is full!  Anyone else have this problem, lol

Yes, I do!

I just got 2 WL offers this week, or mine would be at 300 as well.  I just haven't added more to fill it back up yet, but that will be easy to do!

Oh yes, I definitely have that problem!!!

Me too. Instead of giving gold key members an extra 100 spots, perhaps they should just sell blocks of extra WL spaces. I'd buy an extra 100 for a few bucks. 

Well mine is down to 295 but not for long. I bought some of my not posted in years WL books on the Half.com sale they had and haven't taken the time to replace them. I'll probably do that today. 

The half.com sale got me down to 296 but I don't expect to stay there for long!

Feel free to add me to your friends list.  I am on auto accept!

This is the PBS equivalent of the traffic congestion / induced demand problem.

Allowing the sale of more WL slots is probably going to make the problem worse. Buying them is analogous to paying for the right to stand in line to buy a lottery ticket

I disagree, Sophia.  You still have to have the credits available to actually request the book.

Also, keep in mind, that a lot of people have multiple ISBNs for the same book on their list.  Therefore, as soon as the member receives any version of the book, they normally remove the duplicate books from their list.

Denise, as to your original inquiry: Yes, my list is always full.  As soon as I'm able to clear out any ISBNS, there are plenty of books in my reminder list that can replace it.

yes, had the problem about 24 hours after buying the gold key!

I disagree, Sophia.  You still have to have the credits available to actually request the book.

I am not sure what you are disagreeing with, Jennifer.

that maxing out a 300WL limit is similar to the traffic/induced demand problem?

allowing people to buy WL spots is going to make wait times longer?

that buying extra WL spots is like paying for the right to wait on line to buy a lottery ticket?

allowing people to buy WL spots is going to make wait times longer?

That would only happen if a majority of members would buy the extra spots but judging by the number of people that have the Gold Key, not everybody is willing to pay extra to get more spots in the WL. Ergo, having a small % of members with a longer wishlist will not make the wait times that much longer.

Out of curiosity, those of you who have maxed out Gold Key WLs (I'm at 296!) - how many of your books have estimates? Two of mine do. Two. Though I am number one on the list for something like 54 books. 

That would only happen if a majority of members would buy the extra spots but judging by the number of people that have the Gold Key, not everybody is willing to pay extra to get more spots in the WL. Ergo, having a small % of members with a longer wishlist will not make the wait times that much longer.

Do you have any statistics on how many Gold Key members there are? Do TPTB cap the number of Gold Key memberships sold?

Can you define "that much longer" and "small"? I really don't think you need a majority (>50%) for there to be some noticable impact. 

Sorry to sound nitpicky, but I think your argument is an empirical one about the scale of the program and can only make sense if it were fleshed out.

Well, here are some real numbers. I scrolled through the first thousand entries in the Member Directory, and out of those thousand 8 were Gold Key members. <1%. I know it's not perfect, but extrapolating out from that, but let's say 1% of PBS members subscribe to the Gold Key Program.  I don't know how many members there are (87K have public profiles) - does 150K total sound about right? That's 1500 GK members. And considering the large variance in terms of books wished for, the legnthening of the wait times is likely pretty negigable. The program would have to expand A LOT for the difference to be felt, I think.

Out of curiosity, those of you who have maxed out Gold Key WLs (I'm at 296!) - how many of your books have estimates? Two of mine do. Two.

That's hilarious, I have 300 books and only two estimates as well!!

Apparently, I'm now first in line for 57 of my WL books.

Thanks for putting some numbers on the agrument, Caviglia. Maybe it's not a problem now.

It does mean anywhere from 0 (if people just got the program to monetarily support PBS) to 150k  (if everyone used all of them) extra WL spots. 

Btw, the member directory says there are~87k members, but on the pulse of PBS page, it's about ~120k. Odd. wondering if you can make a "public" profile and then set it to private?

Sophia - you can. Go to My Account -> Settings -> Privacy Controls -> My Profile (click "disable").

Also - remember all those added WL spots are divided up betwen all the different books that can be wished for. Also factor in the many, many members who aren't using all their WL spots as it is.  There are a great many variables - I'm just not seeing, number-wise, that there is much danger of it causing much of an impact in wait times. As opposed to, for example, the ascendency of ebooks, which is slowly grinding the system to a halt. But that's a completely different issue.

Thanks for pointing out the privacy controls.

I did take into account that not all people are using all of the extra WL spots. I agree with your analysis.

It hasn't been a problem for me...I still have about 120 on my WL with a good many of those on hold, which is about the same as I had before the Gold Key. I used to have 300-400 on my WL before PBS imposed the 200 limit, but my habits for acquiring books have changed a lot since those days...living in a smaller apartment, so no longer have 700-1000 physical books in my house nor do I want to!

Cheryl

I just scanned my wishlist--did not see ANY estimates. 

I have books wished since I joined in October 2006.  I'm at #2 on a few of those. 

My Gold Key list was full about 2 days after I bought it.  Lots of spaces with extra ISBNs for the same titles.  But I have had to skinny those down some, to make room for my newly-found-out-about books.

I did purge a few that I had acquired through other means, so am now at 284.

I've been pretty proud of myself because I've been able to keep from 5 to 15 spots open at all times (when my WL was 200 I could usually keep 1 space open).

I have 291 on my list now, 2 with estimates, and I am number 1 for 111 books!  I wish for a lot of very rarely posted books.

I would also buy more WL space.  I'm definitely not receiving a flood of books, because so many on my list will probably never be posted!

Diane

I don't pay much attention to estimates.  I get a book when I get it. The only time I even look is if I'm ordering books online, like from the Half.com sale, and look into buying stuff that's never posted here.

I would bet that most of the people willing to pay for the Gold Key membership also send out more WL books than the average PBSer.  Like me they are probably high volume readers.  Last month I sent out 25 WL books and I was onlly able to send that many because my Gold Key membershp helped me find people I could ship multiples to and save postage. Otherwise I would have only sent out 10 or so. I then used several of those credits to order books from FIFO. 

I have around 165 books on my wishlist right now - I think I've only been up to 200 a short time, never close to 300.

Thanks for showing the numbers and putting things in perspective, caviglia. ;)