Help Japan auction

[melannen]

After hearing about the lack of international donations coming in (compared to other recent major disasters) I went ahead and posted two offers in the help_japan auction. Slightly late, but if they don't sell, they don't sell. (Because I have a bad record at finishing things for obligation, both of these are finished or all-but-finished.)

1 Wish/1000 Paper Cranes
User Name: melannen
Email address: user name - at - yahoo.com

I'm offering: For approximately the past ten years, I've been folding paper cranes. I currently have nine-hundred-and-fifty-some, but I've been putting off finishing the thousand because I can't think of anything I want that I'm certain enough about to spend 10 years' worth of wish on it.

If you win this auction, you can e-mail me your wish, and I'll fold the last few dozen cranes and make your wish, then mail them to an address of your choice (you pay postage from the US) or dispose of them in some other way you specify.

Additional Info (optional): The cranes are folded out of scrap paper, mostly small foil candy wrappers, mostly in strings of 25. So they're shiny, but not really decorative, and some of them show the marks of having knocked around with me for ten years and multiple moves. Bid on this for the wish, not the craft, or you might be disappointed.

Also, I reserve the right to decline a wish that is openly malicious or otherwise ethically problematic, at my discretion.

And I make no guarantees whatsoever that any wish will come true.

Starting Bid: £30 ($50)

...I feel like I set the starting bid for that one very high, because, well, it is ten years' worth of wish, and I'm kind of conflicted about finally using it, and I really don't want it to go lowball. On the other hand, if there's anything such a wish should be spent on, it's this. So I compromised by setting the initial bid high, and if it goes for that much or more, I'll be fine with seeing it go.



1 Amigurumi Dalekling
User Name: melannen
Email address: user name - at - yahoo.com
Examples of my work: Photos & description of an earlier Dalekling here

Offering: 1 baby-blue plush crocheted Dalekling, ~6" tall. It's monochrome but heavily textured, made of polyester and fully washable with no hard or small parts.

Fandoms: Bears an uncanny resemblance to the Dalek aliens from Doctor Who (which the owners have been known to send C&Ds over ^_^)

Additional Info: This is made to my own, as-yet-unpublished pattern, and is a one-of-a-kind unique item (because I still keep tweaking the pattern.) This dalekling is already made and I will pay shipping to any US address (international shipping may vary.)

Starting Bid: £5 ($8)

And yes, I am still planning to share the dalekling pattern! It just has to be ... absolutely perfect first, and it isn't, yet. Also, I got distracted by quilting and by crocheting probably several hundred spinks for sale.

Comments

[stellar_dust]

I put mine in the LJ version in the (perhaps misguided) hope that it would get more views and raise more money. but no one wants it yet! Maybe I priced it too high? But dammit, it took me forever.

.... how long does it take you guys to sell several hundred spinks? one con? five cons?

[melannen]

Have you done any of these before? It helps (a lot) to link it on your own journal, I think, especially if you know you've got people reading who share the fandom.

but, I mean, my Dalek isn't really attracting a torrent of interest, either. I think there tends to be a fair amount of last-minute bidding, so I wouldn't worry until later. And if it gets no bids, hey, you get to auction it off somewhere else!

[melannen]

Oh, and we've never had several hundred spinks at one con, because they don't accumulate that fast - we have about 75 now and I think that's the most that's ever been in one place. (They are going to an average of 2 cons a month, and increasing.)

Depending on the size of the con & various random factors, Sarah can sell 10-15 or sell out of 25 or so; I don't know if we've really hit demand at a really big con before getting down to the dregs. But there's a couple big ones coming up this year (including anime boston) so she wanted a stockpile.

[lady_ganesh]

Fewer people seem to be bidding on the LJ auctions! My friend threewalls has the identical offer in both places and as yet no bids on LJ. (IF YOU NEED A BETA GO CHECK IT OUT SHE'S AWESOME.)

[zlabya]

What wonderful things to put up for auction! I'm glad they're both doing well.

I love the Dalekling. I bet you crocheted my Spink...it's baby blue and holds my USB drive in its mouth at my computer desk.