I can't take it anymore!  Lately I have been getting more and more water damaged or stained books!!! After a nice streak of great books now it's just ridiculous!!  It started with a book deal on the book bazaar, 10 for 1, well too good to be true, 5 of them were unpostable, so much for stocking my bookshelf. there have been 5 more since then in only 2 weeks. But the difference between me and the watered down book senders is I add them to a Unpostable list in my signature line and offer them free with an order from my shelf!!!! That's where they should be!!!!!!!! 

A few months back I put a requesters conditions on my account about the water damage and got numerous people saying they wouldn't send me anything because they couldn't  assure me that it wouldn't be water damaged in the mail!!!  I can't repost water damaged books from the wishlist!!!!   I now have to give them away with another book because you didn't bother to check , didn't care or just hoped I wouldn't mind?  Well if you look in the rules it says if the package is damaged and it was caused by the PO you do not return the credit.  So obviously they had damaged books being sent out.  I wish there were more reprecussions for this. Do people just join and not read the rules???  Maybe they should have to take a book guideline test before they are allowed to post! lol!  

Ok I fell better now!

Love ya PBS can't live with out ya!

I do believe many people join without reading the rules and send out books.  I have PM'd people who are profiled on the home page and they are from my area or my home state. I welcome them, and point out a few of the great features they might have missed - especially if they indicate they are interested in "meeting" people or "making new friends".  I've taken the chance of guiding them to the PBS rules and guidelines in case they have any questions about wrapping or mailing books.  You wouldn't believe how many PM back that they didn't know about the guidelines.  And when I get the really strange wrapped books I PM them with "feedback" on how it arrived and they PM me saying that they "didn't know" and they would consider changing their methods.  I've gotten too many water damaged books, too.  And I'm almost positive there were a couple who were annoyed with me about trying to stay to the conditions rules and wanted their  books back free of charge!  I'm sure they reposted one of them although I alerted them it wasn't postable.  I still think there should be at least a mini-mulitiple question about PBS postability conditions when new people try to post .  Sort of like - "which of these conditions make a book unpostable" or "which of these conditions are okay?"  So many have said it wasn't that way when I sent it out which it had to be if the wrapping shows no water damage.  I guess when there are growth spurts in membership we get some that don't care or don't know better.

Ruth

I haven't had your misfortune but I do certainly understand your frustration. I keep waiting to get some huge run of 'bad books' but it just hasn't happened so far. The number of RWAP books i've gotten is really small, maybe 4 or 5 total out of the 1,200+ books that I've received from here. Of course every time I say that I keep knocking on wood, throwing salt over my shoulder, etc. because I figure I'm jinxing myself. LOL

I hope your run of bad luck ends here. The instance above is the reason I don't participate in deals....10 for 1? I would have been leery from the start--usually when something sounds too good to be true, it is. I don't know why people think if they're offering a deal of 2 or 3 for 1 that the books are exempt from the posting guidelines. *sigh*

Cheryl

My recent run of bad luck hasn't been water damaged books, but ones with cleaved spines.  I came across not one but two last night that I had gotten in different Game swaps.  *sigh*  I also received one recently in the mail that was a WL book.  I asked for my credit back and the member sent it, and was polite in her emails, though she stated she disagreed with my assessment that the book was not postable. 

I also seem to be getting cleaved spines lately. It actually has me wondering if my definition of cleaved spine is different from that of others.  I haven't marked one a problem yet, because I'm not sure and because I haven't gotten with the pages falling out yet. :(

I was receiving a lot of water stained books. Often it was just a few pages, but they weren't postable. I put a requestor condition in that says this:

Per the PBS posting guidelines: Please do not send books with damage at all from water or other liquid. Thanks!

I figured it was plain and simple and it also pointed out the rules to someone who may not know them. Anyway, I've had decent luck getting books. Only a handful have been denied, but that's okay because I want books I can repost when I'm done. Even if I get denied, I usually get another offer within a couple of days.

I sympathize with you!  I've tried about 1/2 dozen deals with the book baazar and not a one came with all postables!  5 for 1, 4 for 1 and 3 for 1s...all came with basically 1 postable book.  Still a bargain, I suppose but not what I signed up for.  The issue for me seems to be cracked spine (is that a "cleaved spine"?) where the inside of the book at the spine is cracked and you can see the pages coming loose at some point. 

Honestly, I've been going to my local goodwill store for books lately (50 cents a paperback) and keeping PBS for specific books I want to read.

Lauren

Just got two today with liquid damage (dry, fortunately). Really disappointing.

What is "cleaved?" 

Even better is when the books are not merely water-damaged but also covered in mold. Last fall I got two like that in a single week from different people. Neither the water damage nor the mold were anything that had happened in the mail -- these were older books that had probably been stored in people's damp garages/basements for years. After getting several of these, I almost dread ordering older hardcovers because of the mold I fear will be lurking under their dustjackets.

And, no, dear moldy-book senders, a book being several decades old is no excuse for sending something that has obviously been half-soaked in water at some point and/or has an obvious coating of mold on its cover. Throw those books out!

Once you mark a book "RWAP", as you know, you have a chance to say what the problem is, ie, water damaged, cleaved spine, etc.  This is kept on record by the PBS team, and if a member develops a pattern of sending out books like this, the team will take action against them. So it is important to write in exactly what the problem is. 

I tend to make a quick look before I mark a book in.  Lately I've gotten around to reading three of them, all had water damage inside of the book that I didn't notice.  They were wishlist books as well I won't relisted them in the bazaar because I don't want to pay the extra postage to mail them, but what a shame.  (BTW, the senders were experienced members.)

Wow I am surprised that anyone would try to say that it happened in the mail. I mean, my bills are never water stained LOL I never get water damaged ADs or any other kind of paper mail so whast is the big mystery of the books? If the wrapping wasn't water damaged then it happened before it was mailed! duh

Is it common to wrap books in plastic?