jp1 wrote:What difference does it make if the bid was meant for a different item? The money all goes to the same place. I understand if someone was trying to pull a complete retraction but accidentally putting the wrong number is a forgivable oversight especially considering as much as the items have changed around. I'm not trying to make waves here but that type of thing may discourage people from participating in the future.
Only two numbers have "changed around," both in the first day or so.
I don't want to have to play the "who is being honest and who isn't?" game in adjusting previous bids. The policy is simply that "All bids must be placed in the thread, and edited posts will not count. What you bid is what you are willing to pay. Bid retractions are NOT allowed."
With something this big and complex, we need to stick to the rules as written.
I understand it is for charity and I agree that it shouldn't be a bargain hunt but if an item sells for $2 or $3 it is better than if it doesn't sell at all. Not all of us have deep pockets and it is good that people can participate without having to drop a lot of money they may not have.
I think if you want to be picky about what the items sell for then you should just start them at a minimum acceptable price. If people aren't generally interested in something and have $3-$4 sitting around and decide to put it on something they might not even be that interested in just so that the item doesn't go unsold that is certainly better than the charity receiving nothing for that item.
I'm not talking about the encouragement or "talking up" an item that is perfectly acceptable but you shouldn't make people feel badly if they can't afford to drop $20 on a pile of magazines or something.
This is a very fair critique and I do think I've probably gone a bit overboard with the "encouragement" and I certainly apologize if I've offended anyone. The minimum reserve idea is a decent one, which may have to get implemented next year for certain items that are expensive to ship.
However, if this thing gets much bigger, then keeping it to a forum thread might be out of the question for next year - we might need to talk to GameGavel or some such and arrange some kind of partnership.
