Le Marche book exchange 31st of March

[Andria]

The next meeting of the Le Marche book exchange will take place on Saturday the 31st of March from 3pm to 6pm.

Bring your english books, dvd's etc to swap with others and share in general info and experiences with others who are living in Italy.

If you can't make this date then contact me by pm to arrange to look through the books when you are next in the area or register on the site to swap by post (registration is free)!

Please could you confirm if you are likely to attend so I know rough numbers. There are lots of books already loaded onto the site for you to check out....why not register your own? It is also possible to reserve books to pick up.

There are directions on the site.........I am also looking for people who want to talk about a favourite author or book during the above meeting.......if anyone is interested please contact me. MarcheXchange Book Swap Club

Hope to see you there!

Andria

[DavidandLinda]

Why not take a look at www.bookcrossing.com which we have found an excellent source of English reading materials. Also a very friendly online worldwide community. We also have meet-ups! There may even be some Bookcrossers in Le Marche whom you could intoduce to your group? Meanwhile we will take a look at your site, although you are too far away for us to consider coming to the meeting. If you are interested in any other info re website mentioned do send us a PM

[Andria]

Many thanks for your comments., I have also replied to your pm..........remember you can swap by post if you do not live in the area. I will take a more detailed look at the site you mentioned.

We have just been donated another 100 plus books by friends which I will try to enter on the weekend along with some dvd's.

Please do continue to comment on the site as it evoles as we want to continue to improve it......we havd a good first meet in January and not everyone from the meet chose to register as they prefer to come to the meetings and swap in person.......saves on postage and they get to meet other book lovers and discuss issues which they have dealt with whilst living in Italy. During the last meeting we discussed great restaurants along the adriatic coast and someone was refered to a specialist carpenter who has now been commissioned for work...........swap books, stories, seek advice and share experiences, contractor details......ideas and suggestions for meetings are encouraged!!

Andria

[DavidandLinda]

Andria, thanks for your PM and for showing an interest in BookCrossing - The World's Biggest Free Book Club - Catch and Release Used Books
We are also interested in your site and may well try it out!
We do however have some concerns over how the postal exchange will work?
Firstly we have been informed by our local post office some months ago now that PIEGO DI LIBRI, the special rate for posting books within Italy has been abolished? Also how are you going to know in advance how much it is going to cost someone to send you a book? You mention on the site exchanging stamped addressed packaging! This would never work in our local post office as the cost of posting books(which we do every week)is a very varied and delicate operation, size, weight and thickness of parcel all taken into consideration!! Very interested in your comments.

[Andria]

David and Linda,

Most paperbacks fit into A4 bublewrap envelopes. The books on the site gives you a link to Amazon which will provide you with product details such as dimensions and number of pages. When you request a book you will be contacted with an address to send your enveope to and they can provide you with the book weight.

I will check with my local post office about the discounts for sending printed matter and ask for a copy of the weight versus charges for an A4 envelope and print the info on the site. I did send a hardback book to the UK today and it was marked printed matter in an A4 bubble wrap and cost 2.50 Euros Prioritaria which I thought was good.

We do have a category so you can tell if the books are paperback or hardback...............most are paperback.

People can come to the meetings and bring books to swap and choose their own to take away. If people can't make the meetings we hold a large central library and they can make arrangements with us to view the books when they are around. The postal service will be used more for people out of the direct area. Books ca also be reserved for mmetings or viewings.

I hope this answers your questions........I will send you a pm with the more technical info you requested.

Regards

Andria

[DavidandLinda]

Will be very interested to know what information you manage to find out from your local post office.
As you mention the Italian postal system takes the dimensions, including depth and weight into consideration when charging for postage. For this reason we usually find it works out cheaper to wrap paperbacks in brown parcel paper especially if over the 5cm depth, which puts parcel into next price bracket.
So far this year the cheapest books we have sent(using books to Uk as an example)have cost E2,50,E3,20,E3,40,E3,70,E3,80,E5,20 and E5,70 the most expensive,as you see a very wide variation!
We still think it is going to be difficult to pre price a padded bag. Are our post office going to be co-operative and let us prepay an empty bag, somehow fear not? Also bear in mind that the bag will cost to send, thereby adding more to mailing costs.
For those of us that live too far way to swap books in person and will need to use the mail, this issue is of great interest.
Meanwhile look forward to making our first swap?

[Andria]

Linda,

I do understand the point you are making and will get back to you in the next couple of days....we have a lovely lady in our post office and I will ask her to investigate various options for me.

Also you don't need to get things pre franked you can just purchase the stamps. If we publish a list for weights for the size of a A4 Bubble wrap envelope then it should not prove too difficult. The majority of the site users will swap directly at meetings but will be happy to supply info to someone who wants to receive them by post. Our loccal post office currently goes by small medium or large package/envelope and the weight.....they never measure the package/envelope. I appreciate we may have a very helpful post lady and others may not be the same!

Regards

Andria

[DavidandLinda]

Andria, you comment that most of your site users will swap directly at meetings! This is a bit of a disappointment as if that turns out to be the case will they use the website? We sincerely hope that you get more postal members! Come on forum members Cannot believe we are are the only ones who want to read English books living here?

Stamps, would you believe that the last time we were actually able to purchase stamps was before Christmas!! We posted two books this morning one to the UK which cost E5.70 and one to Germany for E3.20 and also two cards which because they were square and larger than normal cost E1,45 each rather than standard 65c for Uk. We asked yet again if they had any stamps only to be told no sorry! Anyway you do not need stamps they insisted! By the way this is not just one local post office, another one we try never has any stamps to sell us either!!
It will be great if you can provide us with some set prices Andria, we have even tried looking at the post office website which was not much help. It did not seem to match what our post office charges us!

[DavidandLinda]

Andria for the PM in response to our questions and comments above.

It is rather a shame that no one else has taken an interest in this thread though!

[Andria]

The info from the post office is that there is still a special 'Pieghi di Libri' book rate when sending books from somewhere in Italy another address in Italy. You can only send them ordinario ( up to 2 weeks delivery although in my experience this can take up to 4 weeks), not speedy first class which takes 2 to 3 days ( although again in my experience this can take up to 10 days).

The cost for a packet marked Pieghi di Libri is 1.28 Euros for a parcel under 2kg and 3.95 Euros for a parcel marked as mentioned which is between 2 and 5kg. I have the photocopied price sheet. I will test this out but if correct then it means there will be no need to send pre paid envelopes.........since most people would be happy to pay those amounts. The post office suggested parcelling books together in a strong wrap with a clear address label.

Regards

Andria