Math trades are much easier if you have your wishlist, want-in-trade list, want-to-buy list, and for-trade list up to date. The OnLine Want List Generator (OLWLG) will highlight games that match your lists. When participating is a math trade with hundreds of entries, having matches highlighted for you can make sifting through all the offered items much easier.

If you have no idea what you want, that’s OK! You can still participate in the math trade. You’ll just have to spend quite a bit more time on figuring out what you want to trade for.

General information about math trades

To be notified about new math trades, subscribe to the announcement thread for math trades on BGG: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/218951/math-trade-announcements-thread.

Some math trades will have a request list and a discussion forum thread. The request list is used for people to request games to add to the math trade. Sometimes people won’t add an item to a math trade unless they see someone is interested in it. Or sometimes people don’t think their item is worth adding because no one would possibly want it. Requesting items by adding them to the request list is a great way to notify people that you want an item. The discussion forum thread is the place to ask questions about that specific math trade. Questions about math trades in general are OK, too, as long as they pertain somewhat to the current math trade.

Pay attention to the rules listed for the math trade. Some will be country specific, some will allow you to charge for shipping, some will allow things other than games.

Typical math trade process

This is a general overview of how a math trade tends to be run. Specific math trades may do things slightly differently.

The math trade is announced. Yay!
Add your items to the geeklist for the math trade.
Review items listed and add them to your want list. Try to do this several times during the item submission window to save time later on.
Submit your want list. You can do this after the item submission window is complete and the want list submission window opens.
See what, if any, matches you have.
Ship your traded items.
Leave feedback.

Add items to the math trade geeklist

Add each item you are willing to trade to the geeklist for the math trade. Follow the specific instructions for the math trade. Some math trades may allow items other than board games. Others will require specific information in your list item (such as edition). If you don’t follow the rules, the person running the math trade may delete your list items.

If you feel that an item is not valuable enough to be traded, you may want to add “sweeteners” to the list item. Sweeteners can be another game (or other item), promos for the game listed, or anything else allowed by the math trade that you think will enhance the likelihood of someone wanting to trade for your item. Be sure to create a geek link in the text of your list item to the sweeteners so they will be highlighted in the OLWLG.

Don’t wait to add items until you see something you like. You are not obligated to trade the items you list unless you have a match. If you list items and don’t see anything you want to trade for, you can submit a blank want list to ensure your items will not be traded.

You can add items to the geeklist directly on BGG or use the OLWLG to add the items for you.

Add items to a geeklist using BGG

At the bottom of the geeklist header, click Add Item.

Click the type of item you want to add. This example shows board games, but the rest of this section should be similar for other types.

Enter the board game name (or ID if you know it):

BGG populates a list of matching items based on what you start to enter. Click the item in the list that matches what you want to post. Enter any text in Comments. Click Preview to see how the geeklist item will display. It’s always a good idea to preview your list item so you can catch any typos or errors before posting the list item. Select Subscribe to just this Geeklist Item? So you will be notified if anyone posts a comment on your item. When ready, click Save to add the item to the geeklist.

Add items to a geeklist using the OLWLG

You must sync your collection with the OLWLG in order to submit items from the OLWLG. Using the OLWLG is required for submitting want lists, but you are not required to use the OLWLG to add items to the math trade geeklist.

Under the name of the math trade on the main page of the OLWLG (or at the very top of the page if you are viewing the math trade), click . The Add Games page is displayed. If you participated in a previous math trade using the OLWLG or have items on your for-trade list, you can select either option from the drop-down menu to add everything at once. If you want to add a subset of the items on your for-trade list, you can submit each of them separately. Click Add this to Geeklist to open a new browser window or tab with the information prefilled for you. You can edit it as needed and then click Save to add it to the geeklist.

Add items to your for-trade list

If you haven’t already added the items you listed in the math trade to your for-trade list, do so now. Having items on your for-trade list will make it easier to complete any matched trades.

Log in to the OLWLG

You must log in to the OLWLG to create your want list.

Go to http://bgg.activityclub.org/olwlg/
Click Login.
Enter your BGG user name and then click Send Now.
Check your BGG mailbox for an email from the OLWLG.
Click the link in the email to confirm to the OLWLG that you are who you say you are.

The OLWLG now knows who you are and will highlight matches based on your want-to-trade, want-to-buy, and wish lists after your sync your collection. The OLWLG works by using browser cookies, so if you use a different computer or a different web browser on your computer, the OLWLG will not know who you are and you will have to log in again to use that second computer or web browser.

At this point, you should also enter your shipping zip code (below the list of active math trades).

Review offered items to find things you want

Now’s the time to see what’s out there that you might like! Go through the list of offers to see what interests you.

