Fandom Auctions: Japan Earthquake/Tsunami

The power's still out.

tucuxi — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 18:05:10 GMT

Hello, everyone! First of all, I wanted to thank you all again for participating in help_japan's fundraising efforts: we were able to do something truly incredible, and I'm proud to have been involved.

Now I'm posting to ask you to take a few minutes to think about another opportunity to participate in fandom-organized disaster relief, at fandomaid.

How does it work? A little differently than help_japan did. Things are divided into three categories: Auctions ending November 29th/30th, Buy-It-Now offers, and Custom Requests. The items being auctioned, offered and requested vary: fic, fanart, vids, podfic, etc.

Check out the auctions here.
Take a look at the buy-it-now offers here.
Post or offer to fill a custom request here.

The news coverage about Hurricane Sandy seems to have become less immediate, but the real long slog has only just begun. In the Caribbean, Haiti was devastated and may well be facing a food shortage because of the storm. In North America, the mayor of NYC estimated yesterday that as many as 40,000 people may have been left homeless by the storm, and New Jersey was hit even harder. The effects of this storm range far and wide, and the damage it caused won't be fixed quickly.

People need help now, and the Red Cross keeps asking over and over again: donate money, not goods. fandomaid is your chance to feel good about donating and to get something in exchange at the same time, or to turn your own time writing or drawing or vidding into a cash donation.

Please check it out.

Help_Japan Donation Totals: Lightning Round and Overall.

tucuxi — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 18:34:27 GMT

Thank you to everyone who participated in help_japan, especially all the mods for the main round and the lightning round, without whom none of this would have been organized or orchestrated. As of June 30th, this community will be closed.

The community as a whole raised:
$116,805.34

The Lightning Round raised a total of:
$2,351.38

Lightning Round Donations by Category

Lightning Round Donations by Charity

For previous Round One donation totals, please look here.

Reminder: Pinch-Hitter Post Upcoming Deadline

hesselives — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 13:15:20 GMT

Hello, all! Long time no see. As a brief reminder to those who are still seeking pinch-hitters (due to unresponsive/decommitted offerers) and/or looking to pinch-hit, the Pinch-Hitter Post is still open!

The deadline for pinch-hit requests/offers has been set for Thursday, June 30, 11:59 PM (UTC/GMT+0). The post will be frozen and officially closed at that time. (Time-zone conversions available here.)

Again, please feel free to comment here or PM the mods (hesselives, carolinelamb, tucuxi) with any questions or concerns you may have.

Addendum: as the donation confirmation deadlines for the first-auction and lightning rounds have already passed, we will no longer require confirmation posts from either the offerer or winning bidder. If you are still having trouble getting in touch with your offerer/winning-bidder, you are still welcome to contact the mods about it. We will do our best to assist, but cannot guarantee a positive resolution. Thank you for your understanding and for sticking with us this whole way! ♥

Donation confirmation deadline looming

tucuxi — Fri, 20 May 2011 13:20:12 GMT

1.) The lightning round has raised $2039.11 so far: but that doesn't include unconfirmed donations, which we would love to be able to count.

2.) The deadline for both lightning-round donation confirmations and late first-auction-round donation confirmations is Sunday, May 22, 12 AM (UTC/GMT+0) (time zone conversions can be done here).

To confirm a donation from the first round, please post a comment here. To confirm a donation from the lightning round, please comment in the offer thread. For more details on either, please read the detailed instructions here

3.) If your offerer has vanished, please go post a comment on our Pinch Hitter Post. If you might be able to fill in for a vanished offerer, please go check it out as well. The pinch hitter post will remain open until mid June, by which time we hope to have matched everyone up with a pinch hitter.

4.) As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please contact one of the mods, or comment on this post.

Finally:
Thank you to everyone who has participated in help_japan's fandom auctions. This has really been something incredible, and it's all due to you.

Pinch-Hitter Post

hesselives — Sun, 08 May 2011 16:00:31 GMT

1) To first-auction-round winners who have confirmed their donations: If your offerer has been unresponsive to your communication efforts up until this time, you are free to find a replacement offerer here. (Please ensure that you read this announcement first.)

Please post a request for a pinch-hitter using the following template:

[ Subject line: category of post (e.g. Words or Graphics) ]

If you receive a reply from a pinch-hitter and accept his/her offer, please respond to your own request stating: "Pinch-hitter found! This request is now closed."

2) To anyone who is willing to be a pinch-hitter: If you are willing to be a pinch-hitter for someone who is seeking one, please respond to said person's request using the following template.

3) We will aim to keep this pinch-hitter post open until pinch-hitters are found for all who are seeking one. Hopefully, we will achieve this by mid-June. If you have any questions/concerns/suggestions regarding this post, please comment here instead. (This is to make it easier for potential pinch-hitters to browse through requests.)

End of Lightning Round + Other Things

hesselives — Sun, 08 May 2011 16:00:22 GMT

Hi, all! A few announcements:

1) The lightning round is now officially closed. Thank you so much for your participation and generous support! Per the timetable, any offers/bids that are made after Sunday, May 8, 4:00 PM (UTC/GMT+0) will be automatically discounted and screened. (For clarification purposes, this means any offers/bids timestamped at Sunday, May 8, 4:01 PM (UTC/GMT+0) and onwards will be discounted and screened.)

2) To lightning-round offerers and winners: Please do follow the lightning-round donation confirmation procedure. The deadline for both lightning-round donation confirmations and late first-auction-round donation confirmations is Sunday, May 22, 12 AM (UTC/GMT+0). (Time-zone conversion available here.) We will shut down all first-auction-round and lightning-round activity then.

3) To first-auction-round participants who have unresponsive offerers/winners:

To offerers with unresponsive winners: If your unresponsive winner is the only winner, you may choose to discount his/her bid and cancel your offer. Please do send a message (via PM or email) to the unresponsive winner stating as such, and PM the mods (hesselives, carolinelamb, & tucuxi) so that we may update the spreadsheets accordingly.

If your unresponsive winner is one of several simultaneous winners, you may choose to discount his/her bid with no obligation to fulfill your offer to said winner. Please do send a message (via PM or email) to the unresponsive winner stating as such, and PM the mods so that we may update the spreadsheets accordingly.

If your offer had more than one bid, then you may choose to discount the original winner's bid and designate the next-highest bidder as the new winner (if you have not done so already). Please do note the late donation confirmation deadline.

To winners with unresponsive offerers: If you have already confirmed your donation here, you may choose to forfeit the original offer and seek a replacement offer here (per our previous announcement). Please send a message (via PM or email) to the unresponsive offerer stating as such.

If you have made a donation but have not yet made a donation confirmation post, please do so ASAP here. You may choose to forfeit the original offer and seek a replacement offer here (per our previous announcement). Please send a message (via PM or email) to the unresponsive offerer stating as such.

