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SF-Books.com is a free website which allows people to trade books with each other. Once you've finished reading a book, why let it gather dust? Why sell it to a second-hand dealer for a fraction of its worth? Why throw it away? Trade it in! It's very simple. Once you've registered, you will be able to log on to your own area of SF-Books.com called MyBase. In the MyBase area you can list the books you are looking for, and list the books you have on offer. If one of your wanted books has been listed on offer by someone else, the book will appear as available. You then have the choice to request that book from the other sf-books member. Similarly, if the book you have offered is listed as wanted by someone else, then they will have the option to request the book from you. Once a trade is made, e-mail addresses and the postal address of the receiver are made available. If a book becomes available when you are not logged in, or a trade request is made for one of your books, you will be notified automatically by e-mail. The number of books you have received and the number of books you have sent is tracked by a credit system. Each book you send earns you 1 credit. Each book you receive subtracts 1 credit from your total. You may build up as many credits as you wish by sending out as many books as you have, and then use those credits in your own time. Each credit you earn allows you to request a book from ANY member, not just the members you have sent books to. This enables you to choose from the entire database of available books. What kind of books can I trade? Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Historical, Cyberpunk, Novelisations, TV Tie-ins, Multi-Author series, or anything else in the speculative genre. Just be aware that the site is called SF-Books.com, and that's what most people will be interested in. Don't start listing Mills & Boon! The only rule is that books must be in readable condition. They don't have to be brand new, but no ripped or missing pages, water damage, or scribbled out text. Paperbacks are also prefered to hardcovers, to keep postage costs low. But all books are not the same... Aren't they? A book you want to read has as much value as a book one of your fellow traders wants to read. It may not have as many pages, or be as new, or have a pretty picture on the cover, but all books have the same basic value. And the reader alone knows the value of that book to them. Postage is paid by the person sending the book. Similarly, when you receive a book, you don't pay any postage. This negates the need for any cash to change hands between traders, a much simpler system for all. That is true. Some books will cost more to send through the mail than others. But it will all even out the more trades you participate in. If you are really worried about postage costs, then don't put Lord of the Rings, Sarum, or The Reality Disfunction in your offered list (all really heavy books). Stick to the nice thin Harry Potter books (the first three anyway!). Another way to avoid high postage is to limit the continents that you wish to trade with. If you choose this option though, remember that you won't receive any books from those places either.
Who owns the book once I've traded it? Once you have sent a book to another trader, you are actually giving it to them. It becomes theirs to do what they like with. Usually, they will read it and place it back up for trade so someone else can request it. This is not always the case however. Likewise, when you receive a book its yours to keep. How do I keep track of trades? In your members area is a section called Trades In Progress. This lists the status of books that are en-route. Each trade is listed under one of two headings: Books Requested By Other Traders Books You Have Requested Under each heading is the book Title, the current Status (Request or Sent), the username of the Requester or Sender, and the Action you can take. The actions are as follows:
SEND - Click when you agree to send a book to someone
So it's simple; when you mail a book to someone, you click the SEND icon for that trade. When you receive a book from someone, you click the RECEIVED icon for that trade, and the trade becomes complete. Only once a trade is complete does your credit balance alter. When you click Received, your Balance goes down by one. When someone clicks Received for a book you sent them, your credit balance goes up one. After you have clicked Received, you will be asked to rate the sender, according to how satisfied you were with the trade (was the book late? Was it damaged? Or was the sender extra efficient?). You can also leave optional feedback. You will also notice, after you have received a book, it will be automatically added to your Trading list, but marked as 'Hidden'. This means no-one else can request it. Once you have finished reading it and are ready to make it available for trade, click 'Hidden' and the book will become 'Visible'. Other members will now be able to request it if they choose. No-one is requesting my books. What's wrong? The first thing to do is check that all your settings are correct. In the MyBase panel, click on Update Member Details. Make sure that your country, location (continent) and trading zones are correct. Also check that your trading status is set to ACTIVE. If all these details are correct and you still are not geting any trades, you might want to consider expanding the zones with which you trade. Remember, if you don't send books to other regions, you won't be receiving any from those regions. Of course, the other thing to try is add a lot more books to your trading list! Also, make use of the SF-Books forum. It's quite ok to advertise your available books here. What if my credit balance reaches zero? If you have a credit balance of Zero, you will not be able to receive any more books until you have earned more credits. Earning credits is easy, you just send books from your Offered list to people who want them. If you run out of credits and there is a book you really want, you can buy credits at a cost of US$4.00 each. Please email info@sf-books.com to request a credit purchase, or simply send payment via PayPal to billing@sf-books.com How do I contact other members? In your MyBase page you will see a tab called Messages. You can use this function to send notes to other sf-books members. If you receive a note from another member, you will be notified in your Log-in panel. You can also send notes from the Member profile page, by clicking the Message icon. What happens when someone wants one of my offered books? If someone requests a book that you have listed in your offered list, you will be notified by email, and you have the choice of accepting or declining the trade. It is rare that members would choose to decline a trade, however the choice is there to protect members from unscrupulous traders. Simply click SEND to agree to send the book, or DECLINE. It is very important that you mail the book promptly after clicking the SEND icon, hopefully the same day. When you accept the trade offer, the name and address of that trader will be emailed to you, with a request that you mail the book to that person. What happens when someone has a book I want? You will be notified, either in your MyBase section if you just placed it in your Wanted list, or by email if someone lists it as offered. Once you actually recieve the book it is VERY important that you log on and indicate that the book has been received. Failure to do this may lead to your membership of SF-Books.com being revoked. You will have 2 weeks to indicated that you have received a book. If there is an abnormal amout of time elapsed between the book being sent and received, you will be contacted by SF-BOOKS.COM. What happens if there is a dispute? If one party insists that they have sent a book, and another party insists they haven't received it, then feedback will be written by both parties explaining their side. The dishonest party will soon be discovered. They may get away with stealing a book once, but if it happens a second time they will soon be caught and appropriate action will be taken.
How does the referral system work? On the registration form there is a field labled Referred By (USERID). When new members put your username into this field, you recieve a free trading credit. Be sure to tell your friends and associates you have referred to SF-Books that when they register, they should type your username in this field. Also, if you link to SF-Books from your own website, you can use the following link to automatically place your username in the field: http://www.sf-books.com/register.asp?refname=xxxx Simply replace xxxx with your username. Please note that the field is case sensitive. How do I Contact SF-Books.com? E-mail sf-books at info@sf-books.com. |
