Caboodle - has anyone ever actually got to 650 points?!

[mackerella]

I signed up to Caboodle a few years ago so I could do the Hidden Books challenge. As well as that challenge, you can collect points for entering their competitions. In theory, you can get a free book from Bloomsbury when you reach 650 points - yay! However:

a) all points expire a year after you've earned them, so you need to keep entering the competitions to build up your points total (or even keep it static);
b) I'm fairly sure that they don't actually offer enough competitions each year for you to build up your points (rather than just replace the ones that expire).

I've been stuck on 580-590 for about the last 2 years, and I'm fairly sure that I've done every competition available! Obviously, I'll keep entering them because of the chance of winning some free books But the collect-650-points-and-get-a-free-book part is starting to feel... well, pointless.

Has anyone ever managed to get to 650 points and receive a free book? Or is it all an elaborate scam to keep us entering the competitions?!

Aha I hadn’t realised they expire after a year - that explains it! I was within touching distance of 650 for a while but never reached it - had started to wonder if I’d misread it and it was deducting rather than awarding 5 points per competition!

@CheeseplantJungle I'm glad it's not just me! The trouble with the expiring points is that if you miss a few competitions, then your total goes down, and you won't be able to get it back to the same level for a whole year (basically, until the "missed" points have dropped off the list). It's a complete waste of time, and yet I can't stop myself from hoping

Am glad to have an explanation, think I’ll give up on reaching 650 and stop wasting time entering competitions for books I don’t even want!

I have and I did get a free book. Not sure what I might have done differently to you - make sure you’ve done all the other things you can do to boost points. I think one of them is buying a book token through the site plus there’s things like making sure your profile is up to date etc.