con_or_bust

You may now begin posting items for the con_or_bust auctions if you would like people to be able to review your items before the auction opens on March 18.

Please disable comments on entries until the auction open date if you choose to post a preview, and please use the auction header template below at the top of each entry. You may otherwise pitch your item however you like.


Auction Header Template

Item Name/Description:
Starting Bid (or) Fixed Donation Amount:
Auction Ending: [please include both date, time, and time zone]
Notes: [Include information here such as "unable to ship internationally", or the number of requests you're willing to fill for a fixed donation offer; any limitations on the offer need to go up front]

Auction & Fixed Donation Offers Info

What Can I Auction?

All submissions to the auction will be accepted. Can you write fanfic? Put up an offer. Make cookies? Offer them up. Jewelry? Used books? Editing or beta assistance for fic or other writing? A character name in your next opus to the high bidder? All of it's welcome here. If you have no idea what you might have to offer, go check out some of the offers that were made during the very successful livelongnmarry and saveours00j auctions.

Consider asking the artisans, crafters, knitters, poets, writers, ficcers, storytellers, bakers, editors, betas, filkers, and other voices on your flist or in your relevant communities to place an auction and link it back to their fans.

If you're interested in a similar project in the future for a con you attend, please let us know in comments at fight_derailing's Wiscon Assistance Program page.

How Do I Auction?

Submissions to this kind of auction usually take one of two forms: a traditional auction, in which people outbid one another until a date/time set by the auctioner, and the high bidder wins upon proof of donation in that amount, or a fixed donation offer. A FDO is something you're willing to offer to anyone who provides proof of a donation of a certain dollar amount. If you're willing to knit a pair of fingerless gloves for every donor of $20 or more, that's a fixed donation offer. It's okay to limit FDOs to a certain number of persons and say "the first ten people to contact me with proof of a $20 donation will get gloves".

You can pitch your post however you like. However, to keep things clear, please do a separate post for each unique auction item or FDO. All posts should contain the auction template at the top of the post.

This will help us keep tabs on stuff. Please check out the tag list when it comes time to post an auction; while popelizbet is a tagging menace and will get to it eventually, it's easier if you note simple ones like "auction" or "fixed donation", and a big help if you go the extra step and check for a tag that covers your item type, FDO price, or other pertinent information.

Questions about how to set up, monitor or tag auctions can be directed to popelizbet as point person.

How Do I Bid?

You bid by commenting in the auction post for the item you want to bid on. If it's an FDO, please observe whatever rules the poster has put up; if limited to a certain number of people or otherwise closed, better luck next time. For auctions, please keep bids in a single thread by using the "reply to" comment option; this notifies the previous high bidder that they have been outbid and keeps there from being multiple conflicting bids.

How Do I Pay?

Short version: Upon winning an auction or FDO, please donate the requisite amount through PayPal to knepveu@steelypips.org (kate_nepveu's e-mail address), or through an Amazon.com gift certificate to the same e-mail address. Please be sure include the URL(s) of the auction(s) you are donating to receive.

Long version: Log in to PayPal and click on the "Send Money" tab. Put knepveu@steelypips.org in the "To" field. After you fill out the rest of the fields, click "continue." At the bottom of the next screen, in the "Message:" field, put the auction URL(s). Then hit "send money" and you're done!

Please DO NOT pay with a credit or debit card through Paypal; after a very few such payments, kate_nepveu will have to upgrade and pay fees that will reduce the amount that can be sent directly to the assistance needs. Please use E-check or transfer money directly from your paypal balance. If you don't know how to do that, e-mail a mod and we'll help you, or see below for other payment options.

If you don't use PayPal, you can also send your donation through an e-mailed Amazon.com gift card (since money is fungible). Send it to the same e-mail address, knepveu@steelypips.org, and again, put the auction URL(s) in the "Message" field.

If you absolutely, positively can't do either, e-mail knepveu@steelypips.org with "Wiscon auction" in the subject to get a mailing address for checks or money orders.

While these methods are a bit more cumbersome than a PayPal "donate" button, they avoid transaction fees and allow 100% of your donation to go straight to fans of color.

Got ideas about the header? Comments? Questions about bidding? Post them here. I will be out of town and likely out of commission internet-wise for the majority of Thursday and Friday to attend a funeral, so don't misconstrue any radio silence on this end. Back now, and post has been updated with bidding/offering/payment info.