Fun and Community Social Events on eBids Forums

October is usually known to us in the UK for being Breast Cancer Awareness month - and this year a special Pink Fridays fundraising drive is being held at various locations throught Great Britain.

Smiffy49er, one of our eBid forum community members had us involved and we were staging Pink themed auctions set to run from the Friday to Monday with a starting price of up to 99p. The auctions ccould be for anything as long as it has pink on it - even if the pink contribution is a ribbon tied around a non pink item. As there were 5 fridays in October, we had plenty of chances to raise a lot of money.

Our friends in the USA also had their breast cancer charity auctions running parallel to the UK charity auctions with the proceeds going to MSABC - Making Strides Against Breast Cancer.

There were a fantastic collection of pink goodies available - from the sweet pink sugar mice, toileteries, winter clothing, stationery, chocolates, and even a His n Hers saucy undies set - plus lots of other wonderful pink treasures. Sadly, the auctions are ended now for this year - but there is always next year. I'm already collecting pink things ready for it.

Running alongside the Pink themed auctions, we also had a Spot the Difference Competition as organised by bykimbo. bykimbo started out with a Pink Panther Returns movie poster and did 10 subtle differences to one of them. We had to pay a contribution to funraising page as a payment for our guesses to be judged. As each batch of correct answers was submitted to bykimbo, she put each players name into a hat - with the overall winner to be drawn at the end of October.
The winner of the Spot the Difference was Smiffy49er.

There was also a Pink Avatar competion - with Smiffy49er donating £10 to her Just Giving page on the winners behalf. Mark from eBid did the judging on the 11th October and was also donating £10 to Smiffy49ers Just Giving page on the winners behalf. The winner of the Pink Avatar competition was Vonz

We raised a fantastic £1,038.00 for the BCC and for MSABC $600 (£361.16) in the course of 5 weeks.

Our forum members have a lot of involvement with charities in one way or another and Ken Gillam - one of our members is supporting the Great Ormond Street Hospital with a Painting For Charity. Ken is an ackomplished self taught artist, who has a love of the sea and the countryside - both of which are reflected in a lot of his work.

Painters Online Charity is a group of artists that are donating original works of art to be sold at auction to raise funds for The Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children. The auctions will run from the 8th September to the 6th October inclusive. There are a lot of wonderful paintings on offer from a wide assortment of artists, in a variety of mediums covering a lot of subjects - flowers, landscapes, birds, animals, buildings - something to catch everyones eye. To see the auctions, please go here.

Sainsbury's Stores and Innocent Smoothie Drinks have again joined forces for Age Concern & Help The Aged - in their Big Knit project in which they hope to raise over £250,000. Information on the Big Knit can be found on their web site here. They have even included knitting patterns for beginner, intermediate and experienced knitters.

For every innocent smoothie drink sold in Sainsbury's stores throughout the UK wearing a Big Knit cap / hat - Sainsbury's will donate 35p to the 2 charities.

Vonz, one of our forum members and a keen knitter has got us involved with this as we have a lot of members that are able to knit little hats to be sold with the innocent smoothie drinks. More information on our involvement can be found on eBid forum community thread.

We also had forum members who wish to support Age Concern & Help the Aged that aren't able to knit, but the able help the not so able by trading skills. We also have other charity activites and auctions ongoing so little hats are being knitted for these auctions, and each batch of hats sold will have already helped one charity before it gets to Sainsbury's to raise money for Age Concern & Help The Aged - which has got to be a good thing.

One of the things that never ceases to amaze me is the wealth of innovative ideas for fundraising that seem to originate from eBid's forum community.

The latest in this is a Cookery Book - which is full of members' favourite and own recipes. Members contributed their recipes, and with the book now complete, the book will is available to purchase with the proceeds going to Breast Cancer Care.

The developement of The Kitchen Table CookBook went underway - Smiffy49er was inundated with donated recipes, Brishada had the difficult task of setting the recipes into book form, fabulous illustrations skillfully drawn by stampsulove, the main publication costs kindly donated by Somersethedge and his partner Maplegin, and with Dantheman3 in charge of the final money stages to pass over to Breast Cancer Care.

The recipes are a varied selection too - as varied as the forum members who contributed to them - different nationalities with traditional dishes - from recipes for quick light snacks to a full family dinner.

All of the recipe books have now been sold - so I hope that you have been able to get our copy. The total amount raised for Breat Cancer Care was a staggering ........ drum roll please ...... somebody? anybody? ......... no - oh well, I'll tell you anyway ............. a staggering £453.44.

May I take this opportunity to say a big THANK YOU to everyone that was involved in the production of the cookbook - without your help it wouldn't have been possible.

eBid member Shezz organises the monthly YDC (Yorkies Daft Auctions / Your Donation Counts) auctions which are held at the end of each month. The YDC for January starts on the evening of 23rd Jan. If you haven't bought on eBid, and would love to give it a try, this may be the ideal opportunity for you to give it a try, have fun and help a charity at the same time.

