Just a reminder that the rainy season is here, so it's a good idea to wrap a book in plastic before you put on the outer wrapping, especially if you wrap in printer paper or brown paper.  I am sure that the PO tries very hard to keep books dry, but sometimes Mother Nature will defeat them in this endeavor.  I watched my carrier deliver books to my mailbox yesterday.  It was pouring down rain.  She reached out and opened my mailbox first and then quickly put the books inside.  But, they got wet anyway because there was no way she could protect them for those few seconds they went from the safety of her truck to the safety of my mailbox.

When I first joined PBS I didn't think about wrapping books in plastic.  Then I received a few books that were damaged from moisture and I caught on.  It only takes a second to wrap them in plastic and if you don't have any in your home, you can ask a neighbor or friend to save their plastic bags for you.

On the same note, if anyone lives in an area where rain is frequent, you might want to add an RC to your account requesting that books be wrapped in plasitc by sending members. 

It may be bad for books, but I do love the rain...

On the same note, if anyone lives in an area where rain is frequent, you might want to add an RC to your account requesting that books be wrapped in plasitc by sending members.

I recommend this.

Some people might run across this in the forums and be reminded, but I think the majority won't. And with FIFO you won't know if the person sending it to you has a clue.

Plus, it's different seasons across the US. It won't be rainy season for everyone.

I highly recommend the RC if someone wants plastic

Even though I see this often in the forums, I don't think I'll be wrapping in plastic this winter as my supply isn't quite so abundant since I've been trying to cut back on bringing plastic in. Not everyone is friendly with their neighbors or wishes to bring in the plastic from their homes if they are friendly either.

My plastic this winter will be reserved for multiple orders and those with RCs.

Kate, though it's nice when people do that, it's not required by PBS. The two books I recieved in the mail today where not given the extra protection of plastic wrap but I can't complain, even though one of the envelopes was horribly torn and, if it had been raining, the book would have been soaked. I try to plastic wrap but don't always have the time to do so before the book times out (because it does take more than 'a second' to wrap a book in plastic).

Plus, as Cindy said, it's not rainy everywhere. Where I am, we rarely have rain in November.

If you want your books wrapped in plastic, put an RC up or you have no reason to get mad if your book gets soaked when it's not protected.

I have an RC for plastic and I am finding that some people feel that it is optional, even though I have it stated as a requirement.  I will RWAP any books I get with no plastic wrapping. 

So, having an RC is not a guarantee that your book will be wrapped in plastic!

BTW, I am well aware that PBS doesn't require plastic.  I just mentioned it to possibly inform a new person who is reading the forum that wrapping a book in plastic will help to guarantee that the book gets there in good condition.  I hate the idea of a book getting ruined when something as simple as a quick wrap in plastic could prevent it from happening.

I didn't think to wrap books in plastic when I first started here and I appreciated it when it was mentioned on this forum and I realized that is something I should be doing.

I once protected a book in an empty Quaker popcorn cake bag that I turned inside out. I was reamed out by the receiver for wrapping the book in something that (he claims) caused it to have an odor.

Book smells like popcorn. Oh, the horror.

And my point? No matter what you do, someone somewhere will find a way to complain about it.

I always wrap my books in plastic first before sending off. 

Ha, ha our wet season is just ending here (FL) and we had 0 rain in Tampa area where I live for  all of OCT despite it being hurricane season!    And only 1.12 inches in Sept when norm is almost 7 inches. I would say we are officially in a drought since the gators are visiting people's front porches looking for water!

You don't have to have an RC that asks for plastic protection to expect your book to arrive in dry condition.  If it comes wet, you put it down as received damaged!

AND it takes just  a few seconds to put a book in a plastic bag from a store, cut off the excess, and use 1 piece of tape to attach the end of the bag to itself before wrapping it in paper.

You don't have to have an RC that asks for plastic protection to expect your book to arrive in dry condition.  If it comes wet, you put it down as received damaged!

