Hi!  I'm a  new member and I'm posting books but I have a few questions about "condition"

1)  I have BOXES of books in my basement that I want to post.  None have water damage but the eges of the cover and pages on some books have grown darker over the years--are these books ok to post?

2)  Does anyone know what causes these pages to "brown" so I can stop it from happening?

3)  The bindings of some of my books are worn but the pages are not falling out, etc.  Is this ok?

4)  Is there a way to stipulate the condition of some of my books so that people know that they aren't "perfect" copies before mailing them?

Thanks for all of the information!

Cristy

Cristy, the best thing to do is to carefully read all the help center documents on book conditions. After you are very familiar with all the descriptions of what is allowed and what is not you should be confident that a book is okay or not.

Based ONLY on what you have said, all the books you mentioned would be okay to post.  BUT -- if they are stored in the basement, be sure they don't smell of mold or mildew! Even if a book doesn't have any obvious VISIBLE mold or mildew, no one wants to chance that a book will "infect" their house/bookshelf with mold or mildew.

As for the darkening of page edges -- that's really normal and there isn't a lot you can do about it. Inexpensive MMPB are often made with cheap paper. Cheap paper often contains enough acid that over the years the pages will darken and become more brittle. They are still okay to post. It's a USED book site, no one should expect the books they receive to be in like new condition. When you receive one, it's a pleasant surprise.

Yellowing and browning of pages is OK on PBS. It's caused by oxygen mixing with the acid in paper.

Here's a link to PBS' condition statement.

You cannot mark the condition of your books because of PBS' FIFO system.