There are 2 ways to review the items in the math trade: using the geeklist on BGG or use the list on the OLWLG. Using the BGG geeklist is a little easier for smaller lists or for people who need to see the pictures of the games. Using the OLWLG is easier for power users and has the benefit of showing you only new additions to the math trade since the last time you viewed the list. I’ll cover both. Use whichever method you prefer.

Review items using the BGG geeklist

Each list item in the geeklist for the math trade is an item offered in the trade. The text for each item will have the details about the item as relevant to the math trade. For example, conditions and shipping policy should be listed. Click the name of the item to view details about the item. If the item is a board game, clicking the link will take you to the BGG page for that game. Click Subscribe on the geeklist item if you want to be notified if anyone posts a comment about that list item or if the user who posted the item edits the list item. Click Next to go to the next page in the geeklist.

If you find an item that you are interested in trading for and it is not on one of your lists, you should add it now so you can easily find it on the OLWLG when you are ready to add it to your want list.

Review items using the OLWLG

Click on the name of the math trade. The OLWLG will display a table of all the items in the math trade, unless you have viewed the items of the math trade on the OLWLG previously. In that instance, the OLWLG will only show you new items since the last time you viewed the list. To see everything, click the link at the top for showing all items.

If you followed my advice, set up your various lists, and synced your collection, the OLWLG will color code anything that is on one of your lists. The color coding key is at the top of the page. For example, if you have a game in your want-in-trade list that is offered in the math trade, the name of that game will be highlighted in bright green.

To view the default image associated with the list item, click the little picture icon next to the title. Click the picture again to hide it.

To see the actual geeklist item, click the arrow in the green circle. You might want to view the geek list item to see additional comments left by other BGG users.

If you previously added the item to your want list, click the green checkmark to review and edit which of your items you’re willing to trade for this item.

Click the name of the item to view that item in the BGG database. You may want to view the BGG item in order to add it to your collection (for example, to add it to your want-in-trade list) or to find out more information about the item.

If you find any items that are not on any of your lists, you may want to add them. For example, if you found a game that you previously did not know about and it sounds interesting and you would be willing to trade for it, you should add it to your want-in-trade list.

If you make any changes to any of your lists, you will need to resync those changes with the OLWLG in order for the OLWLG to correctly highlight items that are on your lists.

Add items to your want list

Now it’s time to tell the OLWLG which games you are willing to trade for. For an item you want to trade for, click the Add button. A pop-up with the list of games you added to the math trade is displayed.

If you do not see the list of items you have added to the math trade, that means the list has to be resynced. Try again in a few hours or the next day if you want your items to be visible when you add items to your want list. You can still add items to your want list, but it might be a little easier to select the items you’re willing to trade from your items for this specific item at this point.

Select each item you are willing to trade for this item. Click check all if you want to select all your items. In the example above, I am willing to trade any of my items for Flash Point: Fire Rescue.

Click Save to add the item to your want list. You will have the opportunity to modify your want list later if you change your mind about which items you are willing to trade for the item or even if you change your mind about wanting the item itself.

Add items to your list with 1 click

The OLWLG has an option for you to be able to add items to your want list with a single click. The benefit to adding an item to your want list using the 1 click option is you will not be immediately prompted to select items to trade for the item you’re adding to your want list. Some people are not sure which items they will want to trade for the item they’re adding, or they use a browser add-on that allows them to check multiple check boxes quickly.

To turn on the 1-click option, click at the top of the page. The edit profile page is displayed. Select turn on “1-click add” and then click Submit Query. The next time you look at the list of items in the OLWLG, you will see the 1-click add icon:

Review your want list

If you are viewing the math trade items on the OLWLG, click the link at the top or bottom of the list to review your wants. You can also click the step 4 icon at the top of the page.

You will see a list similar to this example:

In this example, each row of the table is an item in the math trade offered by a BGG user that I want. Each column with the check boxes is a game I own and have listed in the math trade. If the check box in a column is selected for a specific row, that means I am willing to trade the item in the column for the item in the row. For example, I am willing to trade Frontiers, Faerie Tales, Prolix, or The Isle of Doctor Necreaux for Glen More, but I am not willing to trade Space Hulk: Death Angel - The Card Game for Glen More.

If you are willing to trade more than one item for a specific item, you will never have more than one of your items matched for that item. So in the above example, if there is a match I will only be trading 1 of my items for Glen More. I may end up also having a match for one of those 4 items for another item (for example, perhaps Fleet), but I will never have to trade more than one item for a specific item listed in a row.

Make any changes as needed (for example, clear the check box for any match that you are no longer willing to make) and then click Confirm Changes. If you no longer want an item that you added to your want list, clear all check boxes in that row. Clearing all the check boxes in a specific row means you are not willing to trade any of your items for the item in that row. You can also enter delete in the box next to the name of the item and it will be removed entirely from your want list.

