I tried to find a recent thread with a similiar topic, but didn't see one that didn't wander off into related topics...

anyway!  I just opened a book pgk, saw a nice new looking cover, smelled the pages, thumbed them open to check for obvious rips, highlighting, etc.  All seemed well. While I was logging on, in fact I had already clicked "received, continue" or whatever, my son said -- Hey, there are words circled. Here's another one.

I took the book and looked through it more slowly and sure enough, there are circled words (in pencil) all through the book. From more than one per page to every couple of pages.   I clicked the "back" button and it took me to my main account where the book is still listed as an open transaction.

So, would you mark it RWP?   My deliema is: on the one hand it's against the rules to post books with writing in them. OTOH, it's pencil, and my son says it doesn't bug him.  With the exception of a small (3/8") tear on the back cover, and a price sticker on the front, the book is otherwise in very good condition. When I did my "is this book okay" exam, it seemed fine.

Marking is marking. If it were me, I would mark it RWP, pencil or not.

In the half hour I've been thinking about it, I decided to view this and all future problems as "can I repost this book?" issues. In this case, I would be breaking the rules if I reposted this book, so I am going to mark it RWP and ask for my credit back.

I think you made a good decision. :)

I don't know how thin your paper is, but sometimes erasing pencil marks can erase the ink or damage the paper in some way.

you might be able to repost it if you can erase the pencil circles.

personally I probably wouldn't have asked for my credit back BUT I would have told them that technically it was unpostable because there was writing on the pages.  The only reason why I wouldn't ask for it back is because it was pencil and I could erase.  Not saying that you didn't do the right thing, just what I would (or wouldn't) have done.

If there were half a dozen in the whole book, I'd probably have let it go, too, Leslie but I found one two-page spread that had 6 circled words. In the first half of the book, there is an avg. of one per page. In the second half of the book it's more like one every other page.

Even if they are erasable, and even if it didn't remove ink or paper in the process, that's a lot of work to make a book postable!

I tried to be very nice about it -- I said I realized it probably wasn't intentional, and that I didn't notice the marks at first glance either.  As of this moment, I've not heard back from the sender, so ...  we'll see.