If you have not made a donation, you are no longer obligated to do so. You may choose to forfeit the offer, in which case, please send a message (via PM or email) to the unresponsive offerer stating as such and PM the mods so that we may update the spreadsheets accordingly. Or, you may choose to donate the amount of your final bid on the original offer, confirm it here, forfeit the original offer, and seek a replacement offer here (per our previous announcement). Please send a message (via PM or email) to the unresponsive offerer stating as such.

4) Given the first-auction-round's extraordinary success and the lightning-round's sizable participation, we will not be hosting a second round. This is it, everyone! ♥ Please do consider supporting helpthesouth, which is already up and running.

Please feel free to comment with any questions/concerns you may have! The mods will get back to you ASAP. :)

Round One Donation Totals

tucuxi — Sat, 07 May 2011 18:15:16 GMT

Thank you to everyone who participated in round one of help_japan!

The first round raised an absolutely amazing $101,733.91.

Auctions were offered in seven categories: Art & artistry, Audio, Everything else, Food, Graphics, Requests and Words. Here's the breakdown of donations by category:

Winners were provided with a suggested list of charities, but were able to donate to any charity their offerer found acceptable. We tracked donations for: US Red Cross, UK Red Cross, Médecins Sans Frontières, Network For Good, Save the Children, Shelterbox, UNICEF, and then a category for all other charities.

The variety of charities to which money was donated was much wider than expected, and the final category ended up being largest, as many people chose to donate directly to the Japanese Red Cross, to other international charities, or to animal rescue or other more specifically focused charities. Here's the breakdown of donations by charity:

A total of 3,894 offers were made, of which 2609 were bid upon & closed by the confirmation deadline.
(Please keep the confirmations trickling in, folks! We'd love to see how much the overall total is, when all's said and done!)

Many offerers set their prices in Help Japan v-gifts, which cost $2.99 each, all of which price went directly to Médecins Sans Frontières (LJ paid all processing costs). An amazing 1505 v-gifts were purchased, for a total of $4,509.95. (This was added to the MSF total in the figure above.)

The really amazing thing about this fandom auction was the number of people who contributed, and the way many smaller donations added up. (This is not to belittle those bidders who were exceptionally generous in their bidding & donations: their donations actually pulled the average bid size up quite a bit! They're the spikes in the figure below.)

This figure shows individual donation amounts color-coded by charity:

As you can see, the majority of donations are under $100.

In fact, the average donation size was $35.60.
The median, or mid-point of donations was $21.
And the most common donation size was $10.
(These figures exclude v-gifts)

Thank you so much to everyone who participated. We couldn't have done it without you, and together we've managed to do something really amazing!

Lightning Round Introduction Post

hesselives — Sun, 01 May 2011 16:01:21 GMT

The lightning round is now open!

1) Structure & process: The structure and process will be the same as they were for the first auction round, with exception to the donation confirmation procedure. If you are new to the community, welcome! Please familiarize yourself with the rules of the community and details on participation by reading the general FAQ page. Your moderators are hesselives, carolinelamb, and tucuxi. Your supporting moderators are kina54, hwlinyitw, ohrenesmee, and ladyrhyanne.

2) Timetable: Please note that "end" refers to the time when both new offers and all bids are closed.

If your time zone is not listed below, please convert accordingly here.

Pacific Daylight Time (PDT): GMT-7
Begin: Sunday, May 1, 9 AM
End: Sunday, May 8, 9 AM

Eastern Daylight Time (EDT): GMT-4
Begin: Sunday, May 1, 12 PM
End: Sunday, May 8, 12 PM

Greenwich Mean Time: GMT+0
Begin: Sunday, May 1, 4 PM
End: Sunday, May 8, 4 PM

Western European Summer Time (WEST): GMT+1
Begin: Sunday, May 1, 5 PM
End: Sunday, May 8, 5 PM

Central European Summer Time (CEST): GMT+2
Begin: Sunday, May 1, 6 PM
End: Sunday, May 8, 6 PM

China Time (CST): GMT+8
Begin: Monday, May 2, 12 AM
End: Monday, May 9, 12 AM

Japan Time (JST): GMT+9
Begin: Monday, May 2, 1 AM
End: Monday, May 9, 1 AM

3) Offer categories: Please click on the respective links below to make your offers and/or bids. (You will see more detailed instructions therein.)

Words: fanfic, original fic, printed fanfic or original fic, beta services, non-fanfic editing services, and related things

Art & Artistry: fanart, original art, fan videos, photography, and related things

Graphics: icon sets, mood themes, journal or site layouts, PC or phone wallpapers, and related things

Audio: podfics, audio editing services, original music, filks, fanmixes, and related things

Food: homemade, "local", a gift pack, and related things

Interesting Stuff: jewelry, crafted items, memorabilia, gift cards, and related things

Requests: requests for things not offered in the above categories

4) Delicious account: To browse through offers by category, fandom, username, and/or other specifics, please look through the lightning round Delicious account. If you have any questions/concerns regarding the account, please PM hwlinyitw. If your offer has not yet been included and tagged, please be patient, as we are adding the offers as quickly as possible. If it still has not shown up after 24 hours, please PM hwlinyitw for a status update.

5) Donation confirmation procedure

6) List of vetted charities: Winning bidders may choose to send their donations to any of the organizations listed here. Non-listed organizations are acceptable, as well. (The list is merely a guideline.) Winners, please come to a consensus with the offerer on where the donation will be sent, prior to making the actual donation.

Please feel free to comment with lightning-round questions/concerns here, and the mods will get back to you ASAP. :)

Lightning Round: Offering Words

hesselives — Sun, 01 May 2011 16:01:16 GMT

This auction post will remain open until Sunday, May 8, 4 PM (GMT+0). (Timetable with multiple time-zone conversions here.)

Attention offerers: If you’d like to participate in the auction by offering words – fanfic, original fic, printed fanfic or original fic, beta services, non-fanfic editing services, and related things – please comment here with what you’re offering. (If you are offering written work that was purchased / not created by you, please offer at the Interesting Stuff auction post.)

One offer, one comment. If you are offering separate items from multiple subcategories (e.g. fanfic and beta services), submit one comment for each item. If you are offering multiple items from one subcategory (e.g. three fanfics from any of your listed fandoms), submit one consolidated comment.

In the "Additional info" section, please include the following information [choose all that apply]:
> sending more than one item to the winning bidder (e.g. a fic AND an extra gift scarf)
> offering items within the same subcategory to multiple winning bidders (e.g. the three highest bidders will get one fanfic each)
> a favored charity that will receive the winning bidder’s donation, if it does not appear on the list of vetted charity organizations
> a "buy it now" price
> whether or not you will be covering shipping expenses, if you are shipping tangible items (e.g. printed original fic)

If you are only offering buy-it-now(s) and you have reached your designated maximum amount of winners prior to the end of auction, please make a comment to your own offer thread, stating: "This offer is now closed."

