Done and Donated #RA50Auctions

/ August 27, 2021

What a whirlwind it has been! The #RA50Auctions Fundraiser is over, and with a bit of a delay I have now made our donation to LOROS via Mrs Armitage’s tribute on muchloved.

Richard – apologies for the belated pressie, and sorry that we didn’t buy you socks. But this is what we made for you:

 

As you can see I have bumped up the final amount from yesterday to a nice, tidy sum.

This is the automated proof of donation by LOROS via muchloved:

And now is the time for the proper acknowledgment.

A massive thank you to all supporters of the 2021 birthday fundraiser!

The birthday fundraiser is *your* party. A project that only gets off the ground because of *your* participation. If it weren’t for your demand for a communal event, your willingness to part with fan items for the auctions, your creativity in making one-off fan items for the auctions and multiples for the sale, your generosity in bidding, your enthusiasm to buy items, your efforts in sharing, commenting and signal-boosting, your readiness to donate money, your general interest to take part in a fun community effort, AND your trust in me as the organiser and treasurer of the fundraiser, all this would not be possible. A million thanks to you. Your generosity this year has been stunning!

While all your participation efforts are appreciated, I would like to take the opportunity again to thank everyone by name who has donated items to the auctions and sale. Thank you for letting go of the coveted fan items, allowing them to go to a new home, and to generate a big donation in doing so. My thanks go to the following donors of auction items (in alphabetical order):

Ani, Anne, Certifiedmoody, Ellen, Esther, Jacqueline, Jane, Jen, Kate, Linda, LoLo, Louisa, Pamela, Paula, Rachel, SahRA, Susanna, Young, and ZedEffEye.

Oh, Mr Richard Armitage, too.

 

For the creating of multiple fan items to provide a fixed price sale, my thanks go to the following crafters and designers…

Ani, Anne, Esther, Jane, Kate, and Young.

 

For hand-holding me behind the scenes, including crisis management and reassurance services, special thanks go to Ani, Kate and Rachel.

We wouldn’t have any donation to transfer if it weren’t for the buyers and donors. Besides obvious privacy concerns, there are too many people to thank for monetary donations and for winning on eBay, as well as buying on Etsy. A massive thank you to you!

You know who you are

Celebrate your party! You’ve created a great gift to the tune of ￡12,500.

Thank you to everyone for your support and especially for your reassurance and patience when the process did not run as smoothly as hoped. Problems were resolved – only my ego was damaged and time was wasted. But that’s a small price to pay for the immense gratification this projects gives me. We live and we learn, and I’ll probably write up a debrief for future reference. In any case, it was a pleasure heading up this fundraiser for you, and I am grateful to have your trust and confidence, and I am very proud what we have achieved together. I’ll do it again, any time. Thank you!

– ♥︎ –

And now for some more detail on the final accounts. This is all boring number stuff, but as the treasurer of this project, I am duty-bound to be as transparent as possible.

The final tally of our fundraiser is €14,539.20. The sum was generated from the following gross proceeds (all numbers in €!):

Notes FYI:

  • All numbers shown above are the net amounts transferred from the respective platform into my account, i.e. the actual money received as proceeds.
  • The eBay fees were automatically deducted before the payout to my account. The total amount of eBay fees incurred are €1,174.57, of which The Jacket™️ alone incurred a whopping €444.06. The eBay proceeds were paid to me in two separate transactions of €5,888.94 and €5,031.77, coming to a total of €10,920.71. No further banking or transfer fees were incurred. Note: The reason why the fan auctions incurred a bigger fee than The Jacket™️ even though its proceeds were higher, is that 50 individual transactions took place rather than just one for The Jacket™️.
  • The Etsy fees were also automatically deducted pre-payout. I have reimbursed all fees incurred by the sale of my own private non-fundraiser items.
  • The fees for donations sent via Paypal were automatically deducted pre-payout.

 

Postage costs came to a total of €733.00.

Notes FYI:

Since shipping was spread over a period of days with several trips to the post office as well as buying postage online, there are 10 receipts itemised (see right).

 

 

 

 

 

 

The final accounts are net proceeds of sales and donations, minus postage costs:

If there are any questions, let me know. Documentation is available, as a matter of course.

