This is a first.  I just received a paperback book that has a chunk of the printed top layer of the cover missing.  In other words, there's a patch of about an inch of the rough underlayer showing along the top of the cover.  There's artwork of a woman on the cover, and someone used a Sharpie to color in the white area where her hair should be.  It was obviously done intentionally.  The Sharpie has bled through to the inside of the cover. 

I read through the help docs and I *think* it will be postable under the 1-1/2" rule, but I thought I'd ask for input before I mark it received in good condition. 

Thanks in advance.

I'd mark it RWAP if only for the coloring in of part of the cover illustration. I thought the 1½ inch reference was about the length of a tear in the cover but I could be wrong. What you describe sounds more as if part of the top of the cover separated, not a smal tear.

But I thought that writing (or, in this case ink) was only prohibited on text pages?  Am I mistaken?

Yes, "separated" would probably be a good term for it.  Everything but that missing piece is tight, though. 

Yes, it's postable. Technically. Gray areas ...

Writing is only prohibited on "text pages".

And, yes, the patch of missing cover is also small enough to still qualify as postable.

You could RWAP under the "must be in generally good condition" rule but that is an opinion, of course. And you will likely get both sides, here. Some people think if something is questionable, it's unpostable. Other people think that is something is not specifically breaking a rule, it's postable. And your book is not specifically breaking a rule.

As far as re-posting it yourself, if it was a wish list book or hard to find, I would probably re-post it.

If it's one of those books that has a bunch of copies already available in PBS, I would just read and recycle it.

Usually when a book has more than one "odd thing" that isn't technically unpostable but still makes the book be in a questionable condition, I lean towards not posting or re-posting it. Unless it's Wish Listed, in which case, I lean towards posting because people are waiting on those.

You can always PM when someone requests it and let them know it's postable but in questionable condition and see if they still want it. Again, it's my belief that is the book is Wish Listed, people are more likely to be OK with a questionably postable condition, wheras if there are lots of available copies, they will probably be annoyed that you want to send a questionable one.

Thank you.