No anonymous offers allowed. No exceptions.

How to offer: In the subject line of your comment, please list the type of item and fandom (if relevant). Then, copy the text in the form below, fill in all the fields, and paste into the body of your comment.

[ Subject line: type of item & fandom (if relevant) ]

Username: Email address: YM/AIM/Gtalk/ICQ (optional): You can see things I’ve created at: I am offering: Fandoms (if appropriate): Additional info: Starting bid (in USD):

Attention bidders:

BEFORE YOU BID: Please check out the Lightning Round Introduction Post and general FAQ page.

All bids must be denominated in US dollars (USD). No exceptions. (Donations, however, can be made in any currency, as long as the current conversion rates are used accordingly.)

How to bid:
> Bid by commenting to the offer thread.
> Bids must be raised by at least 1 USD.
> Please do not delete a comment containing a bid, unless it has been misplaced (i.e. to the master post instead of a particular offer thread). If you have an issue, please comment to your bid explaining what happened, or PM one of the mods. (Your mods are hesselives, carolinelamb, and tucuxi.)
> No anonymous bids allowed. No exceptions.

You may browse offers by category, fandom, username, and/or other specifics using the lightning round Delicious account.

Lightning Round: Offering Art & Artistry

hesselives — Sun, 01 May 2011 16:01:11 GMT

This auction post will remain open until Sunday, May 8, 4 PM (GMT+0). (Timetable with multiple time-zone conversions here.)

Attention offerers: If you’d like to participate in the auction by offering art – fanart, original art, fanvideos, photography, and related things – please comment here with what you’re offering. (If you are offering icons / wallpapers / journal or site layouts, please offer at the Graphics auction post. If you are offering art that was purchased / not created by you, please offer at the Interesting Stuff auction post.)

One offer, one comment. If you are offering separate items from multiple subcategories (e.g. a fanart and a fanvideo), submit one comment for each item. If you are offering multiple items from one subcategory (e.g. three fanvideos from any of your listed fandoms), submit one consolidated comment.

In the "Additional info" section, please include the following information [choose all that apply]:
> sending more than one item to the winning bidder (e.g. a fanvideo AND an extra gift scarf)
> offering items within the same subcategory to multiple winning bidders (e.g. the three highest bidders will get one fanvideo each)
> a favored charity that will receive the winning bidder’s donation, if it does not appear on the list of vetted charity organizations
> a "buy it now" price
> whether or not you will be covering shipping expenses, if you are shipping tangible items (e.g. original painting)

If you are only offering buy-it-now(s) and you have reached your designated maximum amount of winners prior to the end of auction, please make a comment to your own offer thread, stating: "This offer is now closed."

No anonymous offers allowed. No exceptions.

How to offer: In the subject line of your comment, please list the type of item and fandom (if relevant). Then, copy the text in the form below, fill in all the fields, and paste into the body of your comment.

[ Subject line: type of item & fandom (if relevant) ]

Username: Email address: YM/AIM/Gtalk/ICQ (optional): You can see things I’ve created at: I am offering: Fandoms (if appropriate): Additional info: Starting bid (in USD):

Attention bidders:

BEFORE YOU BID: Please check out the Lightning Round Introduction Post and general FAQ page.

All bids must be denominated in US dollars (USD). No exceptions. (Donations, however, can be made in any currency, as long as the current conversion rates are used accordingly.)

How to bid:
> Bid by commenting to the offer thread.
> Bids must be raised by at least 1 USD.
> Please do not delete a comment containing a bid, unless it has been misplaced (i.e. to the master post instead of a particular offer thread). If you have an issue, please comment to your bid explaining what happened, or PM one of the mods. (Your mods are hesselives, carolinelamb, and tucuxi.)
> No anonymous bids allowed. No exceptions.

You may browse offers by category, fandom, username, and/or other specifics using the lightning round Delicious account.

Lightning Round: Offering Graphics

hesselives — Sun, 01 May 2011 16:01:06 GMT

This auction post will remain open until Sunday, May 8, 4 PM (GMT+0). (Timetable with multiple time-zone conversions here.)

Attention offerers: If you’d like to participate in the auction by offering graphics – icon sets, mood themes, journal or site layouts, PC or phone wallpapers, and related things – please comment here with what you’re offering.

One offer, one comment. If you are offering separate items from multiple subcategories (e.g. an icon set and a mood theme), submit one comment for each item. If you are offering multiple items from one subcategory (e.g. three icon sets from any of your listed fandoms), submit one consolidated comment.

In the "Additional info" section, please include the following information [choose all that apply]:
> sending more than one item to the winning bidder (e.g. an icon set AND an extra gift scarf)
> offering items within the same subcategory to multiple winning bidders (e.g. the three highest bidders will get one icon set each)
> a favored charity that will receive the winning bidder’s donation, if it does not appear on the list of vetted charity organizations
> a "buy it now" price

If you are only offering buy-it-now(s) and you have reached your designated maximum amount of winners prior to the end of auction, please make a comment to your own offer thread, stating: "This offer is now closed."

No anonymous offers allowed. No exceptions.

How to offer: In the subject line of your comment, please list the type of item and fandom (if relevant). Then, copy the text in the form below, fill in all the fields, and paste into the body of your comment.

[ Subject line: type of item & fandom (if relevant) ]

Username: Email address: YM/AIM/Gtalk/ICQ (optional): You can see things I’ve created at: I am offering: Fandoms (if appropriate): Additional info: Starting bid (in USD):

Attention bidders:

BEFORE YOU BID: Please check out the Lightning Round Introduction Post and general FAQ page.

All bids must be denominated in US dollars (USD). No exceptions. (Donations, however, can be made in any currency, as long as the current conversion rates are used accordingly.)

How to bid:
> Bid by commenting to the offer thread.
> Bids must be raised by at least 1 USD.
> Please do not delete a comment containing a bid, unless it has been misplaced (i.e. to the master post instead of a particular offer thread). If you have an issue, please comment to your bid explaining what happened, or PM one of the mods. (Your mods are hesselives, carolinelamb, and tucuxi.)
> No anonymous bids allowed. No exceptions.

You may browse offers by category, fandom, username, and/or other specifics using the lightning round Delicious account.

Lightning Round: Offering Audio Work

hesselives — Sun, 01 May 2011 16:00:44 GMT

This auction post will remain open until Sunday, May 8, 4 PM (GMT+0). (Timetable with multiple time-zone conversions here.)

Attention offerers: If you’d like to participate in the auction by offering audio work – podfics, audio editing services, original music, filks, fanmixes, and related things – please comment here with what you’re offering. (If you are offering audio work that was purchased / not created by you (e.g. band CDs), please offer at the Interesting Stuff auction post.)

One offer, one comment. If you are offering separate items from multiple subcategories (e.g. an podfic and a fanmix), submit one comment for each item. If you are offering multiple items from one subcategory (e.g. three podfics from any of your listed fandoms), submit one consolidated comment.

