Since 2008, we’ve held an annual fundraiser or charity auction to help out and show our support for a variety of noble causes. We’ve raised more than $13,000 over the years, and would like 2014 to be the biggest year yet!
This year our charity is The AbleGamers, an organization that has been very active in making video games available to those who might otherwise find them inaccessible. I did an interview with them a few years ago that you can hear here, and here's a descriptive blurb from their website:
-----------------------The AbleGamers Foundation, also known as AbleGamers Charity, is a 501(C)(3) nonprofit public charity that aims to improve the overall quality of life for those with disabilities through the power of video games.
Video games allow individuals with disabilities to experience situations that may be difficult or limited in the real world, provide social networking opportunities to maintain mental and emotional health, and participate in one of the world’s largest pastimes.
With a three-step approach, AbleGamers works and advocates on behalf of the disability community to increase the accessibility of video games and to achieve further inclusion by those who need special considerations.
Outreach – AbleGamers has the largest community portal for gamers with disabilities found anywhere in the world. Gamers around the world can come together and talk about new and inventive ways to overcome the barriers of an accessible games. We have over 200 mainstream titles reviewed specifically for their accessibility in our accessible games database. These titles are reviewed using the game accessibility guidelines of Includification to ensure each game is accessible to people with varying disabilities.
Consultation – AbleGamers provides consultation for AAA and indie developers, free of charge, to assist in making each game as accessible as possible. We provide a free updated set of practical game accessibility guidelines called Includification, which is a 48 page fully-illustrated roadmap for developers to reach the highest level of accessibility possible for each game.
Grants – AbleGamers delivers grants to the gaming community of assistive technology. Individual grants are open to various segments of the gaming community including, but not limited to children, adults and veterans with disabilities. These grants are provided multiple times each year as funding allows.
Here’s how the donation process will work this year:
1. PM me a list of items you are willing to donate to the auction. If you can also attach a link to pictures of the item(s), it would be ideal. Be sure to provide all relevant description information (e.g. If game is complete, region information, the system smells like socks, etc.). I AM LIMITING THE AUCTION THIS YEAR TO 100 ITEMS TO BID ON (some items may be lots) which means that it is likely that NOT ALL DONATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED. This is so we can emphasize the high quality of the items/lots up for grabs and drive up the prices on fewer items. The auction will be conducted in the forums in a dedicated thread.
2. Items that you can donate are not limited to games. You can also donate systems, accessories, movies, etc. You can also choose to donate bundled packages (e.g. a bundle of 3 games and a system, 10 movies, etc.). Live animals, weapons, personal favors, and other unmailable items are generally not auctionable – but feel free to be creative! We’ve had some interesting items donated over the years and would love to see more this year! Please don't just use the auction to unload your junk - I do reserve the right to refuse items.
3. In your PM, let me know if you will cover shipping costs on your own. If you aren't able to do so, please provide me with your PayPal address so that we can send you the shipping costs when they are collected. We would strongly urge you to consider covering shipping as part of your donation if you are at all able to do so. Remember, you will be shipping the items directly to the winning bidders.
4. All items will have preset minimum bid amounts in the auction. These amounts will be low, but will be designed to reflect fair starting values for the items. If you have a suggested minimum bid, please let me know. I won’t promise to implement it, but I will promise to consider it!
A sample PM might look like this:
Remember, I only need a PayPal address if you will need some reimbursement for shipping costs.I am donating:
CIB Top Loader NES (picture here: http://www.photobucket.com/yourpic)
Radiant Silvergun sealed for the SAT (NTSC-J) (picture here: http://www.photobucket.com/yourpic)
My custom-made life sized Superman 64 action figure (picture here: http://www.photobucket.com/yourpic)
Shipping:
I will cover domestic and international shipping for the first two items, but I will need to split the cost with the buyer to cover the cost of shipping the action figure (approx. $50 each in the U.S.).
My PayPal address is:
[email protected]
Suggested minimum bid:
Item 1 - $40
Item 2 - $30
Item 3 - $100
So, take a look around and see what items you might be able to donate. Please submit your list of donations for the auction to me by WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 17th. Remember: please be selective and donate items that you think will fetch high bids!
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Let me also encourage people to share this thread via their social media feeds. While I know we can get great items from within the community, in the past we've also had community members reach out to friends, relatives, and other contacts asking for item donations and in the process yielded some pretty cool and valuable items. So if you have a retro store nearby that you think may want to donate something cool, a friend in the industry who can offer signed or unique items, or friends on other retro gaming sites that you think would be interested in the cause, please let them know to get in touch with me either via PM here or via email at [my username]@yahoo.com.
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