I ordered a book this weekend and just a moment ago received a Cannot Mail email from the system.  The reason? "The book belongs to someone else."  Really?  Good grief!  Of course, it was the only copy in the system, darn it.  I know it will eventually come around again, but for heaven's sake, how does one post a book in the system then suddenly remember it belongs to someone else?  BTW, I didn't have this book on my WL, I went searching and it was already available.

Looks like you win a prize!

That is a new one.  It makes you wonder....

That is intriguing. Was someone listing every book they could get their hands on on PBS, and then realizing when requested that some of them actually belong to a roommate or an SO? I'm trying to come up with a reasonable scenario here, but am struggling to do so....

Was it a newer member with only a few books on their shelf? Maybe posted books they couldn't really swap to get their startup credits?

Some people do just have crazy ideas on what their PBS "Bookshelf" is for.

It could have belonged to their spouse or children, and they thought it was OK to post it when they did, but then quickly found out that the book was not an option to be swapped.  

So the easiest, most generic answer without going into all of that hullaballoo is that:  "it belongs to someone else".  (And they thought it was fair game for PBS, but apparently not!)

I had a wishlisted book posted to me, I'd been patiently waiting at the #1 position for quite awhile.  Before mailing, the sender canceled and stated that her DH wasn't ready to part with the book yet.  So she apparently was in that position of excitement to post a bunch of books and was later informed 'not so fast' by family lol. 

Hope you get a copy soon!

LOVE this one. Sandy, what was the book, out of mere curiosity?

The book was The Seventy-Seven Clocks by Christopher Fowler; it's book 3 in his Bryant & May series.  According to the stats given, since it's now on my WL, the book was last posted 11/18/11, and since it was the only one in the system, I'm guessing that this copy was posted on the date given.  It's probably a good thing that whomever it belonged to saw and saved the book from being sent; I'd have hated to be the cause of family unrest. LOL!

Actually, it's easier to do this than you think. I accidentally posted a book that a friend had loaned to me. I caught my boo-boo almost immediately. She had loaned me a trilogy I didn't have by an author I'd just discovered, and in a flurry of posting books one of the books showed up on my Bookshelf.

GAil

Oooh, that is a great book, Sandy...hope you get it soon!

Cheryl

Yeah, I've done that, more than once, to my embarrassment. I posted a book that I thought of as mine. As I was wrapping it up (and admiring the author's signature inside the front cover), I suddenly realized that this book had been my dad's - and that the author had given him this copy himself as a gift - and then I started questioning whether my father had given me the book or just loaned it to me. I checked with my dad, and had to cancel the transaction. (This was when I was quite new.)

And yes, I've posted a book and then had a kid say, "But Mom, don't you remember, I got this book for my birthday!" or something like that. (No, I didn't remember, son, but it's okay, you can keep it, I won't mail it off....)

Actually, it's easier to do this than you think. I accidentally posted a book that a friend had loaned to me

Yes, I think so.   First books I posted were from a friend who's husband had walked out on her.  

He wasn't coming back so she gave me all his books, didn't know what else to do with them.  That was how I got STARTED swapping   LOL   LOL

But, what if he showed back up, a few weeks later, all lovey dovey )you know how these things go sometimes).......if they made up and he  wanted the box of books back   LOL    Comedy of errors.

I kinda had that happen to me once. The sender was getting it ready to mail off and her DH saw it and said Hey wait a minute... and wouldn't let her mail it to me because he hadn't read it yet. Thankfully there were others in the system.

Same thing happened to me.  I got an acceptance for a book by the system and then was emailed by the sender saying he could not send it because it belonged to his mother.

I posted a book, it sat on the self for a while and I eventually gave it to a friend. I did remember to delete it from my bookshelf however.

Me too. I did this once. I could have sworn I got the book from PBS to begin with, so I posted it. Then I started wondering if I borrowed it from a friend, and I checked my transaction archive, and it wasn't there. So I called her, and sure enough, it was my friend's. I canceled it just as soon as I could. The whole thing took just a few hours, so hopefully the person wasn't heartbroken.

Weird!  I just got turned down for a book last week - only copy in the system.  The reason given - "I don't own the book".

Grrrrrrr.....