Hi everyone. I am brand new here, just mailed out my first book today and I am waiting on 9 books! Most of the books I have are clearly fine to post, but I have 1 or 2 I am not sure about.

1. My husband was in the military so some of his books have his last name and SSN inside the cover. Can I black out the name and SSN and post the books? They are otherwise in excellent condition.

2. I have 2 books that i have had since I was about 12 (I'm 30 now) and they seem to be fine to me, but I am not sure about for here. I have Last of the Mohicans with the movie photo cover with slightly yellowing pages from age (I got it in 92) and the edges of the black cover are a bit worn just from being well loved. Its totally intact, readable, etc. But does the worn cover or aging pages pake it unpostable?

I have some I KNOW are unpostable, is there some place here to offer them free? I have a brand new copy of Twilight that had a glass of water spilled on it the first day i got it. Its otherwise in great condition and the water damage is minimal. I tried to freecycle it but no one was interested, so is there someplace here to offer it for free?

Thanks!

So, welcome to PBS! There is a help document that you may find helpful ... I will go get the link. Here is a link:  http://www.paperbackswap.com/help/help_item.php?id=205 To answer your specific questions:

1. Yes. Writing inside the cover is postable, unless it is so extensive that it might qualify under the "bad condition" rule. But a blacked out name and a few additional lines ... postable.

2. Yellowing pages from age are specifically mentioned in the rules as OK. Worn covers are also OK, as long as there are no rips in it over 1 inch or the wear is so extensive that it might fall into the "bad condition" rule.

3. You can offer unpostable books in your signature. Also, you can offer then in the Book Bazaar. (There is a thread at the top for books that you want to offer for free). You can also offer your unpostable books for a credit, but it is unlikely that anyone will want them unless they are also Wish List books.

When you list an upostable book like you have in your signature, how is postage (cost) handled?

Most people offer unpostable books free with an order from their bookshelf. So, if someone wants to do that, they would usually PM you, and you would work out the details from there. The usual thing would be that you just wrap up the unpostable book in the same package with the book(s) ordered, and the extra postage cost is negligible. (Media Mail is by the pound, and you can often make a package of two paperbacks (sometimes even 3 if they are not too large ... and they will all ship for the $2.38 cost of 1 lb. of media mail. If they books are heavier, the cost increase as you go up in pounds is not large. (Under 2 lbs is $2.77, under 3 lbs is $3.16, etc) ... so you can see that it really doesn't cost much more to ship multiple books out together in the same package).

If the person is only interested in the unpostables (and not in making an order from your bookshelf), then you can work out some other deal, like maybe they want a few unpostables for one credit, or something like that, and in that case, they might buddy you the credit and PM you with the address.

If the unpostable book is also a Wish List book, it is common for people to offer those for a credit ... and then the person who is offering the unpostable book will just post it directly to the requestor's wish list. It would be handled just like a regular book transaction from that point on.

Welcome to PBS Amanda!  What she said (well done Sara)  

I would only add, when swapping unpostables it's important to be sure the other party is fully aware of the book condition.  Otherwise there are several approved methods for trading damaged books.