I was #1 for a WL book  that there were no wishers for showing at the time since February but now it shows I am #2 of 2. How does this happen?

One thing is that someone who wason vacation hold might have comeback and were in #1 when they went on hold so now they're back in first which bumps you down.

Ruth

Same thing happened to me today! I have been 1 out of 6 for a while and now I'm 2 of 6....

I had my account on hold for 6months one time because of a cross country move. When I came off hold I was #1 on a lot of books-including some that were out of print and not posted very often-that had been on my WL for over a year.  I'm sure a lot of those people who were right behind me in line were a little confused. 

That's probably it..just seemed like an awful long time..lol...thanks guys!

Ditto. I was #1 for about 8 weeks, now #2. And on the same day, I was a  #2 and went to #3.

Since it happened to a bunch of people at the same time, I think there's more to it than someone coming back from vacation.

Not necessarily. In your case, Thomas, it's likely that your two instances happened because the person who had their account on hold has similar taste to yours and had both of those books wishlisted and was in line ahead of you for both when they went on hold.

Lots and lots of folks use the vacation hold feature for varything lengths of time and for different reasons--I had my account on hold for about seven months oncea couple of years ago when I was in dire financial straits and could not afford to send any books, and several other times for 2-3 months at a time. I know of some people who are in school overseas and put their account on hold for six months at a time.

Cheryl

There are also a lot of military members who probably go on hold when deployed.

IMO 6 to 8 months seems a little long for vacation hold, but not entirely suspect.

I know of at least one member here who has been on hold for several months as her son was in a serious car accident and she moved all the way across country to stay with him until he got back on his feet. Unfortunately he passed away a few months ago and she has yet to return to PBS.

I just came back off vacation hold today.  I'm sorry if I bumbed any of you.  I promise to read the books quickly if and when I get them. 

As for this happening to a number of people, I bet that there are certain days when it happens more than others.  For example, today is the last day of the month.  I bet a lot of people came off today or will come off tomorrow being the first day of the month.  People use the hold for a lot more reasons than just vacation.  My life was getting pretty hectic for a bit and I wasn't reading as much and I was not getting things mailed on time and then having to send messages explaining things to people who had already been waiting several days for the books and I just said, "I need a break from PBS for a bit."  So when I set it up, I picked today as the day to come off automatically.  Although to be honest, I would not have remembered that except I got a wish fulfilled today which thought was really weird until I remembered what I had done. 

Just guesswork on my part, but it makes sense to me.

What 's weird is that today I am back to #1..lol...

I bet there will be a lot of people going on vacation in December since they will be spending a lot on Christmas and can't afford to send out books.

There is also the recently added feature where you can individually put wish list books on hold.  i would expect the majority of movement is the vacation hold, but now people can put books on hold individually and just take each off when they are #1 and ready to recieve the book.

It does hurt when that happens but it hurts worse when it is posted direclty to someones wish list & someone got it but you are still just number 1 on the wishlist :)