In the "Additional info" section, please include the following information [choose all that apply]:
> sending more than one item to the winning bidder (e.g. a podfic AND an extra gift scarf)
> offering items within the same subcategory to multiple winning bidders (e.g. the three highest bidders will get one podfic each)
> a favored charity that will receive the winning bidder’s donation, if it does not appear on the list of vetted charity organizations
> a "buy it now" price
> whether or not you will be covering shipping expenses, if you are shipping tangible items (e.g. original sheet music)

If you are only offering buy-it-now(s) and you have reached your designated maximum amount of winners prior to the end of auction, please make a comment to your own offer thread, stating: "This offer is now closed."

No anonymous offers allowed. No exceptions.

How to offer: In the subject line of your comment, please list the type of item and fandom (if relevant). Then, copy the text in the form below, fill in all the fields, and paste into the body of your comment.

[ Subject line: type of item & fandom (if relevant) ]

Username: Email address: YM/AIM/Gtalk/ICQ (optional): You can see things I’ve created at: I am offering: Fandoms (if appropriate): Additional info: Starting bid (in USD):

Attention bidders:

BEFORE YOU BID: Please check out the Lightning Round Introduction Post and general FAQ page.

All bids must be denominated in US dollars (USD). No exceptions. (Donations, however, can be made in any currency, as long as the current conversion rates are used accordingly.)

How to bid:
> Bid by commenting to the offer thread.
> Bids must be raised by at least 1 USD.
> Please do not delete a comment containing a bid, unless it has been misplaced (i.e. to the master post instead of a particular offer thread). If you have an issue, please comment to your bid explaining what happened, or PM one of the mods. (Your mods are hesselives, carolinelamb, and tucuxi.)
> No anonymous bids allowed. No exceptions.

You may browse offers by category, fandom, username, and/or other specifics using the lightning round Delicious account.

Lightning Round: Offering Food

hesselives — Sun, 01 May 2011 16:00:28 GMT

One offer, one comment. If you are offering separate items from multiple subcategories (e.g. a batch of homemade cookies and a purchased gift pack), submit one comment for each item. If you are offering multiple items from one subcategory (e.g. three batches of homemade cookies), submit one consolidated comment.

In the "Additional info" section, please include the following information [choose all that apply]:
> sending more than one item to the winning bidder (e.g. a batch of homemade cookies AND an extra gift scarf)
> offering items within the same subcategory to multiple winning bidders (e.g. the three highest bidders will get one batch of homemade cookies each)
> a favored charity that will receive the winning bidder’s donation, if it does not appear on the list of vetted charity organizations
> a "buy it now" price
> allergy warnings for ingredients used
> whether or not you will be covering shipping expenses

If you are only offering buy-it-now(s) and you have reached your designated maximum amount of winners prior to the end of auction, please make a comment to your own offer thread, stating: "This offer is now closed."

You must adhere to the customs regulations of the particular country to which you will ship your offer. (More information here.) It is your responsibility to ensure that your package will not be seized by customs due to the nature of its contents.

No anonymous offers allowed. No exceptions.

How to offer: In the subject line of your comment, please list the type of item and fandom (if relevant). Then, copy the text in the form below, fill in all the fields, and paste into the body of your comment.

[ Subject line: type of item & fandom (if relevant) ]

Username: Email address: YM/AIM/Gtalk/ICQ (optional): You can see things I’ve created at: I am offering: Fandoms (if appropriate): Additional info: Starting bid (in USD):

Attention bidders:

BEFORE YOU BID: Please check out the Lightning Round Introduction Post and general FAQ page.

All bids must be denominated in US dollars (USD). No exceptions. (Donations, however, can be made in any currency, as long as the current conversion rates are used accordingly.)

If you have specific food allergies or other health safety concerns, please contact the respective offerer (via comment/PM/email) prior to making a donation.

How to bid:
> Bid by commenting to the offer thread.
> Bids must be raised by at least 1 USD.
> Please do not delete a comment containing a bid, unless it has been misplaced (i.e. to the master post instead of a particular offer thread). If you have an issue, please comment to your bid explaining what happened, or PM one of the mods. (Your mods are hesselives, carolinelamb, and tucuxi.)
> No anonymous bids allowed. No exceptions.

You may browse offers by category, fandom, username, and/or other specifics using the lightning round Delicious account.

Lightning Round: Offering Interesting Stuff

hesselives — Sun, 01 May 2011 16:00:23 GMT

This auction post will remain open until Sunday, May 8, 4 PM (GMT+0). (Timetable with multiple time-zone conversions here.)

Attention offerers: If you’d like to participate in the auction by offering something else that hasn’t been covered in the other offering posts – jewelry, crafted items, memorabilia, gift cards, and related things – please comment here with what you’re offering. (Dangerous and hazardous items – such as guns and explosives – are prohibited from being offered here. No exceptions.)

One offer, one comment. If you are offering mutiple items separately, submit one comment for each item.

In the "Additional info" section, please include the following information [choose all that apply]:
> sending more than one item to the winning bidder (e.g. a batch of homemade cookies AND an extra gift scarf)
> offering items within the same subcategory to multiple winning bidders (e.g. the three highest bidders will get one batch of homemade cookies each)
> a favored charity that will receive the winning bidder’s donation, if it does not appear on the list of vetted charity organizations
> a "buy it now" price
> allergy warnings for ingredients used
> whether or not you will be covering shipping expenses

If you are only offering buy-it-now(s) and you have reached your designated maximum amount of winners prior to the end of auction, please make a comment to your own offer thread, stating: "This offer is now closed."

You must adhere to the customs regulations of the particular country to which you will ship your offer. (More information here.) It is your responsibility to ensure that your package will not be seized by customs due to the nature of its contents.

No anonymous offers allowed. No exceptions.

How to offer: In the subject line of your comment, please list the type of item and fandom (if relevant). Then, copy the text in the form below, fill in all the fields, and paste into the body of your comment.

[ Subject line: type of item & fandom (if relevant) ]

Username: Email address: YM/AIM/Gtalk/ICQ (optional): You can see things I’ve created at: I am offering: Fandoms (if appropriate): Additional info: Starting bid (in USD):

Attention bidders:

BEFORE YOU BID: Please check out the Lightning Round Introduction Post and general FAQ page.

All bids must be denominated in US dollars (USD). No exceptions. (Donations, however, can be made in any currency, as long as the current conversion rates are used accordingly.)

How to bid:
> Bid by commenting to the offer thread.
> Bids must be raised by at least 1 USD.
> Please do not delete a comment containing a bid, unless it has been misplaced (i.e. to the master post instead of a particular offer thread). If you have an issue, please comment to your bid explaining what happened, or PM one of the mods. (Your mods are hesselives, carolinelamb, and tucuxi.)
> No anonymous bids allowed. No exceptions.

