A First Look at #2019RABirthdayAuctions + A Few Notes For Bidders

/ August 18, 2019

Good afternoon! We are now 24 hours live with the birthday auctions – time to have a first look and get some updates on where we are at. In fact, I had planned to give a first update last night, but to tell you the honest truth: I was wrecked. It literally took me all day to get all the listings online. Not least because I realised too late – after I had written a draft in the eBay selling platform for *every* item, that eBay actually only allows you to keep 20 drafts – and then replaces the oldest draft with the latest. Hmph. But well, it all worked out in the end, and from roughly 10 past 4 pm yesterday the auctions went live every few minutes. Before I get to the latest update, just a few notes for bidders.

DVD and Blu Ray

I received a few questions about the DVDs/Blu Rays in the auctions. FYI I tried to include a photo of the back of every DVD case in the description so that you can confirm yourselves whether the DVD will work in your hardware. However, I have also been told this online (no guarantees, though, I haven’t verified this:

  • BluRay will play DVD but not vice versa.
  • For the DVDs, you can play region 2 (which I believe most of the ones on offer are) on your laptop in America. You have to download a specific viewer so that you are not limited to doing this only 5x, but it works well.
  • PAL system is European.

Bidding on eBay

Just a little note suggested by SueBC who ran into some trouble when trying to bid on eBay yesterday. She was unable to increase her bids on anything because a “temporary limit” had been imposed on her account to stop what appeared to them as erratic, unusual bidding behaviour. Sue called it “deRAnged” – how fitting 😄.  Sue has worked out how to work around this obstacle:

In case anyone else has this problem, apparently this is eBay’s new way of making sure people can’t overspend and get themselves into trouble — new this year. I ended up calling customer service and they easily removed the temporary buying restriction. – I’ve set up a PayPal account and could find the linking button on the computer, but it could take 24 hours for the link in eBay to work. So if anyone also needs to set up a PayPal account, sooner would be advisable so that you will be able to pay quickly if you win a bid.

And now – the 24 Hour Update

Bidding started immediately after the listings went live yesterday. And I already have to say that the community has been great – my modest benchmark of 550 Euro was actually reached as soon as 3 hours into the auctions.

In the meantime, the bidding has really taken off. We have now had 192 individual bids, and 26 of the 29 items will sell = have received at least one bid. However, some items are more coveted than others. There is a veritable bidding war going on for the – admittedly – irresistible fan badge “Moody Anti-Socialite”. 22 bids so far, with a current price of 37 Euro. Thank you everyone who is bidding for this gem (see picture right).

Currently at the highest price (but also starting out from a starting price of 40 Euro, so not that surprising) is the Ricky Steampunk RAPS at 93.50 Euro. However, the shrine is closely followed by the signed Castlevania disc – now at 91.50 Euro. (It also started off at 40 Euro.)

We are currently approaching a minor milestone – a nice rounded figure – and hopefully we’ll get a few more Euros in today. There are a few possibilities for bargains – at least at this stage. For instance, there is the TV & Satellite Week magazine with the article on BS – no bids yet at all, currently going at 5 Euro! Or The Convenient Marriage Audiobook on CD for 15 Euro. However, my personal favourite: The (possibly misnomed?) Tolkien Fan Pack. Ok, not everyone wants to see Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn in The Return of the King. But don’t forget that there is one of Rachel’s cool badges in the pack – “Thorin’s Bird”!!!!

Anyway, we’re 24 hours in, and many thanks to all active bidders so far. I am really excited, and every time my phone dings, I get a little jolt ⚡️.

I will update you all again later tonight with a summary of prices so far – or as, if and when we are nearing some milestones, I hope. Keep bidding and cheering 🙂

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15 thoughts on “A First Look at #2019RABirthdayAuctions + A Few Notes For Bidders”

  1. We’re (me and the man with the laser machine) are so happy that the badges are so very popular! All those badges are one offs too 😉
    I’ve bid on a couple things, it’s all good fun and a good cause x

    Liked by 2 people

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    • Please pass on my thanks and my appreciation to “the man with the laser machine”! I’m very grateful he put his hardware to such a good use. And also to you – for such great ideas for badge texts. They are hilarious. The “Nape Curl Club” had me almost reach for my credit card (but I can’t bid on my own auction).

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    • Damn, I meant to mention that in this post. Yes, I did. Currently at 25 Euro 🙂 Thank you for the reminder. Must update on the auction post.
      Glad you resolved the issue – and shared the solution. x

      Liked by 3 people

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      • Things look great, I’ve (over?)bid on several things & currently back to lying in wait….. I’m having a problem for some reason with not always being able to return seeing all the auction items. When I click on all or other, it acts like I need to unfilter my search. Maybe it’s just a bug I’m having to encourage me to download the Ebay app lol 😉 I don’t use Ebay that much though, I’m much more familiar with PayPal.
        Looks like another record breaking auction at this point, great job again lady!

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  3. The next time I fire up my laptop, which won’t be till tomorrow morning my time, probably, I will get the name of the downloadable work-around for the DVD region incompatibility. Hooray for the auctions!

    Liked by 1 person

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