BookJingle Blog

Archive for June, 2011

BookJingle can help non-profit groups, schools, or churches earn money with a book drive fundraiser! This is a great way to bring in extra cash without having to sell anything, and it’s environmentally responsible, too. Selling used books is a great way to bring in money while going green!

The first step is to organize a book drive. It’s a good idea to plan advertising for your book drive, both at your non-profit group and in the community, to let people know that you are collecting books. Set up collection boxes at the site and around the area. Make sure to ask permission before setting out the boxes. For example, Dr. Smith at the local pediatrician’s office may be on your non-profit board. He would probably be willing to put a collection box in his office.

Next, you need to create a BookJingle account in the name of your organization so that all PayPal or check payments will be sent to the organization. All volunteers must have access to this user name and password. If PayPal is selected as the preferred method of payment, the group coordinator will have to set up the PayPal account and give all members access to the PayPal ID.

Your volunteers will then collect all of the books that have been donated, and then they will sort through the books and enter the ISBNs on www.bookjingle.com. The site will give a price quote for each book that BookJingle is buying. This process can be done at one central location, or each volunteer can take a few boxes of books home and enter them on their own computer, as long as they log into the organization’s BookJingle account. All books will need to be quickly examined according to the simple condition criteria listed on BookJingle’s website; for example, any water-damaged or torn books will need to be set aside. Next, the books will need to be packaged and shipped using BookJingle’s free shipping label. The boxes may be provided by the group coordinator or procured individually by volunteers. When they are packed, the boxes should be dropped off at the post office.

When BookJingle receives the books, payment will be issued within 48 hours. BookJingle will most likely not purchase every book you collected. The books purchased by BookJingle change from day to day depending on market demand and other factors. If BookJingle is not purchasing a book, you will receive the message, “Sorry, we are not currently purchasing that title,” when you enter the ISBN. The extra books that are not purchased by BookJingle can be donated to charities or to your local library. Or, you could opt to host a used book sale to pick up even more cash for your fundraising project.

In My Opinion…
A Book Review of 23 Minutes in Hell by Bill Wiese

I have read a lot of horror novels over the years, ranging from campy books to some genuinely chilling books that still come back to haunt me on a regular basis. I have never before read anything like 23 Minutes in Hell. It is hands-down the scariest book I have read, and it isn’t even a novel.

23 Minutes in Hell, published in 2006, is an autobiographical account of a man named Bill Wiese. He is an ordinary kind of guy, a realtor, not an author, a worship leader in his church but not a professional speaker or well-known person. Wiese claims to have known little to nothing about the place called hell until a supernatural occurrence in November of 1998 in which, Wiese says, he was taken to hell and allowed to experience a portion of the torture and misery of the other people held captive there. For 23 minutes, Wiese was physically beaten by what he calls demons, and he witnessed other people being tortured and burned by flames; Wiese provides a description of fiery pits in hell and absolutely heart-stopping descriptions of demonic beings.

This is the kind of book that you have to read with a suspension of disbelief and then decide for yourself what to make of the author’s claims. I was pretty skeptical at the beginning; I really believed that Wiese most likely experienced a vivid dream or hallucination. But his arguments that his experience was an actual, real-life vision are surprisingly convincing. Wiese cites multiple scriptures that support his descriptions of hell, although he says he had never looked into those Bible verses prior to his experience. He also quotes Biblical scholars and experts who support the ideas that 1) such a vision is a possibility; 2) that hell is a real, physical place; and 3) that hell matches Wiese’s observations and descriptions. Apparently, the claim to have visited or seen hell is not unique. Other people have made similar claims, and Wiese cites those as further proof of his testimony.

So, according to Wiese, why did he, a devout Christian, visit hell and experience pain and suffering there? Following his visit to hell, Wiese was removed from hell by Jesus Himself, who then explained to him the purpose of the experience: “Because many people do not believe that hell truly exists. Even some of My own people do not believe that hell is real… Go and tell them about this place. It is not My desire that any should go there. Hell was made for the devil and his angels.”

Hell is not a popular idea these days, that is certainly true. While I have always believed in the existence of hell, it is not something I had thought about much; or I guess I should say, it is something I purposely avoided thinking about. 23 Minutes in Hell has me thinking about it. I definitely recommend reading this book; whether you agree with Wiese or decide he is a lunatic, his writing is fascinating and thought-provoking. One caveat: do not read this book late at night. I stayed up half the night reading because I quickly became too frightened to go to sleep.

