I was offered a WL book on 12/13 and I immediately accepted it.  The sender "mailed" the book on the 17th. I waited and waited and eventually the sytem marked to book lost.  The book never showed up. I was then offered the book on 1/13 and the book was mailed on the 19th.  Well the book was marked lost by the system this morning.  I don't think this book and I were meant to be. The second sender then emailed me later in the morning saying sorry for the lost book and that they are sending me a replacement book in the mail. Which I wish they wouldn't have done.  I would have rather just waited for the next person to post it.  And why would they do? Why would they go out and buy a book to mail....they are out shipping and the price of the new book....That's way to much money to spend for one credit. It was a hardback new release book.

Here's my other problem. Do I put this book on hold on my wishlist and see if the book does show up? And if so, for how long?  There is a long list for this book and I hate to put it on hold and then it still doesn't show up when I know there have been people posting it.

If I were a betting woman, I'd bet that the second lost book wasn't going to show.  If I was willing to send out a second copy, I'd leave the WL active for that book.  It is possible that the lost (& now resent) book will show.  Sounds more like a forgot to mail to me.

I've had a couple of books that just did not want to be mine.  It's funny that it seems to happen in clusters.

Well, I'd be willing to bet that person #2 never really mailed the book out. So, they are really "replacing" your lost book with the copy that they didn't mail out.

I can't imagine any other reason why someone would "replace" a lost book with another copy of the book. Unless they owned a bookstore or something.

As to whether or not you should wait for it .... I guess you need to figure out how confident you might be that this copy is actually coming. If the book gets posted fairly frequently, there is probably no harm in putting it on hold for a little bit, and that is probably what I would do. If it doesn't get posted that frequently, then I probably wouldn't put it on hold myself.

My first thought was the same as others. They aren't "buying" you another copy. They never mailed the first one. 

I have a huge TBR. So me personally, I would put it on hold a week or two if it's a regularly posted book and just see.  If it's something that's super slow moving and rarely posted, then I'd leave it off hold and take my chances on getting 2 copies.

Sounds to me like they just never mailed the book.

I requested a book from a new member which legitimately went lost -- without PM'ing me (or checking the Help Center) that member went out an purchased another copy of the book that went lost and mailed it to me...needless to say, it turned into a nightmare of multiple copies! So people DO do silly things under the guise of wanting to help/feeling responsible somehow! So based on my experience, I would say wait a week or so unless it is a wishlist book that is not posted often...worse case scenario would be you would end up with two copies but you could easily repost one and send it out.

I myself would put the book on Hold on my Wish List for at least a week to see if the second one actually shows up. If it hasn't at the end of that week I would PM them and ask that they confirm the book has been mailed, because I will be unholding the book on my Wish List and if it comes with a mail date after Date X (the date I am sending the PM) and I end up with 2 copies they will not be getting credit. If they have not mailed the book by Date X they should just re-post the book, if I am still wishing for it they can send it to me through a fresh transaction.

My reaction would depend upon a few things.

If the book isn't a commonly posted one (I have books on my WL that are listed as last posted in 2007 or older and given the book I believe this to be legitimate) I wouldn't put it on hold and would accept another copy.  Most of my books would be worth it to me, for the extra postage to send to the person in line behind me in the WL if I end up with two copies.

If the book is commonly posted (I have a few that have had at least 4-5 copies posted since the beginning of the year), then I don't see the problem in putting it on hold.