This is an overview of how the swap works. Please ask for clarification as needed.
After signing up, all participants can see who has joined the swap and will be able to tell what seeds have been placed up for “adoption” by other players. Each person that joins will add their offerings to the Seed Swap Database and will activate those seeds to make them available for the swap. There is no time frame for adding seeds, but in order to request seeds on opening day you must have at least one kind of seeds offered for trade in this swap. There is no limit on how many packets of a specific seed you can offer. You will have a link on your swap page that will take you to the page for listing your available seeds.
As you add seeds to your personal list you can choose to have those seeds either private so that only you can see them, or make them public but not yet available, or public and available. No one can select your seeds from the database unless you have joined a swap and have made them available to trade in that particular swap. To make them available for a specific swap you will need to have them listed as available and ready to trade and then take one extra step. After you join a swap and have made a selection available and ready you must go to the far left of the listing and activate that selection for a particular swap by checking the box for that swap. There will be a column for each swap you are participating in at that time. In this way you can keep some seeds out of a swap altogether while maintaining them in your master list, and can divide selections between more than one swap if you have joined concurrent swaps.
It may sound a little complicated, but once you join and use the features Dave provided in the system it becomes clear and simple. You will have a way to establish a wish list so that you don’t miss opportunities to get your most desired selections, you will be able to see what you have won and will be receiving at a glance, and you will have a printable list to help you pack when you are ready to send your seeds.
For this swap there is no minimum or maximum limit to how many seeds you can list. Don’t post more than you want to send in any circumstance as once someone selects them you are obligated to send them. Until a seed has been claimed you have the option to remove it from the swap. Not all of your seeds will “sell” and it is not certain you will “buy” as many as you have obligated yourself to send. You are not obliged to list all of your offerings before the swap starts and can add seeds anytime during the active swapping phase. You will not be sending in unclaimed seeds.
Likewise there is no limit, outside the confines of the duration of the swap and the number of packets offered, to how many you can request, no matter how many you list. This is not a one for one swap. The more desirable seeds you list, the more "dibs" you have to choose what you want. To insure that everyone is able to get some of their favorite offerings the system is set up to allow a limited number of selections per player per day. Everyone will start with the same number of "dibs" on day one. That number will increase daily and the opening allowance will be determined by the number of seeds offered. It could be as low as 3 for the first day and build from there. The system also awards bonus “dibs” based on how many seeds other players select from your list. Players who list a lot of seeds and seeds that are highly desirable and are quickly “purchased” earn extra opportunities on a diminishing scale, starting with 1 extra “dib” for every two packs “sold” on day 1 and diminishing each day thereafter. These extra earned selections are made immediately available and can be used at any time. There were a few hundred left over dibs last year. You will find by day 4-5 you have plenty of requests available to you.
Once the swap is over you will bundle the seeds you have “sold” each player and label them accordingly. All seeds will be sent to me and redistributed to the “buyers.” The system only allows one choice for the cost of return postage, but you can send your seeds to me by Priority Mail or First Class Mail and I will return them using either method, as you choose. You can include 7.00 for a priority mail return, or if you have selected 50 packs or fewer you can send 3.50 for First Class mail with delivery confirmation. Please, no preprinted postage. My Post Office believes I’m not supposed to mail anything with postage originating outside my town from here- best to send cash, check, Paypal, M.O. or for first class postage only, stamps.
