way.

Having said that, when I was set to ask first, requestors normally come back and mooch those books pretty damn quickly so it's unlikely your book would sit there with the reservation on for the full 7 days.

Sweetie - there is such a thing as time differences all over the world; it is not so much as thinking about it so much as time constraints. If it is not mooched within the time set by the site then you do, indeed, have ammunition for being irked/ miffed - whatever you may feel with this.
I know quite a few members who only have access to their computers during their working week, so if it is requested before the weekend they might not get your acceptance for a few days.
Secondly, quite a few of the BM notifications are caught in spam filters and not found immediately...

You are quite within your rights to choose the timing of how you want your books mooched. You did, however, ask about etiquette of reservations, and I simply explained the site's set up and time set for being able to reserve a book- plus most member's, I would think, etiquette with this.

There was a time when there was no reservation system - so while this still has issues, it is so much better. I know there is no time difference to speak of between Europe but there are other reasons books aren't mooched immediately - but you are perfectly entitled to your own actions. I meant no offence, just trying to help out in answering a query.

add: and souloftherose has explained it much better. :)

Thanks for the explanation. I am aware of time differences but as it's France the difference is only one hour so there isn't really much in it. Anyway, the moocher has come back and mooched and I've accepted so this particular one is resolved.

It's a good point that a reservation default for 7 days allows for some delay in the mooched from person coming back, and I hadn't thought of that.

Not sure which thread this would go in so will put it here.

Has the Rss feed changed? Recently someone here taught me the trick of clicking on the Rss at the top of the wishlist (orange square) to get a list of the just books that are available for mooching. I do subscribe to the RSS, but sometimes that is just easier if I am on the site etc. Now it will no longer list any books, but only take me to the site telling me how to subscribe. Is this happening for anyone else? Is this a new bug? I became quickly addicted to that function, so I hope that I am missing something simple :P

#121 Mine is working. In fact, it just helped me mooch a wishlisted book today.

My RSS feed is always funky. I have it working on my main computer feeding from the regular page, but it won't work at all with the related editions page, and if I try to do set it up on my other computers or at work it doens't work correctly, or at all, and I have no idea why. It took me a while to get it working in the first place, so I just leave the main one. It's probably best that I can't click the button at work anyway :)

It switched from the sign up page to an error page. Your info helped Macsbrains, when I switched it away from show related editions it works again! :P I just need to remember to check the related editions once and a while.

Does anyone know why I can only list "one" "copy" of the Trees of the World Half-Dozen padded envelopes? I've listed multiples in my inventory before, (of books), and didn't have a problem. Is this because there is no ISBN for the envelopes?

(The "book" in question can be found here: http://bookmooch.com/m/detail/BM1209435065675648812)

Just list it, and then relist it when the first is mooched? *shrug*

Yeah, I know I can do that, but I was hoping there would be a way to list both at once... heh. I'm just picky. :p

#125: Orange, look under Member Home, Account, Profile, at the bottom of the page there is a checkbox "Allow multiple copies of the same book in your inventory". Check that box, Save your settings. You should now be able to list your 'book' multiple times in your Inventory?

128: But they said they have been able to list multiple books in their inventory before?

129: Good point. I wondered about that, but figured it was worth verifying their "multiple copies" setting, just in case...

On the wiki, it says 1-2 weeks until you can smooch. I've had some very understanding moochers and want to give back. Can anyone tell me how many days it took to be able to smooch?

points can be transferred starting the 8th day after signing up

I have my profile marked to allow multiple copies of things... Hmm. Oh, well; I guess there's no way to fix it! No big thing. :)

So this is my first week on BookMooch. I set my profile to ask first, and someone from Canada (I'm in the US) asked if I was okay sending it to her country. I am, and replied as such.

Now she has a reserve on the book, but hasn't mooched it. I want to mail it out today, as I start finals next week, but she hasn't requested it.

Is there something I am supposed to do on BookMooch to approve her reservation?

I have a few books I want to put up but want to mooch at least a few more books before I have 10 moochable books at a time. I'm a newbie and I don't want to overwhelm myself.

