Auction Announcement: And We Are Off!!!

/ August 19, 2016

The weekend has begun, the last three days to “The Big 45” have started. If you have been following me through my own private Armitage Week celebrations, you may remember that I hinted at a charity auction to celebrate Richard’s birthday. Well, now we are off! Here comes the official announcement with all the necessary details:

After the success of the earlier auctions, I have decided to try and raise some funds for Save the Children again – and spread some fun and love in the fandom. I have been aided and motivated in my attempts by an unnamed, generous supporter who sent me a number of fan items earlier this year, suggesting I put them up for auction and donate the proceeds. I had also gathered a number of items on my own impetus, which I wanted to auction for charity, and I am now combining the two for a fundraiser.

This time ’round I have decided to auction off the items on eBay rather than organise the auction on my own blog and by myself. Even though it has been fun before, it is a time-consuming and somewhat sensitive task. Moreover, I am hoping to reach more fans on eBay – who may so far have been put off by having to deal with me personally. The eBay auction is a first for me, too. Keep your fingers crossed that it will all work out.

For those who cannot wait, the first item is already up for bidding, and you can take a look at my listing via this link HERE and bid.

Autograph 4 framed 1

Forgive me that I chose an item of my own for the inaugural auction. This is the first one up – I am going to upload eight further items over the next few hours (I hope). Descriptions of the items will be on the eBay listings. Since I am doing this as a fundraiser, I have decided to pay all postage fees myself – the items are available for dispatch world-wide. They will be carefully wrapped and sent by registered post as soon as I receive payment. The auction winner will be provided with a tracking number to track its progress.

Among the items on auction are 4 autographs by Richard which I obtained last year. And this is how it all happened: After the success of the last auction, it suddenly occurred to me in early October 2015 that an autograph by our favourite actor may be an item that fans might be interested in. In order to get an autograph from Richard I had to overcome my resistance to writing to him – it feels very awkward to me to disclose myself, my name, to him, but I thought that the good cause was worth ignoring my own reservations. Unfortunately I hand-wrote the letter and never kept a copy of it, so I have difficulties remembering what I wrote. In any case, I congratulated him on his (then) recent success as Francis Dolarhyde and mentioned our auction success to him. I enclosed four (different) prints of photographs I had taken of him at the Berlin premiere of the Hobbit and asked him to sign each. In the interest of fairness, I disclosed the auction plans to him, so he knew that I was going to sell off his autographs, and then I sent off the letter to Richard’s agent’s address London, in the hope that he would not mind but sign.

The months passed. No return letter with precious contents came back. I forgot about the whole thing, then briefly thought about my little scheme again in January, but assumed that Richard didn’t like the idea. Too bad – but well, fair enough. And when I had all but forgotten about my plans, the bomb dropped: I didn’t even recognise the neutral white envelope with my printed address on it, even though I had enclosed and stamped it myself *duh*. Imagine my surprise when my 4 signed photographs fell out of the envelope. And yes, they fell, because somehow the envelope had (been) opened and was openly accessible to anyone *eeek*. I was so pleased when I realised that nothing had fallen out en route and that Richard had signed each photo – not just with a quick “RA” but with “R Armitage”. Hooray!

So, that is the story of the autographs, people. I am happy to pass all of them on (I happen to already have an autograph) and even though he won’t know, I say thank you to Richard for granting the request. Hopefully the autographs will fetch a nice price! More details about the other items – autographs, printed fan items related to The Hobbit and The Crucible, as well as two RA pocket shrines – and the links to corresponding eBay listings coming soon.

In the meantime you could help me out. First of all, it would be great if you passed on the message about the charity auction to your networks. Blog, tweet, post – whichever way you can reach other fans who might be interested. As previously, I will raffle off a RAPS as a thank you to all who help spread the word. Just make sure you link/tag me into your posts on WP, Twitter and Instagram or send me a link to your posts on other networks (such as FB and Pinterest, for instance, where I am not active myself), so I know all the names that have to go into the hat. I’ll count every post that has been published before the last auction ends.

Secondly, please help me make a decision: Apart from two ready-made RAPS, should I auction off a “Blank RAPS”, i.e. a RAPS of the bidder’s own choice? They ran quite well in previous auctions, but I am not sure if the demand is there. Click below:

Thanks – and please keep an eye out for updates on further listings.

 

 

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48 thoughts on “Auction Announcement: And We Are Off!!!”

  1. Pingback: Guylty’s auctioning Richard Armitage items to benefit Save the Children | Me + Richard Armitage

  3. I didn’t want to give it away in my reblog – but this is, in effect, an Armitage sanctioned fund-raising scheme. Very excited and also, hopeful for more things like this.

