Discussion Forums - Questions about SwapaCD

I'm curious how the wish list really works? I've been a member of Swapacd for several years now and thought I had a good understanding of the Wish list, but a recent event makes me question how it really works.
I usually check my Wish list ar least 2-3 times a week, sometimes I'm on there every day.  My friends give me grief since I spend so much time on this site, but my music collection is very important to me.  I have about 700 items in my wish list.  The highest listed items are where I am the only one wishing for a CD.  The next highest are items that I am #1 on, but another person  is wishing for the same item, but have it higher on thier Wish list.

So when I see one of my items move from (1 of 3) to (2 of 3), I moved it into the top 100 of my wish list to get it back to #1.  It is a new artist for me and I see that several other CD's by the same artist are no longer #1 on my Wish list, so I move all of them up in my Wish list.  It seems to take weeks to get back to #1, so I started a small test and moved one of the CD's to top of my Wish list.

 
 I rarely miss checking my list so I figuered that the other person had moved the CD to #1 to get ahead of me,  I estimated it would take me 4 days at @1 on my list to be the first in line if the CD was posted.  The other user had the CD as #130 on thier list, and if I missed 3 days where they had listed it as #1 and 4 days @ #130 then I would need 3000 points in 4 days.  Since #1 ranking would give me 3636 points, I would once again be #1 in 4 days.

It's been over 3 weeks and I am still 2 of 3!  Can someone explain what is happening?  

This seems way too complicated. It should be if you place a CD on your Wish list, and you're 3rd in line, you should STAY 3rd in line. You should not be able to change your position in line for any CDs by manupulating some point system. I have 1000 CDs on my wish list. If it's on my wish list, I WANT THE CD. I don't have time to rank which CDs I want first, second, third, etc. SACD says I can more quickly receive the CDs I want most by ranking them higher. I suppose if there is a CD I just can't live without, this might be something I might try. Frankly, if I must have a CD, I'd probably go buy it elsewhere. But most of the time, I don't have an opionion on which Wish List CDs are more important to me. Stuff is on my list and if a CD becomes available, I am happy. Most of the time I don't expect anything on my Wish List to become available because it happens so infrequently. And it's not worth my time to rank CDs to possibly increase my chances of getting it.

This is my own opinion. You may feel differently, which is totally fine.

Craig, I have no idea on how you are making your estimate

What does the graph look like? 

How far away are you from the first person on the graph?  

When you are in within 2 weeks of change in position to number 1 it will read

Estimated Position in 2 Weeks: 1

Estimated Position in 2 Weeks: 2

I was #1 out of 2 users.  I did not check on it for 3 days, so when I looked at it, it showsthat I am 2 of 3.  So I moved it from #500 to #1 on my list.  The other user had his at #130 on his wish list.  So the question is how many days until I am #1 of 3 users? 

If you look at the explanation on how points in the wish list work, then you can calculate that 4 days after I moved the CD to #1,  I should have more points then the other users.

There are situation(s) where a cd is on someone's wish list but they are not eligible to receive the disc. I don't know the details for sure, but it might be when they have their wish list on hold or when they do not have any credits or money in their account. Their wish does not show up in the graph for that title while that situation exists. When they again are eligible to recieve the disc, they reappear on the graph with the points they had previously built up. So when you are #1, you are the #1 eligible to receive the cd at that time. Someone else can reappear on the wish list who has more points and retakes the #1 spot. I have had titles where I alternate between #1 and #2 regularly without changing anything on my part.

I'm fairly new here, but I think the fact that you can drop in the list is to help spread some of the new material around. I see folks that have litterally 1000's of CDs on a wish list. If it was first come first serve you would end up with a small number of people hoovering up the CDs as they come in. Prioritizing which discs you really want with rank helps to keep the site usable for a large group of folks as well as new members. 

Now, how active you are in the site would not be a bad metric to factor in some how. I would say if you are actively posting titles that are filling other folks wish list needs, you would think that would be worth something rank wise. Personally, I see that this is a swap site, not a store. i.e. if I don't post titles that folks want, I can't expect anything I want in return. Granted I have esoteric tastes which works out well in some cases, and makes other titles basically just impossible to get. 

I think the main issue at present is that things are stagnating, There are almost 30K public profiles (all with wish lists of at least one CD I would assume) and under 700 dics sent in the last 7 days. That seems to indicate the math that we need to grease the wheels here. I tend to frequent places like flea markets and the GoodWill in search of CDs. I've shifted my search to not just what I'm looking for, but for what others might be. Its an odd time for physical media. I can go drop $10 on 10 discs at the GoodWill. It gives the impression that the format is now 'worthless' but much like some movies did not make it to streaming (or are not that easy to get at) some music just is not out there to stream. I've personally seen that there are a lot of titles waiting to be liberated out there. It's just there is not a good way to get them from where they are to a new home. I know folks that do flea markets that have 1000's of CDs but no good way to sell them. I'm going to be looking at how I can grease the wheels there to liberate some of that into the system.

That said, I can see how easy it would be for some of this to tip the other way. I see lots of folks with more credits than they can use. Not sure how you unstick that one. 

Chris G. said:

I'm fairly new here, but I think the fact that you can drop in the list is to help spread some of the new material around. I see folks that have litterally 1000's of CDs on a wish list. If it was first come first serve you would end up with a small number of people hoovering up the CDs as they come in. Prioritizing which discs you really want with rank helps to keep the site usable for a large group of folks as well as new members. 

Exactly!  That's why the system is set up this way.

On Paperback Swap you keep your same position on the wishlist but they limit the wishlist to 100 with a free membership.

You can PAY $20.00 a year to have a 500 wishlist on Paperback Swap.

SwapaCD and SwapaDVD let's you have an unlimited wishlist for FREE but that creates the need for the point/rank system.

Yesterday, I organized my wishlist in the way I think is how it should go. At the top, at number one, is the CD wish the most wishers (with 17) and at the bottom, at 82, are the ones where I'm the only one. The second lowest ones are the ones where I am one of two. After that, the ones where I am two of two. Then one of three. Then two of three, etc. With ones that are tied (I have two where i'm 13 of 13) I put the one that I want more higher than the other. Is this the optimal way to do it?

It's one strategy. I would also factor in how bad you want the disc. Moving a disc down too low means that you could easily get sniped by someone that comes in later but has the disc at #1. Something to think about. I have a few discs that are in low print or just not that available that I keep near the top 'just in case'. There is a new trend of not putting out a CD at all, or only doing it as part of a KickStarter, or only selling discs at concerts, etc that makes the disc 'rare' (or worse unlistable) which his a bit annoying. Usually I just want the bits and would be more than fine if it was a record club disc. Not everythng is on Spotify and I have some esoteric tastes. 

I didn't think about that! The one that I have highest, I don't really want.  I think I'll change that. Thanks! Also, I have all of my wishes as disc only. I know some people wish them with certain inserts. Do the wishes that want the inserts factor into the numbers? Example: Person one wishes  ALBUM with no inserts. They are the first person to wish. Person B wishes ALBUM but they want the front insert. Will person B see that they are 2 of 2, or 1 of 1, meaning they are the only person who wants the front insert as well. Just wondering.

EDIT: I think I've figured it out. The _out of _ means the total number of people wishing, including people who want no inserts, and those who want all the inserts.