'Seems like there've been a lot of "I'm so blue" threads lately, but darn it, I'm blue, too. I'm blue about the condition of the books I receive.

It really hit me a couple of days ago when I got this fab little book about the 19th century art movement, Realism. I'd been searching at Amazon for something related to the American painter Thomas Eakins, and I ran across this book called, simply, Realism, and it sound like just the ticket to fill in the blanks in my understanding of the whole realist school... And then all of a sudden it was one of those perfect Swap moments--what the Swap is so wonderful for--I popped over here, looked it up, and sure enough, someone had a copy. Ta da! Bye bye Amazon! You're not getting hold of my credit card today!

So I ordered it, and it arrived, day before yesterday.

It was a heavy, tight, small-font, intriguing little paperback--European publisher, redolent of Old World knowledge. I started thumbing the pages the way I always do, to make sure it's not underlined or highlighted, but the pictures and the text were so compelling, I was impatient and just fell into it, reading avidly... la-de-da... what a wonderful day... until... (you see it coming) I came across a cite to an author I thought I knew, so I thumbed to the back to look him up in the biblio, and on my way to the back of the book, I hit.... the red underlining.

I wish I was in the mood to make it all funny like a monster movie---The Red Underlining That Ate My Book---or, something, but it's just sad, Starting on page 103 and continuing heavily through page 176, and it's only a 220 page book, some gormless wielder of a red ballpoint had underlined so many lines, that in quite a few of the pages, she'd underlined the whole page--which, given how small the text and spacing were, and how sloppy her pen, meant that she had, in fact, crossed out the text in RED, page after page after page. (It's madness, I tell you! Madness!) So much for my happy day, trippin' the light fantastic in art-fart-land...

I don't know why I didn't anticipate it, but there's something that bums me out about this whole process. I don't care where these books come from if they're in postable condition. But when they're NOT?! When they smell bad, look bad, read bad? It weirds me out to discover, as I have time after time, that the books that get mailed to me with blue highlighter and red underlines and illegible scrawls of marginal notations on page after page, were already used when the people got them, the people who mail them to me. So what happened? Did they buy them for a course and then not take the course? Did they simply stop reading before they hit the marked-up part? Or did they read the marked-up part, and then just forget about it? 

I don't know if I can explain it. It just boggles me, that people can't even be bothered to flip the pages of a book--before going to all the trouble to post it & reply to my request & print the label & wrap it & put it in the mail.  Because these don't seem to be sloppy, haphazard sort of people, nor are they unaware of the posting guidelines. When I tell them about the problem, they're sheepish. They invariably say, "Oh no--I guess I didn't check well enough." I guess NOT.

Anyway, what's YOUR percentage of unpostable books among the ones you've received--absolutely, objectively, unpostable books out of all the books you've received?

I've received 6 unpostables out of 56 received, which is 10.7%.  Am I complaining too much? (Yes, of course, all the transactions were resolved satisfactorily.)

                                                                                --Fiona

P.S. While I'm being crabby?  It really bugs me when people mail me their COBWEBS. I swear, I got a book in the mail today that had cobwebs on it. And that wasn't the first. Do my bookshelves have cobwebs? Of course they do. Do I mail my cobwebs to you? No. I don't.

People. Have some pride. If not for yourselves, for your spiders' sake.

I have only had 1 out of 138.  I am so sorry you've had so many. No fun at all.

I hate it when I get books with Cobwebs! Ugh I'm always a little afraid of a wee little spider climbing out of the book while I'm reading it.

I've had 2 and maybe 3 out of 271 so that puts it at about 1%.  Not bad.  Sorry about your book.  Pat

Mine is higher than that, but my house seems to be the elephant's graveyard of books.  They head here when it's their time to have their last postable read.    I think part of my reason is that I seem to think a broken spine is something different than others do or lots of them get broken in the mail.  I also get a few with stains.  The stains I've missed before marking them received.  My own fault.  Some I saw, but I was new and afraid of conflict.

Part of my problem is that many of the books that have been unpostable are ones where I've been very late on the WL, so they've had long hard journeys.  In general, though, whenever I start to get really bummed, I get a few perfect beautiful shiny gently read books in the mail, and my faith gets restored.

I've had 1 RWP out of 134 received.

I just went and looked, because it had been a long time since I had checked....I have had a total of 6 damaged books out of 1264 books received over about a 3 1/2 year period. 2 were 'damaged by sender' and 4 were actually damaged by USPS, so probably were fine when sent but were mangled by postal machinery. That's it. No idea what that percentage might be, math hurts my head. LOL But it's pretty low.

Cheryl

I have had 1 RWAP out of 173 books received so that makes my percentage .0057%.  I have discovered later down the road about 5 more of them that I probably should have marked RWAP and just didn't catch it so that would be .034% which is still not bad at all :)

I've had 12 RWAP out of almost 200 books.

I've had 5 go "lost". But I suspect at least 3 of those were never mailed.

3 out of 169 received, which is less than 2%.  Only one was marked RWAP though.  The other two, I did not notice the damage until after marking them received.  On the first one, I PMed the sender, who was rather nasty, but refunded my credit anyway.  On the second, gun-shy after my first experience with this, I just let it go and considered it a lesson learned.  I check the books I receive WAY more thoroughly now.

