In the last couple of months I’ve become a swaptree addict, and of course, I want to share my addiction with you 🙂
Swaptree is a website that allows you to exchange books you no longer want for books that you do want. It works quite simply: you make a list of the books you have to swap (you enter them into their database by ISPN number) and you make another list of the books you want. When swaptree makes a match you get an e-mail asking you if you want to do the trade. The cool part is that their database allows them to match you with people who want a book that someone who wants a book you have, has – so that makes it more likely that you’ll get a match. You can also go to their website and look at all the books you can trade the ones you listed for. Right now there are about 6,500 books I can trade mine for – but the number has been as high as 13,000 (the more popular a choice in your “have” list is, the more books you’ll be able to trade for).
The swaptree service is free, but you do pay for mailing your own books – that can cost from $2-$4 depending on the size/weight of the book.
So far I’ve made about 15 trades – I’ve gotten 3 Harry Potter books in great condition, a couple of craft books, some novels and some cookbooks. Of course, I’ve also traded most of the most wanted books I have – now I’m mostly left with books people don’t want, so my trades will slow down. BUT, the more people who use swaptree, the more likely I’ll be to find people who want my old college textbooks 🙂
One caveat before I save this post: as cool as swaptree is, it’s not really a way to save money on books. You can often find used books at abebooks and even at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com for $4, including shipping, and of course, you can find books at local librarysales for pennies. And taking the books to the post office is a pain. BUT, there is something just fun about trading.
Author: marga (Page 43 of 158)
I just came back from the flea market, and I have to say that I scored! I got 4 activity kits for just $4.50 (and a package of 8 1/2 x 11 mailing envelopes for 50c more).
The kids’ favorite so far is a color tattoo booklet which comes with a couple of hundred beautiful temporary tattoos (lots of colorful hearts and flowers). Camila has already put on six and I don’t think she has any intention of stopping anytime soon. I have ended up with one on my arm as well.
Then I got an Alex Magic Color Sand kit (it must be an old one as I can’t find it online). As far as I can tell, it’s all complete and unused. It has four containers of “magic” sand, which apparently changes color when mixed with water, and ten molds to make color sand shapes that will harden overnight. Sounds like a fun project and the kids are eager to try it.
I also got a Wacky Window Art!: Book & Kit. It has been used, I guess we’ll have to see how much of the window paint is there (and not dry) – but the stencils and instruction book are there.
Finally, I got an Alex My Scrapbook kit
Not all that I found was for the girls. I got myself two cups of tea, sans their saucers, but I can’t complain for $1 each.
Mika, my 7 1/2 yo, has started blogging. I told her about it today and she was all into it. She wants her own domain name, of course, but for the time being she’s fine just using her old picture blog.
Come to Zocalo Coffeehouse with your little ones and watch the movie Matilda.
Nov. 20th, 7 PM, free coffee & popcorn
Bring a new book or give a donation to support Washington Elementary’s Library.
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