Donating Items

A long-standing tradition with ArmadaCon is the auction, usually held on Saturday afternoon, followed by a raffle, held on Sunday. These are both populated by donations from the members, brought with them to the convention.

The Criteria

In years past, there have been some problems with some of the donations. To make things easier, we are clearly defining our criteria for submitted items. Strict adherence to the following criteria will not only make the committee's jobs much easier, but it will result in a much more enjoyable auction and raffle for everybody.

1. Items need to be in a good condition.
   You may be interested in having a clear-out of your loft or garage, but we're not interested in your mouldy old stuff. If the item is in good condition, then we're interested. If it's dirty or contains maggots, not so much.
2. Items should have a link to our 'genres'.
   While many of us really like romance novels or murder mysteries, they don't quite fit within our genres, in and of themselves. Think of science fiction, fantasy, horror, space, science, alternate history…you get the idea. Now, if any of those genre items also happen to include the mystery of a murdered romance, more the better.
3. Items should not contain alcohol or otherwise have an age restriction.
   This is a family-friendly convention, so no adult material can be considered. In addition to age restrictions, there are also licensing limitations. For that reason, we can't accept alcohol.
4. The committee has the right to choose where the item goes or for it to be rejected and returned to the donor.
   Our standards aren't terribly high, but they do exist. We will evaluate donations for suitability in either the auction or the raffle, but we may decide, for whatever reason, that it's just not a good fit for either. That doesn't mean it wouldn't be suitable in a different year, just that it doesn't work for this year.
5. We are looking for quality, not quantity.
   If you've got a whole set of books in the I Don't Really Like It, and I Don't Want It Cluttering Up My Shelf series, that's fine, but if nobody else wants it either, then it's not really appropriate for either the auction or the raffle. If, however, you've got a copy of Super Famous and Popular Book Signed by the Author or possibly that coin with the famous character on it, then that might just be a little more worthy.
6. All items must be accompanied by a form.
   In times past, we have asked people to provide a submission form along with their donation. That has become somewhat lax in some years, but it's coming into force again. If you don't include a submission form, your donation will not be accepted. It's that simple. You should download the fillable form and include it with your donation.
7. Submissions must be made on time.
   The deadline for submissions is 10:30 Saturday morning. This is to provide the committee time to prepare the donations, tag them, select which will go in the auction and which will be in the raffle, etc.

As stated above, all donations will be sorted by committee members, based on whether they feel they will be better suited to either the auction or the raffle.

The Auction

As usual, we will have our main auction on Saturday afternoon. It is usually a raucous affair, which includes regular sought-after items, along with silly bids, as well as some people bidding to give items to others. Not to mention the special, long-standing items that are really only single-year rentals that must be placed back in the auction the following convention.

The Raffle

We will be running the Raffle again. Only donated items will be placed into the Raffle. Strange and wonderful things are to be won. We will be coming around during the weekend with tickets. The draw will be Sunday afternoon.