As many of you have noticed, eBay has cancelled our auction. We have no hope of getting this auction reinstated with the last known bids prior to what would have been the end of the auction today. The auction has been canceled because of me. Seriously. Because I, personally as oortdust, actually bid on 3 items that had not yet been bid on (you know, things I could still afford to purchase and actually wanted to buy), eBay has accused YearlyKos and myself of Shill Bidding. Shill Bidding!!!!.

I have contacted their Trust & Safety department about this mixup. They, like all of eBay, do not have phone support. Nor do they have the Live Chat feature that eBay’s standard customer service uses. Trust & Safety can only be reached by email, and their posted response time is 24-72 hours. The last time I needed to contact them, they took 5 days to respond.

Again, as many of you know, this is not the first issue we have had with eBay. Most recently, we have had to look for another venue to offer two sets of Live Earth New York tickets (which we hope to announce soon) as only eBay’s Giving Works charities are allowed to list those tickets. Even though Independent Arts and Media, YearlyKos, Inc.'s fiscal agent is a 501(c)3 charity, eBay's Trust and Safety would not allow us to offer the tickets.

eBay also would not allow us to list travel items. We had to, again, go through Trust & Safety to become certified to list travel. This means getting tax records, deeds, and proof of ownership from any donor wishing to donate a timeshare or weekend away. The donor must also provide a letter stating that they own the property and are donating it to YearlyKos for an auction. This is a lot of work for someone to go through just to donate. It also doesn’t guarantee we will be approved for travel.

There have been other issues with eBay, and we are doing what we can. eBay has not ever contacted us before they de-list an item, it just happens and then you have to wait a week to try to figure out what is going on. We will let you know as soon as we are able to re-list these items, be it through eBay or another vendor.

We sincerely apologize for this debacle. We hope that you are still willing to bid when the auction appears again.

I personally apologize to all of you have taken the time to donate, fill out our paperwork, and have spent time bidding and urging others to bid on this auction. Thank you very much for all you have done. Unfortunately, we do not have any way of contacting everyone who has bid, nor do we know what the last bids were on items. All of that information was lost when the auction was canceled. We do know that those people who were the current high bidders would receive email from eBay, but we don’t know about anyone who was outbid, or was watching an item.

This was the best auction we’ve had to date. All of you donated amazing items, most of them handmade. Many of you offered up autographed items that you went through some effort to acquire. We appreciate all you have done in support of the 2007 YearlyKos Convention, and hope that you will be willing to join us when we are able to re-list this auction.

We are looking at other auction providers. Yahoo no longer does auctions. We have looked at Amazon.com. Are there any other suggestions or comments you have about other auction providers? We could definitely use your help on this.

 Fundraising