The time it was about books for trade

Posted November 23, 2016 by Stacee in Discussion | 11 Comments

Hi guys!  I know I haven’t posted a discussion in a while, I just couldn’t get my shit together to do one.  Anyhoo, here we are.

discussion

This month’s topic: books for trade

I have a love/hate relationship with books for trade.  When it first started, I loved the idea.  I have a few series that aren’t complete and what an excellent way to get what I need in exchange for something that someone else needs.

My first go at BFT was looking for arcs of Born Wicked and Under the Never Sky.  Almost instantly, I had people telling me they had the arcs, but what they wanted in exchange was brand new hardcovers or arcs of upcoming releases. It didn’t seem fair to me that I had to pay $20+shipping for a hardcover {when they’re paying less than $5} or trade a new arc I had for something that was years old.  I found myself declining almost every offer.  Eventually, I was able to find both arcs and complete my collections, but I stopped using the hashtag or actively trying to collect and complete.

Flash forward to more recently…I’ve started collecting copies of All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven.  My holy grail has been the UK arcs.  There are two: one with a violet and one with a finch.  Of course I wanted both, but I was happy to have just one of them.

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Aren’t they gorgeous? {Photo isn’t mine}

When it came time to look for them, I would just randomly throw it out into the universe by stating on Twitter that I was looking for it.  That ended up with getting me a few offers, but those traders wanted unicorns: rare manuscripts or arcs that I had, but didn’t want to give up.  On two separate occasions, I offered exactly what the person wanted from their wish list {and for both it was their number one wish} and they said no.  I had even had a trade that was agreed upon and then fell through 2 weeks later because the trader felt it was unfair.

I had offered three different people any of my Throne of Glass arcs and was told no because they were personalized.

At this point, I was a bit frustrated.  I had been so close to getting my holy grail on 5 different occasions and none of them went through. So, I did what anyone would do: I took to twitter.

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I was interested to see that people said no to the poll question. For me, if I was able to get my hands on the UK arcs of ATBP, I wouldn’t care what was on the title page.  I wouldn’t care if there wasn’t a title page.  As long as the cover was intact, I was even open to slightly damaged. I just wanted them.

I officially opened up the ToG arcs to the BFT hashtag.  I was specific about what I was looking for and what I was willing to trade.  And I’ll be completely honest: I was terrified to see what I was going to get.  After having such a difficult time in the previous hashtag uses + my constant trade fall outs, I wasn’t all that optimistic.

However, in less than 12 hours, I was able to secure BOTH COVERS. Granted, one was from Jennifer {because she spoils me}, but it still counts.

And yet, even with this crazy success, I don’t think I’ll be using it again.  I’ve heard so many horror stories about people not getting the books they traded, traders using the trade book to find something better, 3rd party traders, traders deleting their twitter names and popping up with new ones, and on and on and on.

All of the bad seems to overshadow the good traders out there and that’s disappointing.

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What do you think about books for trade? Do you use it? Have you had success?

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11 responses to “The time it was about books for trade

  1. I totally agree with you. I’ve used it but mostly in the past when it was different. I feel like people are so greedy now or they just don’t understand what a fair trade is. I understand it’s hard when you want all of the new, upcoming ARCs, but I really don’t want an old Divergent paperback for my brand new ARCs. And I refuse to buy someone a new hardback for an ARC I want. I feel like the hashtag used to be bloggers trading books and ARCs nicely and now it’s like an auction block full of drama.

  2. I always liked the idea of bookfortrade, but I never used it bc the postage to/from my country is just too expensive. It’s cheaper for me to buy myself a book from tbd then to send one to USA.
    But there’s also a thing that I simply don’t have an urge to own a special arc or sth, if I did, I’d probably use it to find it and the postage wouldn’t be a problem to me them, but it might be to the other party.
    The only book I would like to own is Anna and the French Kiss with old covers.

    irena_bookdustmagic recently posted: What Alice Knew Book Review (Blog Tour)
    • Stacee

      I can definitely understand the postage issue. It can be quite expensive. As for collecting, I’m getting better with it. I used to collect all of the arcs, but I’m starting to get rid of them because I’m running out of room.

