How the Wish List Works

Your Wish List is the list of all CDs that you want. The Wish List has been designed with the goal of streamlining the fulfillment of wishes while providing a more equal opportunity for new and seasoned members alike to receive the CDs they want.

By default, CDs you have Wish Listed will be requested for you when the CD becomes available and you have enough credits and money in your account.
You can select to be given 48 Hours to deposit credits for a CD. SwapaCD will tell you when it is available. If you do not make the necessary deposit(s) within 48 hours, you will forfeit your place in line for that CD.
- Members must "wait in line" for currently unavailable CDs.
- Your position in the Wish List line for a CD is primarily determined by
  - how long you have had the DVD on your Wish List and
  - what Rank(s) you gave it during that period of time. See more about ranking and how it affects members' position in line below.

You can view your own Wish List from the My Lists tab on your My Account page.

You can see other members' Wish Lists from their profile or bookshelf page, or by clicking the button on any forum post they make. You can set your Wish List to private in your Forum Settings, accessible from your Account Settings on My Account.

Other features of the Wish List:

Unlimited CDs can be added to your Wish List

You can see your position in line

You can sort the list by your current position in line

You can put individual Wish List items on "hold" if you are not ready to request the CD

An estimated future position in line shows how fast the line is moving

You can more quickly receive the CDs you want most by ranking them higher

CDs currently available can be placed on your Wish List on Hold and requested after you get a credit

Default Wish List options can be used to customize your Wish List settings when you add CDs to your list

Wishes default to Auto Request when you add them

This can be changed in the Wish List settings by clicking Options on the Wish List.

If you do not have credits/money when a CD becomes available, an Auto Request will "pass you over" until you obtain the necessary credits/money. Your place in line is not affected by being passed over.

Adding a CD to your Wish List:

You can add a CD to your Wish List from almost any page that you see a CD listing: just click "Add to Wish List."
- You can add:
When you add a CD to your Wish List, you will have an opportunity to put the item "on hold" on your Wish List.
- You would do this if you are not ready to have the CD sent to you when it becomes available
When you add a CD to your Wish List and do NOT put it on hold, it will go onto your Wish List with auto-request set to Yes by default. If the CD is currently available, it will be requested immediately.
- Auto-request will request the CD for you automatically when it becomes available
- You can change this default in your Wish List settings, by clicking Options on the upper right of your Wish List.
- You can also manually set any CD on your Wish List to remove or apply the Auto-Request option if you like.
- If you do not have enough credits when your CD is set on Auto-Request, you will be "passed over" for the CD and keep your position in line.

Auto Request vs. 48 Hour Offer:

Auto-Request means the item will be requested automatically by your account when it becomes available and you are first in line for the item.

Unless you have changed the default in your Wish List options to "48-hour offer", all items will go onto your Wish List set to auto-request when you add them to your Wish List.
When a CD set to Auto-Request becomes available, it will be requested automatically from your account and sent to your account mailing address.
If a CD becomes available and you do not have credits to request it, you will be "passed over" for the CD and keep your position in line.
- You will get an email notification telling you that this happened, and that your position in line was not affected.
- You will continue to accumulate points per day depending on the CD's rank on your Wish List. See below for an explanation of ranking and points.

Please note:

if you put an AVAILABLE item on your Wish List set to auto-request, that is the same as requesting it.
- If you don't want that item right away, you should set that wish to be on Hold when you add it.

If you put an AVAILABLE item on your Wish List set to auto-request and you don't have enough credits, that will mean that your account will request the item automatically when you get enough credits.

If you don't want that to happen, you should set that wish to be on Hold on your Wish List.

48-hour offer means that you will get an email notification when the CD becomes available and you are first in line for the item.

You can choose the Auto-Request vs. 48-hour offer option on your Wish List, to the right of each item.
You can also set your Wish List Options to add items with the 48-hour offer as default, using the Option button on the upper right of your Wish List.
Using the 48-hour option means that you will receive an email letting you know when a CD is available and you will have 48 hours to deposit credits and accept the request.
- To respond to the email offer, log into SwapaCD and click on the offer to accept or decline it.
- This feature is useful if you want to send the CD to an alternate address because you will have the option of entering another address when you accept the offer.
- If you are not able to respond within 48 hours the CD will be placed on "Hold", and you will lose your position in line and will lose all accumulated points (you will go back to 0 points). See below for an explanation of points. The item will remain on your Wish List but be on hold so you can later join the line for that CD.
- If you decline the Wish List offer when it comes to you the CD will be placed on "Hold", and you will lose your position in line and will lose all accumulated points (you will go back to 0 points). See below for an explanation of points. The item will remain on your Wish List but be on hold so you can later join the line for that CD.