>134 AmyLynn:

As soon as you tell her it's okay to mooch (through the "yes!" button on the site, or in an email) it's then up to that person to actually mooch the book. If she hasn't done it before you go to the post office, she'll just have to wait until you're done with finals! I'd wait until you're done with finals to put up the other books. Just don't mooch anything unless you've sent the books that match the points, in case anyone cancels.

I agree with 135. :)

yes, well said, and helpful to other newbies who are more likley to see it on the on-site newbie forum :)

http://bookmooch.com/m/forum/newbie_bookmoocher_thread

how do you reserve books for people?

Once you have added the book to your inventory, if you go to the book page (click on the title in your inventory) then on the page (either on the right or near the actual book info) is a tab marked reserve. Click on that and it takes you to a page with a box to add the person's name to reserve it for.. but you must use their BM user id here NOT their BM name. And then click to reserve...

It will then show a page with their name and you can then change the time-frame for the reservation from the drop down menu and then by clicking on the change tab. and if you then go back to the book page you can see the reservation with the book. :)

Ah, Lman has beaten me to it. :)

I wanted to add, though, that if you want to reserve a book right after you post it, you should use the "reserve" button from the line of buttons on the right side of the screen on the book add confirmation page. If that makes sense? It's the same set of buttons with the one to click for adding condition notes.

Also, the difference between user id and name is the difference between stillhappy2006 and Andrea, if you wanted a concrete example.

thanks so much!

I'm still relatively new, although I have enough points now to last for years, I think. But I'm still confused about the wishlist, so:

Is it, or is it not, necessary to search out and add any related editions of books in which we'd be interested, or will the site recognize related editions and send emails, add to RSS, etc.? I can see that the wishlist page itself doesn't recognize related copies (one will get marked as copy available, but not others), but I can't tell about RSS, emails, etc.

I think it's always best to manually add any related editions to the wishlist of books that you really really want and don't care which edition. The related editions feature is nice, but it is incomplete and you can't rely solely on it. Bookmooch may know that X, Y and Z are related to book B, but it may not know that editions Q, R, and S are also related. Only moochable related editions only show up on the extended wishlist (after clicking the related editions button).

You can RSS feed your main wishlist or the wishlist + related editions list, but I haven't been able to successfully do the latter. Others have.

You will get emails for related editions automatically in the same way you get regular wishlist emails, but with the same caveat that Bookmooch only knows some of the books that are related.

>143 macsbrains:

OK, gotcha about BM not knowing about editions not already in its database. But then BM will recognize and alert to any editions it has in its database? IOW, are you saying the only additional editions we need to add to the WL are those which are not in the BM database?

Also, these two types of listings won't generate related wishlist notifications.

*ISBN listing that starts with BM12: Bookmooch manual entry
*ISBN listing that starts with B0: Amazon manual entry

>144 auntmarge64:

I don't think there is any way to be sure which editions will notify you and which won't (except as infiniteletters said, those cases that definitely won't).

As an example, I have two paperback editions of Elizabeth Bear's Whiskey and Water: A Novel of the Promethean Age on my Bookmooch wishlist, but my related editions didn't tell me about the one that's currently available for mooching. I stumbled across that one by accident. Sure it's in Australia, but it's in English, and I get plenty of foreign-language related edition notifications.

So, you never know. For the books that I really want I may have 7 or 8 editions on my wishlist, just to cover my bases.

#146: Actually, not to cover your bases, but your bookcases!!

I often click on the related editions button from the book's details page. If no other editions come up, I know I should go wishlist other editions as well.

If someone has a book available, but their account is on temporary hold, does that mean they aren't sending books right now, a mod's reviewing their account, or...?

One of the books high on my waitlist is on a temporary hold, so I'm not sure I should mooch or not.

I wouldn't try to mooch it, particularly if you only have a few points. Whatever it means, it's unlikely you'll get your book or a response that quickly.

149: that a mod's reviewing their account. If you try to mooch said book, the system won't let you. (You can test by going to the mooch screen and seeing the error there.)

More an LT questions, but how do you do half star ratings? (e.g. 3.5 stars)

>152 Bcteagirl:

Click the 4th star once and it give you 4 stars - click it 1 more time and it changes it to 3.5. This works for all the stars so you can even give just a 0.5 star rating.

Thank you!!