      Thanks for reading and commenting!!

  3. I traded six or seven times, I think, at the beginning of the year. They were all successful. The only complaint I had was one hardcover had a bit of corner damage and when I went back to the pic she sent me it was obvious she was covering it up with her thumb. I would have still traded even with the crimped corner, but the fact she wasn’t honest about it will keep me from trading with her again. Heh heh. I figure having only that little foible in that many trades is stellar.

    I did almost get sucked in by that one bad trader (the BEA multiple ARC snatcher) I cannot recall her name right now. But there were a lot of red flags. She said she had a copy, but when I asked for a pic she said she was trading it for a friend and it would be a couple of days before she could get a photo. Then about an hour later a photo shows up in an email and her asking if I was still interested in BUYING IT. When I said it was supposed to be a trade, and asked how she got a photo so quickly if it was her friend’s book, she said I must have mixed her up wuth someone else because she never said that. Then the next day I saw three or four bloggers telling about how she ripped them off. One pretty big named blogger lost seven books in a trade with her!

    I stopped trading over the summer because keeping my wishlist updated was a beast because a lot of the titles I was buying on Book Outlet when they became available, and no one seemed to have anything on my list anyway. I did see last week that someone I have successfully traded with before, in the GR Books For Trade group, wanted an ARC of Never Fade, and I let her know I have one, but now I need to go through my wishlist and weed out and update. Ha ha. XD

    The Goodreads group is great because it has pages of good and bad traders. If it is a blogger I am not familiar, or they don’t have a good trade reference from a blogger I know, I give them my good trade references and tell them that the only way I will trade is if I can send their book out after I get mine.

    • Stacee

      Ugh. I’ve had some dealings with that particular blogger/arc grabber. She won one of the giveaways I had with multiple winners. She emailed back MONTHS later and told me that she never got them. After I told her that she needed to take the tracking number and talk to the post office, she said that I could just buy her a few e-books to make up for it. O_o

      It’s sad to see that a few really shitty traders can ruin the entire thing. Good luck with your other trade!

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

      • Someone was saying that she was running a “thing” with charging $5 to do Kindle book shares with people. That was probably why she trying to scam you into ebook replacements. I will have to keep an eye out for her on my giveaways. Ha ha.

        La La recently posted: THE SUNDAY POST #88
  4. Kayla

    Im so sorry to hear about your issue with your #booksfortrade. I hardly call that an unfair trade…. Though im happy to hear that it worked out in the end!! Its awesome that you got your coveted arcs! :)
    <3

    Ive done 9-12 different #booksfortrade or #swagfortrade over the past year or two.

    They've ranged but they can be very stressful.

    I've had damaged books, I've had damaged pre-order cards (where the cards had stuck together previously. Bits were missing from the art and the trader didn't mention). Ive had traders who wont send items until you send a tracking number and one who didnt trust the tracking number and waited to receive the item and sent out 20 min after receiving.

    I've also had one who didnt want to trade even though i had items off their WL.

    There can be some awesome flawless traders as well. Unfortunately majority of mine were more  negative or incredibly stressful. But the good traders ive made trades with have been so easy and nice that i could hug them.

    Im at the point now that I'm just focuisng on being happy with what i have. Since for me that extra drama isn't needed. ;)

    I'm not necessarily boycotting it but not actively participating anymore. :)

    • Stacee

      Ugh. That’s horrible. I’m sorry that you’ve had those issues. It sucks because it’s such a good idea and it only takes a few people to ruin it.

      Thanks for reading and commenting!!

    • Stacee

      Yep. Personally, I don’t get it either, but to each their own, I guess.

      Thanks for reading and commenting!!

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