I ordered a book on-line from B&N. The outside edges of the pages look a little chewed like it got caught in a machine. It's the very edges, and only about 50 pages in the middle, and maybe 20 or so at the end. I thought it would still be postable, but wanted to ask first. Thanks.

I would think not.

The guidelines say:

No torn or chewed/gnawed pages

I don't know - I would think that "chewed/gnawed" means by an animal, insect, or person. Are the pages really torn? Or are they just abraded a bit? I can easily see this going either way (or falling into the gray zone), depending on the severity of the damage.

Yes Elizabeth, just abraded a bit. Not torn, chewed or gnawed. I didn't even notice it when I opened the box, only when I went to read it.

Without seeing the book its hard to say, but I would say not postable by the description. The receiver is not going to have any idea if chewing is an animal or a machine and the rules just say not chewed/gnawed, it doesn't specify what caused the damage anyway. Even if you don't put it under the chewing/gnawing, it probably would fall under the torn. To be torn it doesn't (IMO) need to be big tears, just damage to the pages.

That sounds like a lot of pages with the damage, so you may also run into the not in "good condition". Overall, it sounds like asking for trouble to blindly send the book to someone and risk a RWAP and having to return the credit. You can offer it in the Book Bazaar forum, explain the damage, and ask for a credit there. That way there are no surprises for the receiver.

That's what I'll do Melanie. I've given away used books in PBS, but it would be a hard swallow to give away a book I paid full price for.

Thanks eveyone.

IMO, probably postable.

The reason for the "no chewing/gnawing" rule is to prevent gross things (mouse, rat, dog, person, etc. saliva) from arriving at your house.

And abraded or scraped is not the same as ripped or torn.

Books where the pages have been abraded or scraped by a machine, so the page edges might be rough or uneven ... don't see any reason why that wouldn't be postable. As long as the book is not otherwise dirty where the pages were abraded.

If the abrading is really bad, I guess it might fall under the "otherwise good condtion" rule ... but if it is fairly minor, such that it is not even immediately noticeable ... I would feel fine about posting it.

I stick books in my purse all the time, and in some cases, the page edges get dinged and dented, and yes, scraped. As long as they don't get dirty, I post them anyway.

That's a good way of putting it...scraped. I swear I saw something in the forums a few years ago about this. And someone had the answer about how it happens sometimes to books when they go through a certain machine or something. It reminds me of the time I bought a big box of tea bags, and every other tea bag had two small holes in it. I wanted to send the tea bags and the book back, but didn't want to pay the postage. Ah well, somtimes you just get screwed.

If you purchased the book new, you can probably exchange it for an undamaged copy.