You may browse offers by category, fandom, username, and/or other specifics using the lightning round Delicious account.

Lightning Round: Requests Post

hesselives — Sun, 01 May 2011 16:00:16 GMT

This auction post will remain open until Sunday, May 8, 4 PM (GMT+0). (Timetable with multiple time-zone conversions here.)

Attention requesters: If you’d like to participate in the auction by requesting something else that hasn’t been already been covered in the other offering posts, please comment here with what you’re looking for. (Dangerous and hazardous items – such as guns and explosives – are prohibited from being requested here. No exceptions.)

IMPORTANT: Before you request anything here, please check the other auction posts to see if your requested item is already up for offer: Words | Art & Artistry | Graphics | Audio | Food | Interesting Stuff. Or browse offers by category, fandom, username, and/or other specifics using the lightning round Delicious account.

One request, one comment. If you are requesting mutiple items separately, submit one comment for each item.

In the "Additional info" section, please include the following information [choose all that apply]:
> accepting one or multiple offers
> specific information / website links about your requested item(s), if applicable

In the "Payment (in USD)" section, please include the following information [choose all that apply]:
> monetary range (in USD) you’re willing to donate in (e.g. $5 to $30). (Actual donations, however, can be made in any currency, as long as the current conversion rates are used accordingly.)
> whether or not you would be willing to pay separately for shipping expenses (for tangible items)

If you have reached your designated maximum amount of offers prior to the end of auction, please make a comment to your own request thread, stating: "This request is now closed."

No anonymous requests allowed. No exceptions.

How to request: In the subject line of your comment, please list the type of item and fandom (if relevant). Then, copy the text in the form below, fill in all the fields, and paste into the body of your comment.

[ Subject line: type of item & fandom (if relevant) ]

Username: Email address: YM/AIM/Gtalk/ICQ (optional): I am requesting: Fandoms (if appropriate): Additional info: Payment (in USD):

Attention offerers:

If you are offering tangible items, you must adhere to the customs regulations of the particular country to which you will ship your offer. (More information here.) It is your responsibility to ensure that your package will not be seized by customs due to the nature of its contents.

Offering rules:
> Offer by commenting to the offer thread.
> Please do not delete a comment containing an offer, unless it has been misplaced (i.e. to the master post instead of a particular request thread). If you have an issue, please comment to your offer explaining what happened, or PM one of the mods. (Your mods are hesselives, carolinelamb, and tucuxi.)
> No anonymous offers allowed. No exceptions.

You may browse requests by category, fandom, username, and/or other specifics using the lightning round Delicious account.

Reminders & Lightning Round Details

hesselives — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 09:10:52 GMT

1) Lightning round reminder

[ Offering/bidding procedure ]: Will follow the same structure as that of the first auction round here, with the exception of the donation confirmation procedure (explained below).

[ Donation confirmation procedure for the lightning round only ]: As we anticipate fewer offers/bids for the lightning round (compared to the first auction round), we will be changing the donation confirmation procedure for the upcoming lightning round, as follows:

>> Winners must post donation confirmation within the respective offer threads, with the subject line of "Donation Confirmation." Buy-it-now winners are encouraged to post them ASAP. Acceptable donation confirmations include: a) link to screenshot(s) showing the donation amount, date of donation, and charity organization name, with all personal information blacked out; or b) link to clear photo of physical receipt showing the donation amount, date of donation, and charity organization name, with all personal information blacked out; or c) statement saying that proof of donation has been sent to the offerer, and a transaction ID number (e.g. tracking codes, authorization codes, order numbers, etc.), if available. (If not available, please state as such.) If the amount on the screenshot/photo exceeds that of your winning bid, please also state whether the amount in the screenshot/photo is wholly dedicated to the particular offer at hand, or whether it covers multiple offers.

>> Offerers must reply to the winners’ "Donation Confirmation" comment, acknowledging that they have received proof of donation.

>> An offer thread will be officially closed, when: a) all winners have posted their donation confirmations; b) the offerer has acknowledged receiving all donation confirmations; and c) the mods have commented within the thread to state that all donation confirmations have been logged.

>> Please do not post lightning-round donation confirmations here, or PM the mods with donation confirmations.

More details will be provided in the category posts when the lightning round opens. Please feel free to leave your questions/concerns regarding the lightning round in this post!

2) Donation confirmation deadline reminder

Greenwich Mean Time: GMT+0
Sunday, May 1, 12 AM

[ Change in late donation policy ]: We will ~~freeze~~ not freeze the donation confirmation master post at the designated time listed above. Late donation confirmation posts will still be accepted afterwards at the master post, but will be marked as "late" in our spreadsheets and not count towards the grand total. Late donations will not be accepted past Sunday, May 22, 12 AM (GMT+0). After that, all first-round-auction acitivity within this community will be shut down completely.

[ Why we require donation confirmation posts ]: For those who are wondering why we request donation confirmation posts: This provides us a means of logging confirmed donations as quickly and efficiently as we are able. This way, the mods do not have to go back through each and every offer thread repeatedly to check whether or not donations have been made yet. We understand that making a donation confirmation post may be an added inconvenience, but please do spend the extra five minutes helping us in our effort to keep up with the vast amount of community work. It would be greatly appreciated! Please also understand that all mods involved either have full-time jobs or are in school preparing for finals, and are dedicating as much free time as we can manage towards this community. Therefore, if we are unable to respond right away to your questions/concerns, please be patient. We will strive to get back to you ASAP.

3) Reminder to offerers & winners: how to proceed, if you have received no response

[ Addendum to ]: To winning bidders who have already donated: If you have not yet forwarded proof of donation to your offerer, please do so ASAP. Ensure that your offerer confirms your proof of donation and makes a donation confirmation post here. If your offerer has not responded within one week from the date you sent proof of donation, please PM the mods (including a link to the offer thread) and we will do our best to resolve the issue. If neither you nor the mods receive a response from your offerer within three days from the date of the mods’ first notification, then you have the option of forfeiting your won item(s) and we will mark the offer as "offerer unresponsive." You will also have the option of placing your name in our upcoming pinch-hitter post, where potential replacement offers can respond. Addendum: If your offerer remains unresponsive and you wish for your donation to still count towards the community’s grand total, please make your own donation confirmation post here, stating that your offerer has been unresponsive thus far, and we will log it accordingly.

4) Procedure for upcoming pinch-hitter post:

Winning bidders who have already confirmed their donations here will have the option of forfeiting their won items, if their offerers remain unresponsive to communication efforts past Monday, May 9, 12 AM (GMT+0). We will put up a pinch-hitter post that same day, where winners who choose to forfeit their won items are able to find potential replacement offerers. Winners will need to post a comment that displays: 1) the details of their donation confirmation (with personal information redacted); 2) the details of the item(s) originally won; and 3) their preferred terms for a suitable replacement item(s). More detailed instructions will be given when the pinch-hitter post goes up.

