Ok - First off, I'm REAAAAALY tired.  I spent the weekend at a scrapbooking retreat and netted about 7 hours sleep across the weekend - no to mention I was already sleep deprived when I left.

So I received a request for 3 books right before I left.  [Last minute check of the email....]  These are 15 year old PBs. Upon super inspecting them I discovered a weird mark on the inside page and cover.  Dunno what it is, but while it may not be from something liquid  it looks enough like it.  [It's weird, there's a weird residue in the same pattern on the front cover, that somehow managed to make the same pattern on the aging on the inside of the cover and the same pattern on the first page, and that's it.  It's faint enough that I didn't notice it the first three times I looked at it.  I only noticed it b/c I had my really bright natural light on...but I digress.]   While the others comply with PBS posting standards, they have shelf wear, some creasing in the spine, and general darkening of pages due to age.  They're typical older paperbacks, read several times, well loved, but not preserved in pristine condition (they were DH's.  I had these in HC, so I posted them.  :D)

For some reason, I just don't feel comfortable with the RC.  I also do not wish to just reject b/c I'm feeling paranoid tonight. 

This is the RC  (if it's yours, please PM me and we can chat about the two that are ok, just old)

------------

No books with any wrinkled pages (this does not mean page folds). I consider this to be water damage. No books with partially detached pages whether taped in or not. No books with broken bindings (paperbacks where there is a gap between pages). I believe all this is covered by the site's condition requirements but I've received a number of books that had these problems anyway. Please inspect before sending.

-------------

It is not sitting well with me for some reason.  Like I said, I am exhausted, so I may not be thinking clearly. 

At any rate, I will need to reject one of the three, as its mystery mark makes it unpostable, regardless of what made it.  I just cannot settle on being comfortable as it stands.  I understand the frustration behind it, but...

Maybe just :   1.  Get a good nights sleep

                         2.  Copy the above post and send it to the requestor in a PM

                         3.  Go from there   

                                            :)       D.

But you can't PM until you accept or decline.  Unless they included their nickname.  Which rarely seems to happen when you need it.

I would probably not accept - go with your gut feeling

I wouldn't accept that. And I don't think this person will be getting many books if they won't accept wavy pages - even new books directly from the bookstores seem to have wavy pages these days!

I would turn it down for the wavy page part.  Like someone else said they can come brand new with wavy pages and wavy pages doesn't necessarily mean water damage. It could be the way it was bound or just cheap paper. 

Also that 1st book you described may not be postable. If that's a stain then it's not.  Discoloration from aging is postable but stains aren't.

IMHO, not comfortable = decline due to RCs.

I can walk into Borders or B&N and the brand new HCs will all have wavy pages.  I would deny that RC in a heartbeat.  I once had someone mark a book I sent RWAP because "all of the pages were uniformly wavy".   

With RCs, it can be the tone that makes me turn them down if it is a borderline decision.  This one sounds very polite for a RC that was probably written in anger due to several problem transactions. 

I would turn it down because as many of the others said, so many brand new books have wavy pages from cheap paper.  Especially the way it was worded "I consider it water damaged". That's a little presumptuous, since water damage usually has some type of discoloration. I just got an RC today that I also will turn down because it was filled with phrases like "absolutely no" and other negatives and I just don't want the hassle. I usually accept most Rc's, but the way it's worded can sometimes show you how reasonable or unreasonable someone is.  Life is too short to stress out over used books! :)

If/when you do decline, you'll have the opportunity to make some constructive comments about the RCs and why you rejected them. Doing so might help the member rephrase their RCs (I know I clarified some of my own RCs after similar feedback from other members).

Cheers,
Catt

Just to update, I did decline all of the books.  I also removed the one book from my shelf since I cannot identify what the mark is - weird paper issue, exposure to something, whatever.

I did include some constructive feedback regarding her(his?) RC.  I let her know that her frustrations really showed and that was very offputting..  I suggested that she stick with a statement emphasizing PBS's binding condition requirement and something simple about her wrinkle statement.

I also let her know that some new books come out of the box with wrinkly pages, due to the quality of the paper, and she may wish to reconsider that portion of her RC.

Thanks for the feedback.  =)