The final donation transferred to LOROS via muchloved is

12,500.00 Pound Sterling

converts into €14,593.18  /  US$17,203.12

(bumped up by myself just to make sure that none of my own Etsy sales were charged to the fundraiser by mistake)

– The End –

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41 thoughts on “Done and Donated #RA50Auctions”

  2. This is nothing short of amazing! You deserve that pat on the back, big time.

    Now, take a break, pour some wine and put your feet up. Pop in your favorite RA show/movie and simply relax! Good job!

    Liked by 1 person

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  5. Amazing! Thank YOU for all you did and went through; I’m in awe of your organizational and business skills and patience. Big round of applause to you and to all of the artists/crafters and fans. And I’m so glad you were able to get up close and personal with Guy’s leathers, even if it was for a brief time! 😉

    Liked by 1 person

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  7. For once the warm feeling in my chest isn’t heart burn, but happiness from being involved in this crazy ride once again. Always happy to help and seeing the generosity of bidders and buyers and donators is all I require as thanks! Richard really pulled it out the (laundry) bag with his incredible donation for his half century birthday,, I hope he has a warm fuzzy feeling in his heart too ❤

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • 😂 Well said, Rachel. Happiness, not heart burn 😉. I won’t mind if this warmth lasts for a while. And yes, RA really gave the whole thing a mighty boost. I wonder if he ever thought that a “used leather jacket” would create such a donation… I take it that he is feeling the love a little bit, too.

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  10. If this had been a movie, people would say the plot was all too good to be true. But it is, and the feel good factor will last and last. My admiration goes out to everyone involved and especially to the magnificent Guylty.

    We owe her awe!

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  12. Oh goodness, you must be exhausted after all the organising, packing, posting and account-keeping – such a great achievement.
    Well done to everyone involved, and huge thanks to you for all the hard work. I’m glad to hear you are being rewarded with a special dinner.
    My package reached the UK from Dublin this morning – I am really looking forward to opening it and showing it off when it makes it to Portsmouth.
    Much love XX

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    • Dinner is currently being cooked. There is something very fishy going on in my kitchen 😂
      Hooray, so the package is already on UK soil. Does Royal Mail deliver on Saturdays? Maybe you’ll get it tomorrow?

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  13. Congratulations to LOROS and to all the wonderful participants and donors – what a fabulous result!!! RA has such lovely generous supporters. It was an extra special surprise to have RA join in on the donations this year. That generous gesture made his milestone birthday even more epic, imho. I have to add this -Dear Sonja, you deserve the highest thanks and praise – your organizational skills make it seem so effortless even though obviously it takes loads of coordinating and planning to run the auction & fixed price sale simultaneously as well as the after sale distribution. Not only that, you make it great fun to anticipate as well as participate in this heartfelt birthday gift to our favorite “Guy”. So once again, many thanks you are a shining ⭐️ Already looking forward to next year. ❤️

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    • It was so special indeed. Very nice of him to join in – although, pssst, secret – it also complicated the thing a little bit because his donation was so big that I anticipated hurdles right from the start. But well, we grow with every challenge, right? It’s done, it’s dusted, and it’s donated to a fantastic cause. Oh, and Mr A has also acknowledged our gift over on Twitter. So he has received it.

      Liked by 1 person

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      • Aw that’s wonderful!!! (And so much better for him than getting another pair of socks lol.)
        Yes this year was most definitely a learning experience for you but you didn’t shy away from the challenge and made it work. Bravo to you 🥰

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  16. It was such fun. It is wonderful that Oor Richard participated and acknowledged the auction, the people who took part and your incredible hard work in making the auction happen. thank you. And thank you too for sending Kate’s lovely tag and for packaging it so beautifully.

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    • So glad it has already arrived – and I have to point out that the packaging of the tags was all Kate’s doing. She had all her tags wrapped in those cute organza bags, and also added that Guy card to them. Credit to her!
      And yes, I am really delighted that Richard chose to participate in and acknowledge the fundraiser. It means a lot, not just to us who donated items or who bought and bid, but *all* fans, I think.

      Liked by 1 person

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  17. All those number still make my head dizzy. This is an astonishing amount, the one that would do so much good.
    Thank you all, and thank you, Richard ❤

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