Gregory was kind enough to make these 1 1/2″ Stainless Steel Single Flare TeamBME Bling eyelets while he was making the TeamBME Logo Plugs and Eyelets as well as the Dr. BME Plugs and Eyelets. I’ve decided to auction them off and donate the proceeds to charity. The bidding will run via the comment forum below and the winner will be contacted via email with a link to buy them through the shop. These are one of a kind and will not be made again!
Places your bids in the comments below, make sure to enter in your correct email address so that I can contact you January 1st when the bidding ends! Hope you’re all having a great holiday! I’m off to work on the year end awards!
Comments
70 responses to “BME Bling for Charity!”
Greg, that’s a great idea. I hope that way there will be much less negativity in a thread that should be full of bids and kudos to you and Rachel for thinking of charity as opposed to yourselves.
I, for one, definitely cannot afford to bid, but it does my heart good to see our community bidding to help others.
Rachel: I’ve paid for IAM for years, same with memberships and bmeshop. Hundreds of dollars. And right now you have an online store, there’s membership fees etc. You’re losing “everything” and get “nothing” in return? That’s how you feel like? Is that how I should feel like too? I get content, you get money and you’re still losing everything? Maybe time to close shop or raise fees then, huh? I think it’s only fair to decide a charity before you collect donations. That’s all. It’s not an attack. I think Gregory’s idea is good.
turkey: Fine, I made a mistake. I thought that putting up a charity auction to celebrate the incoming new year was a good idea. I haven’t been able to find time to research a specific charity between everything I’m doing behind the scenes and for that I apologize to all of you.
Dear lord why are people being so negative (I’m referring to ALL posters who have been negative, overly defensive and dismissive). Yeah, these are awesome. My ears aren’t big enough and I couldn’t afford the bidding now that I’ve checked again after the first three posts anyway. But honestly folks. Yes, I would definitely want to know where my money was going IF I could put those things in my ears because there ARE bad charities that use funds in unethical or at least inefficient ways, there ARE issues I don’t care to give my personal money to. When I’m feeling charitable I just go give my money (or time, which is sometimes more helpful) to a cause I care about or an organization I already know and trust and get nothing in return but happiness for helping. I don’t think it is asshole-ish to say you’d like to know where the money is going before bidding… granted that if you’re not bidding the person doing the auction has a right to not give a shit whether you want to know where the money is going or not. But again one might avoid attacking or mean-toned questions by mentioning, at the start, that the charity is currently being decided.
And everyone who says they either don’t trust rachel to pick a good charity or that they would never question her choices… I’m sure most of you don’t know her, don’t know anything about her and aren’t in a position to criticize or condone choices she hasn’t made yet! If you want to know what charity you may or may not be donating to, you can just write “Rachel, what charity are you planning on donating to” and she could respond “I’m thinking domestic violence” and all would be good. If you don’t trust her to pick a good charity, maybe you shouldn’t bid. If you do trust her, great, bid away, but lets not attack each other arguing about it!
Jason, I am very glad to hear you say you feel excited to be part of such a “kick-ass” community, because I, like probably most of the people on IAM or who use BME, don’t know rachel or the rest of the people who run this site, and can’t vouch for them, but more importantly, don’t care to vouch for or attack anyone (ie don’t care to make a good charity issue an “I do or don’t like the big boss issue”!) I don’t want to feel like this “community” is one big attack-defensive fest manifested in modblog forums and I would, like probably most of the people on IAM or who use BME, rather just let the doers do their jobs, not have them feel like they are constantly under attack or that they are giving all of themselves and getting nothing in return because we demand too much and can’t be nice about it! So thank you Jason, for your positivity, because it gets us back to what this is all about: community. respect. communication. learning. body modification.
But who gives a shit about what I think because I’m not bidding! And forums aren’t for discussions, they’re for attacking each other in the name of community. Tis the season, eh. The money is going to a domestic violence charity. Charity = good, let’s cut the unpleasantries!