A question that has come up from friends I have been talking to boomooch about (And also for me when I post some smaller textbook type books near the end of the month):

What are the specific rules for requiring multiple mooches within Canada? As I understand it Canada is one of the specific countries where you can require multiple mooches within the country (because of our postal rates). I also believe it is allowed to require multiple mooches for international mooches? Does this mean within Canada it would be feasible for new members to simple require multiple mooches? (Especially if they list a lot of books at once lol). I just don't want to steer anyone wrong and get them in trouble.

155: I think so, but it wouldn't hurt for Mark to weigh in.

Sure, anyone can ask for multiple international, and if in a country with high domestic rates (like Canada), it is okay for domestic as well.

I've also heard of asking for extra points for both cases?

yes, quite a few Canadians do just that

Erg! I accidentally deleted a bookmooch message I just received entitled 'International Request'.. I didn't realize I had checked that one off when I was cleaning out spam.. and it is gone.

It didn't look like a request for one of my books (No are you willing to send to my country) and no Yes! as in one of my international requests have been ok'd.. so is this most likely a rejection of one of my international requests? That would be the 'best' option since I keep those on my wishlist until I have them. Any way to find out :( Will have to be more careful!

160: Put a message on your bio too about the accidental email deletion?

Good idea will go do that now!

Can you manually go through your inventory to check to see if anything has a seven day reserve on it for someone else?

Yes, I think I had better do.. hold on.

Nope, does not appear to be a missed reservation. Good thing I only have 35 books up right now :P

Well, all of your bases are covered! And, yes, thank goodness it was only 35 books. Haha.

Ok, I inherited a couple of Swedish language books from a friend, including:
http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/3721004

How do I enter this in my inventory? Will I have to hand enter it? I would prefer not to have to do that since my Swedish may not be good enough to pick out the publisher, book description etc (As I know no Swedish at all!).

->166 Bcteagirl:

The hand enter wouldn't be too hard, just enter title (you can copy & paste the below if you can't make our extra vowels on your keyboard):
Title: Vädermakarna : Människan och klimatet
Publisher: Norstedts

The rest of the information can be in English - all Swedes read at least some english, so that shouldn't be a problem.

Thank you! I will try that when I get back home (Am now halfway across Canada, wohoo road trip!!)

@Bcteagirl

Jealous! I want to drive across Canada at some point. A couple of my friends moved from Toronto to LA and I so wished that I could have gone with them. Haha.

Technically I flew :P But yes, that is a dream of mine. Hoping to get a few girls together to drive around the province this week anyway.

There's a new user with a bunch of wishlisted books found here:

http://bookmooch.com/m/inventory/katesupreme

THank you!

->168 Bcteagirl:

Not a problem. PM me if you need help with any of the other ones! And have a great trip - I love roadtrips!!

>171 orangewords: Thanks! I found a book to mooch from her. I suspect I may have to be patient, thought, as she has been hit with a ton of requests.

@174

Yes, I hope she doesn't get overwhelmed! :-/

So I've been active on BM for almost two months now and have sent out 40 books. I think I've worked out the basics and am now onto more sticky philosophical problems. I know what the rules say, but how do actual users feel about the whole mooching-from-international-users-while-not-sending-internationally-myself question? Thus far I've avoided it by simply not mooching from users outside the US, but I'm wondering if I'm not depriving others of the possibility of gaining points from me. I'm probably just being too southern and dreading the possibility of receiving an unpleasant rejection email. Thoughts?

It's a topic that pushes a lot of people's buttons, Zora5.

Ultimately it doesn't matter too much if you live in a country with lots of BookMooch members, as there is always the option of using someone from the Angel Network to mooch from "my country only" members.

But good on you for asking the question anyway.

#176 The message on my BM page is:
I don't care if you are set to "my country only" -- if you've earned points, feel free to spend them here!
http://bookmooch.com/canuck_jenni

I'm pretty sure there are lots of others who feel the same.

that's a great statement, jenni, may I use it too? because I really don't care if someone sends worldwide or not, my personal goal is to send out books to people who want/need them no matter what might be their own reasons for sending/not sending worldwide

#179 Feel free! I know there are some people who really get their knickers in a knot over this and are quite vociferous in their condemnation of moochers who limit themselves to “own country”. Indeed, it frosts me sometimes as well, but that’s why we have angels. Realistically though, I have enough books in my TBR for probably the next 3 years and if I don’t score a book this time, it will get listed again and I’ll have another chance at it. You win some, you lose some. It’s a game and I enjoy playing.

