The books cost so much more to replace; that's why one has to pay so much and can't just go out and buy the book and give it to them; they get the books at a slight discount but all the stuff they have to do to turn it into a "library" book takes people and people cost money.

If they've got multiple copies of your book and it's pretty old they're more likely to excuse its loss and most systems I've been part of often have a yearly "get out of jail free" :-) day where you can return books and not be penalized since they mostly just want the books back, the fine doesn't really cover much/make them any money.

I'd be careful the rest of the year though, jbug, I imagine your record shows the fix and you probably only get one fix a year or lifetime :-)

I always get to know the library staff well and talk to them so they know me by sight, etc. and then when I have a problem, go in in person and they're more likely to take care of it since they know me some and see the frequency that I'm in and how many books I check out and return, etc.