Shezz, along with another member, Sylvia (Stitchysyl), are organising a 'quilters circle' with the aim of having as many members as possible each make a decorative square 7 x 7 inch, with the end aim being to make up the quilt and auction it for charity in the December 09 YDC. The squares can be fabric, embroidered, painted with fabric paints, as plain or as elaborate as each member wants to make them.

A social group has been set up on the forums especially for everyone to add photos of their completed squares. You can find details of the group here. There are some lovely squares in the group photo album - in a variety of mediums - some have been done with fabric paints, some with cross stitch, some with embroidery, some with applique work, and some with patchwork. Take a peek at the album here. to see the hard work that everyone has put in. More information can also be found on on Stitchysyls web page using this link.

The fabric scroll opposite was a previous eBid forum community project and was organised through the autumn of 2006 and auctioned in January 2007 raising over £55 for charity. It will be interesting to see what the new one will look like when its completed and how much it will raise. But, more importantly than that, we all will have fun making and designing the small 7 x 7 squares for ourselves, and for other members to do bidding battles over during the monthly YDC.

Raindropsies2 has a guessing competition running - with all guesses to be in by 28th February. The competition is to guess the number of auctions that will be running on eBid on 1st January 2010. The prize for the nearest correct answer will be a £20 gift voucher donated by Raindropsies2 to spend anywhere on eBid. One entry per user.

The winner of this competition was Buffykins with her guess of 3,265,007. She was only out by 122,811 as the actual count of listings at 11.02 on 1st January 2010 was 3,142,196. Congratulations to Buffykins on her win.

eBid proprietors themselves, not to be left out of the community spirit, have set us all a challenge too - there is a prize of $3000 or equivalent in local currency to the member that lists the 3,000,000th item. So, guess what we're all busy doing - why not stop by and check out the increased listings - you never know what you'll find until you do. It doesn't cost anything to join.

The eBid member who listed the 3,000,000th listing has been announced and is baconsdozen - He was totally amazed that he'd won as he says he's never won a competition in his life before. The pic shows the winning item.

Why? Why set up a group for one person? What makes her so special?

These are questions that you are probably asking. I shall tell you. Ruthiewildchild is an eBid seller & buyer, an active member on eBids forum community and an extraordinary lady whos kindness knows no bounds. She has done eBid store banners and forum avatars for almost every active forum member on eBid. She has also built web sites, and can do all sorts of clever things with graphics on the computer, including magic eye or sterograms. This is one of her creations. Although, if you want to see more of Ruthiwildchilds clever artistic work, then please feel free to drop by and have a look at the group photos. You don't have to be an eBid member or a member of the group to see them. Although, if you joined eBid, you could have a Ruthiewildchild avatar of your very own.

We have all seen the news over the last few days and know that areas of Australia have been totally devastated by the bushfires. Lots of people have lost everything, and have been lucky to walk away from the hard hit areas with their lives and the clothes they stand in. eBid is an international auction site and has members in Australia. Forum members have friends and family living in Australia - some not far from the affected area. As we are a very close community on the forums and things that affect one person, affect us all in some way.

We are all rallying together to raise as much money as we can to send out to the affected areas. A lot of our community have donated cash, others are donating the proceeds of buy it now items and auction items to the fund, and others are bidding on the items being put for auction. So far with out combined efforts of auctions and members dondating the proceeds from their sales, we have raised £508 GBP ($1070 Australian dollars).

This is your chance to win your very own custom made eBid Avatar and Shop Banner - made by our very own special one and only Ruthiewildchild. To see more of her work / creations go here.

This competition wass being organised by bykimbo, harold69 & Ruthiewildchild. To enter the competition, all you needed to do was to add to a thread the most amusing, amazing, astounding reasons why you should be Ruthied in this way. According to the rules on the thread - bribery is accepted. (I wonder how much chocolate it will take to win). The competition was open to all eBid members.

The winners of this great little competition have just been announced. And the winner is ....

Summerdreams .... with the wonderfully surreal big toe story.

The runners up are ...
best threat: - poppa501
best bribe - kaylacrafts
best smarm - meebo1
best begging - burgyeb

Congratulations to you all, but especially to the winner Summerdreams as she now get to have her own unique store banner and avatar created and designed by Ruthiewildchild.

eBid member Cornishmaid1961 has rallied all the community together for a Bonnie Baby Competition - judged from photos of each member taking part in the competition. The photo can be any photo of themselves from birth to 3 years old, and is to be used as their forum avatar for February.
The proprietors of eBid - Gazza & Mark have volunteered to judge the photos during February, and have also kindly donated the first prize money of $150 / £100, with Cornishmaid1961 donating 2nd Prize and ejean donating the 3rd Prize.
This is my entry - Probably taken when I was about 6 to 12 months. Do you think its good enough to win?? I hope so.

