I'm new here, and I have a question about the condition of books I can send.  The two books that I have received have had yellowed pages and a small amount of damage to the spine, but appear to be in never read condition otherwise.  I am okay with this as I was expecting a used book, but some discussions on this site have people complaining about used books with minor damage, so I'm confused.  If I accept a book with minor damage or if it appears to have actually been read by someone, am I going to be stuck with that book in the future or is someone going to complain about it when I send it to them?  

Hi, welcome to PBS! There are book condition guidelines that describe what is acceptable for book conditions here. You can find them by going to the Help Center link at the top and searching for "book condition".  The books you received sound OK, yellwing is allowed, and so is minor spine problems as long as the spine is intact and all the pages are firmly attached to the binding. What is NOT allowed is any water or liquid damage, dirt and stains, ripped pages, and selected other things that you can read about in the guidelines. And about the forums, people mostly come to the forums to ask questions or complain when something goes wrong, nobody posts about all of the perfectly fine transactions that have also happened. Theres about 25,000 trades per week right now, and you may see 1 or 2 people post about an issue in that same week. So dont be scared by the forums, Sure its mostly problems, but its a teeny tiny number of problems compared to all the good trades that happen at he same time.

In the Help Center there is a definition of the PBS book condition criteria.  It spells out in detail what is acceptable.  PBS is quite strict about some things, like water damage.  

Since you are so new, it would be very helpful for you to visit the "Help Center", which is found at the top of every page.  The "Help Docs" will answer nearly every question that you may have.

Welcome Lori! Books can look read here and traded here :) The Book Condition Criteria is in the Help Center and will explain the guidelines for swappability. A book can definitely look like a used book here, most of the rules surround things that make a book unclean, hard to read, missing parts, or has damage that makes the book no longer in overall "good condition".

The areas that "minor" damage gets talked about in the forums is often stains and liquid damage. There isn't a degree of damage allowed there because the books are not clean. The next swapper doesn't want someone else's cheeto finger prints, coffee splash or cat pee. When you start allowing "some" staining, then you have members disagreeing about how many finger prints it takes to make a book unpostable and what kind of finger prints are ok - cheetos yes, what about ear wax? When you get into liquid damage, you have who much is too much, which liquids are ok, and the problem with mold possibilities.  The best answer is just to keep it all at none. 

I would like to know if I will be able to re-post a book that I received that appears in nearly new condition, but I just noticed that on the cover there is a quarter of an inch line from a felt tip marker which is slightly smudged.  Is this going to be a problem?