We all make mistakes sometimes, don’t we? BookJingle understands that mistakes happen. So if you make a mistake while shipping your books to BookJingle, don’t sweat it. Here are some common mistakes that can happen while selling used books and what to do about it:

1. You accidentally shipped the wrong books. If you slipped in an extra book by mistake or mixed up your books when packing them in the box, it is still possible for BookJingle to purchase those books. If BookJingle is currently buying that title, BookJingle will pay you for the book and add the extra money to your total. If BookJingle isn’t buying that title, they will let you know about the extra book(s). You have 30 days to decide what to do with the book. If you want BookJingle to send it back to you, all you have to do is pay for the shipping.

2. You shipped the wrong edition of the book. If you send in a book that is a different edition from the one cited on your original offer, BookJingle is unable to pay the shipping or offer price for that book. The quoted amount and shipping cost will be deducted from your original offer amount. BookJingle will hold the book for 30 days and notify you of the error. If you want the book sent back, BookJingle will gladly do so after you pay for the shipping cost.

3. Your books don’t meet the condition standards. If you send books that do not meet the condition guidelines listed on BookJingle’s website, your payment will be lower than your original price quotation. If a book has excessive highlighting, underlining, and writing, the value of the book will be lowered. If a book is damaged (water damage, missing pages, etc.), it cannot be purchased by BookJingle. BookJingle will hold the book for 30 days; you have the option to have the book returned to you at your expense. Check the guidelines on the main website for detailed descriptions of acceptable book conditions.

4. You want to sell to BookJingle but your order does not meet the minimum requirements. In order to keep offering the best buyback prices on the internet, BookJingle requires that each order contain at least five books or has a total value of at least $8.00. It is easy to find more books to bulk up your total and meet the minimum. Check all of your bookshelves, and if you don’t find enough books, other good sources of cheap used books include yard sales, library sales, flea markets, and friends/relatives who might be happy to discard some old books.

College students, listen up: you do not have to sell your used textbooks back to the college bookstore where you purchased them! At first glance, it may seem like the most convenient option. You know the university bookstore will probably purchase the books because that’s where you bought them, and all you have to do is carry over your books to the bookstore (or drive, if you live off campus), wait in line, and find out how much money they will give you. It’s a given that no bookstore is paying a high premium to buy back the same books you purchased at full price only four months ago, but you may get a small percentage of your original money back. It sounds all right, doesn’t it?

That’s the way I did it thirteen years ago when I was in college because that’s the only option I had. Nobody was buying or selling used books on the internet, and at the small university I attended, there were two stores from which to choose. Both priced books very high and paid back very low. Here is one circumstance when things have changed for the better: today’s college students have many choices for buying and selling textbooks. You do NOT have to accept the first offer for your valuable textbooks! You spent hundreds of dollars on them and you might as well get back as much cash for used books as possible!

The easiest way to take part in a textbook buyback program is to use BookJingle. Whether walking or driving, it’s going to be a hassle to carry all those heavy books back to the bookstore. With BookJingle, you won’t have to! There are no long lines and waiting at BookJingle, either. Simply go to www.bookjingle.com, enter the textbook ISBN, and get your quote instantly. If you’re not satisfied with the quote, you can take the book to the campus bookstore and compare. It won’t take long for you to find that BookJingle is offering competitive prices that will make you feel satisfied. With BookJingle, you can check your textbook’s value at any time of day or night; you don’t have to wait for the bookstore to open. When you decide to sell your used textbooks to BookJingle, all you have to do is print the free shipping label, pack up your books, and ship them. Now you’re done, and your cash will arrive fast, by check or PayPal within 48 hours of when your books arrive.

Campus bookstores used to have a monopoly on the textbook market, but today, the student is in control of the process. Take advantage of your options: check out BookJingle today. You’ll be really glad that you did.

Last time, I compared purchasing paper books and e-books to see which is the greenest way to read books. At first glance, the e-book seems like a perfectly green option; it saves trees, saves air pollution from paper factories and book printers, and saves fuel and reduces air pollution from the shipping of books to retailers. After a little bit of digging, it becomes clear that unless you are a voracious reader (more than 33 books over the 2-year lifespan of an e-reader device), paper books are still greener than e-books. This is because the manufacturing process of an e-reader still carries a greater carbon footprint than the production of paper books.

So, if an e-reader is not an advisable way to go green, how can conservationist book lovers protect the environment while nurturing their love of reading? The greenest way to read books is simple: buy used books, and sell used books when you’re done with them. Each time you purchase a used book instead of a new one, you are saving approximately 3 kg of carbon emissions. It may not sound like much, but if everyone switched over to used books for only 10% of their total book purchases (particularly college students, who tend to buy a large number of books and use them for only a semester or two), imagine the reduction of carbon emissions. Somewhere around 4 million trees are cut down each year to make paper for new books. If buying and selling used books could reduce that number by even a few hundred thousand, it would mean significant improvement in air quality and a happier, healthier planet. Every book counts.

