My husband and I were devastated to find what appears to be a water damaged book for the second time this week.  The last time I repoted a book as damaged the sender was pretty irritable about it, especially after I sent pictures to her. From reading things it seems as though many other members who report water damage get criticized for expecting "perfect" books even though the site says no damage. It would really make me feel better if a few peple could look at the picture posted below to conform this is the tell tale marks of water damage so that upon contacting the seller I know I'm not just a crazy requestor. Thank you!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v359/zizziana/waterdamaged01.jpg

Elizabeth,

It is hard to tell from the photo if that is water damage.  Usually there will be some staining and texture change to the pages.  I've seen brand-new paperbacks with wavy pages like that because the quality of paper being used is not that stellar.  If the pages are stiff and brittle, then it is probably water damage.  If they are just wavy with normal paper texture, then it is a paper quality issue. 

Mary

Thank you for the good advice.

When I was buying Sookie Stackhouse books at Target, nearly all of them looked that way brand new.

I think its hard to tell, too. I have seen brand new books exactly like that in the store.

I have also received books like that and not marked RWAP unless the pages are unambiguously water damaged.

If you don't see anything on the most wrinkled pages that seems like texture changes ... then I am guessing it is not water damaged.

I appreciate the feedback everyone. I'd never send a book out that looked like that just in case but I'm getting the impression that there's been some poor paper quality issues that occasionally come up with books so now I have a better idea on how to make a judgement call.

Looks like low quality paper issue to me as well. It is sad that we have to even wonder these days. If there is no staining I would not wrap it, I also however would not risk sending it on though either....

I've picked up several books like that in the UBS. At first I thought they were water damaged, but it turned out the be the cheap paper they use to print the books. So, just by looking at your picture, that's what it looks like.

Some of my books are looking that way and I think it comes from the humidity in the summer with cheaper quality paper (not nec. the books are cheap). I say that I think it is the humidity because the books that are in the air conditioned rooms never get wavy like that.

This is the first time I've really seen it but I live in the desert where there's low humitity most of the year. None of the books in my personal collection have had this issue. We're more likely to deal with books that have pages falling out due to glue in the binding drying out too much.

I find brand new books at the book store that look the same way.  Now I check for staining and stiffened pages for water damage.