I do hope you are meaning RWAP - damaged by USPS, not sender damaged because it is clear in the Help Center that plastic is not required. The only way a book gets wet in transit is if the USPS is careless.

The difference an RC about it makes it that it becomes a RWAP - didn't meet RCs and if the book is unpostable due to that, the sender should be returning the credit. In the case of damaged by PO, the site says that it is the receiver out if the books gets to them. The sender is only out if the book doesn't make it to the receiver. The RC effectively transfers the enroute liability to the sender instead of the receiver.

You don't have to have an RC that asks for plastic protection to expect your book to arrive in dry condition.  If it comes wet, you put it down as received damaged!

And if you don't have an RC requiring plastic, don't expect to get your credit back from the sender.  You can't force a credit return, sender decides if they wish to return it to you.

I just wanted to point out that rain isn't the only thing that can make a book wet.  It doesn't rain here in the summer, and this summer I received a package straight from my mail carrier's arms (on an exceptionally hot day) completely soaked with his sweat.  Regarding what Melanie D. said:  "The only way a book gets wet in transit is if the USPS is careless" is simply untrue.  As the OP said, her packages got wet in the few seconds it took her mail carrier to get them to the mailbox.  Plastic is always a good idea.  I won't use an RC because there are so many people here that refuse all RCs.  I avoid as much plastic as I can in the world.  I use cloth grocery bags all the time.  If I don't have one with me, I carry my items in my arms/purse.  Even though I quit taking plastic shopping bags years ago, I still have an abundance of plastic bags in my house.  Nearly everything is wrapped in plastic.  I shake out and turn inside out to reuse nearly every plastic bag that enters my house - bread bags, produce bags, chip bags, tp/paper towel wrappers, etc.  BTW, I've never had a smell complaint yet.  lol.

Just another reminder. Here in Florida the rainy season has just ended and we are moving into the "dry" season.

Go figure!

wc

I always use plastic, it takes very little effort to cut a piece from a plastic bag and wrap it around a book.

-RD

I send books out as I would want to receive them.  I always wrap in plastic now.  When I was new, I didn't know, and got a book that was ruined by rain.  I learned then that if I want others to wrap it in plastic, I should be willing to do so myself.  It's just common courtesy and doesn't add to the weight of the package, so why not do it?

I recycle magazine wrappers (many of my magazines come wrapped in a plastic sleeve), plastic bags the newspaper guy uses to keep my paper dry, plastic that clothes come in when they are ordered online--all kinds of things can be used to wrap with absolutely no cost in plastic wrap. 

I once protected a book in an empty Quaker popcorn cake bag that I turned inside out. I was reamed out by the receiver for wrapping the book in something that (he claims) caused it to have an odor.

Book smells like popcorn. Oh, the horror.

And my point? No matter what you do, someone somewhere will find a way to complain about it.

I find this completely believable. Perfume sheets enclosed with books made them unbearably stinky for me and the smell never goes away.

I don't like my books to smell like anything but books. And a food scent would be particularly unpleasant, since I'm on a limited diet.

I had to comment on "Book smells like popcorn. Oh, the horror." posted earlier. My husband cannot stand the smell of popcorn. It literally makes him nauseous. And at first, I thought it was the strangest thing ever, but then I can't stand licorice and that smell gets to me (my brother gets sick with the smell of fish in the house and my daughter can't stand the smell of cooked broccoli), so I get where he is coming from.

It's not rain season here - we're entering snow season. And unless someone specifically states they want their book wrapped in plastic, I don't always do it. I'm paying almost $4 a gallon for propane and with the heating season starting up, every penny I can save counts!

Please rethink the use of former food wrappers as suitable plastic for books!

I really have to say that I don't mind recycling plastic, but I really do not want someone's used food plastic. The box from the cereal, OK ... it should never have been in contact with actual food. But the bag the cereal was in? Or the bag from your chips? Please recycle it within your own house, I would prefer not to receive it around books!

