I was so excited to get a book I really, really want. There are no other copies in the system. Below is the tracking info. What do I do now???

I'd contact the post office.. Print this out, take it into them and ask what can you do about it??   I find it weird that they did not even bother to send it onto you since it HAS the tracking number on it.

Yes, talk to your Post Office.  Then let us know what happens!

Isn't dead mail where they send mail without labels?  I'm under the impression that one of the things dead mail does is try to figure out where books are meant to go to. 

Some of the letters from my great uncle went through dead mail when I was a child as his handwriting was so unsteady.  I remember wondering if he had died.  My impression was that the handwriting and microscope experts were there.

I'm wondering if it's possible that the mailing addres is illegible, bu the barcode is still able to be scanned. It may be why they just wrote it off as dead mail, if they don't have enough info to contact either the sender or receiver.

You cound contact the post office that last scanned it, give a description of the contents, and see if it's still there and worth recovering.

Dead mail will attempt to determine if it can be sent on or back to the sender or if there is no way for them to determine what to do with it and it cannot be recovered. If you take the information in to the post office they can help. It might need to be the sender that attempts to recover the item, but you can ask the post office if it is possible to recover an item from dead mail based on the DC#.

I went to the post office, and they couldn't figure out what was going on either. They took my information and said a supervisor would research it and call me. I ran some other errands, and when I got home the mail had arrived. Guess what was in my box!

The book, (Stephen King's It in hc so it is a large one) was in plain, large, white, plastic envelope with no postage. It was hand-addressed to me and had a stick that said: "We're sorry that your item was damaged during processing."

Inside, the book was intact,  but the binding was broken - loose between the cover and the first page and there was no dust cover. I don't know if the dust cover was on it when it was sent. The bottom right corner of the front cover had been bent up a little, as if it had been dropped on that corner. The accompanying paperwork (the second sheet that is printed when you print the label) was inside and had a dirt streak on it. The first page of the label was not there, nor was any of the original packaging.

I called the post office to tell them they can stop looking for it since it had been delivered, and the clerk said she suspected it was inefficiently packaged since there was no trace of it at all by the time I received it. However, she couldn't really know that for sure, could she?

What do I do now? I feel as though I should let the sender know. Only he/she knows if it was properly packaged. If it was "iffy" when sent, then he/she will know in the future to be more careful, right? Or do I just mark it received and let it go?

 ETA: I just looked at it again and saw that the binding is broken away from the back cover as well.

Mark it as damaged by USPS.  Put a very clear description of the damage and the packaging.  PBS states that you can ask for the credit back if you feel it wasn't well wrapped.  But it sounds like that is unknown. 

This gives PBS all the info, in case this sender repeatedly has wrapping issues. 

I believe that RWAP by USPS will offer you the option to be put back on the top of the WL.

I will often mark the RWAP as resolved right then when it is PO damage.  After all, it is the risk we all take with media mail. 

I don't think you can tell how well it was wrapped just because the wrapping was damaged, the p.o. can really do a number on a piece of mail. I've received some books that were wrapped pretty well in the part of the wrapping that was intact but a chunk was missing or it was badly torn. I got two wrapped together just the other day that were still securely wrapped so I could see they didn't do anything wrong but the whole side of the package had been splashed open. They had an inner plastic wrapping so they weren't exposed, otherwise who knows how they would have been received. 

Not a book but I received a poster once in a cardboard tube that was so badly mangled that I never did get the poster out. Those tubes are pretty thick and strong but it looked like they had let a gorilla play with it for awhile. 

What Emily said    mark it RWAP, damaged by USPS.   Scuffs and markings inside the wrapper are a fair indicator that the PO has torn the packaging enroute.  Without the origional wrapper, it's difficult to determine if it was adequately packaged or merely encountered the Sampsonite Gorilla.

If this was a wishlisted book, the system will place you back on the wishlist in your former position.  If you do not want another copy you should hold or remove from your WL quickly before another copy is posted to you.  If the book wasn't wishlisted, I think it is added to your Reminder List?

I let the sender know what the post office did to the book. She was mortified and said that she was surprised because she gets a little "tape happy". I doubt that her packaging had anything to do with it. On closer inspection of the PBS label, second page that was enclosed.. the dirt streak looked like a tire mark. The barbarians! Oh, the poor, sweet, innocent book at the hands of the USPS gorilla team.

the dirt streak looked like a tire mark

ow!!!

Well since one of the machines BURNED a large envolope with 15 pages inside and all I got the was half the label back, I'd say anything can happen to an item in USPS hands.  I've seen what they can do to my reusable book bags (which is made to withstand USPS) and I do not think a metal crate would protect a book in some situations.
Boxes, bubble mailers, tyvek plastic etc all seem to have its faults. BEST package I saw was a duct tape made bag..LOL

Dang. I thought this was behind me. I had marked it RWAP - post office fault. In my transaction list, it is asking me if the problem was resolved or not.. it gives me options of sender didn't answer pm, sender didn't offer solution, etc. None of those answers fit because it wasn't the sender's fault. How do I mark it and close out the issue?

There isn't an option for "resolved" in there somewhere?

Lisa, my options are: "the sender has resolved...", "the sender has not resolved...", "the sender did not respond...", "was marked RWAP by mistake".   I guess I could mark it  "the sender has resoved", except she didn't resolve it because it wasn't her problem to resolve - the post office mangled the book.

I always mark the PO ones as resolved right away.  (Unless I think it was a failure to wrap.)  Because face it, the Post Office is the problem, not the sender.

So I marked it as resolved by sender, Emily? That won't make it look like it was her fault?

The sender responded to your note, which is all she could really do in this situation, so I would mark it resolved.  

Look how old this original post is... I just got an update from the sender today. Her PM said:

Follow-up :) Just got a letter from the PO about them finding "an empty wrapper w/ your address and it is believed to have been separated from a parcel during handling". Wow. Almost 6 months. I don't know if it's pathetic that it took so long, or take a more positive attitude that they're trying to track down what happened to an empty wrapper instead of it being just thrown away. It does 'irk' me that there's a snarky paragraph about including your name & address w/ the contents. Guess the gorillas tore the book out of my packaging, put it in theirs to send on to you, but kept the empty wrapper around for 6 months!
Just venting about this and thought I'd update. Grrrrrrr.

Can anyone beat that? LOL

I hosted a game one time where a book went lost.  It was scanned several times and then the scans just stopped.  A year later the sender PM'd me to say that the winner of hte book just PM'd them to say it was finally delivered.  Who knows where it was all that time. Probably fell behind something.

LOL Mary.. okay you win!