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  4. Pingback: Auction Announcement: And We Are Off!!! | richardtreehouse

    • Weeeeeelllllllll – that is the big question! There was no note enclosed. I searched desperately, believe me 😉. But in any case the envelope arrived with the flap ripped open, so there is no way of knowing whether there was ever a note in it – or not.

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      • Well that is good in a way. We will keep wondering if he sent a note back and it went missing. “I” will keep believing there was note that went missing 😉

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        • I would like to believe that – but it would also be a frustrating thought. If there was a note, then it also really pains me to think that I must appear very rude for not replying and thanking him.

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          • Hmm,. Did not think about that. But not seeing a note with it is somehow not him or at least the RA I imagine. Just wanted to add that the whole auction is a wonderful idea and your free postage is extremely generous and kind of you.

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            • Maybe the postman decided the note was worth having 😉? I’d hate to think it fell out in the street and ended up dirty and wet in the gutter 😓.
              I’m very happy to organise the auction – eBay is a first for me, hoping to widen the reach this way. And by offering the postage for free, I may be able to free up some budget for the bidders to invest in a bid rather than waste it on the postage. All for a good result. Anyway, I really enjoy fundraisers, so it’s a pleasure.

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  9. I only see 3 items at the moment…all of which I want. There’s also an Empire Magazine showing but if you click on it, it says it’s been removed. It’s hard to determine what I can afford when all the items aren’t up. Especially the RAPS. You know I love the RAPs. You are such a tease.

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  11. Reblogged on my Tumblr! 🙂 Thank you for all your work getting this organised, Guylty, I must head over to eBay to check things out.
    I laughed when I read about your reaction (or rather, lack of!) to receiving the photos. I had the same – totally forgot I’d sent off a photo and autograph request (trying not to get my hopes up, I guess) then didn’t recognize my own self addressed envelope when it returned to me some months later.

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    • Fabulous, thanks for the reblog, Mezzie-dear x. The listings really took much longer to compose for eBay than they would for the blog. But at least I can now lean back and leave the bidding up to the machine.
      Hehe, yes, it took so long, I had forgotten *and* written off the whole thing. Nice surprise, though *grins*

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  12. You are a rock star! Off to a great start and can’t wait to see everything. Love the mystery of the opened envelope. Who took the note? They just want you to think there never was one. I am sure RA was thanking you for all your charitable efforts on his behalf. And asking if he could drop by and say hello the next time he was in town.

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    • *rofl* well, don’t I wish exactly that… Nah, just to clarify, of course I do not expect anything back, any acknowledgment etc. It was really only the open envelope that raised all the questions. Had it been closed, I would never even have wondered whether there had been a note.
      Got all the items listed last night – phew, more time-consuming than I had assumed. So we are really off now. Will write a proper post for the blog now (once I am showered and dressed…)

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  13. Pingback: Guylty Pleasure organizes a fabulous charity auction fundraiser to celebrate Richard Armitage’s 45th Birthday, August 20, 2016 Gratiana Lovelace (Post #955) | Something About Love (A)

    • Aw, thanks, but just to point out that the “fan items” were donated to me by a lovely fan who suggested I do another auction. Otherwise: very exciting to see the auction play out. Updates soon 🙂

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  17. Pingback: 3-2-1… Charity Auctions Are Now On | Guylty Pleasure

  19. looooovely!!! i think he signed them so nicely because he thoroughly likes the plan 🙂 and everything there is worth having and cherishing so happy bidding everyone!

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  20. Alrighty! I have an Ebay account and have tried to bid, and will check back with that later.

    But in case anyone else has a technical problem with Ebay where it didn’t allow them to bid from Guylty’s link to the items, here was what the tech support had me do, after I had signed in to Ebay:
    1) I had to look up the item I wanted to bid on from Guylty’s link;
    2) then copy the very tiny item # to the right in the description;
    3) then open a new Ebay tab and paste that item # in the search box to take me to the item’s page to bid on it.

    Exciting! I was outbid on the item–for now. But I’ll keep checking back. Ha!

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  21. Das war – sorry ist – eine richtig gute Idee 🙂 Die Fotos sind klasse und die Idee mit der Unterschrift sowieso. Unikate, wieder einmal ❤ Und auch die Begünstigten Deiner Charityaction sind in meinen Augen genau die Richtigen! Ich drücke fest die Daumen, dass sich die RA Fans wieder einmal als sehr großzügig erweisen!

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    • Habe gehofft, dass es mir nicht übel genommen wird, meine eigenen Fotos zu benutzen. Mir ging es dabei weniger um meine eigene Wichtigkeit, sondern darum, dass ich die Rechte an diesen Fotos besitze und somit damit machen kann, was ich will, inklusive als Bild auf Blogs und Twitter einblenden. Zum Unikat hat RA sie mit seiner freundlichen Unterschrift gemacht 🙂
      Die RArmy wächst wieder einmal über sich selbst heraus. Bin bereits jetzt komplett überwältigt und happy.

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