5) Concerns about privacy:

We have had several participants raise their concerns about transaction ID numbers (e.g. tracking codes, authorization codes, order numbers, etc.) possibly being used maliciously/illegally to obtain access to personal information. Privacy is of the utmost importance to us, and we thank them for alerting us to the issue.

As mods, we are committed to keeping this community safe and reducing as many security risks as possible. We will never share transaction ID numbers with third/outside parties. And under no circumstances will we ever share with anyone any full names, addresses, or any other personal information that have been sent to us and/or posted here. Please do help us by blacking out personal information, if you are planning on linking a screenshot/photo of receipt. And please notify us immediately via PM if we have failed to screen out any sensitive information.

The reason that we request a transaction ID number (if no screenshot/photo of receipt has been provided) is to ensure that most (if not all) winners have made their promised donations. (If the receipt did not come with a transaction ID number, that's fine. It only needs to be stated as such.) This is a way for us to try and prevent any false donations others may attempt to make. Given that this is the internet, our ability to verify (while protecting privacy) is limited to this method.

If you provide a transaction ID number here and prefer that we screen it, we can certainly do so to prevent others from seeing it. If you feel uncomfortable providing it, then you are free to contact your respective charity organization for further information on how they secure personal data. And we can wait for their response.

If deemed necessary, we will go back and screen every comment that includes transaction ID numbers to protect all members of this community, and prevent potential threat of invasion to privacy. We welcome any further questions/concerns regarding privacy, as well as our process and its transparency.

Notifications & Lightning Round Announcement

hesselives — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 14:31:09 GMT

Hi, all! Another round of important notifications below, so please take note:

[ Update ]: 4/20 12:00 CST: We have four new mods on board! Please welcome and support kina54, ladyrhyanne, hwlinyitw, and ohrenesmee. Thank you for your quick response! ♥

To everyone: for any urgent concerns (and/or alerts regarding unresponsive offerers/winners), please continue to PM hesselives, carolinelamb, and tucuxi, and we will do our best to address them.

1) Call for new mods: CLOSED: Due to personal commitments, all mods except hesselives and tucuxi will be unable to help assist the community further. (Please do PM the both of us, should you have any urgent concerns.) Therefore, we are asking for the help of anyone who is willing to support in the following capacities:
Commit to mod duties for at least the next two months, starting from today (Tuesday, April 19th).

Have basic knowledge of Microsoft Excel.

Have basic knowledge of Delicious.

Help go through first-auction spreadsheets and leave comment notifications to offerers and winners of still-open/pending offers.

Help log offer threads and donation confirmations for the lightning round.

Please leave a comment here, if you are able to kindly volunteer your time, with regards to any/all of the above. We will get back to you via PM (where we will ask you for your email address), give you access to our spreadsheets, and bring you up to speed on how they work. Thank you in advance! ♥

2) Lightning round announcement: We are officially opening a lightning round at the beginning of May. The structure and process will be the same as they were for the first auction round. There will be separate posts for the following categories:

Words: fanfic, original fic, printed fanfic or original fic, beta services, non-fanfic editing services, and related things

Art & Artistry: fanart, original art, fan videos, photography, and related things

Graphics: icon sets, mood themes, journal or site layouts, PC or phone wallpapers, and related things

Audio: podfics, audio editing services, original music, filks, fanmixes, and related things

Food: homemade, "local", a gift pack, and related things

Interesting Stuff: jewelry, crafted items, memorabilia, gift cards, and related things

Requests: requests for things not offered in the above categories

For any who are new to the community, please familiarize yourself with the process via the links provided under "Easy-link access" below. And feel free to promote the lightning round with any of the banners/icons available here. The lightning round will begin and end at the times listed below. ("End" referring to the time when both new offers and all bids are closed.)

If your time zone is not listed below, please convert accordingly here.

Pacific Daylight Time (PDT): GMT-7
Begin: Sunday, May 1, 9 AM
End: Sunday, May 8, 9 AM

Eastern Daylight Time (EDT): GMT-4
Begin: Sunday, May 1, 12 PM
End: Sunday, May 8, 12 PM

Greenwich Mean Time: GMT+0
Begin: Sunday, May 1, 4 PM
End: Sunday, May 8, 4 PM

Western European Summer Time (WEST): GMT+1
Begin: Sunday, May 1, 5 PM
End: Sunday, May 8, 5 PM

Central European Summer Time (CEST): GMT+2
Begin: Sunday, May 1, 6 PM
End: Sunday, May 8, 6 PM

China Time (CST): GMT+8
Begin: Monday, May 2, 12 AM
End: Monday, May 9, 12 AM

Japan Time (JST): GMT+9
Begin: Monday, May 2, 1 AM
End: Monday, May 9, 1 AM

3) Updated grand total (in USD):

$61,379.06

Breakdown by category (in USD):

Words: $24,093.21

Art & Artistry: $8,322.59

Graphics: $2,193.26

Food: $2,031.96

Audio: $1,332.23

Requests: $1,570.11

Interesting Stuff: $21,835.70

(Note: The sums stated here include only closed auctions. Open and pending auctions are still being monitored.)

4) Again, we'd like to remind you of the notifications we made a little over a week ago:

Deadline for donation confirmation posts

To offerers & winning bidders: How to proceed, if you have received no response

5) Easy-link access:

Donation Confirmation Post

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

News & Links: updated news, list of ways to donate, and list of vetted charities

Promotional Banners & Icons

Thank you to everyone for your continued support! You are wonderful beings. :)

Notifications & Comm Poll #2

hesselives — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 14:34:56 GMT

Hi, all! Several important notifications below, so please take note:

1) Contacting the mods: Due to personal commitments, ilovetakahana will be handing over her primary mod responsibilities to the rest of the mods. We extend our most heartfelt thanks and appreciation for the absolutely wonderful job she has done! Her support and efforts here have been unparalleled. ♥ From this point on, please note that "the mods" will refer to: hesselives, carolinelamb, and tucuxi. Please do contact us with any further questions or concerns you may have.

2) Deadline for donation confirmation posts: We will ~~freeze~~ not freeze the donation confirmation master post at the designated time listed below. Late donation confirmation posts will still be accepted afterwards at the master post, but will be marked as "late" in our spreadsheets and not count towards the grand total. Late donations will not be accepted past Sunday, May 22, 12 AM (GMT+0). After that, all first-round-auction acitivity within this community will be shut down completely.

If your time zone is not listed below, please convert accordingly here.