There are lots more for the judges to see - click the thread link below to see all the entrants, all compiled into a 'Rougues Gallery' by eBid member Ruthiewildchild - so they can be seen at a glance and to make it easier for the judges.

Ruthiewildchild has also been compiling alternative baby photos - great for a chuckle. Information on the link below.

Well, the judges have made their decision - and the competition winner and runners up have been announced. This message was posted by Mark earlier today (28.2.09)

After much deliberation, Gazza and I are happy to announce the winner of the eBid Bonny Baby Competition. It has been difficult because you were all beautiful babies

In first place: wyocowgirl1
2nd place: poppa501
3rd place: randojazz327

Congratulations to everyone who took part. It's been a great bit of fun.
$150.00 is on it's way to wyocowgirl1

A special thanks to ejean and cornishmaid1961 for organizing the competition. Maybe we should make this a yearly event!

The Grand National is one of the key events in the horse racing circuit and most workplaces, clubs and social centres do a sweepstake. For an agreed amount, usually £1, each person playing part gets a slip of paper with a horses name on it. There are usually 40 runners, so it leaves room for up to 40 players, with a final payout kitty of £40 - making £25 prize for 1st, £10 for 2nd and £5 for 3rd place - Some sweepstakes allow for a 4th and / or 5th prize too - but the more prizes, the lesser the winners total. eBids forum community is no different in this. Raindropsies2 has organised a sweepstake for us to see if we can win.
The race is scheduled to start tomorrow April 4th at 1615hrs with some good hroses in the running, and some good betting odds - Can't Buy Time odds at 40/1. More info about the Grand National and the horses running, can be found here.

Forum Members - Number Drawn - Horse Running & Odds

Vonz - 1 Cloudy Lane (40-1)
Candlebridge - 2 - Chelsea Harbour (80-1)
Prism2 - 3 - SnowyMorning (25-1)
Hypn0t0ad - 4 - No where (66-1)
Shezz - 5 - Comply or die (16-1)
Prism2 - 6 - Ollie Magern (100-1)
Starlady22 - 7 - Stan (80-1)
Shabbard - 8 - Black apalachi (15-1)
Dantheman3 (wife) - 9 - Hear the Echo (18-1)
Judesnicethings - 10 - Priests leap (66-1)
Ladynuttiepig11 - My will (8-1)
Buffykins - 12 - Eurotrek (100-1)
Postcardsetcera - 13 - State of play (14-1)
Playtowin - 14 - Big Fella thanks (20-1)
Playtowin15 - Mon mome (66-1)
Dantheman3 (Son) - 16 - Silver birch (50-1)
Hypn0t0ad - 17 - Butlers cabin (9-1)
Minx41 - 18 - Off shore account (25-1)
Stitchysyl - 19 - Parsons legacy (18-1)
UniquenMornique - 20 - Reveillez (100-1)
Stitchysyl - 21 - Fundamentalist (150-1)
Buffykins - 22 - Golden flight (40-1)
Ladynuttiepig - 23 - L'ami (22-1)
Huddylion - 24 - Battle cry (40-1)
BabsnRay - 25 - Cornishset (33-1)
Huddylion - 26 - Fleet street (125-1)
Ladynuttiepig - 27 - Musica Bella (125-1)
Raindropsies2 - 28 - Carn't buy time (50-1)
Ladynuttiepig - 29 - Darkness (16-1)
Buffykins - 30 - Irish invaider (20-1)
eJean9 - 31 - Rambling Minster (11-1)
Huddylion - 32 - Southern vic (25-1)
Playtowin - 33 - Kilbeggan blade (20-1)
Dantheman3 - 34 - Brooklyn brownie (28-1)
Poppa501 - 35 - Himalayan trail (28-1)
Hypn0t0ad - 36 - Arteea (200-1)
Bittymatriarch - 37 - Cerium (300-1)
Smiffy49er - 38 - Idel talk (50-1)
Huddylion - 39 - Kelami (200-1)
Playtowin - 40 - Zabenz (100-1)

With the members drawn against their horses, all is set. With the start and end of the race, members were vowing their horse to win. A few fell at the fences, a few unseated their riders - all in the tradition of the Grand National. The winners flew past the winning post.

Our race winners are below - along with their prizes. No question on will be buying the celebratory drinks.

1st Mon Mome Holder of this ticket is playtowin winning £25

2nd Comply or die. Holder of this number is Shezz Winning £10

3rd My will, holder of this number is Ladynuttiepig winning £5

Congratulations to the three lucky winners. Maybe the rest of us will have better luck next time.