#50, Gregory, gorgeous jewelry and great idea about votingon/knowing about a particular charity beforehand. (I’m sure there’s nothing wrong with the charity in this auction but I prefer to know.)
I’m fairly out bid this time but look forward to perhaps another. You do amazing work.
And hey, nothing wrong with a BME fundraiser if the need arises. Just run it up the flagpole and see who salutes =)
I would!
so we are still at $350?
Yes, togym has it at $350 dollars still!
i can’t wait to see pictures of the winner wearing this beauts!
I think this is a FANTASTIC idea all around!
Rachel, its a shame that some people can’t appreciate just how much work goes into building and maintaining a website as vast as the BME community. Doing web design and owning my own business brings forth a whole new appreciation for the “behind the scenes” work, at least for me.
Gregory, I just wanted to say that they’re beautiful! Its very generous of you to donate something so amazing to ANY charitable cause.
I wish these were 2″ so I could wear em >< then i’d bid
man i wish those were 2″… those are HOT. though id want them that much more if it was the calm logo with the bling!
Congratulations to the winner of these, they’re beautiful. And a domestic abuse charity couldn’t be a better cause to put your money towards, while getting gorgeous one of a kind jewellery in return!
I’d ignore the naysayers, they aren’t worth the energy wasted to reply to them. People can choose to bid or not based on the information they have, just as everyone else has done. Some people just like to read their words on a computer screen, helps them feel special.
Again, congratulations to the winner! And thank you to those who bid as well. I’m sure the charity will appreciate the donation they’re receiving. It would be great to see future auctions of this sort from our community, towards things like cancer research, multiple sclerosis, heart & stroke, etc. There are many worthy causes out there and it would be great to see this community throwing their support behind them.
maybe she shouldn’t give anything to charity.. I only see people bitching about the charity who have no bids up.. happy new year.
I think i have a good idea for the next one we can do. I can make something for the boys and something for the girls.
Guys, here is the thing, Kero wasn’t attacking Rachel. to me it looks like he/she/whatevs was just saying “gee, it’d be nice to know where this money is going…” I mean, if I could afford these, I would totally bid. But lets say the charity choosen was NAMBLA, or we can even choose one that would be less shocking for someone in this community to pick, let’s say she chose PETA. Now before anyone hulks out at me, I REALIZE SHE PICKED/IS PICKING A DOMESTIC ABUSE CHARITY. But lets just say that she hadn’t decided yet, and that the auction said that the charity was still to be decided. Now, if I would have bid on these and won, and after paying found out my money was going to PETA, I’d be pretty upset. I don’t like PETA. I disagree with how they do things. So yeah, I would probably not take part in another one of these auctions, based off of that experiece.
Rachel, you have got to learn to cool your jets. I understand the fear of being attacked, especially with everything that has happened between this site and all of its owners, current and past. But try and put the past behind you. Don’t automatically assume that everyone is against you. Don’t assume that every post is an attack on you. Kero wasn’t attacking you. It sucks that you both had to get defensive for no reason. There was no reason for it.
I think its really great that a) you want to donate to a charity, and b) that you are essentially getting this community together to donate to a charity, and I will definitely not knock you for that. Even if you did choose NAMBLA or PETA, at least you are donating out of the kindness of your heart. But maybe next time choose a charity before putting up the auction. Or let the winner pick. Greg’s plan for a poll first is a great one, and I commend him on that.
Also, if money is so tight in the BME world, why not have a few charity auctions for bme? To support bme. I doubt many people here would mind donating money to this community, especially for one a kind things.
Togym wins these with the bid of $350!
way to go togym!!
I dont get why which charity it goes to is such a big deal. It is… A charity… which to most people is a good thing
I got out bid???!!!
Oh well…better luck next time!
Togym was apparently a fake bid. They have not responded to any of my emails. We’ll restart the bidding in a new entry as soon as I have time. Thanks to everyone!