Pacific Daylight Time (PDT): GMT-7
Saturday, April 30, 5 PM

Eastern Daylight Time (EDT): GMT-4
Saturday, April 30, 8 PM

Greenwich Mean Time: GMT+0
Sunday, May 1, 12 AM

Western European Summer Time (WEST): GMT+1
Sunday, May 1, 1 AM

Central European Summer Time (CEST): GMT+2
Sunday, May 1, 2 AM

China Time (CST): GMT+8
Sunday, May 1, 8 AM

Japan Time (JST): GMT+9
Sunday, May 1, 9 AM

3) To offerers who have not yet communicated with winning bidders: If you have not yet communicated with your winning bidder, please do so ASAP. If you do not hear back from the winner within one week from the date of your first notification, please PM the mods (including a link to the offer thread) and we will do our best to resolve the issue. If neither you nor the mods receive a response from your winner within three days from the date of the mods' first notification, then you have the option of discounting the winner's bid and designating the next-highest bidder as the new winner. If there are no other bidders, you have the option of cancelling your offer. No confirmed bids by the donation confirmation deadline means your offer is automatically cancelled.

To winning bidders who have not yet donated: If you have not yet communicated with your offerer, please do so ASAP. If you have notified your offerer already and have not received a response within one week from the date of the notification, please PM the mods (including a link to the offer thread) and we will do our best to resolve the issue. If neither you nor the mods receive a response from your offerer within three days from the date of the mods' first notification, then you have the option of forfeiting your won item(s) and we will mark the offer as cancelled. We suggest that you do not make a donation until you successfully engage in communication with the offerer.

If you are unable to make a donation at present for any reason and have already communicated as such to your offerer, please PM the mods with: 1) your LJ name, 2) your offerer's LJ name, 3) link to your offerer's thread, 4) whether you are delaying or canceling your donation, and 5) if you are delaying, an estimated date of donation. The mods will then contact your offerer to confirm your delay/cancellation, and we will log your notification in our spreadsheets.

[Note: If you are late in engaging in communication with your offerer, and your offerer has already received mod approval to discount your bid with good reason, then you will no longer qualify as the winning bidder and are no longer obligated to make a donation.]

To winning bidders who have already donated: If you have not yet forwarded proof of donation to your offerer, please do so ASAP. Ensure that your offerer confirms your proof of donation and makes a donation confirmation post here. If your offerer has not responded within one week from the date you sent the proof of donation, please PM the mods (including a link to the offer thread) and we will do our best to resolve the issue. If neither you nor the mods receive a response from your offerer within three days from the date of the mods' first notification, then you have the option of forfeiting your won item(s) and we will mark the offer as "offerer unresponsive." You will have the option of participating in our upcoming pinch-hitter post to find a potential replacement offerer.

[Note: within this community, a "pinch-hitter" will refer to a replacement offerer.]

4) Please do participate in our second community poll below, so that we may gauge potential interest in an upcoming second auction round, lightning round, and/or pinch-hitter post. The poll will be closed on Thursday, April 14, 12 AM GMT+0.

[Addendum: my apologies for making radio-button options for the "how will you participate...?" questions, instead of ticky boxes! Please select the most-likely way in which you might participate. Thank you!]

View Poll: Comm Poll #2

Donation Confirmation Progress Report

hesselives — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 14:30:21 GMT

Hello, all! As it is now one week after the end of auction, we thought everyone might like to know the result of all the donation confirmations we've received thus far. We cannot thank you all enough for your amazing efforts and generosity! ♥

We are thrilled to announce that, as of April 7th 22:30 CST (GMT+8), the grand total (in USD) is as follows:

$45,743.10

Breakdown by category (in USD):

Words: $17,319.11

Art & Artistry: $6,168.01

Graphics: $1,247.44

Food: $1,503.96

Audio: $821.25

Requests: $1,395.03

Interesting Stuff: $17,288.30

(Note: The sums stated here include only closed auctions. Open and pending auctions are still being monitored.)

We will continue to log incoming donation confirmations, as well as address any questions/concerns you may have. If you have not yet made a donation confirmation post, please do so here!

Dear offerers: if your winning bidder(s) is non-responsive and does not contact you within one week from the date of your first notification, you may discount the bid in question and designate the next-highest bidder as the new winner.

Again, thank you, everyone! We will be making further updates soon, so please stay tuned. :)

Round One of help_japan Auctions END.

ilovetakahana — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 10:02:03 GMT

Round One of the fandom auctions here at Help_Japan has officially ended.

We will no longer be accepting bids for any auctions at this time.

In order to minimize the confusion regarding the exact ending time of the auctions, please note that bids made at exactly 6:00 are still admissible for the auctions. All bids made by 6:01 and onwards do not count.

Note: If offerers don't hear back from their winning bidders within one week from the notification date, then they may discount those bids and designate the next-highest bidders as the new winners.

Please stay tuned for further updates. At this time we will be screening all comments to the comm to ensure that we can begin the shutdown process for all of the bids on the auctions.

Barring any technical difficulties, you may come back to the comm in about two hours. By that time, you can go back to the items you've bid on and determine whether you won based on these factors:
A. If the post offers just one item and you're the highest bidder, you've won.
B. If the post has more than one of the same item and your bid is in the top number of bids - eg. in the top three for a post with three items - you've won.
C. For posts with multiple items but more identical bids than the number of items, preference is given to earlier bids.

We would greatly appreciate it if the offerers in this auction can help us out by taking the initiative to inform your winning bidder/s that they have won your auction/s.

If an offerer wants to inform his/her winning bidder/s that they have won the auction, the offerer MUST comment to the winning bidder/s' bid comments, incorporating the following template or something similar:

Please refer to this post for other questions regarding the donation process.

Actual donation confirmations MUST be posted here .

The list of vetted charities is here.

To everyone who participated in Round One: THANK YOU.

Please stay tuned to the comm for announcements regarding future rounds.

Browsing for offers, and last-minute bidding opportunities

mementis — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 19:58:44 GMT

(for general information, see the auction introduction)

For those of you hoping to find last-minute bidding opportunities, or browsing for any offers you might have missed, the auction's Delicious account now has all 4000+ offers bookmarked and tagged by Category, Fandom, and type/subcategory. Here are shortcuts to the main categories of offers:

Art (583) | Audio (113) | Food (150) | Graphics (358) | Words (1641)
Interesting Stuff (979) | Requests (218)
Also tagged are 1800+ fandoms. To browse offers by fandom, open the "Fandoms" drop-down in the right-hand column on the Delicious site (choose "sort by alpha" in the Options at the top of that column to find your fandom more easily).

Reminders re 31 March & the end of Round One

ilovetakahana — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 19:25:23 GMT

We would like to remind the comm that we will continue to accept bids for the auctions now ongoing until 31 March.

Round One of the fandom auctions here at Help_Japan will end on 31 March. After that, we will begin the process of informing the winners of the auctions.

We will be monitoring, accepting, and confirming the donations coming in as a result of the auctions until around the middle of April.

After that, we will make announcements re schedules for follow-up rounds [i.e. Round Two, or a Lightning Round.]