You may notice I have several different rows for Fleet and Roma. Right now I have no duplicate protection, which means it’s possible I could have multiple matches for either of those games and I could be forced to trade away multiple items and receive multiple copies of either of those games. You might want multiple copies of a game, but if you do not you must set up duplicate protection to avoid being matched against multiple copies of the same game.

Setting up duplicate protection

Duplicate protection in the OLWLG is perhaps the most confusing part of math trades. Properly setting up duplicate protection ensures that you will not receive duplicate copies of the same items if you don't want to.

In this example, I have indicated I am willing to trade for multiple copies of Fleet that are offered in this math trade:

However, I only want 1 copy of Fleet. In order to make sure I don’t get multiple copies, I have to set up duplicate protection. To start, click Duplicate Protection at the top or bottom of your want list.

Scroll down to the easy way to create dummies:

This section lists all the items on your want list that the OLWLG believes are duplicates. You can see I have quite a few. For now, I’m going to just set up duplicate protection for Fleet. Select the check box for each item you want to set up duplicate protection for, select Check here to auto add corresponding game items to the pseudo items and then click Submit. You’ll return to your want list and might see some angry red rows:

Red is bad! That means your duplicate protection is not set up correctly. To fix the errors, clear the check box for each red row except for the column in green. In this example, I have to clear the check box in the Space Hulk: Death Angel - The Card Game, Frontiers, Faerie Tales, Prolix, and The Isle of Doctor Necreaux columns. That leaves just the green column for Fleet selected.

Next, select the check box for each item you are willing to trade for Fleet in the green dummy row:

Click Confirm Changes and, if you set everything up correctly, you should see the rows where you set up duplicate protection as grey:

So that’s probably pretty confusing. What exactly is going on here? Using this method, you told the OLWLG that you have a dummy copy of Fleet for which you are willing to trade for a real copy of Fleet. And for that dummy copy of Fleet, you’re willing to substitute any item you selected in the row for the dummy item. Because you only have one dummy copy, you can only receive one of the items you indicated you are willing to trade that dummy copy for.

You cannot delete a dummy item. If you change your mind and no longer want to trade that dummy item (i.e., you do not want any copies of that item), clear the check box for the dummy item.

Indicating priority

Some (but very few!) math trades will use a priority system to maximize the matches in the math trade. Priority is set by the person running the math trade. The sort order of your want list is the default priority. Items at the top of the list have the highest priority while items at the bottom have the lowest priority.

Priority is determined by these factors:

Your assigned ranking values from highest to lowest, with items with no values treated as if they had a value of 0 (negative values are allowed).
Number of check boxes selected in the row for each item. Since you are willing to trade more of your items for a given wanted item, the item is more valuable and has a higher priority. The more items you have listed in the math trade, the better this works.
The number of all users on BGG (not just in the math trade) who have the item on their want-in-trade list.
The number of all users on BGG (not just in the math trade) who have the item on their wishlist.

Let’s go back to my Fleet example for a moment. There are several copies of Fleet that I indicated I want. However, not all copies of Fleet are equal. Two of the copies of Fleet have extras. I want to indicate that the copies of Fleet with extras have a higher priority than the regular copies, so I will enter a ranking value in the text box next to the name of the item.

Higher numbers mean a higher priority. After saving my want list, the order now looks like this:

Notice that entering a ranking value affects the entire list, not just any duplicates you may have on your want list.

Submit your want list

After the item submission period for the math trade is over, you must now submit your want list. Review your want list one last time before submitting to make sure you are comfortable trading what you indicated you are willing to trade. Remember, there is no backing out or changing your mind after trade matches are made.

If you see the Note: Submission window is open for submitting your wants but you have not yet submitted message at the top of your want list page, that means you have not yet submitted your want list. Until you submit your want list, the OLWLG will not attempt to match your items in any trades.

When you are ready to submit your finalized want list, click Submit Your Lists Here!

The want list page is updated to show the official format of the want list. The official format is readable by software, but is not very readable by humans, which is why you edit your want list using the table format. To submit your want list, click Submit My Wants. If your want list is successfully submitted, you will see Thank you for confirming your wants for the math trade at the top of the page. The OLWLG will also send you a geekmail. Log in to BGG and check to make sure you received that geekmail. If you did not, your want list may not have been submitted correctly.

You can still edit and resubmit your want list until the deadline for submitting want lists.

With your want list submitted, you don’t have to do anything else before the math trade ends. The next step is to view the results of the math trade.

View results of the math trade

After the want list submission period is done, the Trade Maximizer tool will do its computational magic and spit out a list of results, which are then uploaded to the OLWLG. You can now view which matches you have, if any, and determine what items you need to ship and which items you will be receiving.

Go to http://bgg.activityclub.org/olwlg/.
Find the completed math trade and click results summary. The results page of the math trade is displayed. It should jump down to your user name. If not, click your trades near the top of the page to jump directly to your matches.

