HW: Promo Single

[Paul Mather]

On Mon, 2005-08-15 at 01:13 +0100, Cyberkrel wrote:
> Personally, I would be surprised if that made a jot of difference - a
> collector will pay what a collector can afford regardless of where the
> money's going to. Better to give it to Colin's good cause than the Clear
> Channel!!!

I'm not sure how Clear Channel got into the picture, but I agree it
probably doesn't make much difference mentioning any charitable
intentions on an eBay auction---mainly because of the poor reputation
eBay is earning regarding a place to get scammed/ripped off, leading
people to be sceptical of a "this is for a worthy cause" plea in the
item listing.  (I'm not saying this reputation is justified, just it is
becoming more prevalent.)

I guess (like I said originally) I was generalising from other music
mailing lists I've been on, where memorabilia has been auctioned off for
charitable purposes.  But, those auctions have been conducted through
the lists themselves.  One case in point was a guy who was diagnosed
with kidney cancer.  He had no medical insurance, and the hospital
wouldn't operate until he could pony up a good chunk of cash up front.
He started offering up his own kollectables for sale on the list, to
raise money, and this triggered a kind of flood of other people offering
up theirs, with the proceeds to go to this guy's medical fund.  It was
nice to see people bidding over the going rate, knowing they were
helping out a good cause.  Some amazing rarities came out of the
woodwork, and the guy did eventually manage to get his operation.

To tie what you said with what Jill said (and Colin observed): I'd be
surprised if REAL Kollectors actually bid on his item.  Surely they'd
know they could get one for free anyway.  I would presume the
casual/uninformed fan would be the one to bid, not realising it could
potentially be obtained as a freebie.

It's a shame to see Colin getting hassled over trying to help out a
worthy cause. :-(

Cheers,

Paul.
--
e-mail: paul at gromit.dlib.vt.edu

"Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production
 deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid."
        --- Frank Vincent Zappa