books that you've mailed out not being marked as received.  I'm a newbie. I've mailed out four books (last Friday) so it's too early to be alarmed, but because 1 reader has already received and marked the book as received (like about Tuesday or so), it got me thinking - what do I do if the people I sent to don't mark them as received?Waaaahhh!  I really want my credits.  So, does that happen much to you more experienced PBSers?  And what recourse do I have, if any.  (it really hadn't occured to me initally)

I have mailed 152 books. So far, all of them have been marked received. Some are quick. Some slow. Some really slow. But, they've all arrived.

Tim and I have mailed about the same number of books out.  I've never had one not get marked received!  It's a very rare occurence. If your book "goes lost in the mail" (and you'll get an email letting you know when that happens), I'd PM the recipient to make sure they didn't get it.  But you are only a week out from mailing - books are sometimes very slow to arrive.  I've said it before, I'll say it again:  Patience is THE BIGGEST virtue at PBS in many ways.

There are ways on PBS to guarantee you'll receive your credit, but they do have a cost:  Using PBS Delivery Confirmation or PBS Preprinted Postage.  If you use either of these options, you are guaranteed to get your credit, regardless of whether or not they are marked received and even if the package goes lost.  For PBS DC, you get your credit when the package is scanned as arriving at destination, and for PBS PP you get your credit immediately, once you have marked the book mailed.  Plus you get the added benefit of tracking, so you can "watch" your package as it travels to its destination!

So, even though it -is- rare for packages to go lost, it does happen occasionally. I love the peace of mind and Instant Credit features that comes from using PBS PP (or peace of mind and Quick Credit features of DC).

The small additional cost (.61 for PBS PP and .45 for PBS DC) is totally worth it to me, and with PBS PP, I can mail the package from anywhere!  So convenient.  And a portion of both fees help support the PBS site.  I personally use PBS PP for ALL my transactions, even ones that I mail out for friends.  It's the best!

I've mailed out a lot of books -- I just checked, and I'm at 277.  I can think of one or two times when I sent a PM asking if a book had been received (after 3 weeks) and the book was marked received after that.  I haven't once had someone simply not mark a book received.

The crucial thing, to my mind, in getting my books to their destination is wrapping well.  I slip my book in a plastic bag first (I like those bags my newspaper comes in), and after wrapping, I reinforce seams, edges and corners with packaging tape -- the wide stuff.

Whew! These replies absolutely put my mind at ease.  Thanks.

I have used the PBS postage and delivery confirmation on all the books I've sent out, so I get the instant credit (it's worth the extra cents to me) and even though on 3 of the books the delivery confirmation said the books were delivered on 7/1, I didn't get 'official' notification of delivery until after the 17th!  So, patience is the catchword here.

I have had one book "go lost" I PM the adressee about 3 weeks after I sent it, 2 weeks later she PM'd me back saying that it was sent to her sister and her sister didn't tell her she recieved it. I had to walk her thru the steps to mark it as received since PBS had declared it lost.

I have had ONE go lost coming to me, but it showed back up on the senders shelf later, so she either didn't send it at all or she messed up in addressing it and it came back to her.

I have found that there is a huge varience in time to get there with media mail.  The phsycial proximity of states doesn't seem to have ANY affect on book transit times. 

I have shipped out quite a few books and have never had any that were not marked received.   Some took LOTS longer than others and some were so quick that I was amazed.  Once your have sent out enough to have a "padding" of credits... its easier to relax while waiting for some of the slower moving books to actually "get there".

Good luck and happy trading :  )