I ordered the book Shadow Man on December 23rd. In the details it shows the sender mailed it out on December 28th. Since the book is always at the top of my enroute to me list and was scheduled to go lost on January 25th, I decided to pm her. I asked her if she happened to mail the book at a later date. She then told me that she had surgery and indeed did mail it later (no date was mentioned).

Now here is the problem. PBS placed the book as lost TODAY not on Monday as scheduled. When I originally requested the book it wasn't a wishlist book. So, great I thought if it doesn't come from the original sender then I will order it sometime. Not knowing that it is now a wishlist book, the book popped up coming from a different sender. I guess I was put in first place out of 6 other wishers, which I just noticed today.

I pmed the original sender telling her that her book went lost and that I would mark it as received when I get it. Now, I don't want to miss out on this book by canceling the new sender's offer if I don't get my first request. I haven't heard yet from the first sender since my last pm. What do I do?

Since the WL is so short, I personally would cancel the WL and get at the end of the line.  My guess is it's posted pretty often if it wasn't WL before.  It might be one of those books that constantly comes on and off WL. 

In cases like this I have put on a RC about it.  Saying that X book had gone lost, and I'd like to give the book more time to arrive. (this one was coming from Alaska) Please decline this RC for X book.  That will give the book more time to arrive without losing my place in line. 

Not that this is the real issue but I am obsessive about little details  Did your Account tab say it was supposed go lost on the 25th, because by my count 26 days is today. If the tab was wrong, the Team should know the system is giving out bad info on that tab(and its seems to have a few cases of errors in the timelines there lately).

Since it is too late to do what Emily says (which is what I would suggest for future problems like this) I would cancel the current request if it is a easy to find the book. If it were a book that only got posted once a year I'd probably get both copies and repost the second if they both showed. 

I'm new here. On one of my requests, the sender contacted me to tell me she had accidently sent the book to a different member.  She contacted the other member, who (very kindly) agreed to send it on to me.  The account tab says that the book should be here by 1/28--who knows if it will or not given the situation.  How long after the estimated arrival date does a book go to "lost" ??

Thanks everyone. I didn't receive the book today and the 2nd sender hasn't responded to my request yet.

Lori, it goes "lost" in the system after 26 days, but there is still a way to mark it received if you get it after it goes lost.

http://www.paperbackswap.com/help/help_item.php?id=73

Remember tho, if FIFO automatically marks the book 'lost' it will 1. roll over to the next available copy, or 2. be placed on your wishlist (postition #1) for the next available copy.  If you wish to wait for the first sender, you may wish to put the book on 'hold'.

I think I'm going to accept the request if she answers it. If I do eventually get the book from the first sender I will post one of them so one of the other wishers will be happy.