I went to a thrift store today and picked a few books.  I was very particular about the condition of the books that I bought.  I noticed that 99% of the books there had a single mark (pen or marker) right across the top of the book on the top of the pages but not on the inside.  These books are otherwise in like new condition.  Can they be posted?

Sounds like remainder marks.

See if this is what you are describing: http://www.mywingsbooks.com. Click on Remainder marks on the left side of the page. They have some good photos showing what I think you are describing.

If they are indeed remainder marks then yes, they are postable.

Edited to fix the link.

That is exactly it....a remainder mark.  It is a single black, yellow or blue mark across the top of the book.

Thanks for the info.  I had no clue what they were or why they were there.

Happy to help!

I needed to edit the reply below for spelling error and now can not seem to delete the extra post .. sorry

 Where do these come from? What does it mean?

This is the info that I got from the link above:

In order to clear its warehouse, a publisher will often offer the unsold (remainder) portion of a printing at a discount. Such books are usually marked on the page edges so that they cannot be returned for a full-price refund. As with most changes made to a book after the initial printing, a remainder mark reduces the value of a book to less than the same edition would bring unmarked. Individual collectors differ in how distasteful they find a remainder mark to be, but the mark and its location should always be noted in a book description.

I think that some thrift shops may put the remainder mark on the books too so that people do not try to return them to a regular book store for full price or an exchange.  I used to work in returns in a very large retail store and you would be suprised at what some people will do.

<<I think that some thrift shops may put the remainder mark on the books too so that people do not try to return them to a regular book store for full price or an exchange.  I used to work in returns in a very large retail store and you would be suprised at what some people will do.>>

Regular bookstores do this too; I worked for Borders for 5 years and applied plenty of remainder marks.

Cheers,
Catt

The point is, it's a simple and standard (and easily recognized) way for publishers and bookstores to make sure that the discount copies are distinguished from the full price copies, so that they don't lose money giving full refunds for discount books.

There isn't really anything bad about them, except for knowing immediately that a particular book is a discount copy. They're also pretty ugly looking on a bookshelf, which is the main reason many casual readers  (including me) don't like them much. It's not so bad if the mark is on the bottom of the book, but if it's on the top, then when you look at your bookshelf you see an ugly marker line on top of your books. If someone is a serious book collector, they may have problems with them for different reasons, since a remainder mark immediately reduces the value of a book.

Yep, pretty much all the books I get brand new at Bookcloseouts.com have those remainder marks. Sometimes it's a single line slash, but some of their workers use a really small circular dot made with a black sharpie, so it's hardly noticeable at all. They sure don't bother me. So far I've never seen an RC prohibiting remainder marks, so I don't think they bother most folks.

Cheryl

I've been wondering about that for years now .. and you guys fixed me up quick with that question.