Buying used books is a great way to go green, but don’t forget the equal (if not greater) importance of selling used books. We have all been in a situation where we’ve had a book, or a crate full of books, that we don’t want. Maybe they were inherited or given as gifts, maybe they are older paperbacks or out-of-date editions. I’m sure we have all faced the temptation to toss an old book in the garbage can, not believing anyone else would want it or not knowing how to better dispose of the book. No book should ever be thrown in the garbage! You might be amazed at the current market for used books. Even if it seems like a worthless book to you, it is definitely worth a few seconds of your time to check that book’s value at www.bookjingle.com. It’s free, the quote is instant, and you won’t lose anything by checking. If BookJingle purchases the book, you have just helped to save 3 kg of carbon emissions that would have been released by producing a new copy of the book you just sold. Remember that the size of landfills is an increasing, serious problem in many areas. Tossing an old book into a the trash may not seem like a big deal, but that book will take up space in a landfill somewhere, contributing to soil contamination, polluted groundwater and the release of methane gas, a greenhouse gas. An obsolete, worthless, or damaged book should be, as a last resort, recycled.

Have you ever walked into a bookstore and wondered exactly how those thousands of books are affecting the environment? Translating your green beliefs to your reading material may take form in several different ways; your options include buying and selling used books, frequenting online booksellers and bookbuyers rather than driving to the store, purchasing an e-reader and downloading e-books instead of the paper versions, and recycling old books that cannot be read anymore. We want to make choices that will save trees and improve air quality, but exactly how much value do these efforts contain? If you want to buy a new book, how can we measure the difference between walking out of the bookstore with a new paperback in hand versus downloading the book from an online retailer? This article will compare the environmental impact of paper books and e-books.

An individual book’s impact on the planet has several elements, including the timber cut and shipped to a paper mill, the production of the timber into paper pulp, the printing and binding of the book, the promotion and advertising of the book, and the transport and distribution to a retailer. Each of these actions results in the emission of carbon. Here’s a quick breakdown of exactly how books impact the climate.

The net carbon emission from the production of a book:
- a bound fiction book in a bookstore: 1.3 kilos of carbon dioxide
- a bound fiction book purchased from an online retailer: 1.1 kilos of carbon dioxide
- an e-book viewed on an e-reader: 0.87 kilos of carbon dioxide

You can probably tell where I’m headed here: e-books provide potential relief for those wishing to reduce the carbon footprint and save trees. However, this comparison of paper books and e-books is not as straightforward as it might initially appear. In 2009, the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm conducted a study on the subject and found that e-books do save on carbon emissions, but only when the e-reader is used to read at least thirty-three e-books over the estimated two-year life cycle of the e-reader device. The manufacturing and transportation costs for the e-reader itself accounts for significant carbon emissions, and this is leveled out by reading at least thirty-three books. (Also, this calls attention to the fact that most e-readers are manufactured with an expectation of a two-year life span, which is pretty short even in our world of short-lived electronics.) In other words, the e-book you purchase and download may have virtually no effect on the environment, but the e-reader device has the equivalent environmental footprint of nearly thirty-three paper books.

I guess it all depends on how much you read. For someone who reads constantly and averages one book per week, the e-reader would be a good investment and an environmentally responsible purchase. For an occasional reader who may read a book or two per month, the purchase of an e-reader would not be helping the planet (nor would it make much sense financially).

More on going green with book purchases for next time.

The staff at BookJingle is dedicated to providing the best customer service of any online bookbuying service. When you sell used books to BookJingle, you are in good hands. Here are just a few of the perks of choosing to do business with BookJingle:

- Check the status of your order at any time. Simply log into your account and check if your books have been received, if payment has been issued, and other details.

- Enjoy FREE shipping! Media mail shipping is always free for your books when you meet BookJingle’s minimum order requirements.

- BookJingle will match prices. If you find another online site that is paying more for your book, let BookJingle know and they will try to beat that price.

- BookJingle’s website is completely FREE, always. You can always get a quote for your books at no charge to you, and there is no fee involved in your transaction.

- Get paid FAST! BookJingle guarantees payment within 48 hours of receiving your shipment. You can choose to be paid via PayPal or check.

The growing popularity of e-readers and e-books is giving traditional paper books a run for their money. In some cases, sales of e-books outpaced their traditional book counterparts in 2010. Just to clarify, an e-reader is an electronic reading device designed to display and store electronic books, or e-books. E-books can also be read on computers, PDAs, and phones. There are currently so many different kinds of e-readers available, it can be a confusing task to distinguish between them and decide which one best meets your needs.

