paperbackswap.com for cookbooks

for those of you who aren't familiar with paperbackswap.com, i figured it was time you let you in on this great site. one trades books for credits, and hardcover books can be traded as well. to start, one makes a list of books one is willing to part with, in any category. when someone requests one of your books, you pay for shipping (you can print out a shipping label from the site), and then you get a credit which you can use to request a book from someone else. the only books i ever want are cookbooks, and the cool thing i've discovered is that there seems to be good percentage of hardcover cookbooks. in just the last few weeks i've received the gigantic hardcover 'silver spoon' (italian cooking), and the chez panisse book of fruit. and each one cost me only 1 credit, with the shipper paying a very reasonable 'media mail' rate ($2.38/lb). the selection could be better (way too many copies of frugal gourmet and richard simmons diet books), so in the name of self-interest, i'm hoping to get some of you to list and part with your own underused cookbooks. the other great thing is one can trade credits if you are also on swapacd.com. i'm much more interested in acquiring cd's and getting rid of paperbacks, so i works out really well for me. justjoan

Don't expect to get everything you want instantly -- there are a lot of long waiting lists for popular cookbooks.
I have, however, gotten some very nice ones out of this service, though, and it's my go-to for beach reads where I don't care about the condition of used books.

joelf: of course you're right. i didn't mean to give the impression that everything i want is at my disposal. but, again, the more people join, the more books are available to all. and i encourage lth'ers to post their unwanted cookbooks, paperback or hardcover. justjoan

Paperbackswap.com sounds like pretty much the same set-up as bookmooch.com. I've scored a few good-condition editions of Time-Life cookbooks (Spain, France, and Germany,) there. You do have to set-up wish lists and be patient for results on anything other than best sellers. Thanks, Joan for the heads-up on this site.

Might be fun to have a swap at the next LTH picnic

razbry wrote:Might be fun to have a swap at the next LTH picnic

That has been tried, with only limited success, partly because of the coming and going nature of the picnic.
If we can market it as "bring your spares" and "take an orphan home" it might work better.