i'm running a deal in the bazaar...and have had so much success that i've had requests overlapping each other and (unfortunately) requests for books i've "freebied" away faster than i could delete them from my shelf.  I had one request that i had to cancel for that reason (i sent a very nice PM explaining my situation) and asked if the person would like to choose another book as part of their "deal".  That member hasn't responded yet and now i've gotten requests for the other books they wanted as 'freebies'.  Its been nearly 24 hours since i PM'd them...but do i have an obligation to hold those books until they get back to me?  I know there's some gray area here when you're making deals...and i just want to do the right thing as well as get books to people who want them. 

I think since you cancelled that person's request and it's been 24 hrs with no response, I wouldn't feel obligated to hold their freebie books for them anymore.  I'd let the books go to others that've requested them and PM the first person again and let them know what books that they wanted that are gone now.

For me, it doesn't matter how long it takes them to respond, I always go by the time stamp on the requests. Holding it however long it takes for the first requestor to get back to me. I would never cancel a request because they have not responded to a pm from me. Unless I had placed a time restriction on my deal.

I wouldn't cancel any requests because then the system will reorder that book for them from FIFO.  They may not have ordered the book w/o the deal.  The requestor needs to cancel the request to keep it from going on to the next person.   If the next person accepts and prints the request quickly, they won't be able to cancel it and will most likely be really annoyed.  I know that I personally have a lot of books on my RL that I won't order unless I get them in a good deal offer. Mostly because they're plentiful in PBS or they just aren't a must have book for me.   The 2nd person isn't obligated to offer the same deal you did.  Not everyone comes on PBS everyday.They use the email options to let them know if they have a request or WL offer. 

I would hold the request for 48 hours, same as wish list books, and let the other people requesting those books know that you're holding them for some time, but they can have them if that time is up.

I have a related question, though, that maybe someone can answer.

I posted about 30 books that are about 100 pages each, so I didn't want to send them individually. So, about 13 of them went to WL, and I told people who accepted WL offers that they can have them 3-for-1 if they request more than 1. So I spent most of yesterday cutting deals, and as a result I've had to cancel a lot of requests coming in through the system because the books were either snatched up or because I didn't want the requester to get charged a credit. And for all of the reasons I wrote "Given to member as a freebie" or "Given to another member as a freebie."

My question is: Will all that cancelling of requests leave a black mark on my record?

I think it depends on how many of them you cancelled.  although if they were on WL they knew they were smaller books and were willing to spend a credit on the book.  I would have just sent them on as requested.

Kiersten -- Mary's right. If you're running a deal, you should not cancel any incoming requests. If you can't mail what they asked for, then send a PM before you print the wrapper and let the requestor be the one to cancel.

Maria -- The PBS Team can see whatever you put in the "reason for canceling" box. I know this because once I had a question about a weird transaction and in their response they told me what the first person wrote. I would think they'd be able to look at your history and see the notes and not count these cancellations against you.

Thank you, Cathy. That's quite reassuring =D

Leslie -- I know I could've sent the books individually and gotten more credit, but it's simply easier for me to send them in batches, even if I get less credit for them, because then I don't have to wrap 30 books individually, or spend a ton of money on postage.