I still see them occasionally, but there are some drawbacks. For one, it takes a loooong time for the box/package to make its way through all the participants, even if people are pretty good about not hanging on to the package more than a couple of days. I remember one a couple years back, where someone kept the entire box without passing it on to the next person, and just kind of disappeared from GardenWeb. I've also been in one that by the time it reached me, I was towards the end of the list, all the good stuff was gone, and I felt kind of cheated. People used it as a way to dump all of their old, and undesirable seeds.

If you are considering this for the Incredible Edibles swap, I would recommend sticking with the traditional group swap where everyone sends to the host, or maybe even a partner type swap.

Bonnie

It is sort of ironic that this board is named "Round Robin" and there are so few round robins on it. I don't know about any rules regarding them, but there may be some. Many have been members longer than I have and may explain this better, but my understanding from reading comments is that there were two problems that came up - the length of time it took for a true round robin to go from person to person and "make all the rounds" (never would work for plants and even iffy for bulbs) and the second issue was a human factor - the robin not continuing to circulate at all or being delayed a long time (even though the inital posting gave a certain time for mailing it back out) or someone taking more than their fair share/everything worthwhile and adding only common seeds, mislabeled seeds, packets with only chaff, spoiled bulbs or whatever the case was - anyway, not something worthwhile.
I think there are some small round robins that are done from time to time with regular members. Several years ago I participated in one that was called something like Victoriana (Victorian type garden seeds and things that were handcrafted with a Victorian flair) and it worked really well. That is the only one I have participated in.
I have never hosted one and I can't say anything more from personal experience. Those are just some of the things I seem to recall members discussing.
Maybe that does more than answer your question...
If you are hosting your swap here, it will be great to see how it does.
Jeanne

Oh no Bonnie, I wasn't wanting to do anything like it. More like just wondering about them. I'm digging into post from as far back as 2007 and they were what seemed was the only thing going on. I see from the posts there were quite a few problems with them. Thanks for your answer.

Jeanne,as I was saying it sounded like fun, but a headache as well. A Victorian theme sounds like that was fun!

I joined one many years age and the package never made it to me.
Also if it comes to you and there is nothing in it that you want, you still have to pay postage to forward it.

Well that explains why they aren't around any more. used to be all you'd see posted. Like I said, was looking at old posts and was interested.

Sometimes when I host a swap, whether it be for seeds or fabric, I'll create miniature round robins within the group. If I've got a group of say 20 swappers, I'll make 5 round robins with 4 people per rr. That way the box makes its way around the group faster, and the chances of a box going awry are lessened when it has fewer stops to make. Also, if the swappers don't know which group they're in, it makes it more interesting and keeps everyone guessing. I do that by putting envelopes in the box addressed to each person containing the name and address of the next person in line.
It's sad that the true round robins have almost disappeared, but there are a lot of good alternatives out there being used.