I've found myself explaining the phrase "Multiple Lines of Inquiry" to potential Stone Rain donors lately, so I figured I should explain it here so people know what to expect.  Chasing down a global set of any card (particularly one with printings) is a lot like trying to solve a missing persons case... it involves multiple leads, and most of them do not pan out...

Managing Leads:

So after sending out feelers to message boards, eBay members, MOTL members, online sellers, and whoever else I can think of, I'm left with managing leads, and usually quite a number of them.  Most of this is handled in e-mail where I use an arrangement of folders to keep track of things, shown here at right.  The process works like this:

  1. First I send out a feeler of some sort.  If the feeler was an e-mail message, it gets tossed in the exploratory folder.  This way I have a record of folks I've already contacted.  This helps me avoid recontacting people who either (a) didn't respond or (b) responded negatively.
     
  2. Next people contact me, usually in response to a feeler, but sometimes out of the blue ("stumbled across your page" kind of thing).  Responses are classified as either deals, strong leads, weak leads, or duds:
     
    • Duds can be negative responses ("No, I don't have those.  Good luck!") or affirmative responses that imply no concrete action ("No, I don't have those, but if I ever come across one, I'll e-mail you.")
       
    • Weak Leads are generally positive but not very strong, as in "I don't have those, but I know someone who might.  I'll check with him and get back to you." or "I might be able to help with some of the German ones, I'll get back to you in a few days." If I haven't heard from a weak lead in weeks, and they aren't responding to e-mails, they move into the old leads folder--the assumption is for whatever reason the donor has decided not to help or cannot help, and therefore I don't want to keep pestering the person.
       
    • Strong Leads are very positive and almost always mean the respondant has cards in hand or knows exactly where they are and can get them in short order, as in "I have X, Y, and Z, and I know someone who has W.  I can have that by tomorrow.  Make me an offer."  Strong leads will degenerate to weak leads over time if the potential donor doesn't respond to e-mails. Obviously I pursue strong leads more tenaciously than weak ones.  Leads can also degenerate if the potential donor is difficult or overvalues the cards.  (Yes, I actually know donors who expect me to pay several dollars for a nonfoil common.)
       
    • Deals are what strong leads become after I have sent payment to the donor, or after the donor has asked for my address and promised to send the cards.  Since we're just talking about commons here, many initial contacts are already deals, as in "Yeah I have an Italian 8th Edition.  You can have it.  Send me your address."
       
  3. Leads usually involve multiple e-mails.  Any lead that doesn't turn immediately into a deal (donor has cards in hand) will likely require multiple followups.  So for each lead I keep one representative email in a followup folder named with the date that on which I should recontact with another email.  Leads dry up all the time, and staying in contact is the best way to ensure I am not operating under an assmption that I shouldn't.  For strong leads I usually followup every 3 days until the lead becomes a deal.  For weak leads I'll followup every 5 to 7 days.  I might followup on a different schedule based on what a potential donor tells me, (i.e. "I'm going to the local cardshop on Wednesday and I can trade to get them there.")  If the donor says that they will know more on date X, that's when I will first follow up.  The majority of leads (95% or more) go nowhere... people are just too busy, and they make a good-intentioned offer but don't have the time to follow through, or things just don't work out for whatever reason.  Deals generally require only one followup, when the cards arrive, or if several weeks go by and they do not arrive.  Once a lead becomes a deal, it's likely the donor won't hear from me for a long time.
     
  4. Based on e-mails, the last thing I have to do is update leads and deals.
     
    • If the cards never show up, the deal becomes an "old lead" and I update the website to reflect that the cards are not on-order and I need them again.  This happens very rarely, like the time a certain Brazillian told me he had a Portuguese Portal Stone Rain in hand and charged me exorbitantly for it before disappearing never to be heard from again.  (There are no Portuguese Portal Stone Rains, btw, this has since been confirmed.)
       
    • If the cards show up, the deal moves into the concluded folder and the website is updated again.
       
    • If a lead becomes a deal, all of the emails for it move into the deals folder, and the website gets updated to reflect that the cards are on order.
       
    • If a deal degrades or dries up altogether, I refile it accordingly.

Muliple Lines of Inquiry:

As I said most leads dry up, and because of this, I pursue multiple lines of inquiry until a lead becomes a deal.  This means I might have two leads who both say they can supply me with an English CK foil for example, they just have to get it from someone else.  I'll typically respond positively to both such offers, because chances are, I'll never hear from either of the two donors again.  This leads to rare occasions when someone will get back to me after a long period of time with a card I just don't need anymore.  Sometimes I will go through and make a deal anyway, because I know other Stone Rain collectors who can use the cards, but sometimes not, for any one of a number of reasons.  From my perspective a deal isn't a deal until money or cards have changed hands.  So this is something to keep in mind if you want to donate cards to the SRP, or if you want me to buy cards from you.

I apologize if anyone finds the practice of pursuing multiple lines of inquiry offensive,  but if I didn't do it, the SRP would never be finished.