And this is my second swap with this group!

1 - Proofread! I offered one seed that I had 1 pack of, and 4 people dibbed it before I checked back on my Swap List and saw that I had typed in 10, not 1. I hastily turned the amount to zero, and fortunately, had enough seeds in reserve to cover the other 3 that had dibbed. But if I had not gone back to look, it could have been disastrous.

2 - I collect seeds and package them as I collect them, mostly, and they are sometimes quite different in amounts in each pack. Since I didn't want to put them as separate entries, I listed (for example) Salvia Blue Victory, one @35 and one @10. Both got claimed. No worries, sez I, I can check in Recent Events to see who had claimed first. Well, both got claimed within the same hour, within a couple of events of each other. Turned out I had enough seeds in reserve to fill up the @10 to 35, so no harm done. But still! Next time I will either have all packets uniform in amounts, or list them as separate items.

(Too soon old, too late smart!)

Thank you for sharing your lessons-learned. I'm glad you salvaged your near disasters!

Here's one I learned (the hard way) in my first swap here: Have everything packeted before the swap starts. As much as I dislike refiling unclaimed packets, making hundreds of packets on a tight timeline at the end of the swap is FAR LESS ENJOYABLE

Also, I'm contemplating changing my listings over to their binomial names (followed by their common name, where applicable). While I would regret that players would no longer be able to use the hyperlinks to the database, bouncing around among common names probably doubles the time it takes me to "fulfill" each "order."

@kywheeler, I used to pack seeds in individual trades as they dried too. This year, I collected, dried and placed all the seeds for each type in a large paper envelope. As I was listing seeds for the swap, I packed individual trades and filed them in a separate bin just for this swap. I can't tell you how many baggies that I have wasted because I end up dumping the seeds a couple years down the road. The baggies are not expensive but the time it takes to sit and label them and then I end up throwing them in the trash two to three years later because I've collected fresh seeds just doesn'take sense anymore


I really dislike the way that the system lists the seeds. I don't know which marigolds for example are are French. When I go to pull them they're listed under f and not m. This year when I filed them, I filed under f where the system put them. It made it much easier when I was pulling them to put them in individual players bags.

I did the same thing Lisa. Before I listed anything I wrote down what the swap system called it and wrote the name on the original seed packet. Then when I was making packs for the swap I already knew what to call it and how to file it so that I could find it easily at the end of the swap. Makes life so much easier especially since I save the original seed packets even if they are empty to put the seeds I harvest.

Don't ask how many years I've been swapping before I figured this out!

To make things even more frustrating, the common name the system uses can change according to how many thumbs up the particular name gets:

I've been guilty of accessing the plant database and giving a common name a thumb's up to turn it into something I've heard of. To me common names are arbitrary and very often refer to more than one species. In my seed boxes, I file by scientific name. Once in a while, I have to google to remember, but at almost 76, that doesn't bother me.

For example, my bean seeds, when listed by common name in a trade list, end up all over the list: common bean, bush bean, green bean, French filet, shelling bean, drying bean, pole bean, wax bean, etc. So annoying.

The most important thing that I learned in this swap.

If I do the 100 minimum swap next year I don't think we could have more than 20 players. If we did, I would probably have to mail in two envelopes!

I think just because it's cold and rainy here and I have nothing else to do, I'm going to weigh the heavier of the packages and play a game about it...

@kywheeler, the bachelor's buttons seeds I dibbed from you are my first sprouts this year!

I went out to my unheated greenhouse to add in a few things I had sown and found sprouts of them and a dwarf godetia. It was eight degrees last night!