I received a book in the mail today for my son.  he said the book was in good condition so i marked the book received. well, he started to read it and the book has writting in the book.  is there anything i can do now? there was a post it note in the front cover that gave the book crossing information.  I didnt know what that was at the time.  i did read in the help section the bookcrossing can have writting in it.  is there anyway i could have found out this was a bookcrossing book before requesting it?

Thank you for any help anyone can give me.  this is the first time i havent gotten a book that was in almost perfect shape.

Bookcrossing books don't all have writing in them. They have a sticker in the front of the book. The intent is to give away the book. No writing on text pages is acceptable; but it is up to you to check the book thuroughly before accepting it in the system. You can set up an RC (requester condition) for any thing you like. Often this leason is learned the hard way. This may never happen again; I have never received a bookcrossing book.

Where is the writing? Bookcrossing and other stamps, and writing inside the cover, edge of pages or on the flyleaf are all ok to post. Writing on the text pages is not, unless the books is listed under the textbook rule, and then the sender can't send it unless the receiver agrees to accept it with writing.

If you don't want a bookcrossing book, you need to create a Requestor Condition stating that. But that could create some confusion, because some members may not know what a bookcrossing book is. If writing on the text pages is the problem, it doesn't matter if it's a bookcrossing book or not, the sender shouldn't have sent it without your permission, so the bookcrossing part of it has nothing to do with that.

I guess you could contact the member, but once the book is marked as received, you can't change it to received with a problem.

the book is captain underpants and the cartoon characters are circled.  this has upset my son a great deal.  :( 

i think i am going to PM the sender. can i ask for my credit back?

I've received a couple Bookcrossing books, they used to have a big sticker on the outside cover.  The more recent ones I've seen have a sticker on the inside of the front cover.  Bookcrossing is allowed by PBS.  Once received, you own them and are under no obligation to pass them on or 'Bookcross' if you do not wish to.

Writing is not allowed on text pages (unless posted per Textbook guidelines).

ETA - you can ask, but once the book has been marked received without a problem your options are limited.

i have never heard of bookcrossing until the book came in the mail the other day. it had a post it in it and i took the post it off to look further into this.

i take it PBS and bookcrossing are not related web sites?

No they are not related at all. Bookcrossing is a thing where people put a number or something on a book and release it into the wild.  The hope is that whoever ends up with the book will  log the number in on the book crossing website and you can see where it travels. 

I've never received one and I've never seen one left out anywhere either. I've heard that some people can get really carried away with the book crossing markings.

Yes, you can PM and ask.  She may not have realized it had writing if it was on the illustrations.

The lesson to learn is checking the book yourself before marking it received. I have made the same mistake by flipping the book and thinking it was OK until I read it and found missing pages and water damage. I learned the hard way and now always check completely.

The lesson to learn is checking the book yourself before marking it received. I have made the same mistake by flipping the book and thinking it was OK until I read it and found missing pages and water damage. I learned the hard way and now always check completely.

I've received over 850 books through PBS, and only 2 (maybe 3) were registered with Bookcrossing.  Your chances of running across it  again are rather slim.  If it bothers you, feel free to add an RC 

Circle complete

http://www.paperbackswap.com/Member-Asked-Credit-After-Accepting/topic/272423/?ls=0#p5912497

http://www.paperbackswap.com/Member-Asked-Credit-After-Accepting/topic/272426/

There is really no reason to be linking these posts together. It is just fine for the members to be asking their questions annonymously from the other side of the transaction. If fact I find linking them together rude. The two members were being polite enough to not go into each other's posts and just asked their questions on their own.

To the OP: It will always be in the sender's control to return the credit. Sending pictures of the damage so that they can determine if it is something they might have missed may help. You would be able to swap this book again by using the Textbook Exception or offering it in the Book Bazaar. Under the Textbook exception you must PM the requester and tell them about the writing and get their permission to send the book before doing so (no answer is a no). If they don't agree, then you'd have to cancel the transaction. In the Bazaar you can explain the damage. You can offer it free with a request or if you ask for a credit for it, they can buddy you the credit and send you their address via a PM.

Yep ... it's really a disservice to be linking the posts. Two members are asking advice on how to handle the issue -- they really are separate issues and should be treated as such. This is just pitting the two people against each other and setting up dividing lines. Never good!  

As for this post, from this angle, if I had already marked it received in good condition, I would consider it a done deal. It would have been my fault for marking it. I would not go back to the sender. Consider it a learning lesson to look at the books carefully when received. Some things though, you just plain miss. A month or so ago I was reading a book for a game swap here and got to like page 200 and there was a chocolate (I guess) thumbprint. Talk about bummed -- I had to order a book from Amazon for the person I was sending the book to. I marked it as good when received it not seeing the print. My fault so I would never consider going back to the sender.

Thank you Melanie and Susan.,  I appreciate the comments about the seperate post. i would have preferred to keep the posts seperate.  in fact, i didnt realize she posted anything until it was linked.

i do appreciate everyones comments.  since this has happened, i learned how to put a special request out for books. i will never take my sons opinion of the book/

she did return the credit which was greatly appreciated.