Just to make it clear: Auctions are ongoing until 31 March. We will be closing at 17:59 GMT+8. Countdown clock here. Timezone conversions here. List of corrected timezones below:

Pacific Daylight Time (PDT): GMT-7
Sunday, March 13, 3 PM: auction opens
Friday, March 25, 3 PM: auction closed to new offers
Sunday, March 27: mods will post reminder that end of auction is coming up
Thursday, March 31, 3 AM: bidding ends

Eastern Daylight Time (EDT): GMT-4
Sunday, March 13, 6 PM: auction opens
Friday, March 25, 6 PM: auction closed to new offers
Sunday, March 27: mods will post reminder that end of auction is coming up
Thursday, March 31, 6 AM: bidding ends

Western Europe Time (WET): GMT+0 [Note: Western European Summer Time (WEST: GMT+1) will begin March 27, 1 AM, GMT.]
Sunday, March 13, 10 PM: auction opens
Friday, March 25, 10 PM: auction closed to new offers
Sunday, March 27: mods will post reminder that end of auction is coming up.
Thursday, March 31, 11 AM [WEST]: bidding ends

Central Europe Time (CET): GMT+1 [Note: Central European Summer Time (CEST: GMT+2) will begin March 27, 1 AM, GMT.]
Sunday, March 13, 11 PM: auction opens
Friday, March 25, 11 PM: auction closed to new offers
Sunday, March 27: mods will post reminder that end of auction is coming up
Thursday, March 31, 12 PM [CEST]: bidding ends

China Time (CST): GMT+8
Monday, March 14, 6 AM: auction opens
Saturday, March 26, 6 AM: auction closed to new offers
Monday, March 28: mods will post reminder that end of auction is coming up
Thursday, March 31, 6 PM: bidding ends

Japan Time (JST): GMT+9
Monday, March 14, 7 AM: auction opens
Saturday, March 26, 7 AM: auction closed to new offers
Monday, March 28: mods will post reminder that end of auction is coming up
Thursday, March 31, 7 PM: bidding ends

</ul>

Winning bidders and offerers who have already completed their auctions must post confirmed donations here: Donation Confirmation Post.

Comm Updates and Admin Matters, 25 March: PLEASE READ

ilovetakahana — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 23:52:07 GMT

Help_Japan Introduction Post

We are now entering the homestretch for Round One of the fandom auctions here at Help_Japan! We thank everyone who has participated in the auctions by offering and by bidding and making donations.

Tomorrow is 26 March, and you know what that means: after tomorrow, we will no longer be accepting new offers or requests in the auction posts. The mods will be posting comments in the offering and request posts to signal that we are no longer accepting new offers. These comments will be posted no later than 9am GMT+8.

Timezone conversions and information are located HERE. The general information post for the comm is located HERE.

From 26 March to 31 March we will be accepting bids for already-posted auctions. Bidding continues as usual until 31 March, the end date of Round One, after which we will begin the procedures for matching up and informing offerers and winning bidders.

For questions about donations and confirmations, please turn to the procedures post HERE.

For winning bidders and offerers who are ready to close out their auctions and turn in their donations, please go to our Donation Confirmation Post, HERE. Remember to indicate the category of the auction in the subject line. Fill in the form completely - this will help us in filling in the spreadsheets that we are using to track the donations.

Again: THANK YOU so much for all your help and your support for these fandom auctions. We are very humbled and grateful for your amazing and generous response.

Overflow Post 1: Offering Interesting Stuff

ilovetakahana — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 14:34:35 GMT

Help_Japan Introduction Post

~~This auction post will remain open until 26 March.~~ This post is now closed to new offers. Bidding continues until 31 March.

Important note
If you have already posted an offer in the original "Offering Interesting Stuff" post, PLEASE DO NOT REPOST IT HERE. This is strictly for new offering posts only.

If you'd like to participate in the auction by offering something else that hasn't been covered in the other offering posts - please comment here with what you're offering.

In the Additional Info section, please include the following:
> offers of more than one item per auction
> offers to multiple winning bidders
> a favored charity that will receive the winning bidder's donation, if it does not appear on the list of pre-approved recipient charities

Bidding Rules
Bid by commenting to the Offering post.

Bids must be raised by at least a dollar per bid

Please do not delete comment containing a bid - if you have an issue, please comment to your bid explaining what happened, or contact a Comm mod.

How to Offer
Please list the type of item and fandom (if relevant) in the Subject to your post.

Introduction - All About help_japan!

curve — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 04:44:55 GMT

HELP JAPAN INTRODUCTION POST

This community was created on 11 March 2011, to raise funds to assist Japan after being hit by both an earthquake and a tsunami. It is a multi-fandom, multi-media auction with the intention of uniting everyone with the one cause: to help Japan.

If you'd like to participate, please familiarize yourself with the community by reading the FAQ. Your moderators are: ilovetakahana, hesselives & curve.

QUICK LINKS: Shortcuts to the offer posts are below. These, and other important links (such as the Donation Confirmation Post and detailed instructions for making and confirming your donatio ns) are located in the sidebar of the auction community front page.

To place your item or service up for auction, add an offer to the appropriate post. Specific criteria for each item category is communicated in the individual auction posts. To bid on an item, reply to the item's thread.

BROWSING THROUGH OFFERS: To view items in a more easily sorted format, please visit our Delicious archive where they are being bookmarked. There, they are tagged by category, type/subcategory and fandom (or a combination). Volunteers are still actively adding all offers to Delicious - if you'd like to help, please contact mementis for details.

REQUESTS: If you're looking for a particular kind of item and can't find it on offer, place a comment in our Requests post! Note that requests are also bookmarked at our Delicious archive.

Please visit the auction community's front page for the latest announcements and more information.

Please do not hesitate to ask if you have any questions, and happy bidding! :D

Fandom Auctions: Japan Earthquake/Tsunami

The power's still out.

Help_Japan Donation Totals: Lightning Round and Overall.

The community as a whole raised: $116,805.34

Reminder: Pinch-Hitter Post Upcoming Deadline

Donation confirmation deadline looming

Pinch-Hitter Post

End of Lightning Round + Other Things

Round One Donation Totals

Lightning Round Introduction Post

Lightning Round: Offering Words

Lightning Round: Offering Art & Artistry

Lightning Round: Offering Graphics

Lightning Round: Offering Audio Work

Lightning Round: Offering Food

Lightning Round: Offering Interesting Stuff

Lightning Round: Requests Post

Reminders & Lightning Round Details

Notifications & Lightning Round Announcement

Notifications & Comm Poll #2

Donation Confirmation Progress Report

Round One of help_japan Auctions END.

Browsing for offers, and last-minute bidding opportunities

Reminders re 31 March & the end of Round One

Comm Updates and Admin Matters, 25 March: PLEASE READ

Overflow Post 1: Offering Interesting Stuff

Introduction - All About help_japan!

The community as a whole raised:
$116,805.34