frequently asked questions
Tokens
What is a token and how can I get one?
To swap books here you need tokens. But you cannot buy tokens. You must earn them. You get one free token after you listed your first 5 books at bookswapper.de so you can swap almost immediately. After that you earn tokens through swaps, i.e. every time someone orders one of your books you get a new token as soon as the arrival of the book is confirmed. Looking at it another way, tokens are a kind of virtual currency only valid on bookswapper.de and everytime you swap you trade a book for a token and vice versa.
What exactly can I do with a token?
You can order any book in the catalogue you like. Just click on the "Swap Book" symbol. The rule is simple: 1 token = 1 book. It does not have to be a book from someone who ordered one of your books.
Someone just ordered one of my books: Where's my token?
Suspended in mid-air... And this is why: While a swap is in process (i.e. the book has not physically changed hands yet) the token is "pending". As soon as your book arrives AND the other member gives you positive or neutral feedback the token will be yours to spend. You can check how many pending tokens you have in the overview (my page). For example "tokens (1/2)" means that you have one token you can spend and two pending tokens. So to keep the token-flow going please make sure you ship books quickly after they've been ordered. The same holds for the other end of the transaction: Please give feedback immediately after receiving the book.
Can I hang on to my tokens forever, or are there restrictions?
You can hang on to one (!) token indefinitely.
There is a very simple rule regarding your surplus tokens:
Four times a year, on the first day of every quarter, we assess how many tokens you have in your account. If you have more than one, we'll send you a message, asking you to spend at least one token within the next three months.
The message is sent automatically - if you are a frequent swapper, you can basically ignore it.
If you fail to spend a token in this 3-months period, one token will be taken from your account, and offered to the tokenless, or raffled off, to put it back into circulation.
Related questions:
What if I have 8 tokens at the first day of the quarter?
You still have to spend only one per quarter.
What if I have no tokens on April 1st, but two days later I receive 2 new tokens for completed swaps?
Then you have nothing to worry about, we only assess your token count on Jan 1st, Apr 1st, Jul 1st, and Oct 1st.
I forgot whether I received a warning message. Can I check somewhere whether I need to spend a token this quarter?
Yes, you can check in *my swaps*. If you need to swap, there'll be the heading *next order*, and the number of days remaining in this quarter. As soon as you spend a token, the section *next order* will disappear.
Can using tell-a-friend earn me an extra token?
Yes. If someone signs up and enters your nick in the sign-up form (refered by...) you will get an extra token as soon as this new swapper completed his first swap successfully (swap out, that is).
The "tell a friend" thingy itself doesn't do anything magic. We just put it there to make it easier for you to spread the word. Please note that when using "tell a friend" you can change the message content to your liking.
Telling a friend in a pub or in the office does the trick as well.
If you first learned about this site through some internet forum: Why not let others know that it's not a hoax but really free of charge and a cool way to get new reading material? Please always check with the moderators or owners of the forum whether posting a link is okay, though.
Or there's social media - no harm in mentioning us or putting a link in your profile if you are so inclined.
Don't forget to mention your nick and cash in your extra tokens...
What are tokenfairy tokens?
The tokenfairy is our resident librarian. This service is not automated yet, as it is something we want to try out for a while first. You need to have 5 or more positive feedbacks to use the fairy library.
Here's how it works:
(1) Look up tokenfairy's profile via advanced search -> find another swapper
(2) If fairy tokens are available, it will say so in the profile.
(3) Send a message to tokenfairy to receive a token (can take up to 24 hrs.)
(4) Swap a book with it
(5) Relist this same book within 4 weeks (it's just like checking out a book from a library)
if you have a question not answered here, log on to your account and go back to this page to submit it!
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