how long before you have to mark it mailed (and remember you have 2 days after the date you picked).  I'd give them a few more days to reply because my guess is that they will still want it.  I know I would because 2 drops is no big deal but many will say now it is not postable.

another good reason to choose the furthest out mail by date when accepting orders!

If you haven't heard back from the person by the mail date... you might want to cancel and then repost using the farthest date out so that you can get a response back to your PM.  I'm willing to bet they won't mind the drops.

The rule is absolutely no water damage or it is unpostable and you cannot ask for a credit on unpostable books. To avoid the nitpicking (and possible ticking off of someone for sending a PM asking them to pay a credit for an unpostable book) you may want to offer another book from your shelf with it so you are sending at least one postable book for the credit.

I've had similar situations come up, either because a book was damaged after it was requested, or because, on second look, it shouldn't have been posted in the first place.  I canceled the requests, and PM'd the person to let them know what has happened.  Then I told them if there was anything else on my shelf they would like, I'd include the unpostable as a freebie.  So far, they've found something else they wanted and one guy even buddied me a credit for the "damaged" book because he said he thought it was just fine. 

If they hadn't been able to find something else they wanted, and still wanted the book, I would have sent it on to them as a freebie. 

Jeri, I feel for you.  You're in a difficult situation.  I would cancel the request.  I don't think it's rude as according to the "letter of the law" the book is unpostable.  While the vast majority of people will think the book is acceptable and won't care, why take the chance and cause yourself a headache over it? 

Also it seems like this is a valuable book. Why not post it at another site and get something for it?  Ten dollars  plus shipping is a lot of money to give away because of technicality.

It doesn't sound unpostable to me-but that is me. I have done that were I had a book to send and there was something that made it unpostable but very readable. For one lady, I asked if she would like to pick another book from my shelf and I'd send both books-and she took me up on the offer. Another lady said she really wanted the book and to go ahead and just send the book-not a problem for her.

I'd wait to hear from the member or if you don't then cancel... personally a single drip or two of water would not bother me, and there are used bookstores that sell books with minor things like that but there is the rule about water damage... to me, your problems is nothing major or hurting the book in a bad way (creating wavy pages for example)... I personally would be OK with getting it, but it depends on the person who got it.

You can cancel and if she wants it, send it to her anyway.

What I have done in the past is cancel the order and send the book for free since it's unpostable, and send them a PM telling them what I'm doing.  Most people are really happy when you do that. :)

This is precisely why I think it'd be nice to have one to four levels of "condition" that we can acknowledge on site... because I've seen posts about people playing the "water damage" card for really trivial things, like wavy pages (that are very common on certain types of books with NO actual water ever touching them) etc.  Two tiny little spots to me is SO not a big deal, especially on an expensive hardback.  But like others said, you are taking a chance that your receiver will be hostile and/or very picky about it, since it does not meet the absolute letter of the law to have that teeny tiny insignificant spot...

But, like others said, there are other places to post or swap or sell.  I try to use this site as much as I can, because I've gotten some great books on here much cheaper than I could ever find them to purchase.... and I like to pass along the favor to others.  :)  But I do try to take every precaution to NOT lose the credit(s) since mailing can be such a pain in the patootie (and the expense adds up!), and I'd have to agree with the others and advise you to do the same too.  :( 

I have done something similar.  I had a book that I was sending and as I grabbed it off the shelf, I dropped it.    Ended up ripping one of the pages - first page of Chapter 20!!  I PMd the person and they said to mail it (even though it was unpostable).  Once they had marked it recd, I gave them their credit back.  It was a HB book that was in perfect condition except for the rip. 

jackie