Bidding

Please note that you will not be able to post bids until the auction has actually opened. Replies to the offer threads will be disabled until then. So don't worry if you notice that you can't reply to an offer thread before bidding has started - that's not a bug, it's a feature


Once the auction opens, you may post bids on the fanworks you’re interested in winning.

• Please post your bid as a REPLY to the offer
• Bid in increments of at least $1. Your bid must (obviously) be higher than the previous bid
• If you are making the first bid, the minimum bid will be $1
• In the unlikely event that two bids of the same amount are posted at the same time, the one that appears first will be valid, and the one below it will not count; if you made the second bid of the same amount, you must bid a higher amount to be the leading bidder
• At the end of the auction, all threads will be closed to new replies. If you were in the process of posting a bid at the time but have not actually clicked post, your bid will not count. If you had clicked post but the forum was closed to new replies while your reply was being processed, it will not count. Sorry! Only bids that appear on the thread at the time the threads are closed to replies will be valid

Please note that it is possible that the boards may close for up to 8 hours at some stage during the auction. This is to perform essential work related to the software upgrade. Once we know when this closure is going to happen, we'll let you know, and if the timing affects stated auction start or finish times we will make an appropriate adjustment if possible.


After the auction

Please contact your offeror as soon as possible with your proof of donation, and then you can discuss the details of the fanwork you’ve won.


Questions? Ask away!!


Wendy
Forum Moderator

I have a bit of confusion in that donations aren't supposed to have an amount named, yet we are bidding in increments of $1 for stories? Seems to me that abrogates the concept of silent auction. I was just thinking of donating one check to whoever the bank keeper is.

Artemis

If I bid on more than one item, can I pay for them altogether? I'd hate to have to make more than one transaction.

Can each item for auction be coded? Therefore, when I make my donation I can include a note stating (for example): This is a donation for auctions: #1 (story), #5 (t-shirt), #7 (ebook), plus $15 of straight out donation. Then the person who auctioned the item and the person who paid for the donated item can receive a private code back as proof of donation. Then the person who paid for the story (or "won" the auction) would present the private code to the writer as proof of payment. Does this make any sense?

I know it would be a lot of work on you guys' end, but it might make it more clear for the rest of us. It would be nice to have a definitive "Paid For" code for each item to lesson the confusion. In other words, I'm confused on how as a writer (donator of talent, let's say), I would know that the donation paid was for the item auctioned. I'm not saying that any of us would cheat in that manner, but how will we know that the auctioned item is paid for?

Artemis: donations can have the amount kept secret between you and our 'banker', but an auction doesn't work that way. I've participated in many silent auctions and the bid amount - including the amount of the winning bid - has always been visible. How does anyone know by how much to outbid, if the amount isn't shown?

Also, depending on what people who are offering 'swag' decide, there may well be a minimum donation required to qualify for the item they're offering.


Wendy

You always ask the interesting questions, Virginia! I think, honestly, rather than coding it would be simpler just to write in the note field in Paypal (if you use Paypal) that you are paying for a story by X, a fic poster by Y and a banner by Z. I think that would be sufficient! And, yes, of course you can pay your entire donation at once


Wendy

There is a place to add a note in PayPal to indicate what you are paying for, so that would probably be the most straight-forward way to enter your own "code". I'm sending thank you emails to everyone when I get donations, so I can try to reference your note in the thank you.

If there isn't enough space to type what you want to, or if you just need some "official" info that hasn't been provided, just email lcficmbs (at) gmail (dot) com and I can verify the donation and respond back with a confirmation email. Would that work?

Kathy (does that trick still work for hiding email addresses from the spam bots? You'd think the spammers would know to look for it by now. )

The PayPal link didn't survive the upgrade.

Michael

Thanks - we'll get that added again as soon as we can. Annette's the only person who can do it, and even she can't be on the boards 24/7