Amazon’s Kindle is probably the best-known e-reader, and it is also currently leading in e-reader sales. In 2010, the Kindle won 48% of e-reader sales. The second-place sellers are the Barnes and Noble Nook and Sony e-readers, which tied in 2010 at 5% of the market. There are dozens of other competing e-readers available, including the Borders’ Kobo, the Cool-er, the FLEPia, and the eSlick. Various e-readers support different types of file formats, some of which can be crossed over from one device to another, and many of which cannot. The differences between the e-reader devices include screen size, storage size, battery life, display quality, screen quality, types of file formats accepted, and screen refresh rates. These are the factors you want to consider when shopping for an e-reader. For some buyers, the design of the device may take top priority. Some devices have extra bells and whistles, such as touch screens and text-to-speech features. Others are more bare-bones, which may keep the price down. Other buyers may be more concerned with how many book titles are readily available for downloading in the e-reader’s particular format. Some e-readers have almost unlimited libraries available, while others have surprisingly few titles for purchase. Portability and weight of the device are also an important consideration, especially for those wanting to tuck the e-reader into a pocket or purse.

I must admit, I have been skeptical about how much enjoyment I would get from an e-reader. I am a book person, and something about e-readers seemed rather cold and sterile and quite unlike reading an actual book. Having recently tried out an e-reader for the first time, I have to confess I was rather pleasantly surprised. The reading experience seems different from holding an actual book, but it is something you would get used to pretty quickly. My experience with a Borders’ Kobo, one of the most basic devices, was positive, and it didn’t take long before I forgot I was holding an electronic device instead of a paper book. It makes me feel more open to getting out there and trying some other e-readers, like the latest Kindle and the Barnes and Noble Nook.

Have you tried an e-reader? If so, how did you feel about it? I’d love to hear your comments.

• As New: No defects, no markings, no library stamps, etc. Dust jacket (if one was issued) must be immaculate.
• Fine: Approaches “As New” but not crisp. No defects, markings, etc. If dust jacket has any minor damage it must be noted.
• Very Good: A used book that shows small signs of wear, but no tears in binding, pages or dust jacket. Any defects must be noted.
• Good: The average used and worn book, with all pages and leaves present. Any defects must be noted.
• Fair: A worn book that has complete text pages including any maps or plates, but may lack end papers, half title, etc.

• First edition printing: First editions that were printed in small quantities are harder to find and will be worth more than first editions that were printed in large quantities.
• Signed Editions: If it is autographed by the author or the illustrator, the book may be more valuable.

• Hardcover: A hardcover book with a dust cover is more valuable than a paperback.
• Book Club Books: Special prints for book clubs or libraries aren’t likely to be valuable.
• Book Popularity: Popular and well-known books are in higher demand than obscure ones and are more likely to be valuable.

A common question from BookJingle customers is “Why is my payment differerent than the amount shown when I place my buyback order?”

There are several potential reasons for this to occur:

1. The shipment contained books that were not on the Packing Slip.
If additional books were shipped that were not included on the Packing Slip, BookJingle may possibly be able purchase those books. If BookJingle is currently purchasing that title, the amount will be added to your total.

2. The shipment was missing books that were listed on the Packing Slip.
The amount offered for the missing books will be deducted from the payment.

3. Book(s) did not meet condition requirements.
BookJingle examines each book upon receipt.  If a book does not meet the BookJingle condition guidelines, it will be rejected and the amount will be deducted from the total. Here are reasons why a book would be rejected:

• Books with front cover torn to indicate disposal or marked “not for resale”
• Water damage/moisture damage
• Stained pages
• Missing/loose/torn pages
• Books with an odor (smoke, musty, etc.)
• Advanced Reading Copies/Uncorrected Proofs/Galley Copies
• Teacher’s Editions and Annotated Instructor’s Editions
• Workbooks/Manuals/Study guides that have been worked
• Teacher Solutions Manuals and Answer Keys
• International/Foreign Edition Textbooks
• Books without an ISBN printed anywhere on the book
• Sets with missing volumes
• Pornography
• Calendars

4. Book(s) were missing supplemental items.
If a book is missing a CD, DVD, online access code, etc, 50% of the offered amount is deducted for that particular book.

5. Hardcover books were missing dust jackets.
If a hardcover book is missing the dust jacket, 50% of the offered amount is deducted for that particular title.

BookJingle sends an email upon receipt of the books indicating the total to be paid and explaining why payment is different than originally quoted.  BookJingle customers can get back any books that are not accepted. If the customer wishes to have their book(s) back, they must pay the shipping costs. Payment for the return shipping can be made via check or Paypal within 15 days. After 15 days, the item is either destroyed or recycled in accordance with company policies.