The Keepers recently had their first Bill event where we had an live silent auction and a web cast. I am interested in some feed back on both. I was suprised by the lack of action from the forum in the way of bids. I may have made a mistake with the $15 registration fee. My thought was since everyone at the dinner paid $25 to be there for dinner and the auction, $15 to bid means more for the Sabine Lighthouse. It was an experiment that would have been dropped with the first protest. Was everyone able to see what was going on during the event? Was there a problem with the camera placement? Would sound have helped? I sure it would have to some extent.

Chuck

The auction was a great idea, but, out of my price league entirely. There was no sense even wasting my time as my upper limit was probably eliminated with the first bid. I would have been glad to take a chance on a raffle at $25.00 a ticket even if 200 people were to have bought them. Twenty five dollars is something any of us common folk could have afforded but bidding up to $4000, COME ON! The $15.00 registration fee was fine if you have the money to continue, but, why squander the registration fee if you can't afford to bid after that and the only thing that interested me was the Gold Eddystone. This is my reason and only my opinion for not going for the GOLD.

Rich

It was a real 'first' and well worth the effort.

That said, I know that plans changed or were formulated at the last minute. Those things happen when you are breaking new ground.

I checked out the video (as you know since I called you.) I'd say that this could have been 'bigger' had there been a 'host' who narrated what was going on (requiring audio, of course).

I wasn't a bidder so I didn't hang around. By the time I got back, the room was almost empty.

Kudos to you and those who helped set this all up. As I said it paves the way. Perhaps some year we'll have live coverage of Regional Events -- or even an evening wrap up of each day's goings-on at a Reunion.

We've got the talent.

I seem to recall a certain webmaster who made a run at a live broadcast from Rosemont a few years ago. . . .

Chuck,

What John said is true about breaking ground and making decisions on the fly. I wonder if the uncertainty of how the light was going to be disposed of kept some away. I agree wholeheartedly with what Rich said above. No way do I have anywhere near the $$ to play with the "big boys" of collecting. Could I have scraped together $25 for a chance at winning the gold light. Most likely. (And, ask the regulars what my track record is with winning things in opportunity drawings!)

Bottom line is that you were able to get $4000 for Sabine, and that is the most important thing. Congratulations on that accomplishment!

Dave

We did have other item up for auction besides the GOLD. I was taken by the Texas Winter wear, myself, which consisted of a great coffee mug, tee-shirt and hat from the Sabine Pass group. We had two-framed pictures up for auction, they didn't get a single bid. The framing alone was worth $50 at least. One of the picture's was mine, which really hurt "ouch" .
We had several signed LE's up for bid that went far below the dealer's price. Maybe we should have placed a reserve or starting bid on the other lots like we did with the GOLD.

I know most forum members already have many of the LE's we placed up for auction in their collections, perhaps they are signed, perhaps not. Remember, it's the spirit of the thing not the price. You drop $10 to $20 on tickets, but couldn't place a bid on the other items such as hat, tee shirt, mugs ECT. In the end we have a light that is extremely poor and in need of cash. The GOLD was extremely helpful in this effort, it alone raised more cash than we could have even if the other pieces had gone for 100 time SRP.

It's a real possibility that we could do a web cast of a reunion or regional event. It's entirely dependent on the location where it is held and access to support hardware. If we were to have a regional or reunion here in Houston we could set the whole thing up with very little trouble now that we have some experience under our belts. The key is to have the necessary IP addresses.

In the end it was fun and the food was great.

Chuck