That's about what I thought. Ok, new question: how awful would it be to set myself to "ask first" and then require a 2 mooch minimum while also excluding large/heavy books from international mooches? I've also toyed with the idea of accepting mooches from North Americans only.

181: I think that would be a great plan, particularly if you marked said "large/heavy books" in their condition notes.

Also, pick up some custom forms from the post office and look them over. They're not that hard to fill out.

Ah, individually specify in condition notes...I hadn't thought of that, for some reason. I'm a little snakebit because of the one international mooch I did in my first week. If I'd known then what I know now... The $32 charge flattened me.

I mark in my description notes which ones I will send internationally. , that way, people know immediately if I will send it our not. For those books I can't send, I always add that I will hold it for a BookMooch Angel.

Ok, new question: how awful would it be to set myself to "ask first" and then require a 2 mooch minimum while also excluding large/heavy books from international mooches?

That is exactly what I am currently doing for countries other than Canada, though I've yet to refuse a mooch. I have marked in my condition notes which ones are too heavy for international shipping. It's really just a few out of my inventory. I'll also often make an exception and send a single book internationally if it is very small. I also offer to reserve the heavy books for them in case they can find an angel who is willing to send them. Put the those conditions in your status rather than your bio section so they will show up with the condition notes. I've only had once or twice when I've had to email a person back and remind them that I request a second mooch. When I do that I usually offer to act as an angel in case there is a book from someone else's inventory that they would rather have.

>182 infiniteletters: mentioning customs forms was a good thought, infinite. I actually send from 15 to 20 books out internationally just about every month, so when I am watching something on TV that I want to see, but it doesn't demand my total attention, I fill out a bunch of them- just the part with my name, address, signature. then stack them next to my computer, so when I get an international mooch request, I immediately put in the person's name and address, tuck it into the book until I package and that part is DONE.

It is also a great "marker" so I know who the book is being sent to. I also keep 3x 5 cards or post-it notes to do the same for domestic requests. and I NEVER accept a mooch request until I actually have the book in my hands-- obviously I have a real fear of sending the wrong book to the wrong person... lol

I do say in the condition notes of any heavy books in my inventory that due to weight I can only send that book within the US and Canada. It was that or not to list certain books. These books are sometimes mooched by an international member anyway, but they are always pleasant about canceling their mooch when I remind them about the condition notes.

And the two book minimum is suggested by TPTB.

This has probably been mentioned before but will add my 2 cents:

How I wish specific copies of books which are available for mooch could be excluded from the RSS feed and the "copies available" button on the wishlist. I check my RSS list frequently, and it usually consists of books I've asked to have sent from overseas and been refused or books whose owners have stated "not to my country". BookMooch available books from wishlist is not really accurate, and the whole process more irritating than it could be.

(Unless I've missed the instruction on how to do this?)

>189 auntmarge64: No, you haven't missed the instruction. There's not really an option to hide those books. On the other hand, most of those books still appearing are available if you can find an angel, so hiding books "officially" not available to you in that sense would just deprive you of the angel possibility. Not sure if I'm making sense; I just woke up.

>190 chelonianmobile: Oh, that's true. Hadn't considered that.

#191: What I have done in similar cases is to move the book to my "saved for later".

I don't get notified about that book, but I keep a good eye on my SFL list.

I'll see it when I check my wishlist "related editions" but it doesn't bother me.... but I do check that a moochable edition hasn't switched places with the unmoochable.

Well, I'm not really a newbie anymore but this hasn't happened to me before so I thought I would get some advice...

I requested a book from an overseas member which they sent and it arrived today. Book's fine, no problems there but the book was posted in the UK (which is my country), which just seemed a bit weird. It's possible they sent a larger parcel to the UK and a friend sent the book on or they were visiting and decided to bring the book over with them. I can't see that it would be to their advantage to pretend to be in a different country to receive more points for their books because it would cost them more points to mooch and it's not a country where many other bookmoochers live.