You can set your default option to 48-hour hold (the system default is auto-request) using the Options button on the upper right of your Wish List page.

The settings you choose on the Options box that pops up will be the default settings applied to all CDs you add to your Wish List in the future.

Position:

Each CD on your Wish List will show two position numbers.

The first is your position in the line of members wanting that particular CD. This is based on the number of points you have accumulated--see an explanation of points below.
The second is the position SwapaCD estimates you will be in 2 weeks.
- The number is only an estimate but takes into account how often the CD is posted and your current rank for the CD. Often you can improve your estimated position by giving the CD a higher rank. You may also find that ranking the CD slightly lower will have no real effect on your 2 week estimated position.

Hold:

Placing a Wish on "Hold" by checking the hold check box on the Wish List means that you temporarily do not want the CD.

CDs on hold do not earn points for the days that they are on Hold. See an explanation of points below.
- If you place a CD on hold, you will be slowly passed in line for the CD by others but you will not completely lose your position.

Example Scenario: You have 10 CDs on your Wish List but the two items ranked 1 and 2 are on hold. The item that is ranked #3 is not on hold. The item at rank #3 it will receive the points/day as if it were rank #1 (see below for an explanation of ranking and points).

Options:

There is an options button at the top of the Wish List page that will allow you to set default settings for adding CDs to your Wish List. There is also a check box that allows you to skip the prompts and quickly add CDs to your Wish List.

Ranking your Wish List:

How to rank your Wish List:
- You "rank" your Wish List by which CDs you desire to receive the most.
- The Rank of "1" is the CD you want the most.
- Ranks can be adjusted by clicking and dragging the bar on the left hand side of each Wish or by entering a new rank into the box and clicking the "Move" button.
- The order you rank your CDs is not necessarily the order you will receive them, but your position in line for a CD will improve faster if you rank the CD higher.
- If you rank a CD too low then you may be passed by some members who rank the CD higher.
How rank affects position in line for a CD:
- Each rank position earns you a specified number of points each day.
- Points are awarded each day according to the rank of the item that day.
- Points accumulate over time to determine your actual position in line on the Wish List for the item.
- The formula used to determine the points awarded each day is:

points/day = 1000 / ( 1 + rank * 0.1 )

= 1000 divided by (1 + [rank multiplied by 0.1])

This works out to the following points per day for these ranks:

Rank	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	50	100	200	500	1000	2000
Points/day	909	833	769	714	667	625	588	556	526	500	166	91	48	20	10	5

Here is a graphical display of the same information (x axis is rank from 1-1000, y axis is points given per day)

This means that your CD at # 1 position will "earn" 909 points per day.

The person with the most points for a CD that is Wish Listed will be in first position on the Wish List, and will get the next copy of that CD posted into the system. This means that when a CD that is Wish Listed is posted into the system, it will be requested by (or offered to) the member who has the most points for that item at that time.

Example Scenario: Jack adds a CD to his Wish List with a rank of 10. 1 month later, Jill adds the same CD to her Wish List but ranks it number 1. It would then take approximately 1 more month for Jill to pass Jack in line for the CD. If Jill had ranked the CD 8th instead of 1st then it would take approximately 10 more months for Jill to pass Jack in line.

the numbers:

Jack had the item at #10 on his Wish List for 30 days before Jill Wish Listed the item. That means he accumulated (500 points/day * 30 days) = 15000 points for that item before Jill added it to her Wish List a month later.
Jill added the item to her Wish List at #1 on day 30 when Jack was at 15000 points. She will accumulate 909 points per day, starting from 0. While she is accumulating her points, Jack is still getting 500 points per day.
At day 60, Jill will have had the item on her Wish List for 30 days at #1, and will have 27270 points.
At day 60, Jack will have had the item on his Wish List for 60 days at #10, and will have = 30000 points.
On day 67, Jack will have accumulated (500 points/day * 67 days) =33500 points, and Jill will have accumulated (909 points/day * 37 days) = 33633 points.

This example shows that the most important factor is how long you have had a CD on your Wish List before someone else Wish Lists it. Ranking them higher will help you get those you want the very most slightly faster. Members with a long Wish List will see CDs ranked lower moving more slowly than those CDs they have ranked near the top.

A Common Misconception about Rank and how it affects position:

"I have a CD on my Wish List for 9 months ranked in the 10th position. Another member then Wish Lists the same CD and ranks it number 1. Will they get the CD before me?"

If the CD is posted into the system within the next 330 days you will get the CD. If the CD is posted on the 331st or greater day they will get the CD first.