I got a book from someone in PA to be mailed to WY.  They used the PBS postage so i guess there is some tracking. Shows its still sitting in Colorado. Has for 15 of the 17 days. Is this usual? Could they have not really shipped the item since they got automatic credit using the PBS?

Have you tried typing the DC number into the USPS website? Sometimes the info there is more detailed than what we see here. If all it shows is label created then at this point I don't think it would be out of line to send a polite PM to the sender asking about it. If they did send it they may want to ask their PO about it and if not, it may prompt them to mail it (and hopefully apologize or explain). I guess it could happen, but why go to the trouble and cost of paying for postage +  fee just to get a credit.

There doesn't seem to be any doubt that it was mailed since its in Colorado and one of you is in Pennsylvania and the other is in Wyoming. Strange things happen in transit...could it have fallen into the maws of a piece of postal equipment in Colorado? Could it be sitting in a supposedly empty cart in Colorado? Maybe! Also, are you looking at the map showing where it is or looking at "details"? The map is not accurate, details tells more. Hope it shows up, sometimes they do fall into postal black holes only to emerge later. I second the suggestion of checking the tracking number at the USPS site.

Looks like they forgot to mail. DC shows it being mailed yesterday now.  Thank you Lion Rose. 

If they mailed more than a week late, you can RWAP it.  Under these conditions you do not have to mark it received:

If the postmark on the package was from the week before the book was declared lost (or later!), and you got no notification from the sender that the book would be/was mailed late: you do not have to mark this book received (this is the ONE case in which you don't have to mark a received book received: if a very late mailer without notice caused you to reorder the book and end up with two copies).  Instead you should contact us to report the very late mailing.

And this should have happened after 4 days: 

If you marked the book mailed but did not mail it and you want to mail it late (more than 4 days after the date you marked it as mailed),  you MUST contact the requestor using the PM button on the transaction, to be sure that the requestor still wants the book.  (If the book has already been declared "lost", the PM button is on the "lost in mail" transaction in your Transaction Archive.)

• If she replies that she does still want it you can mail it to her.  She can mark it received and you will get credit at that time.
  • If the book has already been declared "lost" she can mark it received from her Transaction Archive and you will get credit at that time.
• If she replies that she does NOT want it (she may have gotten a copy from someone else in the meantime), you should NOT MAIL - you should ask us to cancel the "en route" transaction and you can repost the book for someone else to request.
• If she does not respond to your PM, you should repost the book.  It will be offered to her automatically if she still wants a copy.
• You should not mail a "lost" book to the original requestor unless she has confirmed that she still wants it in a Personal Message.  If you mail it and she has already gotten another copy, she will NOT be obligated to mark the book received, or to return it to you.

So, the above is not complete, some of the rules were left off.

The above rules are ONLY in the context of having a late-mailed book go lost in the mail and ordering/receiving a SECOND copy of the book. Second copies are the only time you are allowed to not mark a late mailed book received.

If you only ordered one copy of the book it must be marked received no matter how late it was mailed or how late it arrives. It may be marked RWAP, of course, but it must be marked received.

I agree with Sally - it would NOT show that it was stuck in Colorado if it had never been mailed from Pennsylvania.  If it's now moving, then it likely fell out of a cart in CO and under a table or some such thing.  Someone in the postal center found it and sent it on its way...   I hope it arrives in good shape and not damaged by postal equipment.

Maybe it was 'visiting' the books that disappeared in CO after the floods a few years ago......that one I sent never was found.