(updated 1/26/26)
Several years ago a classmate at UMSL told me about this great website (Paperbackswap.com) where you can swap books with other people. Since then, it has become my favorite way to get books for home and teaching!
You can post any books that you want to trade and create your own wish list of books you want. When someone wants one of your books, you mail it to them and get a credit. You can mail it using postage printed from the site or go to the post office. Then you can use your credits to get other books you want. The site will automatically notify you when one of your wish list books is available.
There is a membership fee for the site, but after years of them offering this service for free, it makes sense that they need funds to keep the site going. There are three levels:
- Standard Membership – $25 a year. Comes with a 500-item Wish List and the most new features.
- Limited Membership – $15 a year. Comes with a 200-item Wish List and some new features. However, you can only swap 30 books per year without swap fees.
- A la Carte Membership – no annual fee. Instead, you pay 99 cents (or use a “free swap” that you can earn by mailing with Printable Postage) when you submit a book request. 100- item Wish List. All active members are A la Carte automatically, unless they enroll in Standard or Limited Membership. You can enroll at any time.
I chose the Standard Membership because I am constantly building my library for my two classrooms. Thanks to this site, I have a huge bookshelf of titles for each of the themes I teach in my PreK class. I used to sell my old books on Amazon, but now there are so many listings on there and you have to register to have a seller account. Selling your books to a secondhand store or Half Price Books usually yields very little per book.
I find that even with the membership fee and postage, the cost is usually less than buying used books on Amazon. This is especially true since you have to pay $3.99 shipping on top of the cost of most used books on Amazon. I am also able to find specific books I want that are not always available.
Ways to get cheap books to KEEP or SWAP:
- Books my family no longer wants or has outgrown
- Good Will finds – you can often find good quality books for very cheap at Good Will. Sometimes I will get a book I want to read and then swap it! I will often find new books there!
- Resale shops
- Purchases from other teachers on Facebook groups (often a box of many titles)
- Hand-me-downs from friends
- Used book sales (like at your local community center or rec center)
- Scholastic Book orders from your child’s school
- Bargain books at bookstores like Barnes & Noble
- Half Price Books
- Sale shelf at your local library
- Garage sales
- Amazon.com third-party sellers
They also have a CD sister-site and a DVD sister-site. I have used the DVD site, too, and gotten lots of movies we wanted.
One last tip – Be sure to use Media Mail when mailing your requested items at the post office. This will save you a lot!
If you have any questions about swapping, let me know and I will be glad to help!
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