Anyone have a used book exchange?

[KrisM]

I want to host a used book exchange for my friends. I'm talking books for moms, not kids. I'm not sure how to run it to make it fair. I don't want someone to bring 2 books and leave with 20 and someone who brought 20 only leave with 2 and feel cheated.

So, do you leave with the same number you came with? Or, do you place a value, based on price, on each book and you can "spend" that much on other books?

Ideas to have this be fun and fair?

[crl]

I did this with a moms group. I suggested the rules in advance so people could let me know or just not participate if they didn't like them. I thought simple was best so I said one-for-one trades regardless of the type of book (even hardbacks). It was a small group so when we actually got together everyone said they didn't care how many books they ended up with and I don't think it was precisely one for one after all. . . .

[SnuggleBuggles]

I just set mine up like a library where people could take as many books as they wanted. If people wanted them back they just needed to put their name in it. I think all of us used it as a chance to get rid of books we didn't want anymore. I do recall that all the books I had given out eventually got returned to me though.

No book was any more valuable either. They were all treated equally and people just gravitated towards the ones they were interested in. Of the 10 moms that cams only like 4 brought books and it wasn't a big deal. I think 9 moms left with at least one book.

It seemed pretty even and fair. SOme people brought a lot but didn't take many b/c they didn't find any they liked or just had a new baby and didn't have as much time to read at that moment.

Beth