Child's Play Auction Raises $82,100

aussie_a writes "The Child's Play charity auction of last night was a huge success, with $82,100 raised in the one night. As previously reported on Slashdot, before the night $200,000 had been raised for children around the globe. Organised by Penny Arcade creators Gabe and Tycho, they have reminded naysayers that gamers are responsible members of society, and not pixelantes." As a reminder, the Child's Play Charity season is starting to wind down. If you're planning on donating, the hospitals would like to have everything by December 20th, so order away.

Comments

No Chucky youre not getting any money!

[KrunZ]

Lets hope that the Child's Play Auction don't use the raised money for dolls.

Uh oh.

[ElectricBrain]

Jack Thompson is not amused.

What sold for 20 grand?

[antifoidulus]

The post doesn't say what sold for what amount.

Also I wonder whether or not they actually were able to collect the money yet, or whether somebody pulled a Peter Griffin and bid way over what they could actually pay...
Nothing like drunk generous gamers with cash

Re:What sold for 20 grand?

[WTBF]

If you read the article carefully you will see that the $20000 bid was part of:

a bidding war over an appearance in a Penny Arcade comic

Re:What sold for 20 grand?

[antifoidulus]

My mistake, thanks!

Re:What sold for 20 grand?

[mazesoft]

If I remember correctly from an earlier newspost on Penny-Arcade, you were expected to bring money with you to the charity event. The sign-up page to purchase a ticket said that all auctions had to be settled that night, so they received the cash (or credit card slips) for the $82,000 that night!

Fruit Fucker!

[tod_miller]

Oh man! I am stoked. Great work from everyone involved.

I heard Mr Thompson placed a phone bid on a set of their dirty underwear. But that is rumour.

Big smiles all round.

has to be said

[McCarrum]

[insert name of deity here] bless those gamers.

Charity

[oman_]

I bet there are a bunch of people (like gamers) who would have no problems giving to a charity if they had some way of knowing it was legit. Helping people feels good, getting taken advantage of makes you hate the world.

I made a promise to somebody that I'd make a donation to a charity so I did a little research and found a place to send $50 to. I included a note asking them not to send anything back. (I didn't care about the stuffed animal or whatever they were offering) Well this was 3 years ago and I still get a constant stream of crap from these, and other people. I've got more personalized envelopes, address labels, calendars, notepads, etc. than I know what to do with. I'm sure it's well more that $50 to print and send this.

Anyway... they aren't getting any more money from me... it reeks too much of a seedy business. However, a charity run by a couple of people who don't do this for a living and are very open/public about how the money and donations get used? I'd have no problems giving them money.

I wonder if this partly explains some of the success of the program or if they just found the right people to "market" to. :)

You need to be careful

[brunes69]

Perosnally, I donate $30 a month to Amnesty International, because I believe strongly in the work that they do, and they don't try to play politics or endorse a religious dogma while doing so.

The only thing I have ever recieved from them in the mail is a quarterly newsletter thing detailing what they are doing (which I like - nice to know what I am helping). I have never recieved any cold calls asking me to up my pledge, never recieved any letters asking the same either. And as far as I am aware they haven't given my number to anyone.

My point is, you gotta be careful about what charity you support. I find that the worst ones are the "foundation" type charities for a particular disorder. If you give any money to these guys they will be back at and at you again for more. I find that if you eve rplan to do a one-time donation, or a christmas donation, your best bet is to do so anonymously, or give a fake phone number / address when you mail it in (making it the address of the charity itself is a good way to send a point and have them not waste money sending the stuff out).

Personally, I will *never* give money to a charity that cold calls me, no matter *what* the cause, and I tell them as such if they call (that, although i regularly donate to charities, I will not donate to theirs, because of this call). I refuse to endorse the practice of cold-calling people and asking for money. It is just plain rude IMO. Charities may be allowed to do it by law, but that does not mean that they should.

Re:You need to be careful

[Txiasaeia]

What about a charity that cold-calls asking for donations of clothing? The Canadian Diabetes Association routinely calls me asking if I've got any clothing or used toys to donate to them; I have absolutely no problem with this.

Glad to see that PA did so well!

Re:You need to be careful

[brunes69]

Nope, no dice. If they call, I inform them of my policy and send them on their way. Anything else is doing nothing but re-enforcing the behaviour of cold calling. Until more people step up it will continune to get worse and worse. Hint - I just drop off my stuff to the Salvation Army drop boxes instead. Never got a call from them. And BTW my dad is even a diabetic.

Quoted for Emphasis

[Headcase88]

"I refuse to endorse the practice of cold-calling people and asking for money. It is just plain rude IMO. Charities may be allowed to do it by law, but that does not mean that they should." Amen to that!

I'll keep Amnesty International in my mind when I'm thinking of givig to charity... thanks for post.

HardOCP Raffle.

[DeadBugs]

The good folks at [H]ardocp.com just sent Child's Play a $20,000 check from a recent computer raffle. $10 was mine I hope I win the computer :-) http://www.hardocp.com/