That’s pretty much it for viewing your matches. There are some other aspects of the math trade you can view and may interest you.

To see which games were not traded, click Games Not Traded near the top of the page. You might want to do this to see if there are any games you’re interested in but missed in the math trade. You may be able to swing a trade for the game.
To see who wanted your items, clickat the top of the page. If you did not have matches for all your items, this list might be helpful for setting up individual trades after the math trade.
To see what the most wanted items were, click at the top of the page. This list is more helpful for the curious types, but it could also be helpful if you happen to own a copy of a highly-wanted item and you were not aware it was so popular. That popularity could affect your decision to keep or trade the item in a future math trade.

Propose trades for matches

Use the BGG trade system to propose a trade for any matches you have.

The OLWLG makes it easy to propose trades. In the list of your matches, all you have to do is click the user name of the person you were matched with. A new browser window or tab will open with the BGG propose trade page all filled out for you. All you have to do is select the correct items, assuming they are on your for-trade list, and enter your shipping address (if required). After you filled out all the trade information, click Preview. Double-check the trade information is correct and, if everything is correct, click Submit Offer.

You do not have to be the person shipping an item to initiate a trade offer. Feel free to take the initiative in submitting trade offers for matches from the math trade.

Additional information

Everything below in this document are things that a lot of BGG users know how to do, but you may not. That’s OK! The information is here if you need it.

Add sweeteners to a geeklist item

To add a sweetener, use the Insert Geek Link option. In this example, I am going to insert a geek link to a board game:

In the text of the geeklist item, the geek link will have the format [thing=ID][/thing], where ID is the ID of the item in the BGG database. Inserting sweeteners using a geek link allows the OLWLG to be able to highlight that link according to items on your lists.

Submit a blank want list

If you added an item to your want list but you no longer want that item for any reason, you can indicate you do not want to trade for the item by submitting a blank want list. A blank want list means you do not have any check boxes selected for that row.

In this example, I had added Belfort to my want list but later on changed my mind about trading for the game. (Incidentally, I found Belfort on sale at Tanga after I added it to my want list, which is why I no longer wanted to trade for it. Nothing to do with the quality of the game.) I cleared all the check boxes in the row for Belfort and confirmed my changes. Now the OLWLG will not match any of my items with Belfort.

Add items to your collection

There are two ways to add an item to your collection: you can add an item from the search results page or from the BGG page for the item.

Add an item to your collection from the search results page

Search for the item you want to add to your collection. Click the cell in the row for the item in the Status column. A pop-up list is displayed.

Select each list you want this item to be on in your collection. For example, if you want to add the item to your wishlist, select Wishlist and, optionally, select a priority. You can select as many options as you’d like, but indicating an item in your collection is both owned and on your wishlist probably doesn’t make sense.
When you’ve selected everything you want for this item, click Save.

Add an item to your collection from the BGG item page

At the top of the BGG item page (underneath the name of the item), click User Info. You’ll jump down to the User Information section at the bottom of the page.
Click Add a copy to your collection. The User Information section expands and Owned is selected for you.
Edit the lists you want this item to be on in your collection as needed. Your changes are saved for you as you make them, so there is no save button.

Add an item in your collection to your wishlist, want-in-trade list, for-trade list, or want-to-buy list

If you already have an item in your collection but you don’t have it on the correct list, you can edit the lists that item is on at any time.

At the top of any BGG page, hover over My Geek to display the pop-up menu, and then click Collection.
On your collection page, locate the game you want to edit and click in the Status column for that item. A pop-up menu is displayed.
Select each list you want this item to appear on and then click Save.

Resync your collection to the OLWLG

If you made changes to your collection and you want the OLWLG to reflect those changes (for example, so it can highlight any items in your for-trade list in a math trade), you must resync your collection.

Go to http://bgg.activityclub.org/olwlg/.
Scroll to the section under the active math trades but before where you can enter your zip code.
Click resync BGG collection data now.

The OLWLG will indicate it has fetched your current collection.

Have the OLWLG send you a geekmail when the list is resynced

The person running the math trade resyncs the list with the OLWLG every now and then. Until the list is resynced, new items added to the geeklist on BGG will not show up in the OLWLG. You can tell the OLWLG to alert you when the list is resynced.

Click at the top of the page. The edit profile page is displayed.
Select turn on geekmail notifications whenever a math trade you are in is resynced with the geeklist.
Click Submit Query.

Have the OLWLG send you a geekmail when the results are uploaded

The person running the math trade will post the results so everyone participating can see their matches. Usually the math trade moderator will send out a geekmail or will post in the discussion thread for the trade. However, you can tell the OLWLG to notify you automatically when the moderator uploads the results.

Click at the top of the page. The edit profile page is displayed.
Select turn on geekmail notifications whenever a math trade you are in has the results uploaded.
Click Submit Query.