Sorry you have had such a poor run of luck, but I'd say that if they were all resolved satisfactorily, then you're doing pretty well.  I know it's frustrating, but anyone can make a mistake- we're all human.  If everyone you have marked RWAP has returned your credit, then you're doing better than a lot of people who post in this forum!

I got a book in a BOB the other day that bugs smashed in side it and was falling apart. She said she had it stored in the basement and didn't notice it was bad.  How could she not notice it was falling apart and had bugs smashed inside. Big bugs. I threw it out. She sent me another book.

Out of around 344 books received I think I've marked maybe 5 RWP and got my credit back on 3 of them. So I think that's pretty good odds.

I received 4 unpostables (out of 30). That was very early in my stint when I didn't read the rules thoroughly , so I was unaware of marking books RWAP. So none of the unpostables were marked as such. But I'd never repost a damaged book even if I was unclear on rules.

336 books received over 2 years, not counting swaps and deals.  ONE book that was an unpostable. 

Less than 1%.

Received 461 transactions (but more books, because I often order from people having deals).  Of those 2, maybe 3, were an issue.

76 books received.  6 unpostable without question.  3 more were judgment calls (I wouldn't post them).  Three of the 6 clearly unpostable all arrived from different posters on the same day!  (bad day.) 

So, % wise 7.8 to  11.8 % I've received are unpostable. 

Still, no cobwebs yet - I feel cheated!

1 out of 139.  I did actually have two, but the second one was mangled by the missing goats from Swap-A-Goat (the ones now wandering around loose in post offices everywhere - responsible for most of the "damaged by USPS" reports over the years due to their addiction to packing tape) so I don't count that one.

ETA: I do not worry, or even check, for "postable" condition when I get books, since I very, very seldom repost them.  So long as they meet my RCs and are readable we're good to go.

Out of 265 books recieved, I would say approximately 5% are RWP and another 10% are books that I would not feel comfortable sending, maybe they are on their last read.  But that leave 85% of the books I recieve are SPECTACULAR!!   So I feel pretty good about the ratio!!

What about books that are in good shape in every respect but just old? They aren't torn. There's no markings. They are very legible. But they are from the fifties and sixties and the pages are turning yellowish are a light tan. I went ahead and posted because I believe it meets the criteria and because it might be a book that someone really wants and no one else has.

I would want such a book if it were the only Ray Bradbury or Isaac Asimov or D. E. Stevenson that was available BUT I don't want anyone upset about a book I sent them. I thought I would send a  message to anyone who orders such a book before I mailed it.

As a new member I would be interested in other's opinions.

I have not been here very long so I currently have zero RWAP swaps out of the nine books I have ordered. Im just waiting for that first one to arrive, though. Ive been hanging out in this forum since day one of my membership so I know to keep on my toes.

Thomas those books are very acceptable and many members are looking for an older book.   Most who order a book of that age know to expect some aging.

I've received about 10% unpostables - several were because of poor packaging for the USPS. 

I hate underlining, too.  My mom is a compulsive red ink underliner - if it weren't an art book I would suspect that it came from my mom!!  

I always have hope for any book I get.  I've learned it's best not to let it slide even if it's from a new member.  The sooner a member knows the consequences of not posting the correct quality of books - the better.  It puts way too many unpostables into the system.  And I suspect that many of those "new members" became old members and they are the ones who PM back with "I got it this way ".  Maybe they did - someone knew they were new and tried to slip one by to them hoping they wouldn't notice or know any better.  I really dislike paying for other people's life lessons. 

I sound cranky tonight.  Sorry!

Ruth

Out of 283 books, I marked 8 RWAP.  That's just under 3%.  I also had 4 go lost, or just under 1.5%.

It does seem like things go in waves for me, with a bunch of unpostables or lost books within a few weeks.

I received an unpostable the other day with a lot of underlining and drawings on several pages which appeared to be by a child.

6 unpostables out of 381.

5 actually marked as RWAP.  [The first happened when I was young and ignorant that what was on the pages was mildew.]

4 resolved successfully. 

I've had a higher number go lost (9).  One of those even had DC that said it was delivered.  Where, I wonder...

I hate highlighted books.  It does the obvious and draws your attention to that spot, which interrupts my flow of reading.  I rarely highlighted in books during college.  A lot of that "You musn't mark the book" from grade school was ingrained.  Two of my RWAPs were highlighted.  One, the sender never bothered to reply to me, and I marked it as unresolved.  I just checked my credit registry and noticed that right after I marked it as unresolved, he stealthily refunded my credit.  Hahaha.  The second highlighted book, the sender retorted that he checks all books before sending them out, priding himself on their condition.  Uh...I think this one slipped past ya.

I am keeping very few books, so postability is important to me.  I understand books on their "last read", I had one where the binding cracked when I opened it.  But the book should at least not be ripped, water damaged, or written in...

103 books received and six unpostables.  I swear I got all of them in January!  Holiday blues, house cleaning after the holidays, who knows but everything from a torn cover (half of it gone) to a falling apart, water damaged book to an ARC.  

No cobwebs or spiders oooohhh! 

Out of 511 books received only 2 have been unpostable.  One was damaged by the sender and the other by the Post Office.