Anyway ... regarding food smell in the plastic ... what may be a very minor smell when the plastic is open to the air and you are sniffing it to see if it is good to reuse .... may very well become an overwhelming horrible smell by the time the book has been sealed up with paper and tape, and then has been shipped or sits in a sweltering mail bin for days. (Here in CA in the summer, I have received packages where I can tell the plastic was super heated up ... I wouldn't call it melted but it gets very very soft and sticky .... kind of like what you see if you have some saran wrap covering a plate in the microwave.)

And I won't even start to talk about attracting bugs.

I would 1000 times prefer to receive a wet book that I can dry out instead of a book that has been sitting in someone's recycled food wrapper. Rinsed out or not.

I always wrap my sendout books in plastic, ever since a forum tip advised me to do so.  Living in a dry area, I didn't even think of it on my own.  But now, I'm aware, and have seen how many ways plastic wrapping has helped -- and not just to keep books dry.  I've had books arrive to me safely, ONLY because they were wrapped in plastic inner wrap.  The outside paper wrapping had not been tape-reinforced and was shredded and/or gone.  Inner plastic wrap was the only thing that allowed those books to reach me relatively unscathed.  And this has happened on more than one occasion!

So I plastic-wrap and tape-reinforce my books (although I've tried to scale back some on the reinforcement, due to some member forum topics about 'tape-mummified' books, of which I formerly was guilty).

I like the added protection and feel good that I'm sending my books  safely and securely to a new home where they are wanted.

I have just started using poly mailers (made from co-extruded polyethylene - which is 100% recyclable). They are CHEAP, from  17 cents each for 50 to 5 cents each for 500 (1 buy them 100 at a time at about 12 cents each). They are self sealing, can be wrapped around the book tightly - WATERPROOF - and virtually indestructable. If they are opened carefully they can be reused over and over.
No food smell - no "saran wrap" to fill the landfills and they require less tape to close (which isn't recyclable). AND they are 5 times cheaper than Office Depot bubble mailers.
I also keep 9x12 size on hand too for hard backs.

I just want to second what Sianeka said -- it is not just a moisture protection issue -- I too have had several books arrive with the outer wrapping absolutely shredded and the only thing that keep the whole shebang together was the plastic around the books.

Also I want to address the issue of books getting wet while delivered -- we have a "walking mailman" so while I can have the biggest mailbox in the world, if it is raining/snowing when he is delivering mail, my books are going to get wet! It has nothing to do with the Postal Service being careless.  It is a fact of life if you have a walking mailman!

My viewpoint is: you are spending $2.38+ to mail a book to someone and you don't want the hassle of a RWAP so if you can why not wrap in plastic (and lord knows even with using my own cloth bags, I still end up with a lot of plastic in my house from wrappings around toilet paper and other paper products to recycling the saran wrap I receive around books from PBS)? I have no wish to mandate the use of plastic, but when/if you can, why not?

Wayne,

Where do you buy them?  I've recieved a few of those and like them. 

I've seen them on a lot of websites but Valuemailers.com seems best - free shipping by priority mail

Before we beat this dead horse all over again, this entire topic can be simplified to this:

Plastic wrapping is NOT required by PBS.

If you want it wrapped in plastic, you must have a Requestor Condition in place. Only then can you validly (is that a word?) mark it as a RWAP against the sender if the RC is not met. Otherwise, it is considered damaged by the Post Office and the sender is not responsible.

It's really that simple.

I have just started using poly mailers (made from co-extruded polyethylene - which is 100% recyclable)

These are what I use, too.  I buy big packs of them for super cheap on ebay.

Also I want to address the issue of books getting wet while delivered -- we have a "walking mailman" so while I can have the biggest mailbox in the world, if it is raining/snowing when he is delivering mail, my books are going to get wet! It has nothing to do with the Postal Service being careless.  It is a fact of life if you have a walking mailman!

I have a walking mailman as well.  I'm okay with not having a plastic RC, i.e. I'm willing to risk it.