Workmantd,
Welcome to NGA and DnD's Nov swap page....
When you sign up for the swap (here, then officially when the swap is good to go -- has enough participants to run, DnD will post a Swap section/page (whatever), you gain access to the area that will give you alot more info, but here's the basics:
Before the swap, you package your seeds, and put the name/variety of the seed, year collected, your name as basics. Then you will enter each in a "My trade list". This is the list that others will be able to see when you make them available to the Nov. Swap, by checking the left column (that is in gray til you give it a green "go" to offer in the swap). it will ask you the name of the seed, variety, # of seeds per pack, if you collected the seeds/if they were commercially bought/or received in a trade. There is a misc column that you can put additional notes if you wish re: the seeds/info
Before the swap begins, you can check out everyone else's offerings. You will notice 5 stars. You can rate the seeds offered by others by priority, so when the swap begins, you open your wish list (seeds you have rated) and the top ratings/wants come up. So your "most wanted" is right there, listed. There will be a treasure chest in a column, which is how you "bid" on the item to win it. In the Sept swap, the first night everyone got 3 "tickets" (to bid). When people bid on your seeds, you also get a fraction of a ticket so the more seeds of yours people take, the more opportunities you earn to get more bids and thus additional seeds. The next night, the tickets were 6 for each player, and I think the night after that, then it went to 12. The ticket # is set by the host as is the length of the swap (ie usually a week long), so every night, you get the opportunity to bid on more seeds.
At the end of the swap, you can print out the check list of what seeds have been " won" from your items by each participant ,and you pack them up in packets and send along with the fee (this time it was $7, to cover cost of mailing YOUR seeds you won back to you) to the host by the deadline stated on the swap info (approx a week or so).
If I left anything out or you have additional questions, please feel free to ask!
val
