I have encounted this many times and I just don't understand.  Why do people ask for help getting credits for WL items but not have there book shelf available?  When I see someone saying they are low on credits BLAh BLAh BLAH for what ever reason.   I will check out their shelf and order something from them if they have anything that appeals to me.  I have found some unexpected surprises such as a new author an older title I had wanted and forgotten about eTc.  So what exactly are these people with unavailable shelves asking for?

I'm guessing their shelves are on hold because they don't have the postage money to mail books out. No comment on the appropriateness of this behavior.

Willa, if your bookshelf is on hold you can only get autorequested wishlist items, and if you don't have any credits and your bookshelf is on hold you're skipped in line.  So while it's a nice guess, it doesn't really hold here...

Some choose to have private bookshelves (and let FIFO work the way it's intended) but it doesn't help if you're begging for credits.

And some people like to just beg.  With the price of credits in the book bazaar, it's easier to just buy them.