Classic Relief Auction-Where are your donations?

[Snider-man]

Hey gang!

 

I see that donations have been rolling in for Atari Age's Classic Gaming Relief Auction, and that's just great. However, I have one question to ask of all of you:

 

"Where are your donations?"

 

I know that there are lots of Atari enthusiasts who visit this message board. However, there have only been a handful of "donatees" that have contributed to this

worthy cause. I have no connection with either Atari Age, any charity organization, or any of the people who were hurt or killed that day. But, as an American who wants to contribute to the healing and rebuilding of this country, I felt obligated to act on this.

 

Come on folks! We constantly talk of the classic gaming "community." Well, let's show the country and the world what that means. I'm challenging every person who reads this to make a donation of ONE RARE ITEM from their personal collections. You must have one cart that only gathers dust that could fetch a few bucks for this cause! What about

that video game system that sits under your bed or in your closet? Take a look through your trade bait and send your best stuff. What were you about to post to eBay? If every reader sends one classic game-related item to Atari Age for this auction, I believe we - as a "community" - could raise several thousand dollars for this cause.

 

I have personally donated a few rare carts from my collection. These are not my "dupes." These are my own personal collectible items. I'm also sending them half of my Electronic Games magazine collection. I'm lastly making one more Venture II-Treasure Chest edition just to donate to this cause. I'm putting my donations were my mouth is. Can't you do the same?

 

I know that, as collectors, it's tough to donate an item of value. After all, then you have to find another to fill that hole in your collection. Well, how about bidding on that item you donated? You'll get it back if you win and the money benefits this worthwhile effort.

 

I really would like to see this fundraising effort become something hugely spectacular for all of us. One day, we can look back upon this and feel good about what we contributed and what we were able to do -

as a "community." Follow this link and make a donation. Let's show everyone - most of all, ourselves - what we are capable of.

http://www.atariage.com/features/auction/

 

Tim Snider

"Your Friendly Neighborhood Snider-man - and Jerry Lewis wanna-be"

[cschell]

As more items come in, does anyone agree with me that this auction might become too large as one bundle? I think that a lot of the classic gaming community only has a limited amount of funds available at one time. If you make this one huge auction filled with rare stuff, you'll end up having only a few people who can realistically bid on it. (Or just ask Buyatari what he's willing to spend and be done with it. )

 

I think you could raise more funds as several smaller auctions, especially as ebay is waving the fees so there is no penalty for such an approach.

 

Just my opinion,

Chad

[Snider-man]

Hey Chad,

 

As I understand it, the items are being auctioned off individually, not as one, big, unaffordable bundle. (At least, I *hope* that's not the way. No one would be able to afford it!)

 

As I understand it, everything will be divvied up into catagories - games, systems, books/mags, etc. - then each catagory will go up for auction with each item being its own entity. Alex and Albert want to spread everything out so everyone has a chance to bid rather than throwing 100+ items up one night and having everything end 7 days later.

 

Alex, Albert, how do you guys envision this happening?

 

-Tim-

 

P.S. Regardless of how this is going to happen, please give to this cause.

[cx2k]

quote:

---

Originally posted by C. Schell:

As more items come in, does anyone agree with me that this auction might become too large as one bundle?

---

 

It would be silly to make this a single auction. I didn't get that impression from reading about it, so I hope I'm not wrong. Otherwise, as you say, you might as well contact the 2 or 3 big money collectors who would go after this stuff.

 

Can Alex or Albert clear this up?

 

John (...going through my archives as we speak.)

[cschell]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Snider-man:

Hey Chad,

 

As I understand it, the items are being auctioned off individually, not as one, big, unaffordable bundle. (At least, I *hope* that's not the way. No one would be able to afford it!)

---

 

I hope you're right, but when I read this from the auction page, it really seems like one big auction to me.

quote:

---

AtariAge will manage collection of the items, take pictures and write descriptions of everything, and then run the auction on eBay. We will then ship the items to the highest bidder once the auction is completed.

---

 

See, it mentions one auction, with the items going to the one highest bidder.

 

Chad

[rolenta]

I'm under the impression that it was going to be several different auctions also. Curt's VR Helmet alone should fetch a few thousand by itself. Whatever price that goes for will probably be the same regardless if everything else is bundled with it or not.

[Alex]

Hey Guys -

 

The original idea was just to have a single auction, but it only involved a few homebrew cartridges at the time. There have since been many amazing pledges and a single auction would obviously not be the right choice.

 

I doubt we will run single auctions for every item - some things will be bundled together, such as a book auction, a homebrew game auction, an autographed games auction, and some things like the VCSp and prototype helmet should get their own auctions.

 

The goal here was to raise awareness among classic gamers, and we thought the traffic generated by this site could help to that end. We will be trying to run the auctions in the manner that generates the most income while still remaining manageable. People are certainly encouraged to run their own September 11th auctions, although a number of people have commented to us that they don't want to sign up for Billpoint which is required, so sending an item to us is preferable to them.

 

If anyone has any suggestions about how we may improve this auction, please drop us a line. We'll also change the text so that it's clear we will be running multiple auctions, although not necessarily 1 auction per item.