Book "exchange".... Hmm...

I've also seen this a lot this past week on Facebook. Not sure what is unethical about it, just a chain letter like we used to get by snail mail twenty years ago.

I received a lot of book exchange requests when my kids were little. Just send one golden book and you'll get 36! I hated them, but always felt bad that I'd "break the chain." So I dutifully sent out my book every time. I never received ONE book. Not one. Let alone 36. If I participated in 5 of these, I should have 180 books! The only person that possibly benefits for this scam is the one who starts the chain.

I just saw a variation on this involving a $10 Christmas gift. If each person is only sending one book or one gift, how exactly does someone end up with 36?

It's not really a scam, or unethical, as you know the rules ahead of time. You sign up and get two names, one of the names you send a book to. Then you find 6 friends to agree to send a book, and give them the second name to mail their book to, and you also give them your name. They each find 6 people to sign up, give them your name, and those 36 people send you a book, and so on and so on.

It works if everyone participates, but rarely will everyone that signs up follow through with sending a book AND finding 6 people.

I haven't seen a book one, but I have seen one with a $10 Christmas present exchange. I have a few friends doing it, but I'm not!

It's your basic chain letter from eons ago. You get a list of 6-ish names. You send a book to the person at the top of the list. Take that name off, add your name and address to the bottom of the list and send the new list with instructions out to 6 new people. Those 6 people will then send a book to the person you put at the top of the list, and so on.

Or something like that. I haven't had enough coffee yet to even try to do the math. In theory if everyone followed through, the person at the top would get 36 books.

As many have already said, these things don't work. Save your time and donate your book or gift to someone else.  

ETA: Oops, I see luckyexwife already answered!

There are also warnings out about the Facebook versions of these. There's a risk you are opening your account to data mining and scammers.

I have never liked chain letters whether they were by snail mail or email; book related, recipe related or otherwise. I'm a chain breaker.

I've seen several of the Christmas gift posts in the past few days.

I participated in one of these a very. long. time. ago. It was for dish towels. Since I was newly married and money was tight, I thought it would be a great way to stock up. Yeah, not so much. I bought an very nice towel and mailed it off. I got one very cheap, thin towel that unraveled the first time I washed it. Live and learn.

I haven't seen the book exchange one but I've seen posts about the holiday gift exchange.  2 of my fb friends (separately) started a post about it but I'm skeptical. Thanks, but no thanks.

Not so much unethical as unlikely or unworkable.

Glad to see this thread. I am the new mom who was excited to build his book collection. But what do the people who are signing people up get it of it?

Just books. It's a simple pyramid, if you get 6 people, and they all get 6 people, you get 36 books and that is the end. The problem is most people don't follow through and that is what makes it fall apart.