So now I've written all that I feel all nasty and suspicious but it seemed odd. Any advice?

>190 chelonianmobile:-192

Still, it would be nice to be able to delete, say, a certain copy from my own WL/RSS feed if the book owner has refused the mooch, or I don't want to have an Angel send for it, or for whatever reason. Not a huge problem, just would like more control.

#194: oh, we would ALL like more control....

but can you imagine the programming nightmare that would be required... not to mention all of the minute requirements that each of us would want & would be specific to each of an infinite number of situations???

EEEKKK!!!

souloftherose, I ran into that last year, when a person was listed as being in the UK mooched a book from me and had an address in Oman. I emailed and asked her about it and she said that she spent most of the year in London, but spent a few months each year in Oman. She even offered to give me a UK address if I preferred. I sent it to Oman and she sent me back a lovely postcard of camel herders in Oman, with a UK stamp.

I think that some people live in more than one place, but it's easier to stick with one account and just change the mailing address. You could just email them and ask.

#196 Thanks RidgewayGirl. I sent them a hopefully friendly sounding email.

@souloftherose

I once mooched from a user in "Venezuela" who had a two book minimum and only one book I really wanted. I mooched from her, and then promptly received an email stating that it would be about a month and a half before the book could be sent out because she was waiting to do her shipping until she was in the USA, (which is my country), visiting her relatives. She was really nice, and I do understand her reasoning, but why have a two-book minimum if shipping costs aren't even apparently as much of an expense as one might initially believe? It annoyed me, but I couldn't be mad because she was so nice about it... sigh.

Perhaps because she was bringing the books all the way from Venezuela in her luggage? Just a thought :P

Yes, I did think of that, and it makes sense in its own way, but overall I just found the whole shipping system she had to be really odd.

Yes, I can understand that. It is nice that it avoided some of the external mailing systems that are a little less 'reliable' that way though :P

It seems a bit unfair that she gets three points for what is effectively a domestic mooch, though, and it costs you two points when really it should only cost you one. Presumably, she's not going to the US just to post your books, so the only inconvenience to her is that she has to put your book in her bag when she goes. Is that really worth two points?!

I can't tell if I'm being crazy-irrational, but I think that would probably annoy me.

>198 orangewords: I'd have canceled just out of irritation. Why should you wait for 6 weeks and lose all those points to boot?

>202 pokarekareana: Anyone in a country with a tiny mooching population spends two points per mooch almost every time. Which sucks. So if you already know you're going to be visiting somewhere with less expensive shipping rates anyway . . . Taking time out of your vacation to go the post office is also an inconvenience. I received a vacation send just the other day. Honestly, if I had mooches for the UK (for example) and knew I was going to visit soon I'd probably try to bring the books along. Then I could temporarily accept heavier books, and maybe see if anyone wanted to get a coffee or tea or something!

>203 auntmarge64: I've waited six weeks just for someone to send a domestic mooch. And I think it was only one point, from what orangewords said about the single book?

You know, I do think that at the end of the day my annoyance was mainly due to the fact that the user had a two book minimum policy. I understand mailing from the USA, and I understand the wait, but I felt like having the extra requirement was ultimately kind of over the top when coupled with everything else.

>202 pokarekareana:... (Always playing the devil's advocate, I just can't help it).. although she did have to lug the books in her luggage all the way from Venezuela... and with the way they stick it to you on luggage weight (At least in Canada) that has to count for something. And she had to mail them while on vacation, not always easy. So technically, the books did come from V.. she just hand delivered them halfway, thus cutting around postal services where the book may have been lost :P That's service! :P

Although I can see your point as well :P

>204 chelonianmobile:
I've waited six weeks just for someone to send a domestic mooch.

Me, too. Even longer for something I really, really wanted to be sure I could get my hands on. It just seemed a shame for the moocher to wait 6 weeks to save the sender a little money, but I have no idea what the postage is like from V. so shouldn't judge.

I'm currently stalking a book that's reserved. Does the reservation expire at the same time it was made or is it something standard like midnight, PST?

The reservations expire at the time they were made per Pacific time. I think it's actually about 20 minutes after Pacific time.

Zounds. That's going to make it tougher.

Consider it a test of your resolve :-)

I have to prove that I'm worthy of the book. ;)

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