Ready To Ship St. Jude Items

[ber643]

Well, today Rose and I went out and begged, borrowed, stole, and even bought all the boxes and shipping (padded) envelopes we could. This afternoon and evening we spent wrapping, bundling, boxing, and taping boxes, the dinning room table, the cats & dogs, and each other - untill we finally had all misc. items and afghans won by our generous bidders ready to mail. We will do that tomorrow morning, and then I'll PM everyone about their actual shipping charges (which BTW is actually my money hoarded back to get Lois, the Dinos, and I to ATAR - LOL so don't let us down now, folks    )

One thing I want to bring up seriously, as usual I already have a few items in the "bucket" for St Jude Auction, 2011, and Rose has a couple new afghans made already. That's nothing new but this year I also have three additional items, through the well known generosity of Biggie Hoffman. as most of you may have noticed, Biggie brought a lot of items to the top of the bidding forums with $2.00 bids, to attract attention to them for bidding on, another generous act. Well, I don't know how many of those he got left holding the top bid on but I do know there were three items that we had donated. When I contacted Biggie for shipping info, he told me that he was paying the bids (as would be expected) but for me to keep the items and put them back up next year, as "they were worth much more than $2.00 each". Now there is a good deed. he could have got them dirt cheap, kept 'em, sold 'em, gave 'em away as gifts, or thrown 'em away if he'd wanted to   :p   Ya gotta love a big heart that decided to go the way he did. I don't know for sure but I suspect there were more than those three items perhaps too. I'm sure God's got some special blessings saved up for you, Biggie - enjoy them in good health, and thank you from us and the kids of St. Jude.

[ber643]

ttt - to update some more winners. On the way to the post office in a hour or two - boy will they be glad to see me - LOL

Last night (see above) there were Kokopelis, afghans, and Chihuahuas flying every which way but loose. I almost messed up and got ready to ship one of our Chis to Owlbait by mistake -    :D

[Biggie Hoffman]

Aw shucks....stop it will ya?

  :rolleyes:  

It took ALL OF US to make this thing work!

[magnus]

Your a stand up guy Mr. Hoffman! Great example for all of us.
Magnus

[owlbait]

Bernie, my mastiffs need a new chew toy, but chis won't work for them    I had the privelege of meeting Biggie at KaZoo and he is a good guy, and his St. Jude presence magnifies that. You and Rose make tremendous donations each year, I don't know how you do it, but I sure appreciate your donations. The bids I win end up as gifts, or classroom extenders and I sure want to thank you.
Mike Gerard  owlbait

[ber643]

I calls 'em as I sees 'em, Biggie -      

Thank you for both of us owlbait and we deeply appreciate your support and kind words.

[imskippy]

Well done Bernie. I'm anxious to hang that Elk hanging on the wall in my shop.

I too noticed quite a few items Biggie got stock with. I myself bid on 2 of my own things so he wouldn't have to pay up for them or shipping if he didn't really want it. I'm actually quite disappointed at some of the bids that I saw on items this year. I personally bid what I'm willing to pay not as little as possible to just beat the last bid. Theres definitely a special place in many hearts for Biggies generosity.

Well done guys. Jason

[ber643]

OK, back from the Post Office (they wanted to keep me and pin me to the bulletin board as a "Big PO Supporter"   ), and from here I'll be going to the PM area to send out shipping charges to the winners. I post the following just to help folks understand why we simply must ask for bidders to agree to pay shipping - it must seem strange when some bills are so small - and believe me I/we truly wish we were in a position to pay all shipping - I really mean that. It means so much that the generous bidders never balk at my asking for charges - bless your hearts.

The total bill at the PO was $183.98 (now, that's not so much compared to what some folks donate in bids and even cash donations - but it would stretch our fixed income depressingly -   :eek:  ) While the smallest was, as I recall, only 1.22 - the largest was Poor ol' owlbait. He had two packages (because of the Rainmaker (for his students use). Shipping on it was only 13.50 but his other box (two afghans and a puzzle for his classroom) was 29.40 (Thats 42.90, for Jethro Clampett's benefit    ). My point being that though some are ridulously low (avg was aprox 6-8 bucks), they do add up quickly. That is why we bless all of you for helping Rose and I to help the kids of St. Jude. Thank you, thank you, thank you - you all truly make our hearts smile.

Oh, and could you have been a fly on the wall at the PO and seen the positive reactions of all the strangers, as they became aware of what all the packages were about, and tradgangs part in it all - your hearts would still be smiling too.

It made for a goooood morning.

Bless you all, bless us all.

[ber643]

Thank you Jason - I really liked the Elk hanging and hope you will too. Thanks for the support.

[imskippy]

Bless your heart too Bernie. You are one of Tradgangs Iconic St. Judes supporters as far as I'm concerned. It will be an honor to hang it on my wall and think of all the good it has been involved with. I hope to make it back to Baltimore next year to shoot with you and the gang again. Jason

[owlbait]

Hey Bernie, the check is made out and will drop at the post office this afternoon. Again, thanks for all you and Rose do for the kids.
Mike Gerard  owlbait

[ber643]

Bless your heart, Mike (ignore the PM I just sent - LOL)

[ber643]

Thank you again, Jason, what a nice thing to hear/read.

I was able to get either PMs or e-mails sent out to all but one of my winners. That's pretty good when you have to hunt for posts on a lot of them and the bidding forums are not available - LOL. I found them in all kinds of strange ways (and places). However I can't find a post by Ron Emory, however, it just so happens he was also the smallest shipping fee (that i mentioned earlier) - LOL, so it won't hurt at all if I never find it and I truly hope his lady thinks the ferather ear rings are as beautiful as I did, and i thank him again for his very generous bid (and payment). Not a bad noontime's work, if i do say so my now dizzy self -    

(It's past my nap-time) "Oh, nurse, my meds please, and my robe."