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Topic: how do I miss these things?

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willaful avatar
Subject: how do I miss these things?
Date Posted: 8/25/2008 1:45 PM ET
Member Since: 5/3/2006
Posts: 6,436
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I just had to cancel an order because I noticed a yellow stain on the book. This sort of thing keeps happening, and it's driving me batty! I swear, I do check them carefully before I post them, and then I put them away in a box just for my posted books. Yet I keep finding books that are unpostable.

Does anyone else have this problem? I'm starting to feel blind and senile. :-\

Princess65 avatar
Date Posted: 8/25/2008 1:53 PM ET
Member Since: 7/31/2007
Posts: 2,697
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perhaps you need to sit down and go through your books...could be that the box is not well sealed and something gets in there or it is just things you didn't notice the first time you checked them.

peculiarbookworm avatar
Amy
Friend of PBS-Gold medal
Date Posted: 8/25/2008 2:21 PM ET
Member Since: 3/11/2008
Posts: 1,986
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For the future I would suggest going through your bookshelf from time to time to check on all of your books.

You never know, you may have missed something the first time.

drewsmom avatar
Date Posted: 8/25/2008 2:29 PM ET
Member Since: 5/29/2007
Posts: 13,347
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I removed a book from my bookshelf last week.  Thankfully nobody asked for it while it was there.  It was fine when I posted it, but somewhere along the way the spine has begun to pull away from the binding.  It's a good reminder to check a few at a time, when you have a few minutes, here and there. 

Tonksy avatar
Date Posted: 8/25/2008 2:29 PM ET
Member Since: 5/14/2007
Posts: 881
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True. I have a much different opinion of what is postable than I did when i first joined.

KayCee1976 avatar
Friend of PBS-Silver medal
Date Posted: 8/25/2008 2:49 PM ET
Member Since: 4/16/2008
Posts: 770
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I've had that happen to me twice in the same day.  Since it was my fault, I just sent a pm to the person and asked if they wanted the book for free.  It's my fault (or rather my DH's fault for putting the box under an open window-ack!) and I don't mind shipping a free book to cover my mistake.

One person took me up on the freebie, the other didn't.  Just my 2 cents.

Karen

Cattriona avatar
Member of the Month medalFriend of PBS-Gold medal
Date Posted: 8/25/2008 4:12 PM ET
Member Since: 7/7/2007
Posts: 4,815
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Also, it may not be your eyes.  Yellow stains/highlighting can sometimes be difficult to see under certain kinds of light bulbs, because of the hue of the light.  Try natural light when checking your books and see if it makes a difference.

Cheers,

Catt

Generic Profile avatar
Member of the Month medalFriend of PBS-Silver medal
Date Posted: 8/25/2008 7:27 PM ET
Member Since: 8/23/2007
Posts: 26,510
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Yeah it happens.  I've had to remove one here and there because it looked postable when I posted it but then I noticed a stain. 

BlueInk avatar
Date Posted: 8/25/2008 7:32 PM ET
Member Since: 7/3/2008
Posts: 284
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I've had that happen, too, after it was ordered.  I sent a pm and they still wanted it anyway.

surrealthemuse avatar
Date Posted: 8/25/2008 9:10 PM ET
Member Since: 9/13/2007
Posts: 2,520
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I just had to cancel a request because I had one on my shelf with a broken spine! I don't know how I didn't notice that when I posted it... I should probably go through my whole shelf.

nashvillethecat avatar
Date Posted: 8/25/2008 11:13 PM ET
Member Since: 8/1/2007
Posts: 5,034
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It depend on which "set" of eyes your are using.  When you are giving it a cursory glance to "big" damage, its easy to overlook the smaller things... but then when you get ready to send and look over it with a fine tooth comb... little things pop up that you didn't notice before.

Rianli avatar
Date Posted: 8/25/2008 11:15 PM ET
Member Since: 12/23/2005
Posts: 1,163
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I just had that happen today. I was just glad to find it before mailing it out.

rubberducky avatar
Friend of PBS-Silver medal
Date Posted: 8/26/2008 10:23 AM ET
Member Since: 8/9/2007
Posts: 4,058
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Lol, I found a little squashed bug toward the back of one that was on my shelf for a long time the other day.   I had it out to pull a book excerpt from for the L&R forum's guessing game, and I'm reading away & turned a page, and... bleh!  I couldn't even tell what it was at first, so I put it under a magnifying light, and sure enough, it had little legs:P  I just scraped it off and put the book in my unpostables pile.  The bug is gone, but it left a bit of an ugly spot.

dappledart avatar
Date Posted: 8/27/2008 1:41 PM ET
Member Since: 6/30/2006
Posts: 2,303
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I had a shelf of over 300 books. It didn't occur to me to occasionally take the time to go through my books just in case their condition had degraded. (And I know some members have over 1000!)

I give them like a 30-second check over and list them. When they are requested, I check again. If I find something terrible I mark that I cannot send the book and explain the rats have chewed away the bottom half of each page in the last chapter (made that up...) or whatever. If I find an underlined phrase on page 83, I am more likely to accept and PM the requestor explaining the noticed damage and offering to cancel the order at their request or if I don't hear from them by Tuesday midnight (or whatever). I try to give adequate time for them to respond, but short enough the request still moves forward somewhat promptly.

Now that my shelf is much smaller, I might be able to re-check periodically in my spare time.

edited to add: "I have a much different opinion of what is postable than I did when i first joined."    YEP!



Last Edited on: 8/27/08 1:43 PM ET - Total times edited: 1