The Q&A Chat Board Auctions "Scrapbook" For Charity
by Viewmasterlady
eBay Member

Shortly after Christmas, the Q&A chat board regulars decided we needed to do a charity project of our very own. Several ideas were tossed around, and the idea we settled on was to do a scrapbook with pages made up by our members.

Somehow, mistress*jewelry was elected to spearhead this effort with constant reminders to board members that we all needed to participate. Many folks felt that this would be a virtual item, but how could we auction off something that you could not actually hold and possess? It had to be a real item with everyone doing their share.

Once the project began, mistress*jewelry went to the craft store, along with her daughter Midge, and bought up all the crazy stuff you need for a project like this: zigzaggy scissors, glue, colored scrapbook pages, etc. Luckily, a couple of empty scrapbooks were found on sale, so a bit of money was saved on the overall presentation.

As members offered to share their talents and create pages, more and more work was needed to get regulars in the mood to share their eBay loves. Finally, she had enough volunteers to really get the book project off the ground.

Then the ball got rolling, and we needed to find a charity. Midge and a lot of others suggested something to help children, so mistress*jewelry searched on the web. The folks on the board voted on the various charities she found. The final choice was the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Of course, one of the most important members of the Q&A board is musicman3rd. It was an absolute necessity that we have some of his wonderful homespun stories in the book. He only provided one at first, but then another idea was born: a bonus book!

The idea of a bonus book made up of musicman3rd's stories came to mind when mistress*jewelry saw how many wonderful tales were actually available. Another board regular, J5, suggested talking to musicman3rd about this addition to the scrapbook project. After much begging and prodding, he agreed and sent the poems and stories we have for the bonus book. (And it is a fantastic addition to the auction, if I might say so myself!)

The final project included information, bits of eBay history, some fun collectibles, and a lot of hard work and effort--with an extra bit of hope and love thrown in.

On March 6, the scrapbook (which ended up consisting of two books plus musicman3rd's bonus book) went up on the auction block. Bidding was fast and furious and went over $400.00 in the first hour! By the time the auction ended on March 16, there were 54 bids on the auction and the final hammer price was $1,556.27!

The lucky winner was an historic Q&A figure - aunt*patti. The Make-A-Wish Foundation is thrilled that they were picked to be recipient of this largesse. Other members from the Q&A are making additional individual contributions to the fund, as well.

One thing for sure, it was one heavy box for mistress*jewelry to carry to the post office. All of us on the Q&A board really appreciate of her efforts on our behalf. Because of the success of this auction, we hope to assemble another book to auction off in 2004.

If you would like to view the scrapbook, please go to this web address: http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/q*a*scrapbook/