I've been waiting for a book, and now I'm 5th in line for it out of hundreds.

One week I'm seventh in line with 14 wishes fulfilled last week. I say, "Hot Dog!!"

The next week I'm 6th in line with 16 wishes fulfiilled last week.

Now I'm fifth.  Where did those other books go? Is there another line?

I'm new, and not understanding the underground trading structure.

From the Help Docs:

This happens when another member who was "ahead of you" in line previously (and who got an offer of the book already) gets back into line, for one of several reasons:

• The member's Wish List book never arrived, and was declared lost in the mail

• The member's Wish List transaction was canceled by the sender

• The member had had her account on hold, and has now returned from vacation and unHeld her account. She will go back into line at her previous position when she does this: if she was "ahead of you" before, you will move back a space.

Please be assured that we would NEVER put another member ahead on the Wish List without good cause--in order to go ahead of others on the Wish List, a member MUST have Wish Listed that item earlier (on an earlier date) than they did.

There are also books posted in the WL threads or people posting books to their friends.

Right now it's vacation season and I imagine that there's a lot of people coming on and off hold.

Also more and more people are making an effort to ship multiples to save on postage.  They just can't afford to send any other way.  When I get a book order, I automatically check their WL and see if I have anything else I can send. Otherwise I can't send out very many books. 

The most likely explanation is because of vacation holds. I don't know about anyone else on the  East Coast, but I just set my account on vacation hold because of Hurricane Irene coming through tomorrow or Sunday.

I think it's a combination of factors.

Yes, it's vacation season and people are coming on and off hold. But having 14 people coming off hold and getting their requests fulfilled for 2 weeks in a row?

Chances are there are some wishes being fulfilled to people behind you in line. This can be through people posting directly to others because they are trying to post multiples, genre-specific WL threads,  Games activity (I don't know much about this), or pepole posting to friends.

With the new Gold Key membership, the probability of the last option (posting to friends) becomes slightly higher because it would be easier for a GK member to detect that a book is on their friends' wish list.

The other thing to keep in mind is that 14 number can be artificially inflated.  This is because when a WL book rolls over to another member either because of inactivity or because of requestor conditions, it still shows up as "wishes fulfilled".  So it might be that only 7 people got their wish, but each copy rolled over to a couple members. 

I had an interesting experience when I got in as "1 of 1" for Cyroburn, the paperback version of Bujold's popular "Vorkosigan" series.  This was back on 03/02/2011, and the paperback version still is not even released yet -  according to Amazon.  I watched as I became "1 of 10," then "1 of 20," then "1 of 37."  Then for some strange reason, I suddenly became "2 of 37."  

I have to wonder not only how someone could be on vacation hold for so long, but how they also have a book on hold back then (February or earlier) that is still not released. They would have to do both and that is a weird coincidence.  Still, I'm sure there is some reasonable answer and it intrigues me enough that I  would like to hear it.

I didn't know that roll overs and declines would show up on the # posted on the WL info.

Thomas, I don't find your situation unusual. A book can be added to a WL as long as the system recognizes the ISBN. There are people who routinely search for ISBNs from their favorite authors, etc. so it's possible that someone beat you to adding it to the WL.

Unless you are looking at your WL status 24/7, it's possible that this person periodically comes on and off vacation hold. People do this to control their outgoing postage costs. (It's also possible they took a really long trip.) 

I didn't know that roll overs and declines would show up on the # posted on the WL info.

I'm not sure what the offical rule is, but I'm speaking off of my personal observations.  I have RCs on my account, so there's been a few times I was turned down because of those when one of my WL books posted.  Sure enough, when I looked at my WL again, it showed "wishes fulfilled: 2" where it had said zero a hour before.  I believe it was me, and then whoever behind me got the book.  Now, I suppose it could be coincidence that another copy of the book was posted directly to someone's bookshelf at nearly the same time.  But, I have seen this happen multiple times on my WL, so I figured that those cancellations showed up in the count as well.  

I think you're right, Alisa, that the count includes offers, whether or not the offer was accepted, or the request declined due to requestor conditions.

I'm now up to three on the list. I'll keep you posted!  Do a lot of people have PBS friends and swap amongst themselves, bypassing the wishlists altogether? I don't have any friends. Am I doing it wrong?