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Club Members Rocket Past $10 Million In Savings!

The Earth Times (Newspaper) - 2/5/2009 by PaperBackSwap.com
ATLANTA, Feb. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Club Members in the media swapping sites
PaperBackSwap.com, SwapaCD.com and SwapaDVD.com have just passed the $10
million mark in savings for swapping used books, CDs and DVDs.


With the economy in a downturn, everyone wants to save money. Over 100,000
active members have found out that swapping online is a great way to do it.
These clubs are changing the face of home entertainment: no rental fees, no
hassle, and real money savings to boot. All that is required is a working
email address, a mailing address served by the US Postal Service, and some
books, CDs or DVDs in good condition that you don't want to keep anymore.



How it works


When you are ready to share an item you list it as available for swapping.
When another club member requests it, the system will send you an email asking
you to mail it out. (Yes, you have to pay the postage.) Simply print the
wrapper using two regular pieces of paper. And you can add pre-printed
postage directly from the site. Then you can mail it from your home mailbox.
When the other member gets it (and can keep it or re-swap it), you get credit
for sending it.


You're asking, well, if I pay postage, how am I saving money? Well, each
item you send gets you credit good to order for yourself. Each book is 1
credit, each DVD and CD 1 credit per disc. When you use the credit you earned,
the item you order comes to you free of shipping costs. So you get each book
for just the cost of the postage you spent to send out a book of your own. CDs
and DVDs, being lighter in weight, are even less expensive to mail. You can
transfer the credits between your accounts at the three sites, and choose from
the over 2.9 million books, over 175,000 CDs, and over 80,000 DVDs currently
available.


So, if you pay $2.23 in postage to swap a book, you get a book of your
choice for free. Pay $1.28 to swap a CD, you get a CD. Pay $2.02 in postage to
swap a DVD, get a DVD for free. If you would normally pay 4 or even 5 dollars
for each of these, you have saved dollars with your very first swap. And once
you have finished reading (or watching or listening to) an item you can
re-list it and swap it again and get the credit back. We calculate that each
book swapper saves about 2 dollars a swap; each CD swapper saves about $2.50 a
swap; and each DVD swapper saves about 3 dollars a swap.


With 4.29 million books swapped, that means that the members of
PaperBackSwap have saved collectively more than 8.5 million dollars! The CD
club members have conducted 485 thousand swaps, saving a collective 1.2
million dollars, and the members of the newest club, the DVD swappers, have
swapped 188 thousand times and collectively saved half a million dollars. When
multiple items are swapped at once (which is very common -- the sites make
this easy to do), the savings are even greater.



PaperBackSwap was founded in 2004 as a way to swap books with friends and
family. Through positive word of mouth and some great stories in Readers
Digest, Good Housekeeping, CNN and The Today Show among many others, these
clubs have grown by leaps and bounds. We now boast members in all 50 U.S.
states and territories, as well as at APO/FPO/DPO addresses, and currently
PaperBackSwap members swap over 40,000 books per week -- not just paperbacks,
but hardcovers and audio too.


As the clubs grow, features are added: the Wish List, which allows a
member to "queue" for any item that is currently unavailable in the system and
to be notified via email when it is available; the Discussion Forums that
offer lively conversation on nearly every topic imaginable; Live Chat that
offers a way for members to meet "virtually" in real time. There are even
local Club Chapters where online friends can meet in real life. The clubs have
over 100,000 active members and the membership grows every day.


For more information, visit www.PaperBackSwap.com, www.SwapaDVD.com and
www.SwapaCD.com .



SOURCE PaperBackSwap.com